Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Harriet Ross, was born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland. The year of her birth is unknown but it is believed to have occurred between 1820 and 1825. Araminta was one of nine children. Three of her sisters were sold to distant plantations, severing the family. When a trader from Georgia inquired about buying her youngest brother, her mother successfully resisted the further fracturing of her family, setting a powerful example for her.

Physical violence was a part of daily life for Araminta and her family. The violence she suffered early in life caused permanent physical injuries. She later recounted a particular day when she was lashed five times before breakfast. Araminta carried the scars for the rest of her life. The most severe injury occurred when she was an adolescent. Sent to a dry-goods store for supplies, Araminta encountered a slave who had left the fields without permission. The man’s overseer demanded that she help restrain the runaway. When Araminta refused, he threw a two pound weight that struck her in the head. She endured seizures, severe headaches, and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life.

The line between freedom and slavery was hazy for Araminta and her family. Her father, Ben, was freed from slavery at the age of 45, as stipulated in the will of a previous owner. Nonetheless, Ben had few options but to continue working as a timber estimator and foreman for his former owners. Although similar stipulations applied to her mother and siblings, the individuals who owned the family chose not to free them. Despite his free status, Ben had no power to challenge their decision.

By the time Araminta reached adulthood, around half of the African American people on the eastern shore of Maryland were free. It was not unusual for a family to include both free and enslaved people, as did her immediate family. In 1844, Araminta married a free black man named John Tubman. Little is known about John Tubman or his marriage to Araminta. Any children they might have had would have been considered enslaved, since the mother’s status dictated that of any offspring. Araminta changed her name to Harriet around the time of her marriage, possibly to honor her mother.

In 1849, Harriet Tubman became ill and her value as a slave was diminished as a result. Her owner tried to sell her, but could not find a buyer. Angry at his action and the unjust hold he kept on her relatives, Tubman began to pray for her owner, asking God to make him change his ways. “I prayed all night long for my master, till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me.” When it appeared as though a sale was being settled, she changed her prayer. “I changed my prayer. First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way.” A week later, he died, and Tubman expressed regret.

As in many estate settlements, her owner’s death increased the likelihood of Tubman being sold and her family being broken apart. His widow began working to sell the family's slaves. Tubman refused to wait for the family to decide her fate, despite her husband's efforts to discourage her. “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other.”

Harriet Tubman initially left Maryland with two of her brothers, Ben and Henry, on September 17, 1849. Two weeks later, a notice published in the Cambridge Democrat offered a $300 reward for the return of Araminta, Harry, and Ben. Once they had left, Tubman’s brothers had second thoughts and returned to the plantation. Harriet had no plans to remain in bondage. Seeing her brothers safely home, she soon set off alone for Pennsylvania. Before she left, she tried to send word to her mother of her plans. She sang a coded song to a trusted fellow slave that was a farewell for her mother. “I'll meet you in the morning, I'm bound for the promised land.”

Tubman made use of the network known as the Underground Railroad to Philadelphia. This informal, but well-organized, system was composed of free and enslaved blacks, white abolitionists, and other activists. Most prominent among the latter in Maryland at the time were members of the Religious Society of Friends, often called Quakers.

Though her exact route is unknown, the Preston area near Poplar Neck in Caroline County contained a substantial Quaker community, and was probably an important first stop during Tubman's escape. From there, she probably took a common route for fleeing slaves, northeast along the Choptank River, through Delaware, and then north into Pennsylvania. A journey of nearly 90 miles, her traveling by foot would have taken between five days and three weeks.

Tubman had to travel by night, guided by the North Star, and trying to avoid slave catchers, eager to collect rewards for fugitive slaves. The “conductors” in the Underground Railroad used deceptions for protection. For example, at an early stop, the lady of the house ordered Tubman to so sweep the yard as to seem to be working for the family. When night fell, the family hid her in a cart and took her to the next friendly house. Once she crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania, she finally felt relief. “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

Rather than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery. In December 1850, Tubman received a warning that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold, along with her two young children. Kessiah’s husband, a free black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife at an auction in Baltimore. Harriet then helped the entire family make the journey to Philadelphia. This was the first of many trips by Tubman. Over time, she was able to guide her parents, several siblings, and about 60 others to freedom. One family member who declined to make the journey was Harriet’s husband, John, who preferred to stay in Maryland with his new wife.

The dynamics of escaping slavery changed in 1850, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. This law stated that escaped slaves could be captured in the North and returned to slavery, leading to the abduction of former slaves and free blacks living in Free States. Law enforcement officials in the North were compelled to aid in the capture of slaves, regardless of their personal principles. In response to the law, Tubman re-routed the Underground Railroad to Canada, which prohibited slavery downright.

In April 1858, Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown, who advocated the use of violence to disrupt and destroy the institution of slavery. She shared Brown’s goals and at least tolerated his methods. When Brown began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders at Harper’s Ferry, he turned to “General Tubman” for help. After Brown’s execution, Tubman praised him as a martyr.

Harriet Tubman remained active during the Civil War. Working for the Union Army as a cook and nurse, she quickly became an armed scout and spy for the union. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 750 slaves in South Carolina. Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore. Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars’ worth of food and supplies. When the steamboats sounded their whistles, slaves throughout the area understood that they were being liberated. Tubman watched as slaves stampeded toward the boats. Although their owners, armed with handguns and whips, tried to stop the mass escape, their efforts were useless in the commotion. As Confederate troops raced to the scene, steamboats packed full of slaves took off.

For two more years, Tubman worked for the Union forces, tending to newly liberated slaves, scouting into Confederate territory, and nursing wounded soldiers. She also made periodic trips back to Auburn, New York to visit her family and care for her parents. The Confederacy surrendered in April 1865; after donating several more months of service, Tubman headed home to Auburn. During a train ride to New York, the conductor told her to move into the smoking car. She refused, explaining her government service. He cursed at her and grabbed her, but she resisted and he summoned two other passengers for help. While she clutched at the railing, they muscled her away, breaking her arm in the process. They threw her into the smoking car, causing more injuries. As these events transpired, other white passengers cursed Tubman and shouted for the conductor to kick her off the train.

Despite her years of service, she had never received a regular salary and was denied compensation for years. Her unofficial status and the unequal payments offered to black soldiers caused great difficulty in documenting her service. Tubman did not receive a pension for her service in the Civil War until 1899. Her constant humanitarian work for her family and former slaves, meanwhile, kept her in a state of constant poverty.

In early 1859, Senator William H. Seward sold Tubman a small piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn, New York. The land in Auburn became a haven for Tubman’s family and friends. She spent the years following the war on this property, tending to her family and others who had taken up residence there. In 1869, she married a Civil War veteran named Nelson Davis. In 1874, Harriet and Nelson adopted a baby girl named Gertie.

Despite her fame and reputation, Harriet Tubman was never financially secure. Her friends and supporters were able to raise some funds to support her. Harriet continued to give freely in spite of her economic woes. In 1903, she donated a parcel of her land to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Auburn. The Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged opened on this site in 1908.

As Tubman aged, the head injuries sustained early in her life became more painful and disruptive. She underwent brain surgery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital to alleviate the pains and “buzzing” she experienced regularly. Tubman was eventually admitted into the rest home named in her honor. Surrounded by friends and family members, Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia in 1913.

Harriet Tubman was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn. The city commemorated her life with a plaque on the courthouse. Dozens of schools were named in her honor, and both the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn and the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge serve as monuments to her life.