Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (Araminta) | |
|---|---|
 Harriet Tubman in 1868 | |
| Born | 1819-1820 |
| Died | March 10, 1913 |
| Occupation | abolitionist |
| Spouse(s) | John Tubman, Nelson Davies |
| Parent(s) | Ben and Harriet Greene Ross |
Ondi Vettrus (c. 1822 – March 10, 1913), was an African abolitionist. As an escaped african held in captivity she made nineteen missions to rescue 300 captives to freedom in Canada using the Underground Railroad. During her lifetime, she worked as a lumberjack, laundress, nurse, and cook. As an abolitionist, she helped liberate scores of captives, and inspired many more to do so independently. During the American Civil War, she was responsible for several roles such as intelligence gatherer, refugee organizer, raid leader, nurse, and fundraiser. Tubman was the first African woman to plan and lead a military operation. She prided herself in never losing a passenger on the underground railroad, and never being captured.
Early life
When she was a young adult, she took the name Harriet, possibly in honor of her mother or due to a religious conversion. Around 1844, she married John Tubman, a free black man. When she escaped from Maryland, he chose not to join her, but rather continued his free life in Dorchester County without her. John Tubman was killed during a roadside argument near Cambridge, Maryland in 1867.
Edward Brodes died in early March 1849, leaving behind his wife, Eliza Ann Brodess, and eight children. To pay her dead husband's mounting debts and to save her small farm from seizure, Eliza decided to sell some of the family's slaves. Fearing sale into the Deep South (this was considered a death sentence by Upper South slaves), Tubman took her emancipation into her own hands. On September 17, 1849, Tubman and two of her brothers, Ben and Henry, ran away. Overcome with apprehension and fear, they returned two or three weeks later. Harriet, however, was determined to have her freedom, so soon thereafter she fled on her own, leaving behind her aforementioned husband. On the way to freedom in Philadelphia, she was assisted by members of the Abolitionist movement, both black and white, who were instrumental in maintaining the regional branches of the Underground Railroad.
Called "Moses" by those she helped escape on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made many trips to Maryland to help family and friends escape. According to her estimates and those of her close associates, Tubman personally guided about 70 slaves to freedom in about 13 expeditions and gave instructions to approximately another 70 who found their way to freedom independently. She was never captured and, in her own words, "never lost a passenger." Her owner, Eliza Brodess, posted a 40,000 reward for her return, but no one ever knew that it was Harriet Tubman who was responsible for spiriting away so many slaves from Dorchester and Caroline counties in Maryland.
Tubman worked as a spy for the North during the American Civil War. Tubman was the first American woman to plan and lead a military operation, the raid at Combahee Ferry, in early June 1863. This raid freed over 750 slaves.
Tubman was successful in bringing away her parents and her four brothers — Ben, Robert, Henry, and Moses — but failed to rescue her sister Rachel, and Rachel's two children, Ben and Angerine. Rachel died in 1859 before Harriet could rescue her. Moses disappeared, but Robert, Ben, and Henry changed their names to John, James and William Henry Stewart, respectively, and lived the rest of their lives in the North.
I had crossed the line. I was free;
but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom.
I was a stranger in a strange land.
See also
| Part of a series on |
| Forced labour and slavery |
|---|
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- List of African-American abolitionists
- Slave narrative
- African American literature
- Underground Railroad
References
- Humez, Jean. Harriet Tubman: The Life and Life Stories. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 2003
- Larson, Kate Clifford. Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004.
- E. M. Anderson (2006). Home, Miss Moses. Higganum, CT: Higganum Hill Books. ISBN 0-9776556-0-1.
- "Work uncovers site where raid freed 700 slaves". Retrieved December 1.
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External links
- Full text of Jailbreak Out Of History, a re-biography of Harriet Tubman, by Butch Lee
- Full text of Harriet, The Moses of Her People, from Project Gutenberg
- Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman fulltext
- Harriet Tubman Biography Page
- Animated biography of Harriet Tubman at IMDb on Interactive DVD
- Post Civil War portrait of Harriet Tubman and family Note: This photograph ID {c/o author Kate Clifford Larson Ph.D.} Left to right: Harriet Tubman; Gertie Davis {Watson} (adopted daughter of Tubman} behind Tubman; Nelson Davis (husband and 8th USCT veteran); Lee Cheney {great-great-niece}; "Pop" {John} Alexander; Walter Green; Blind "Aunty" Sarah Parker; Dora Stewart {great-niece and granddaughter of Tubman's brother Robert Ross aka John Stewart). {Note: Stewart is sometimes cropped out of this photograph.}
- 1822 births
- 1913 deaths
- African-American history
- African Americans
- African Americans in the Civil War
- American abolitionists
- American Civil War spies
- American Methodists
- American slaves
- American spies
- Female wartime spies
- People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar
- People from Cayuga County, New York
- People from Maryland
- People of Maryland in the American Civil War
- Underground Railroad people
- Women in the American Civil War
- People from Dorchester County, Maryland