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Clinton, Catherine. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. Little, Brown, 2004.

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At a young age, Harriet's childhood was presented as tough. Araminta (Harriet's real name) was born one county over headquarters where the Canon gang was (a gang where they kidnapped free blacks/sold them in Virginia). Her siblings were bid off and she watched how each of her siblings went away. At the age of 5, she was sent off to a white person's home, slept on the floor, and had to take care of a baby while doing domestic tasks.

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https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html#:~:text=Tubman%20was%20born%20a%20slave,the%20rest%20of%20her%20life.

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Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger."

Tubman was born a slave in Maryland's Dorchester County around 1820. At age five or six, she began to work as a house servant. Seven years later she was sent to work in the fields. While she was still in her early teens, she suffered an injury that would follow her for the rest of her life. Always ready to stand up for someone else, Tubman blocked a doorway to protect another field hand from an angry overseer. The overseer picked up and threw a two-pound weight at the field hand. It fell short, striking Tubman on the head. She never fully recovered from the blow, which subjected her to spells in which she would fall into a deep sleep.

Around 1844 she married a free black named John Tubman and took his last name. (She was born Araminta Ross; she later changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother.) In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away. She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. She followed the North Star by night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money. The following year she returned to Maryland and escorted her sister and her sister's two children to freedom. She made the dangerous trip back to the South soon after to rescue her brother and two other men. On her third return, she went after her husband, only to find he had taken another wife. Undeterred, she found other slaves seeking freedom and escorted them to the North.

Tubman returned to the South again and again. She devised clever techniques that helped make her "forays" successful, including using the master's horse and buggy for the first leg of the journey; leaving on a Saturday night, since runaway notices couldn't be placed in newspapers until Monday morning; turning about and heading south if she encountered possible slave hunters; and carrying a drug to use on a baby if its crying might put the fugitives in danger. Tubman even carried a gun which she used to threaten the fugitives if they became too tired or decided to turn back, telling them, "You'll be free or die."

By 1856, Tubman's capture would have brought a $40,000 reward from the South. On one occasion, she overheard some men reading her wanted poster, which stated that she was illiterate. She promptly pulled out a book and feigned reading it. The ploy was enough to fool the men.

Tubman had made the perilous trip to slave country 19 times by 1860, including one especially challenging journey in which she rescued her 70-year-old parents. Of the famed heroine, who became known as "Moses," Frederick Douglass said, "Excepting John Brown -- of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than [Harriet Tubman]."
And John Brown, who conferred with "General Tubman" about his plans to raid Harpers Ferry, once said that she was "one of the bravest persons on this continent."

Becoming friends with the leading abolitionists of the day, Tubman took part in antislavery meetings. On the way to such a meeting in Boston in 1860, in an incident in Troy, New York, she helped a fugitive slave who had been captured.

During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy. After the war she settled in Auburn, New York, where she would spend the rest of her long life. She died in 1913.

Image Credit: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center

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Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger."

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Araminta faith was Christianity mainly because her mom would tell her Bible stories. As she got to adolescence she learned that slave-owners wanted complete control over slaves, so any type of worship was strictly supervised or restricted expressions of faith.

Quote 1:
"Masters demanded complete control of every aspect of slaves' lives" (21)

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While working in the field Araminta got hit in the head by a lead weight causing her to have a deep and severe wound.

Quote 2:
"She later recalled that she had been wearing a covering on her head, and when the weight struck her it broke my skull and cut a piece of that shawl clean off and drove it into my head" (22)

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Araminta got married to John Tubman but feared that when she would have kids they would get snatched away by the slave power. Though that never happened, Araminta or John couldn't have children.

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Once Araminta would be free her new name would be Harriet since those who escaped needed new names to not be identified. She was able to escape safely arriving in Philadelphia.

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Nat Turner (ex-slave) and others killed nearly 60 white people and was known for different reasons, white people portrayed him as blood-thirsty/rapist, while African Americans viewed him as herotic. Eventually Nat Turner was sentenced to die.

