Harriet Tubman

 “I grew up like a neglected weed – ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.”

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. 1822 – 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. After escaping from slavery, she helped free at least 70 other slaves using the so-called Underground Railroad. She also served as an army scout and spy during the American Civil War, and later became a prominent suffragette.

Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross to enslaved parents, Harriet ("Rit") Green and Ben Ross. As is true of many slaves, the place and time of her birth is unclear. Her maternal grandmother, Modesty, was brought to the US on a slave ship from Africa, and that is all that is known of her heritage.  Her mother, Rit (who may have had a white father), was a cook for the Brodess family, while her father was a skilled woodsman on the plantation. They married around 1808 and had nine children together – 5 girls, and 4 boys.

Rit fought hard to keep her family united. Her master sold three of her daughters and they were lost forever. Consequently, when a trader tried to buy her youngest son, Moses, she hid him for a month with the help of the free and enslaved black community. Eventually, she confronted her owner about the sale, and threatened them when they tried to seize him by force: "You are after my son; but the first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open." Brodess backed away and abandoned the sale. It is clear to see where Tubman got her bravery and determination - Tubman's biographers agree that such incidents influenced her belief in the possibilities of resistance.

Her mother’s duties left her unable to care for the family and thus Tubman took care of a younger brother and baby. When she was five or six years old, she herself was hired out as a nursemaid. Tubman was ordered to care for her master’s baby and rock its cradle as it slept; any time the made awoke and cried – Tubman was whipped. She bore the scars from such beatings for the rest of her life. She resisted however she could – by running away (which she once managed for five whole days), wearing layers to protect her against the whip, and even fighting back.

As a child, Tubman also worked at the home of a planter named James Cook. She had to check the muskrat traps in nearby marshes, even after contracting measles. However, she soon became too ill to work and she was sent back to Brodess where her mother was allowed to nurse her back to health. She was then hired out again, which gave her ‘acute childhood homesickness’. As she grew older and stronger, she was assigned to field and forest work, driving oxen, plowing, and hauling logs. (1/14)

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“Twant me, 'twas the Lord. I always told him, 'I trust to you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,' and He always did.”

As a teenager, Tubman suffered a severe head injury when she was hit with a two-pound metal weight that had been aimed at another slave. It broke her skull and she was returned to her master’s house bleeding and unconcious. She did not reeive any medical care for two days. Henceforth, she experienced extremely painful headaches, seizures, and bouts of unconsciousness for the rest of her life. 

This injury also left her experiencing visions and dreams which she believed were revelations from God. These left her deeply religious. Despite her illiteracy, she had been brought up hearing Bible stories from her mother, and attended church from an early age. However, she rejected the New Testament which was interpreted to encourage slaves to be obedient. Rather she took comfort in the Old Testament tales of deliverance from slavery.  Her faith became a source of comfort and guidance to her throughout her life.

In 1840, Tubman’s father was freed by his master but remained working as a woodsman on the estate. Several years later, Tubman paid a white attorney five dollars to investigate her mother's legal status. The lawyer discovered that her mother was also due to be freed at the age of 45, and that the same applied to any children she bore after that age. However, her masters ignored this request, and the family was unable to challenge them legally and thus she and her mother remained enslaved. 

Around 1844, she married a free Black man named John Tubman. Because Harriet remained enslaved. Such “mixed” marriages were not uncommon because by that time more than half the black population was freed. However, because Harriet was enslaved, their children would also be born enslaved.  It was around this time that Tubman changed her name from Araminta to Harriet  - although it is debated whether her motivation was religious or sentimental. (2/14)

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“I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was on of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive.”

In 1849, Tubman’s health took another turn for the worse and her master attempted to sell her. However, he could not find a buyer as her ill health made her bad “value for money”. She felt immense anger towards her master but instead of directing her ire at him directly, she prayed for his soul in hope that God would bring him to his senses: "I prayed all night long for my master...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 concluded, "I changed my prayer", she said. "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 did indeed die. Whether her prayer was answered or whether this was just an eerie coincidence, Tubman expressed regret over her wishes and partly blamed herself for his demise.

Her master’s death increased the likelihood that Tubman would be sold and her family broken apart.  Tubman knew the dangers and decided to escape, despite her husband's efforts to dissuade her.

Tubman escaped from slavery in September 1849, along with her two brothers. They had been hired out to another household and thus their escape was not noted by either party for two weeks. A $100 reward was offered for each of the run-aways, and her brothers forced her to return – it is thought that one of them may have just become a father which explains why he would want to risk returning to a life of slavery. 

