a choice in this matter, just like no slave did in this time. As the Brodess Plantation was not financially stable, they had to resort to selling slaves to provide for themselves. Harriet’s sisters got sold to other slave owners to make up for the financial loss. As early as 5 years old did Harriet have a job caring for a small child and had to be away from her mother. Although Harriet had been through many things, she still came out a strong woman and made a huge impact on the world.
In her early life, Harriet was pushed and pulled around most of her young life. This was her first job, of many to come, away from her mother, per the Historical Society. The conditions of this job were not great at all, considering if she did not adequately take care of the child the mistress would punish Harriet. As a small child, taking care of another small child would have been difficult even for itself, but she fortunately could do it without being too badly punished and injured. Few children that age could take care of an infant that small. That was one of her first jobs but it was not one of her only jobs. All through her childhood, she had jobs of taking care of the owner’s children. She did other side jobs also, including working outside and in dangerous places. She contracted measles from standing in the water, making her collapse during working (Historical Society). Harriet still was forced to work but at different jobs and they stopped feeding her. One day, she took a piece of sugar because she was hungry and the mistress found out, and instead of taking the punishment, she ran and hid with the pigs to compete for food for 3 days (Historical Society).
Adding to the hardships of her early life, when Harriet turned 12, they sent her to work in the fields with the others who were old and strong enough to work. Harriet received a very bad concussion as she tried to help a slave escape in a grocery store, the overseer throwing a metal weight and hitting her in the head. She claims that it “broke her skull and cut a piece of that shawl clean off”. It took her a while to recover from the injury and as she was not able to work, her master tried to sell her but nobody would buy her because of her inability to work. Unfortunately, Harriet never fully recovered from this injury and later in her life she had to get surgery to fix her injury (Historical Society). Although soon after her injury and her recovery, she found another plantation owner to take her in and it caused her to gain skills that later resulted in her discovery and creation of the underground railroad. Working at this plantation, she got even closer to her father and could learn more about him during her time there. After a few years, her father, Ben Ross became a freeman nearing the end of the civil war, causing him to go back to living in Madison. After some of Harriet’s siblings were freed, they lived with her father in Madison.
Tubman found out after her father was manumitted that her owner, Brodess’ mother had a will that manumitted Harriet and her siblings when they turned 45, but Brodess did not honor that (Historical Society). After this, Harriet’s hope went far down. She wanted to believe that good things were going to come her way but she did not think that they were going to.
Harriet married a freeman named John Tubman, giving her the last name Tubman. There are no stories or facts about how Harriet and John met, but it was assumed it was through a slave owner. Unfortunately, many of the slaves did not have records because when they were on the slave trade, their documents were destroyed and they did not have the opportunity to keep their own documents. Many of the dates of personal things are assumed based on other events. Their marriage is not documented because of the very reason that it was not allowed. Although, it is told that Harriet loved John very much throughout family lore (Clinton).
Harriet, as most people know her as, was named Araminta but she changed her name to Harriet in honor of her mother.
She is now known as Harriet Tubman. Few know about Harriet’s early life and only know about her involvement with the Underground Railroad. She started trying to help free people at an early age and she continued this throughout her life. After she had worked for her last owner, she knew increasingly about building and controlling the railroad. Tubman focused mainly on her Christianity and good faith, even though things did not look good for her or her family, she still believed that good could come out of anything. During her enslavement, religion and worship for slaves were very strictly supervised. The owners punished them for anything they thought was against their codes and did not let them believe in hope most of the time …show more content…
(Clinton).
Marriage was not easy for the two, considering that they both still had to live on a plantation and work. Harriet wanted to have children but she knew she could not because she feared for their lives. She did not want them to grow up in the same life that she did, so she decided she did not want to have them. Tubman was also having repeated nightmares about things that have happened in her past and things that she was scared that could happen (Clinton). Once Harriet learned of the North, she instantly wanted to go. She was terrified of leaving and leaving her husband behind but she wanted to be free. In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped her owner and made her way North. As she was travelling, she was nervous she would get caught, making her closely watch her moves. Eventually, she figured out that there were many antislavery shelters that were used to help runaways.
Reaching her destination that was Philadelphia, she could finally find a job and support herself but not without the worry of still being caught.
She was a very popular slave back in Maryland and many people were looking for her. In Philly, many slaves took refugee there, inspiring Tubman even more to help. Being a slave, many times they feel that white people are the bad people and they do not trust them at all. It is understandable that many of them think that way because of how they are treated because of their race. With the white people wanting to help the former slaves escape to freedom, Tubman figured out that she wanted to help also.
The first knowledge of the Underground Railroad was when a slave escaped his owner in Kentucky and just disappeared. Onlookers claimed he “must have gone on an underground road” (Clinton). In the early 1850’s is when Tubman began to help slaves become free and there were three main lines, called Liberty Lines. With Harriet’s family, still back in Maryland, she wanted to help them escape also. She sent secret messages throughout the UGRR to try to tell them how to get to her. Being the great and independent person she is, Harriet Tubman led the way to freedom for many people after she found her
own.
The Underground Railroad was a huge part of Tubman’s start to helping free slaves but it will not be all that she accomplished. Per Hobson, she also is a Civil War veteran, nurse, community organizer, woman suffragist, and border crossing migrant. To help guide the slaves to freedom, Tubman used the starry night as a guide to help them know where they were going. They looked at the position of the stars and constellations to help them find their way through the UGRR. This is how she got herself to slavery, which is why she wanted to use it to help others. Tubman made around 13 trips back and forth throughout the UGRR to help people to freedom.
The UGRR was a system that provided food and shelter and a path to freedom for former escaped slaves. Harriet Tubman was one of the first women to head this railroad movement and people began to call her “Moses”. Unfortunately, the white slave owners got word of the UGRR but fortunately for the escapees, the white slave owners almost never located them because of the tight knit security within the railroad and the other people who did their all to protect the slaves. The first people that Harriet helped to freedom was her sister, her sister’s husband, and their two children back to Pennsylvania. Harriet’s motivation made others want to become free also.
A law was finally passed, saying that the slave owners could take them back if they are found which meant the north was not safe anymore. Harriet and others helped extend the railroad to the Canadian border where they would really be free. As a signal that it was time to go, Harriet sung “Go Down Moses, way down to Egypt Land” and they knew it was time (Crawford). When she was leading people and they became discouraged, she used her own personal stories and tales, prayers, and songs to try to calm them down and make them continue to travel. If they did not travel, she told them that they would die. The journey to freedom was a very long one but Tubman made it possible. She directed over 300 people to freedom and she never lost one of her people. A large reward was placed for her capture as people began to discover that she was the leader of the railroad. She was very sly however, not getting caught and continuing to help people get to freedom.