Harriet Tubman - Social Studies

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was born a slave and became the famous conductor on the underground railroad that lead hundreds of slaves to freedom.

Born Araminta Ross, Harriet was born a slave in Dorchester, Maryland (Although historians argue this, because being ā slave child her exact year and place of birth is not known for sure. This was the case with many slaves). At ā young age she was told by her master to watch the baby while it slept if it woke and cried she would be whipped because of this she was beaten and whipped often by her masters as a child. In her early life she suffered a head injury from a large metal object that a slave owner threw aiming to hit another slave but ended up hitting her. This caused her to have dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia (a condition that causes excessive sleepiness during the day and causes excessive sleeping) throughout her life. She was also a Christian, she said she had strange visions and vivid dreams that she said were messages from God.

She escaped to Philadelphia in 1849, but she returned to try save her family. She began to slowly move small groups of relatives out of the state also saving dozens of other slaves. During this time she was known to people as “Moses” and she “never lost a passenger”.

After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed she helped to move freed slaves north to British North America, she then helped them find work.

At the beginning of the Civil War she worked for the Union Army, she began as ā cook and nurse but became an armed scout and spy. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in war, she guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, this raid liberated more than 700 slaves.

She retired after the war to her home she bought in 1859 in Auburn, New York where she cared for her parents.

She was an active participant in the women’s suffrage movement until she became sick and was admitted to an elderly home for African Americans that she help to establish years earlier.

After her death in 1913 she became an icon of American courage and freedom.