Soon afterward, Tubman escaped again, this time without her brothers (a wise move if you ask me). She tried to send word of her plans ahead to her mother via a coded song: "I'll meet you in the morning. I'm bound for the promised land." While her exact route is unknown, Tubman made use of the network known as the Underground Railroad. This informal but well-organized system was composed of free and enslaved Blacks, white abolitionists, and other activists – most notably the community of Quakers. Her journey of nearly 90 miles would have taken up to three weeks as she travelled on foot. (3/14)

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“If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”

Tubman travelled by night guided by the North Star and shielded from slave catchers by the darkness. The "conductors" in the Underground Railroad used deceptions for protection. At an early stop, the lady of the house instructed Tubman to sweep the yard so as to seem to be working for the family. Given her familiarity with the woods and marshes of the region, Tubman likely hid in these during the day. The particulars of her first journey are unknown as she would not betray the routes which were still used by other escapees. She later recalled her relief as she crossed into Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief: "I was a stranger in a strange land. [M]y father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and they should be free."

In 1850, the U.S. Congress meanwhile passed the Fugitive Slave Law which heavily punished abetting escape and forced law enforcement officials – even in states that had outlawed slavery – to assist in their capture. The law increased risks for escaped slaves and racial tensions increased as free blacks found increasing competition for jobs from Irish immigrants.

In December 1850, Tubman – who was working odd jobs to try and save money -  was warned that her niece Kessiah and her two children would soon be sold. Tubman went to Baltimore, aided by her brother-in-law. Kessiah's husband, a free Black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife. Then, John, Kessiah and their children escaped to a nearby safe house. When night fell, Bowley sailed the family on a log canoe 60 miles to Baltimore, where Tubman took them to Philadelphia.

Early the next year Tubman returned to Maryland to help other family members. During her second trip, she recovered her brother Moses and two unidentified men.  Word of her daring rescues began to spread, and with every journey she became more confident. (4/14)

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“I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven.”

In late 1851, Tubman returned to Dorchester County for the first time since her escape. She returned for her husband John, for whom she had purhcased a suit with her savings. However, she arrived to discover that John had married another woman and refused to leave with her. Tubman originally planned to make a scene at his house, but then decided that he was not worth the risk of capture and left him to it. Instead, she found some enslaved people who wanted to escape and led them to Philadelphia. An admirable response to adultery and abandondment if ever I heard one.

Because the Fugitive Slave Law had made the northern United States a more dangerous place for escaped slaves to remain, many escaped slaves began migrating to Southern Ontario – which as part of the British Empire had abolished slavery. In December 1851, Tubman guided an unidentified group of 11 fugitives, possibly including the Bowleys and several others she had helped rescue earlier, northward. The group stayed with famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The pair were greatly admired and abetted eac other and Douglass later wrote to her:

“The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day – you in the night. ... The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism...I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.” (5/14)

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“Now I've been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.”

Over 11 years, Tubman returned repeatedly to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, rescuing some 70 slaves in about 13 expeditions, including her other brothers, their wives and some of their children. She also provided specific instructions to 50 to 60 additional fugitives who escaped to the north. Her efforts earned her the nickname “Moses”. One of her last missions into Maryland was to retrieve her aging parents. Both were now free – her father having bought her mother’s freedom – but they were stil treated with hostility and her father was in danger of arrest owing to his harbouring of fugitives. Harriet led them to Ontorio to stay with a group of former slaves including their friends and relevatives had settled.

Tubman's missions required bravery and innovation. For example: “she always came in the winter, when the nights are long and dark, and people who have homes stay in them." Once she had made contact with escaping slaves, they left town on Saturday evenings, since newspapers would not print runaway notices until Monday morning. She once disguised herself with a bonnet and carried two live chickens to give the appearance of running errands. Suddenly finding herself walking toward a former owner, she yanked the strings holding the birds' legs, and their agitation allowed her to avoid eye contact. Later she recognized a fellow train passenger as another former master; she snatched a nearby newspaper and pretended to read. Tubman was known to be illiterate, and the man ignored her.

