Nuven Tayip

October 27, 2015

4th block

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman became famous as a conductor on the Underground Railroad

during the violent 1850s. Born a slave on Marylands eastern shore, she suffered the

harsh life of being a field hand, including brutal beatings. In 1849 she escaped slavery,

leaving her husband and family behind in order to escape. Even though a bounty on her

head, she returned to the South at least 19 times to lead her family and hundreds of other

slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Tubman also served as an explorer,

spy and nurse during the Civil War.

In 1849 Tubman escaped Maryland, leaving behind her free husband, John

Tubman, and her parents, sisters, and brothers. She had eight siblings. She returned to the

South at least nineteen times just to lead her family and hundreds of other slaves to

freedom. Making the most of her native intelligence and drawing on her endless courage,

she avoided bounty hunters in the hunt for a reward for her capture, which eventually

went as high as forty thousand dollars. She never lost a fugitive or allowed anyone to turn

back.

Tubmans battled to slavery did not end with the outbreak of the Civil War. The

Union government asked for her services as nurse, explorer, and spy. For more than three
years she nursed the sick and wounded in Florida and the Carolinas, tending whites and

blacks, soldiers. She wore a bandanna on her head. She also missed a few front teeth.

After the war, Tubman returned to Auburn, New York, and continued to help blacks fake

new lives in freedom. She cared for her parents and other poor relatives, turning her

house into the Home for Indigent and Aged Negroes. Lack of money continued to be a

critical problem, and she financed the home by selling copies of her biography and giving

speeches. Her most memorable look was at the organizing meeting of the National

Association of Colored Women in 1896. Two generations came together to celebrate the

strength of black women and to continue their struggles for a life of pride and respect.

Harriet Tubman, the oldest member present, was the picture of their strength and their

struggles.

Harriet Tubman's name at birth was Araminta Ross. Her nicknames were minty

and mouse. She was one of eleven children of Harriet and Benjamin Ross born into

slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland. As a child, she was hired as a nursemaid for a

small baby. Ross had to stay awake all night so that the baby wouldn't cry and wake the

mother. If she fell asleep, the baby's mother whipped her.

Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York. Before her

death she told friends and family surrounding her deathbed I go to prepare a place for

you. Tubman was buried with military honors in the Auburns Fort Hill Cemetery. Her

successor was her niece, May Gaston, grandniece, Katy Steward and matron of the

Harriet Tubman Home Frances Smith. These three women inherited Tubmans home.

Tubman must have been between 88 and 98 years old when she died. She claimed in her

small hotel application that she was born in 1825, her death certificate said she was born
in 1815 and to add to the confusion, her gravestone pointed out that she was born in

1820. So she could have been 88, 93 or 98 years old, or somewhere in between, when she

died.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

http://www.ducksters.com/biography/women_leaders/harriet_tubman.php

http://www.harriettubman.com/