Harriet
Tubman
was
born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland
in about 1820. In 1848 Tubman decided to try and escape from her plantation.
Her husband, John
Tubman, refused to go with her as he believed it was too dangerous.
Her two bothers accompanied her but later they became frightened and
decided to return to the plantation.
Tubman made her way north by the Underground
Railroad. Later, Tubman returned to rescue the rest of the family.
This was the first of 19 secret trips she made to the South, during
which she guided more than 300 slaves to freedom. Tubman's activities
became so notorious that plantation owners
offered a $40,000 reward for her capture.
A supporter of John Brown and his insurrection
at Harper's Ferry in 1859, she was so
disappointed by its failure that she began an intensive speaking tour
of the North. In her speeches she not only advocated an end to slavery
but argued for women's suffrage.
During the American Civil War Tubman
worked as a nurse, scout and an intelligence agent for the Union Army.
Tubman's former activities as a conductor on the Underground
Railroad made her especially useful as a scout during the conflict.
With the help of Sarah Bradford, she wrote her autobiography,
Harriet
Tubman, the Moses of Her People,
(1869). With the royalties from the book and a small pension from
the United States Army she purchased a house
in Auburn, New York and turned it into a home for the aged and needy.
Harriet
Tubman
died on 10th March, 1913.
(1)
Sarah Bradford, Harriet Tubman, The Moses of Her People (1886)
As soon as she was strong enough for work, Harriet was hired out to
a man whose tyranny was worse, if possible, than that of the woman
she had left. Now it was out of door drudgery which was put upon her.
The labor of the horse and the ox, the lifting of barrels of flour
and other heavy weights were
given to her; and powerful men often stood astonished to see this
woman perform feats of strength from which they shrunk incapable.
This cruelty she looks upon as a blessing in disguise (a very questionable
shape the blessing took, methinks), for by it she was prepared for
after needs.
Still the pressure upon the brain continued,
and with the weight half lifted, she would drop off into a state of
insensibility, from which even the lash in the hand of a strong man
could not rouse her. But if they had only known it, the touch of a
gentle hand upon her shoulder, and her name spoken in tones of kindness,
would have accomplished what cruelty failed to do.
The day's work must be accomplished, whether the
head was racked with pain, and the frame was consumed by fever, or
not; but the day came at length when poor Harriet could work no more.
The sting of the lash had no power to rouse her now, and the new master
finding her a dead weight on his hands, returned the useless piece
of property to him who was called her "owner." And while
she lay there helpless, this man was bringing other men to look at
her, and offering her for sale at the lowest possible price; at the
same time setting forth her capabilities, if once she were strong
and well again.
(2)
Sarah Bradford, Harriet Tubman, The Moses
of Her People (1886)
One day there were scared faces seen in the negro quarter, and hurried
whispers passed from one to another. No one knew how it had come out,
but some one had heard that Harriet and two of her brothers were very
soon, perhaps to-day, perhaps to-morrow, to be sent far South with
a gang, bought up for plantation work. Harriet was about twenty or
twenty-five years old at this time, and the constantly recurring idea
of escape at sometime,took sudden form that day, and with her usual
promptitude of action she was ready to start at once.
She held a hurried consultation with her
brothers, in which she so wrought upon their fears, that they expressed
themselves as willing to start with her that very night, for that
far North, where, could they reach it in safety, freedom awaited them.
But she must first give some intimation of her purpose to the friends
she was to leave behind, so that even if not understood at the time,
it might be remembered afterward as her intended farewell. Slaves
must not be seen talking together, and so it came about that their
communication was often made by singing, and the words of their familiar
hymns, telling of the heavenly journey, and the land of Canaan, while
they did not attract the attention of the masters, conveyed to their
brethren and sisters in bondage something more than met the ear.
The brothers started with her, but the way was strange, the north
was far away, and all unknown, the masters would pursue and recapture
them, and their fate would be worse than ever before; and so they
broke away from her, and bidding her goodbye, they hastened back to
the known horrors of slavery, and the dread of that which was worse.
Harriet was now left alone, but after watching the retreating forms
of her brothers, 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. Her farewell song
was long remembered in the cabins, and the old mother sat and wept
for her lost child. No intimation had been given her of Harriet's
intention, for the old woman was of a most impulsive disposition,
and her cries and lamentations would have made known to all within
hearing Harriet's intended escape. And so, with only the North Star
for her guide, our heroine started on the way to liberty. "For,"
said she, "I had reasoned dis out in my mind; there was one of
two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have
one, I would have de oder; for no man should take me alive; I should
fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when de time
came for me to go, de Lord would let dem take me."
And so without money, and without friends, she started on through
unknown regions; walking by night, hiding by day, but always conscious
of an invisible pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, under
the guidance of which she journeyed or rested. Without knowing whom
to trust, or how near the pursuers might be, she carefully felt her
way, and by her native cunning, or by God given wisdom, she managed
to apply to the right people for food, and sometimes for shelter;
though often her bed was only the cold ground, and her watchers the
stars of night.
