Who was Harriet Tubman?

‘Every great dream begins with a dreamer’

Introduction By: Lauren Clarke and Chris Vroegop

Araminta Ross was born around the year 1820, as a slave on a plantation in Maryland. The exact date is unknown as enslaved people were not valued as people, so their date of birth was rarely recorded. Araminta later changed her name in honour of her mother, Harriet (“Rit”) Green. Rit worked in the owner’s house on the plantation as a cook and Harriet’s father, Benjamin Ross, worked as a timber worker on the plantation. Harriet had eight siblings, but the cruelties of slavery eventually split the family apart.

When Harriet was five, she was made to work as a nursemaid and was whipped whenever the baby cried. At the age of seven, Harriet was set to work setting muskrat traps and when she was twelve, she was sent to work in the plantation fields. This was when she noticed an overseer about to throw a heavy weight at another enslaved person. Harriet stepped between them and the weight hit her head. Harriet never properly recovered from the injury caused by the weight. It left her with narcolepsy (a brain condition that causes someone to fall asleep suddenly) and headaches for the rest of her life.

Enslaved people were not legally allowed to marry but despite this, in 1844, Harriet married John Tubman (who had been freed) and changed her surname from Ross to Tubman and named herself Harriet. Escape

When Harriet learnt that her two brothers were about to be sold, Harriet came up with an escape plan. On the 17th September 1849, Harriet and her two brothers fled on foot. Even though her brothers changed their minds and returned, Harriet continued alone. Harriet travelled 90 miles north, following the North Star to the northern states where slavery was abolished.

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was a web of safe places and kind people where the enslaved people who were trying to escape could stay and get help. Harriet Tubman did not create the Underground Railroad but she helped it grow, becoming one of the most famous “conductors” of the Underground Railroad. Even though Harriet Tubman was finally safe in Philadelphia (where she had found work as a housekeeper), she thought about all the people she had left behind. Harriet made 19 trips to the South and freed over 70 enslaved people (though some biographers claim that the numbers could have been as high as 300).

Harriet came up with tricks to free enslaved people. She would make her journey on a Saturday night because articles and notices about missing slaves were not printed in newspapers until Monday. This gave her time to get as far away as possible. Harriet would hoot like an owl to signal safety and would write her letters in secret codes. On her most dangerous journey, Harriet led her elderly parents to the North.

Legacy

During the American Civil War, Harriet continued the fight for freedom. She worked as a nurse, spy and scout, fighting for the North’s Union army. When the war ended and slavery was abolished, Harriet moved to New York State where she cared for some elderly freed slaves including her parents. Harriet set up a home to help elderly African Americans and supported the women's suffrage movement in America, working alongside the suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony. Harriet Tubman died 10th March 1913 from pneumonia yet her legacy still lives on. In 2016 her image replaced former slave owner and president Andrew Jackson on the twentydollar note.