Tubman's religious faith and continuing visions also strengthened her resolve.  She spoke of "consulting with God", and trusted that He would keep her safe. Thomas Garrett once said of her, "I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul." Her faith in the divine also provided immediate assistance. She used spirituals as coded messages, warning fellow travelers of danger or to signal a clear path. She sang versions of "Go Down Moses" and changed the lyrics to indicate that it was either safe or too dangerous to proceed. As she led fugitives across the border, she would call out, "Glory to God and Jesus, too. One more soul is safe!" Slaves use of music for many different purposes is something that has always intrigued and inspired me, and this a great example of the power of music to resist (as in my previous post about Miriam Makeba). (6/14)

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"I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."

Tubman always carried a gun and was not afraid to use it on slave catchers, dogs, or even slaves who got cold feet and tried to return to their owner at the jeopardy of their fellow escapees.  Tubman told the tale of one man who insisted he was going to go back to the plantation when morale got low among a group of fugitives.  She pointed the gun at his head and said, "You go on or die." Several days later, he was with the group as they entered Canada.

Slaveholders in never knew that "Minty", the five-foot tall, disabled slave who had disappeared into the night was now helping so many slaves escape beneath their noses.  Rather, by the late 1850s, they suspected a white abolitionist.  By the late 1850s, they began to suspect a northern white abolitionist was secretly enticing their slaves away.  Tubman and the fugitives she assisted were never captured.

In April 1858, Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown, an insurgent who advocated the use of violence to destroy slavery in the United States. Although not an advocate of violence against whites, she shared his belief in direct action. Both believed they were guided by God and Tubman claimed to have a prophetic meeting with him before their real encounter. Thus, Brown enlisted “General Tubman” in his attack on slaveholders. Her knowlegde of support networks and resources in the area were invaluable and asked her to recruit former slaves who may be willing to join his fighting force. Meanwhile, Tubman was busy giving speeches on abolition and tending to her relatives. When Brown and his men launched their attack in 1859, Tubman was not present. Brown was caught and hung. He was viewed by many as a martyr and Tubman said of him: [H]e done more in dying, than 100 men would in living." (7/14)

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“I think slavery is the next thing to hell. If a person would send another into bondage, he would, it appears to me, be bad enough to send him into hell if he could.”

In early 1859, abolitionist Republican U.S. Senator William H. Seward sold Tubman a small piece of land on the outskirts of New York, for US$1,200 (equivalent to $34,150 in 2019). Tubman seized the oppurtunity of living in an antislavery capital to settle her parents in a warmer climate. While her family were reluctant to return to the US because of the danger of recapture, they were eventually persuaded and her land because a safehouse for her friends and family – and later for black boarders seeking a better life. 

Soon after attaining the property, Tubman went back to Maryland and returned with her "niece", an eight-year-old light-skinned black girl named Margaret. There is great confusion about the identity of Margaret's parents, although Tubman indicated they were free blacks. The girl left behind a twin brother and both parents in Maryland. Years later, Margaret's daughter Alice called Tubman's actions selfish, saying, "she had taken the child from a sheltered good home to a place where there was nobody to care for her". Alice described it as a "kidnapping". However, biographers suggest that Margaret may have been Harriet’s daughter – owing to their unusually strong bond and the unlikelihood that Harriet would have willingly separated a child from her family given her own experiences. However, there is no evidence corroborating these theories and Margaret’s identity remains a mystery.

In November 1860, Tubman conducted her last rescue mission. She discovered that her sister had died, and that her two living children could only be rescued if she paid a bribe which she could not afford. Thus, the children remained enslaved. However, she did manage to rescue another group, although they took a long time to cross the border safely. The weather was cold, they had little food, and the children had to be drugged into silence so that they would not betray their location to slave catchers.  (8/14)

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"God won't let master Lincoln beat the South till he does the right thing. Master Lincoln, he's a great man, and I am a poor negro; but the negro can tell master Lincoln how to save the money and the young men. He can do it by setting the negro free.”

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Tubman saw a Union victory as a key step toward the abolition of slavery. Tubman hoped to offer her own expertise and skills to the Union cause, and joined a group of Boston and Philadelphia abolitionists heading to the Hilton Head district in South Carolina. She became a fixture in the camps, particularly in Port Royal, South Carolina, assisting fugitives.

Tubman met with General David Hunter, a strong supporter of abolition. He declared all of the "contrabands" in the Port Royal district free, and began gathering former slaves for a regiment of black soldiers. Tubman was highly criical of President Abraham Lincoln who refused to force emancipation on the souther nstates.