(3) Sarah
Bradford, Harriet Tubman, The
Moses of Her People (1886)
It would be impossible here to give a detailed account of the journeys
and labors of this intrepid woman for the redemption of her kindred
and friends, during the years that followed. Those years were spent
in work, almost by night and day, with the one object of the rescue
of her people from slavery. All her wages were laid away with this
sole purpose, and as soon as a sufficient amount was secured, she
disappeared from her Northern home, and as suddenly and mysteriously
she appeared some dark night at the door of one of the cabins on a
plantation, where a trembling band of fugitives, forewarned as to
time and place, were anxiously awaiting their deliverer. Then she
piloted them North, traveling by night, hiding by day, scaling the
mountains, fording the rivers, threading the forests, lying concealed
as the pursuers passed them. She, carrying the babies, drugged with
paregoric, in a basket on her arm. So she went nineteen times, and
so she brought away over three hundred pieces of living and breathing
"property," with God given souls.
The way was so toilsome over the rugged
mountain passes, that often the men who followed her would give out,
and foot-sore, and bleeding, they would drop on the ground, groaning
that they could not take another step. They would lie there and die,
or if strength came back, they would return on their steps, and seek
their old homes again. Then the revolver carried by this bold and
daring pioneer, would come out, while pointing it at their heads she
would say, "Dead niggers tell no tales; you go on or die!"
And by this heroic treatment she compelled them to drag their weary
limbs along on their northward journey.
But the pursuers were after them. A reward of $40,000 was offered
by the slave-holders of the region from whence so many slaves had
been spirited away, for the head of the woman who appeared so mysteriously,
and enticed away their property, from under the very eyes of its owners.
(4)
Thomas
Garrett, a Quaker who was the Delaware station-master,
wrote a letter to Sarah Bradford about the activities of Harriet Tubman
on the Underground Railroad (June,
1866)
The
date of the commencement of her labors, I cannot certainly give; but
I think it must have been about 1845; from that time till 1860, I
think she must have brought from the neighborhood where she had been
held as a slave. from 60 to 80 persons, from Maryland, some 80 miles
from here.
No slave who placed himself under her care, was ever arrested that
I have heard of; she mostly had her regular stopping places on her
route; but in one instance, when she had several stout men with her,
some 30 miles below here, she said that God told her to stop, which
she did; and then asked him what she must do. He told her to leave
the road, and turn to the left; she obeyed, and soon came to a small
stream of tide water; there was no boat, no bridge; she again inquired
of her Guide what she was to do. She was told to go through. It was
cold, in the month of March; but having confidence in her Guide, she
went in; the water came up to her armpits; the men refused to follow
till they saw her safe on the opposite shore. They then followed,
and, if I mistake not, she had soon to wade a second stream; soon
after which she came to a cabin of colored people, who took them all
in, put them to bed, and dried their clothes, ready to proceed next
night on their journey. Harriet had run out of money, and gave them
some of her underclothing to pay for their kindness.
When she called on me two days after, she was so hoarse she could
hardly speak, and was also suffering with violent toothache. The strange
part of the story we found to be, that the masters of these men had
put up the previous day, at the railroad station near where she left,
an advertisement for them, offering a large reward for their apprehension;
but they made a safe exit. She at one time brought as many as seven
or eight, several of whom were women and children. She was well known
here in Chester County and Philadelphia, and respected by all true
abolitionists.
(5)
Wendell Phillips, letter about John
Brown and Harriet Tubman (16th June, 1868)
The
last time I ever saw John Brown was under my own roof, as he brought
Harriet Tubman to me, saying: "Mr. Phillips, I bring you one
of the best and bravest persons on this continent -- General Tubman,
as we call her."
He
then went on to recount her labors and sacrifices in behalf of her
race. After that, Harriet spent some time in Boston, earning the confidence
and admiration of all those who were working for freedom. With their
aid she went to the South more than once, returning always with a
squad of self-emancipated men, women, and children, for whom her marvelous
skill had opened the way of escape. After the war broke out, she was
sent with endorsements from Governor Andrew and his friends to South
Carolina, where in the service of the Nation she rendered most important
and efficient aid to our army.
In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps few
colonels, who have done more for the loyal cause since the war began,
and few men who did before that time more for the colored race, than
our fearless and most sagacious friend, Harriet.
(6)
Frederick Douglass, letter to Harriet
Tubman (29th August, 1868)
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. I have had the applause of the crowd and the
satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while
the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling,
scarred, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom you have led out of
the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt "God bless you"
has been your only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have
been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism.
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 you have. Much that you have done would seem improbable
to those who do not know you as I know you. It is to me a great pleasure
and a great privilege to bear testimony to your character and your
works, and to say to those to whom you may come, that I regard you
in every way truthful and trustworthy.
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