Quote 3:
"The most famous uprising of the era was Nat Turner's revolt, which erupted spontaneously in the summer of 1831, in Southampton County, Virgina, less than a hundred miles from where the young Araminta was living. Turner's band of more than fifty slave followerd decided to liberate themselves, killing nearly sixty whites in the process." (41)

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In 1830 1/12 Philadelphians were black and by 1847 Philadelphia was the largest place with a city and county population of 20,000 blacks. Philadelphia was not only a fugitive state but 2,000 black school children were enrolled in segregated public schools, and charities were formed to help those who came from slave states.

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https://www.ydr.com/in-depth/news/2019/10/29/harriett-tubman-underground-railroad-path-slavery-escape-pa/3863408002/

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In 1849, fearing she and other family members would be sold (the fate of several sisters), Harriet Tubman and two of her brothers escaped slavery in Maryland's Eastern Shore. The men turned back but she walked the 90 or so miles to Philadelphia to freedom.

While rejoicing that she now was "in Heaven," Tubman soon grew dissatisfied. "I was a stranger in a strange land," she lamented. Missing her family, Tubman was determined to bring them out of Maryland at all costs. The quest became an all-consuming passion, despite the stern penalties of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law (and if caught, physical punishment and sale to the Deep South). She took jobs as a domestic and cook in Philadelphia, spending summers working in Cape May, New Jersey.

Tubman saved enough money to make 13 trips back home, where she rescued some 70 people, many of them kin. However, her husband, having married another woman, spurned her efforts to rescue him.

Tubman often worked hand-in-hand with Quaker Underground Railroad agent and financier Thomas Garrett in Wilmington, Delaware, to move freedom seekers from Maryland to Philadelphia. A frequent destination was the home of free black abolitionist William Still or the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society at 31 N. Fifth Street.

On the way, she and her charges at times paused at the spacious home of Quakers James and Lucretia Mott along the Old York Road in Cheltenham Township in Montgomery County or at other homes in the Germantown area. Some accounts say she twice visited York County, Pa. - once staying overnight at the rural home of Underground Railroad conductors Ezekiel and Eliza Baptiste in Newberry Township.

On Dec. 29, 1854, Harriet brought three of her brothers and three other freedom seekers to the home of Allen and Maria Agnew in Kennett Square before escorting them northward. Three years later, she brought her aged parents to safety in St. Catherines in southern Canada. There, in 1858 she met firebrand abolitionist John Brown and became involved in his plot to raise recruits to lead an insurrection of free slaves in Virginia.

In 1859, Tubman moved to Auburn, New York, after purchasing a house from prominent Sen. William Seward. During the Civil War, she was a Union nurse, spy, and scout in South Carolina, taking part in a military operation that freed more than 700 enslaved persons.

In April 1865, Tubman returned to Pennsylvania and gave a passionate oration to black soldiers of the 24th U.S. Colored Troops at Camp William Penn on land adjacent to Lucretia Mott's home.

After the war, Tubman returned to upstate New York, remarried, and traveled the lecture circuit. Among her destinations in Pennsylvania was Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of Philadelphia's earliest and largest black churches. It was a place she knew well from her days working with the anti-slavery society.

Tubman's legacy in southeastern Pennsylvania remains strong. An impressive statue of her stands along the Delaware River in Bristol. She points north, toward the North Star, which had guided her so often on her dangerous treks to bring enslaved people to freedom.

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How Pennsylvania became a safe haven for Harriet Tubman after she escaped slavery in Maryland

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In 1849, fearing she and other family members would be sold (the fate of several sisters), Harriet Tubman and two of her brothers escaped slavery in Maryland's Eastern Shore. The men turned back but she walked the 90 or so miles to Philadelphia to freedom.

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Those who escaped slavery were helped by Gerrit Smith, Calvin Fairbank, and Thomas Garrett.

Quote 4:
"But a new breed of antislavery leader, notably philanthropist Gerrit Smith, did more. Smith began as a reform-minded businessman but converted into a radical abolitionist firebrand and Liberty Party politician." (70)

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#9-Harriet Escapes But Returnes For Her Husband

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#9-Harriet Escapes But Returnes For Her Husband

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Though she was able to successfully bring some of her family members over, on her third operation she wanted to bring her husband with her. Though she would have to be more careful since she would be getting closer to home. Sadly she wasn't able to persuade her husband (John Tubman) to come with her.