Tubman served as a nurse in Port Royal, preparing remedies from local plants and nursing soldiers suffering from dysentery and smallpox. Her seeming immunity from the disease lead her to believe that she was protected by God.  Freed blacks were unhappy that she received government rations as they felt she was getting special treatment and thus she gallantly gave up her rations to appease them. Instead, she spent her evenings making pies and root beer which she sold for money. (9/14)

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“I would fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.”

When Lincoln finally issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, Tubman considered it an important step toward the goal of liberating all black people from slavery. She led a band of scouts through the land of South Carolina – terrain she could maneouvre well owing to its similarities with those she had grown up with in Maryland. Her experience of covert travel and subterfuge among potential enemies was helpful. She later worked alongside Colonel James Montgomery, and provided him with key intelligence that aided the capture of Jacksonville, Florida.

Later that year, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War. She acted as a key advisor and accompanied Montgomery’s raid on a plantation. On the morning of June 2, 1863, Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore.  Tubman watched as liberated slaves stampeded toward the boats: "I never saw such a sight", she said later, describing a scene of chaos with women carrying still-steaming pots of rice, pigs squealing in bags slung over shoulders, and babies hanging around their parents' necks. Although their owners, armed with handguns and whips, tried to stop the mass escape, their efforts were nearly useless against Union fire and bullets. As Confederate troops raced to the scene, steamboats packed full of slaves took off toward Beaufort.

More than 750 slaves were rescued in the Combahee River Raid. Newspapers heralded Tubman's "patriotism, sagacity, energy, [and] ability", and she was praised for her recruiting efforts – most of the newly liberated men went on to join the Union army.

For two more years, Tubman worked for the Union forces, tending to newly liberated slaves, scouting into Confederate territory, and nursing wounded soldiers in Virginia. She also made periodic trips back to New York to visit her family and care for her parents. The Confederacy surrendered in April 1865, and Tubman returned home for good. (10/14)

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“I can die but once.”

In 1869, Harriet refused a train conductor’s order for her to move into the baggage car. She declared her government-issued papers that entitled her to ride there. In response, he cursed and grabbed at her. She resisted, but with the help of two other passengers he wrestled her from the train – breaking her arm in the process. He then threw her into the baggage luggage (causing more damage) as other white passengers shouted abuse and called for her to be thrown off the train. This act of defiance became a historical symbol, later cited when Rosa Parks refused to move from a bus seat in 1955.

Despite several years of service, Tubman never received a regular salary from the Union Army and was for years denied compensation. Her unofficial status and the unequal payments offered to black soldiers caused great difficulty in documenting her service, and the U.S. government was slow in recognizing its debt to her. Her constant humanitarian work for her family and former slaves, meanwhile, kept her in a state of constant poverty, and her difficulties in obtaining a government pension were especially difficult for her. This makes me really sad when you think of how even in today’s America it is largely the most racist people who are the most rich and powerful.

Tubman spent her remaining years in New York with her family and helping others in need. She took in lodgers and took other odd jobs to support her aging family. Eventually, she fell in love with a boarder, Nelson Charles Davis, who was 22 years her juniour. They were married in 1869, and adopted a baby girl together who they named Gertie. Sadly, Nelson died of Tuberculosis in 1888.

Tubman's abolitionist friends and supporters raised funds to support her. One admirer, Sarah Hopkins Bradford, wrote an authorized biography entitled Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. Published in 1869, this brought Harriet $1,200 in income. In 1886 Bradford released a re-written volume, also intended to help alleviate Tubman's poverty, called Harriet, the Moses of her People. In both volumes Harriet Tubman is hailed as a latter-day Joan of Arc. (11/14)

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“I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

Facing accumulated debts (including payments for her property in Auburn), Tubman was in 1873 the victim of a scam. Two men claimed to have in their possession a cache of gold smuggled out of South Carolina. They offered this treasure – worth about $5,000, they claimed – for $2,000 in cash. They insisted that they knew a relative of Tubman's, and she took them into her home, where they stayed for several days. She knew that white people in the South had buried valuables when Union forces threatened the region, and also that black men were frequently assigned to digging duties. Thus, the situation seemed plausible, and a combination of her financial woes and her good nature led her to believe the story. She borrowed money and arranged the deal. However, when she met the men, they lured her into the woods, drugged her with chloroform. Her family later found her dazed, bound and gagged, the money gone. 

