All You Need to Know About - Harriet Tubman

Imagine that slavery was legally right. People were sold and bought as slaves. Harriet Tubman was such a slave. The woman who took escaped slavery. Not only this, she rescued her family members and other slaves by putting herself in danger.

Harriet Tubman took part in the abolition movement. Abolitionism was a movement whose aim was to end slavery in the United States. People who took part in this movement are called abolitionists. This movement was active before and during the American Civil War. Thinkers have started condemning slavery on humanistic grounds. However, it took about this much time to end slavery

Born as Araminta "Minty" Ross to slaves Harriet ("Rit") Green and Ben Ross in Maryland, Harriet Tubman was a born slave. However, her year of birth is disputed. The death certificate of Harriet Tubman has 1815 as her birth year while her gravestone reads 1820. The exact year and place of birth of Tubman are unknown. However, most historians believe it was around 1820. Apart from that her grandmother arrived in the United States from Africa in a slave ship, there is no information about her lineage.

Her mother, a cook, and her father, a skilled woodsman, worked for the Brodess family. Her mother was a cook for the Brodess family and her father worked for Anthony Thompson, the second husband of Mary Brodess. Tubman's parents married around 1808 and had nine children: Linah, Mariah Ritty, Soph, Robert, Minty (Harriet), Ben, Rachel, Henry, and Moses.

Slavery threw her family apart. Edward Brodess, son of Mary Brodess sold Tubman's three daughters. It separated them forever. When they came for her youngest brother Moses, her mother resisted. That resistance had quite an effect on Harriet's belief in resistance and freedom.

As a child, Tubman had to look after her siblings as her mother had little time for family. At the age of five, Tubman was hired by a woman to take care of her baby and rock its cradle when the baby slept. If the baby woke and cried, Harriet was beaten and abused. There were days when she was whipped five times before breakfast just for that. Because of that, she used to wear multiple layers of clothing, run away, and sometimes fight back. All this left a scar over Tubman that she carried her whole life. 

Head injury and revelations

In her adolescent years, a two-pound metal weight hit her head. While it was meant to strike another slave, it struck her. She laid on a seat without medical care for two days. This incident leads to severe headaches, seizures, and unconsciousness that Tubman suffered her whole life. After this, she used to had spiritual experiences like visions and dreams that she called God's revelation. Because of these experiences, she rejected the teachings of the New Testament and accepted the Old Testament tales of deliverance.

Marriage and freedom

Tubman married a free black man named John Tubman around 1844 and changed her name from Araminta to Harriet. In 1849, she fell ill which lowered her value as a slave. Her owner, Edward Brodess tried to sell her but failed. After few weeks, Edward died and her widow tried to sell and her family members. Afraid that it will separate them, Harriet decided to escape. However, her husband tried to let the plan go, Tubman did not step back. Later she recalled that "There was one of the two things that I have a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other".

On September 17, 1849, Tubman and her brother escaped slavery. However, her brothers had second thoughts and came back. Tubman also had to return with them. However, she escaped again. This time without her brothers and to come back never. She used the network Underground Railroad, an informal system whose members were free and enslaved blacks, white abolitionists, and other activists. Because of fear of slave catchers, she used to travel at night and used the North Star as a guide. Tubman entered Pennsylvania. Years later she recalled her experience of crossing the line into Pennsylvania, "When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven".

Rescue missions

In the coming years, Tubman made many return trips to Maryland. Each time to rescue her family members and other slaves. It is said that she made around 13 trips and rescued about 70 slaves over 11 years. Also, after the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, it was dangerous for slaves to live even in free states. The law heavily punished escape and forced officials of free states also to catch slaves and return them. Harriet Tubman helped about another 50 slaves to escape to southern Ontario which was a part of the British empire and had abolished slavery. As a result of these efforts, she got the nickname, "Moses." Moses was a prophet who led Hebrews to Freedom.

Tubman faced dangerous situations while rescuing other slaves. Few times she accidentally met her masters but escaped somehow. Tubman also used to keep a revolver. Her religious faith in God also gave her confidence. She was confident that God will not anything happen to her. Despite many attempts by slave catchers, neither Tubman nor the slaves she rescued got caught.

In April 1858, Tubman met abolitionist John Brown, an insurgent who used violence to free slaves. They both worked together till John Brown was hanged for a raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, that failed.TubmaTubman conducted her last rescue mission in 1860. During the civil war, Tubman served as a nurse in Port Royal and rendered assistance to men with smallpox. After the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, Tubman worked alongside Colonel James Montgomery. Later that year, she lead an armed assault on a collection of plantations along the Combahee River. With this feat, she became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the civil war. Raid on Combahee River lead by Tubman rescued more than 750 slaves.

Later life

Tubman's later life was spent in poverty because of her humanitarian work for her family and former slaves. The government of the United States took the time to recognize her debt over the country. She worked various jobs to pay her bills. On March 18, 1869, Tubman married Nelson Charles David, a man whom she took as a border but fell in love with. Nelson was 22 years younger than her and worked as a bricklayer.

Legacy

Apart from rescuing slaves, she worked to promote the cause of woman's suffering. She died of pneumonia in 1913. In the years after her death, Tubman became an American idol. There are museums, libraries, parks, and monuments in her name. Apart from that, there have been books, shows, dramas, movies, paintings, memorials, and other honors in her name. She has been a subject of novels. There have been shows, series, and movies over her life. The story of her resistance is an inspiration to everyone fighting injustice at any place in the world. Especially for people of color, she has been a motivation of resistance. The whole world is indebted to her for her struggle and humanitarian work.