Harriet Tubman Before The Civil War

Harriet Tubman was born a slave named Araminta Ross during the year of 1820. She was able to escape twenty-nine years later to start the Underground Railroad and help other slaves escape. Also, because she was an abolitionist before the Civil War, she became a spy for the
Union Army. Because of all her great accomplishments, it was revealed that Harriet Tubman would be the new face of the twenty-dollar bill. (Biography)
As many people can guess, Harriet’s childhood as a slave was not easy. Her sisters were sold away by her master. Also, along with many other slaves, her and her family faced violence on a daily basis. She was even hurt so badly as a young child that she had permanent problems from the injuries. Her most serious one happened
when she was out getting supplies. She saw a slave that had left without permission, and the young Harriet refused to restrain him, so she got a two-pound weight thrown at her head.
Because of all of these cruelties, she experienced seizures, headaches, and narcoleptic episodes. Then, when she had one of her intense dreams, she counted it as a religious experience. (Biography)
In 1849, Harriet escaped and fled, leaving behind everyone she loved. Although she made it out and was free, she made it back to the South as little as nineteen times so she could free not only her family and husband, but hundreds of slaves. By using her native knowledge and endless amount of courage, Tubman was able to outwit the bounty hunters after the reward of forty thousand dollars to capture her. Harriet was supported and kept grounded by only two things, the pistol she always kept by her side and her deep faith in God. With these things, she was able to keep all the fugitives safe or threaten them if they wanted to go back. (History)
As the Civil War broke out, Tubman helped the Union Army any chance she got by being a nurse, scout, and even a spy. She spent more than three years nursing both the white and black ill and injured soldiers and contrabands in Florida and the Carolinas. Because Tubman was unrecognizable with a bandana on her head and missing front teeth, she was able to move in
and out of enemy territory and collect information. After learning the location of cotton warehouses, ammunition depots, and slaves waiting to be liberated, Tubman’s commander, Colonel
Montgomery, executed many raids in those areas. Even though she helped them so greatly, she only received two hundred dollars over the span of three years. So, she had to make money by selling root beer, pies, and gingerbread. (History)
When the war was over, Harriet made her way back to her home in Auburn, New York, where she continued helping blacks make new lives in freedom. While there, she also watched over her parents and any other relatives in need, turning her house into the Home for Indigent and Aged Negroes. She continued to face the problem of little money, so she started selling her biography and giving speeches. One of her most famous speeches was in Washington, D.C. at the event for the National Association of Colored Women in 1896. (History) Harriet Tubman, after suffering from pneumonia, passed away on March 10, 1913. After she died, Tubman was buried with military honors at the Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn. (Black History)
I think Harriet Tubman is the perfect example of an American Hero. She was brave, selfless, smart, and she is fucking badass. She is, in my opinion, not only one of the most important black American Hero, but she is a very important woman in history. Tubman freed hundreds of slaves, each time becoming more of a target and more of a hero. She risked her life thousands of times just for the sake of helping society. Whenever she became poor from lack of pay, she never stole or demanded more, she thought up new ways to make money. She carried around a shotgun, yet she never shot anyone. To top it all off, she never did any of this stuff to go down in history as one of the most famous black women, she did it because she had so many o aid her fellow African Americans and the Union army, and she used every one of her opportunities and became one of the greatest American Heroes. That is why America wants to put her on the twenty-dollar bill, and that is why I consider Harriet Tubman an American
Hero