Her attacked caused outrage and although some mocked her naivete, most felt sorry for her and refreshed her memory of her service and hardships. In 1874, a bill was introduced demanding that Tubman be paid "the sum of $2,000 for services rendered by her to the Union Army as scout, nurse, and spy". The bill was defeated in the Senate. However, Dependent and Disability Pension Act of 1890 made Tubman eligible for a pension as the widow of Nelson Davis. In December 1897, New York Congressman Sereno E. Payne introduced a bill to grant Tubman a soldier's monthly pension for her own service in the Civil War at US$25 (equivalent to $770 in 2019). Although Congress received documents and letters to support Tubman's claims, some members objected to a woman being paid a full soldier's pension.  In February 1899, the Congress passed, but did not acknowledge her as a scout and spy. In 2003, Congress approved a payment of US$11,750 of additional pension to compensate for the perceived deficiency of the payments made during her life (which did not do her much good, obviously).

In her later years, Tubman worked to promote the cause of women's suffrage. A white woman once asked Tubman whether she believed women ought to have the vote, and received the reply: "I suffered enough to believe it.” She travelled around the US speaking in favour of women’s suffrage – recounting her experiences in the civil war and regailing audiences with the sacrificies of historical women who had proved women’s equity to men (aka writing a herstory blog before it was cool!) When the National Federation of Afro-American Women was founded in 1896, Tubman was the keynote speaker at its first meeting. Her feminist activism brought a new wave of admiration amongst the American press and many honoured her service and sacrifices. (12/14)

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“In my dreams and visions, I seemed to see a line, and on the other side of that line were green fields, and lovely flowers, and beautiful white ladies, who stretched out their arms to me over the line, but I couldn't reach them no-how. I always fell before I got to the line.”

At the turn of the 20th century, Tubman became heavily involved with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn. In 1903, she donated a parcel of real estate she owned to the church, under the instruction that it be made into a home for "aged and indigent colored people". The home did not open for another five years, and Tubman was dismayed when the church ordered residents to pay a $100 entrance fee. She said: "[T]hey make a rule that nobody should come in without they have a hundred dollars. Now I wanted to make a rule that nobody should come in unless they didn't have no money at all." Nonetheless, she attended as guest of honor when the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged celebrated its opening  in 1908.

As Tubman aged, the seizures, headaches, and suffering from her childhood head trauma continued to plague her. She was left unable to sleep because of noises and pains in her brain and in the late 1890s, she underwent brain surgery at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. She recalled how the surgeon: "sawed open my skull, and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable". She received no anaesthesia for the procedure and reportedly chose instead to bite down on a bullet, as she had seen Civil War soldiers do when their limbs were amputated. Absolute fucking badass.

By 1911, Tubman's body was so frail that she was admitted into the rest home named in her honour. A New York newspaper described her as "ill and penniless", prompting supporters to offer a new round of donations. Surrounded by friends and family members, she died of pneumonia in 1913. Just before she died, she told those in the room: "I go to prepare a place for you." Tubman was buried with semi-military honours at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.(13/14)

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

Widely known and well-respected while she was alive, Tubman became an American icon in the years after she died.  She inspired generations of African Americans struggling for equality and civil rights; she was praised by leaders across the political spectrum. The city of Auburn commemorated her life with a plaque on the courthouse. Although it showed pride for her many achievements, its use of dialect ("I nebber run my train off de track"), apparently chosen for its authenticity, has been criticized for undermining her stature as an American patriot and dedicated humanitarian.

Numerous structures, organizations, and other entities have been named in Tubman's honor. These include dozens of schools, streets and highways in several states, and various church groups, social organizations, and government agencies. In 1944, the United States Maritime Commission launched the SS Harriet Tubman, its first Liberty ship ever named for a black woman. An asteroid, (241528) Tubman, was named after her in 2014.

Of all the herstories I have done so far, I found Harriets possibly the most impressive. Obviously she achieved amazing things, but it also amazes me that any woman (or any human) could withstand so much emotional and physical trauma and yet live to be so strong and to help so many others. I had heard her name in passing during a history lesson on slavery at school, but knew nothing about her work during the Civil War or the Suffragist movement, or  the betrayal she must have felt from her husband and a t being separated from herr family, or of the many injuries and assaults she sustained during her perilous life. The struggle for recognition that she faced both during and after her life makes me insanely angry – I struggle to think of a single American who made a greater contribution to their country and yet as a black woman she has (unsurprisingly yet still disgustingly) been written out of the historical record – as even her contemporary and much more celebrated male counterpart Frederick Douglass noted. Harriet Tubman is the very definition of an American hero, who serves as an example of the infinite strength and capabilities of women – especially black women – to resist, endure, and revolutionise. (14/14)