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A group of 11 people including Harriet, her brother William Henry, and his wife Catherine. They were able to successfully escape using Frederick Douglass's house as a safe house.

Quote 5:
"He recalled in his autobiography: "On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them to Canada" (84)

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During her life in Canada it was difficult not only for her, but South refugees, and those who recently arrived mainly because of the weather.

Quote 6:
The weather was bitterly cold. This created harships forall refugees from the South, but especially recent arrivals. Poorly clothed and indigent, exiles earned their keep by chopping wood and finding odd jobs in the community. Many died of respiratory illnesses related to the harsh weather" (105)

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While things got riskier, Harriet Tubman was going to deliver her chargers across the border and come back within weeks. She was gone for nearly 4 months since she was pushing her luck.

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John Brown and Harriet both met each other though John Brown was more of a violent type. He also viewed women that it wasn't feminine of them to be part of his armed resistance but Harriet was an exception since he needed her, and on November 2nd he was sentenced to be hanged.

Quote 7:
"Brown watched as many men quacked over his plans; he doubted women could ever fully embrace his plots for armed resistance. He believed it was against their feminine nature" (129)

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Harriet Tubman at first was reluctant to support Abraham Lincoln being a republican president and wanted to see for herself if he'd kill the snake (slavery). In January 1863, Abraham Lincoln killed the snake.

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https://civilwarsaga.com/harriet-tubman-didnt-like-abraham-lincoln/

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During an interview for The Chautauquan magazine in 1896, with a writer named Rosa Belle Holt, Harriet Tubman stated that she did not like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and only learned to appreciate him after her friend, Sojourner Truth, told her Lincoln was not an enemy but a friend to African-Americans.

The statement came after Holt asked Tubman if she ever visited Lincoln at the White House:

"No, I'm sorry now, but I didn't like Lincoln in them days. I used to go see Missus Lincoln, but I never wanted to see him. You see we colored people didn't understand then [that] he was our friend. All we knew was that the first colored troops sent south from Massachusetts only got seven dollars a month, while the white regiment got fifteen. We didn't like that. But now I know all about it and I is sorry I didn't go see Master Lincoln."

Tubman said she eventually changed her mind after Sojourner Truth told her Lincoln was "our friend" and had gone to the White House in October of 1864 to thank Lincoln for signing the Emancipation Proclamation, according to the book Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the 19th Century:

"The two women initially held very different opinions of President Lincoln, however. Tubman questioned Lincoln's motivation for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and critiqued what she perceived as his slow and reluctant embrace of black freedom. She also blamed Lincoln for the policies that perpetuated unequal pay and treatment for black solders. Sojourner Truth, in contrast, readily accepted Lincoln's reputation as the 'Great Emancipator' and remarked after meeting him in the fall of 1864 that she 'had never treated with more kindness and cordiality than I was by the great and good man Abraham Lincoln, by the grace of God President of the United States for four more years.'"

Sojourner Truth told her that Lincoln appreciated the visit but felt he only did what any president would have done in his shoes.

For the rest of her life, Tubman regretted not meeting Lincoln and thanking him for ending slavery. One of her close friends, Helen Tatlock, said during an interview with Earl Conrad in the 1939:

"I remember very clearly Harriet saying, and repeating, very often, that she did not know Lincoln. It was a deep sorrow and regret of her later years. She never recovered from that in any way."

It's not that surprising that Tubman would questioned Lincoln's true feelings about slavery and race because it is something that is still hotly debated today. Lincoln was widely inconsistent on these issues and often contradicted himself, according to the book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner:

"Lincoln was strongly antislavery, but he was not an abolitionist or a Radical Republican and never claimed to be one. He made a sharp distinction between his frequently reiterated personal wish that 'all men everywhere could be free' and his official duties as a legislator, congressman, and president in a legal and constitutional system that recognized the South's right to property in slaves. Even after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation he continued to declare his preference for gradual abolition. While his racial views changed during the Civil War, he never became a principled egalitarian in the manner of abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Wendell Phillips or Radical Republicans like Charles Sumner."

