Harriet Tubman : Walk to Freedom Essay

She was also no longer known by her "basket name", Araminta. Now she would be called Harriet. Yet she always insisted that the Lord addressed her by the name "Araminta."

At the moment, the six of us were laying on the ground covered by a large quilt made from careworn clothes. It has been very cold and the forceful winds and lack of fire make the journey more difficult. There has been so many times where I have wanted to turn back and go to my master but the hope of a new future for me and my children makes me continue. I constantly think of our destination and weather or not it will be what I have expected. I’m anxious I will be disappointed because of how much I have thought about it, but, I do know that it is better than going back; that is what Harriet Tubman reassures me of. She also says that we will reach a home where fugitives are welcomed and given food and place to sleep. We haven’t had an adequate

. . Every time I saw a White man I was afraid of being carried away. I had two sisters carried away in a chain gang—one of them left two children. We were always uneasy... I think slavery is the next thing to hell." (Lerone Bennett Jr. 2005). At some point in time Araminta Ross name was changed to the same name as her mother Harriet. She was sold to James Cook to weave. The weaving often made her cough and sneeze. She would get severe coughs and fevers. Like many slaves, Harriet was often whipped. One day she stole a lump of sugar from Miss Susan, in fear of getting whipped she ran away for four days. However, when she returned home she was whipped severely. She learned a great lesson from this experience; she should put on layers of clothes so it wouldn’t hurt as much when she was being whipped.

(Harriet Tubman was originally born Araminta Ross and then later changed her first name to Harriet, after her mother.) In 1849, Tubman ran away in fear that she, along with many other slaves on the plantation were going to be sold off. Harriet Tubman left on foot. Luckily, Tubman was given some assistance from a white woman, and was able to set off on her journey to freedom. Tubman used the North Star in order to find her direction during the night, slowly inching her way to Pennsylvania. Once Tubman had reached Pennsylvania, she found a job and began to save her money. The following year after arriving to Philadelphia, Tubman returned to Maryland and to lead her family to freedom. Among the people she took was her sister and her sister’s two children. Tubman was able to make the same dangerous trips months later back to the South to rescue her brother and two other men that her brother knew. On Tubman’s third return to the South to rescue her husband, she found that he had found another wife. Undeterred by her husband’s actions, she rescued other slaves wanting freedom and lead them Northward.

After escaping slavery and finding freedom in the north she went back to the south multiple times and saved thousands of slaves. “Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor for the underground railroad.” (History #). This shows that Harriet Tubman was a very well known conductor that risked her life multiple times after already escaping slavery to save others. “After Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery , she returned the slave-holding states many times to help other escaping slaves.” (Americaslibrary #). Harriet wanted to take ending slavery into her own hands by saving as many slaves a she possibly could. She is one of the best underground railroad conductors ever known. Risking her life over and over again just for the freedom of other slaves shows her motivation to end

Harriet’s neighbor which was a white abolitionist gave her a piece of paper with two names on it, and told her how to find the first house on her path to freedom. When she arrived at this house she was put into a wagon, covered with a sack, and was taken to her next destination. There she was given directions to a safe house and names of people that would help her get across the Mason-Dixon Line. She was taken to Philadelphia, where she got a job and saved her money to help free other slaves. With the help of William Still and other members of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, she learned how the Underground Railroad worked. In 1850 Harriet helped her first slaves escape to the north. She sent notes to her sister’s older son that said for him and other family members to board fishing boat in Cambridge. This boat would take them to meet her in Bodkins Point she then guided them safe house to safe house until they reached Philadelphia. In September of 1850 Harriet became the an official conductor of the Underground Railroad. Meaning that she knew all the routes to free territory and she had to take an oath of silence so the secret of the Underground Railroad would be kept a secret. Her second trip to the south was to rescue her brother James and other friends. She aided then across a river and to the home of Thomas Garett he was the most famous Underground “Stationmaster” in history. In 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act was passed. This act made it illegal for any citizen to assist an escaped slave and demanded that if an escaped slave was sighted he or she should be apprehended and turned in to the authorities for deportation back to the “rightful” owner down south. This act made the Underground Railroad tighten security. It created a code to make things more secret. It also sent the escaping slaves into Canada instead of the North of the

Harriet’s grandmother was a well-respected older slave woman who gained her freedom in the last will and testament of her mistress.

In c. 1820 Araminta “Minty” Ross was born into servitude to Benjamin and Harriet Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland. The Brodess family owned her. She was born and raised in cruel and drastically harsh conditions. Araminta parents were both slaves as well. According to history, Harriet “Rit” Ross, Minty’s mother was a house slave of the illegitimate lineage of a white man that may have been her slave master and her father was a full-blooded African American. (Adler, 5)

Araminta’s mother and father were owned by different slaveholders. Her father was owned by Anthony Thompson and her mother by, Mary Pattison Brodess. When Harriet reached adulthood many slaves were being released into freedom. Some of

She was brutally beaten when she worked as a nursemaid, became severely ill when trapped muskrat and suffered a traumatic head injury when she was hit with a massive metal weight. Resulted in seizures and “premonitions and vivid dreams, she said that God communicated with her.” She married a free black man named John Tubman but ended up running to freedom with her brothers. A bounty of $300 was offered for their capture (“Timeline”). She fled to freedom for free of being sold to another slave owner tearing her apart from her family (“Harriet Tubman”). In 1851, Harriett returned for her husband, but she found him remarried and he refused to leave with her

Before her life of risking her freedom to save those who lived in servitude, she was a slave as well. Harriet was born into slavery and escaped in 1849. Just like the men and women she was helping, she was tied to her life as a slave, unknowing of any other way to live; she didn't want to leave her family or husband for freedom. One excerpt stated, "She had prayed for the death of Edward Brodas, the Master, and not too long afterward, had heard that great wailing cry that came from the throats of the field hands, and knew from that the Master was dead," (Petry). Though she didn't care for any of her owners, she became dependent upon them for her

Even after she made an escape from slavery, she returned back to the state nineteen times to help lead families, friends, and other slaves, to find freedom. Tubman knew many routes throughout the woods, pastures, and fields. While traveling, she would only make a move at night. Harriet thought that it was safer in the dark than it was during the day because there was not as many people outside working. At night, she claimed that she would follow the North Star. When is traveled, she always carried something to protect her and her group from anything that could harm them. “It is estimated that she led several hundred people to freedom. It is said that she never lost a single passenger.”

Harriet had a rough life, but she managed to help over 300 people out of slavery including herself. She did always carry a gun, and she was not afraid to use it. If the slaves agreed to escape, they wasn't allowed to go back. If they ever suggested to go back, she pointed the gun against their head and said; “You walk on, or die”. There was this time, a man who did not think they would get all the way to Canada and wanted to go back.

Harriet had few goals in her life but she met them any way she could. Her goals were to end the barbaric instution of slavery and provide edgecation to the African Americans. Her house doubled as a underground railroad station. She could not vote on the issue so she wrote a book its name is "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Said book led to the civil war which ended

Secondly, Harriet was bringing along many slaves. In the passage, Harriet brings over 11 slaves, which was a large number of slaves to bring. At some point along the Underground Railroad, a slave tried to break away from the group. At this point, Harriet pointed a gun at him and said: “Go on or die.”. The only reason she did this was that she knew that if the slave was captured, he would have to tell their master (and the police) about the hiding points and all the other slaves