Even Frederick Douglass ' opinions on Abraham Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator" shifted as he also struggled to determine exactly where Lincoln stood on the subject of race.

Douglass once angrily stated in 1862 that he felt Lincoln was pro-slavery but was masquerading as an anti-slavery advocate. He then wrote in 1865 that Lincoln was "emphatically, the black man's President," but a decade later, at the unveiling of an Emancipation Proclamation monument in Washington D.C., he told the white audience "you are the children of Abraham Lincoln. We are at best only his step-children."

Douglass did note, however, that no matter how people may perceive Lincoln on the issue of slavery, what Douglass did know about Lincoln was that "in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery."

To learn more about Harriet Tubman, check out the following article: Best Books About Harriet Tubman.

Sources:
Holt, Rosa Belle. "A Heroine in Ebony." The Chautauquan, Vol. XXIII, Edited by Dr. Theodore Flood, T.L. Flood Publishing House, April - Sept 1896.
Beard, Rick. "Why Douglass Met Lincoln." New York Times, 9 Aug. 2009, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/when-douglass-met-lincoln/?_r=0
McPherson, James M. "What Did He Really Think About Race." The New York Review of Books, 29 March. 2007, www.nybooks.com/articles/2007/03/29/what-did-he-really-think-about-race/
Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the 19th Century by Kristen T. Oertel/
Foner, Eric. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. W.W. Norton & Company, 2010.
White, Barbara. Visits with Lincoln: Abolitionists Meet the President at the White House. Lexington Books, 2011.
Humez, Jean McMahon. Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.

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Harriet Tubman Didn't Like Abraham Lincoln - CIVIL WAR SAGA

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During an interview for The Chautauquan magazine in 1896, with a writer named Rosa Belle Holt, Harriet Tubman stated that she did not like Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and only learned to appreciate him after her friend, Sojourner Truth, told her Lincoln was not an enemy but a...

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Harriet Tubman helped as a nurse (Union Army) during the War. Though she didn't recieve any recognition.

Qoute 8:
"By this time the forty-year-old Tubman had given years to the Union effort-with no regular salary, no back pays, no recognition of her valuable contributions" (188)

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Harriet returns back to where she used to live (New York, Auburn) and helped people.

Quote 9:
"She collected funds for freedpeople's schools and hospitals" (192)

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#17-Nelson Charles (Davis) and Harriet Tubman

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#17-Nelson Charles (Davis) and Harriet Tubman

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Nelson Charles was someone Harriet knew during her service. She and Nelson fell in love and got married where they both lived quietly in Harriet's house. In 1888 Nelson died because of an illness.

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https://worldhistoryproject.org/1869/3/18/harriet-tubman-marries-nelson-davis

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After the war, Harriet returned home to Auburn. In 1869, she married Nelson Davis and together they shared a calm, peaceful 19 year marriage until he died.

The quote below, echoing Patrick Henry, is the Sarah Bradford biography, "The Moses of Her People," of Harriet Tubman:

Harriet was now left alone, . . . She turned her face toward the north, and fixing her eyes on the guiding star, and committing her way unto the Lord, she started again upon her long, lonely journey. She believed that there were one or two things she had a right to, liberty or death.

Tubman returned to Auburn, New York.

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Tubman spent her remaining years in Auburn, tending to her family and other people in need. She worked various jobs to support her elderly parents, and took in boarders to help pay the bills.[60] One of the people Tubman took in was a Civil War veteran named Nelson Davis.

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Since she was an escaped slave, she had a different name and documents so when Nelson died the government requested the proof of Nelson and Harriet's documents. Eventually she was able to prove her identity.

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In March 1913, Harriet was very sick and felt that death was near. On March 10, 1913, Harriet Tubman passes away.

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http://www.harriet-tubman.org/death/

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Tubman always looked older than she was. Years of hard labor had taken a toll on her. Her brain injury was everyday debilitating; she had brain surgery in Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital to alleviate pain. In 1911 she was too frail to live alone and moved next door to the Harriet Tubman Home for the Elderly.

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She was buried with military honors and people organized her an event.

Quote 10:
"Shortly after her death, the town of Auburn decided to dedicate a plaque in her honor to be placed on a public building" (215)