Harriet Tubman's Early Life

Harriet Tubman was a poor slave girl who ran away from her plantation at the age of 28. Throughout the course of her life many people and many things challenged her. Each situation she was faced with tested either her mental or physical strength, usually both. She persevered through all of her trials stronger and wiser, and was willing to always help others through their own. Not one to instigate unless extremely necessary, Harriet was known for her quick thinking and her reactions to each ordeal she was faced with. She responded to them with a sharp mind, and strong faith in deliverance through the Lord.

Harriet Tubman is well known for a successful role in freeing many slaves through the Underground Railroad. Not many know the major effect she had on the Union Army as a Scout and a spy during the Civil War. Her bravery while helping slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and her assistance in gathering Confederate troops intelligence as a spy changed the history and made a great impact on the on the United States National Defense. Even though Harriet Tubman was a very skillful spy, she had many indicators that were missed while she was spied for intelligence and reported the material which were compromised to her handler.

Harriet Tubman was an important African American who ran away from slavery and guided runaway slaves to the north for years. During the Civil War she served as a scout, spy, and nurse for the United States Army. After that, she worked for the rights of blacks and women.

The act of slavery divided the North and South of the American Union, states seceded and formed the Confederacy. Harriet Tubman played a big role in bringing the Confederacy and Union back together. She went through slavery in the South, escaped and worked for the Union Army during the Civil War, all together making a difference on today’s society. Harriet Tubman, born a slave, escaped slavery in 1849 and became one of the most important abolitionist in American history. During the American Civil War she helped runaway slaves go from the South to North in an Underground Railroad. Harriet’s journey with the Underground Railroad helped hundreds of African Americans escape slavery, and soon abolish the act creating a big difference on today’s life.

Harriet lived from roughly 1820-1913; the exact year of her birth is completely unknown. She was born to Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross, under the name of Araminta “Minty” Ross, on the Thompson plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. The plantation was owned by Edward Brodess, son of Mary Pattison Brodess, a young widow. Mary was an awful mistress, in the sense that she enjoyed her slave’s misery. She often drove the families apart, causing extreme anguish. Although it was common for masters and mistresses to hire out the man to another plantation, Mary separated the family even more by selling two of Harriet’s sisters to a plantation in Georgia.

Harriet Tubman was born in the year of 1820 into a family of 8 children and two parents of who were all slaves. Harriet’s real name was Araminta Harriet Ross yet she later changed her name to Harriet around the time she was married to John Tubman. Harriet’s life as a slave was hard like many other slaves lives during that time. When Harriet Tubman was around 12 years old she was hit in the head by a two pound weight when she refused to hold down a runaway slave, because of this she suffered through sleeping spells and sever headaches throughout her life, this was called Narcolepsy. Harriet was married in 1844 to a free black man named John Tubman. She ran away in 1951 using the underground railroad. Once she was freed

At first, In my research I couldn’t find any evidence on which exact day harriet was born but i could find that she was born around 1820’s near Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, near the town of Cambridge (graceproducts.com). Harriet was given the name Araminta Ross later that year she had taken on her mother's name of Harriet. When she had turned six she had been taken ten miles to live with James Cook. His wife who was a weaver was to teach her the trade of weaving. Cook had her work on the trapline to help catch wild animals. He had to work the lines while she was ill with the measles, and catching cold from wading in the water in the condition, she grew very sick. I had reasoned this 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 the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me. --Harriet Tubman (graceproducts.com).

At the age of 13, Harriet became more rebellious; she disobeyed her masters as people watched. One day, another male slave was getting beat; the overseer wanted to punish him and he wanted Harriet to help but she refused to. Harriet was hit with a weight, which put a hole in her skull and pushed her skull against her brain. She described it as it “broke my skull and cut a piece of that shawl clean off and drove it into my head”. After the accident she didn’t get medical treatment and soon had to return to the fields. The experience of going back to the field was noted as “with blood and

At the age of 12 Harriet would face her biggest challenge of her life. While attempting to protect a fugitive slave she would be struck by a piece of metal that would break her skull. Harriet Tubman would reflect on this incident saying, “The weight broke my skull and cut a piece of that shawl clean off and drove it into my head. They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they laid me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all day and the next” (Harriet Tubman Historical Society, "Early Life"). It would take many months for Harriet to recover and would have seizures for the rest of her life. Even after recovering she needed a strong support system behind her to be able to become the person before the injury.

In around 1844, Harriet became married to a free man named John Tubman, despite her marriage for two more years she lived with her owner at the time, Dr. Thompson. After her master had died, she promptly left the plantation, seeing as though the slaves had been freed in a will a long while back. “Harriet resolved not be sold, and so, with no knowledge of the North- having only heard of Pennsylvania and New Jersey- she walked away one night alone.” After reaching her new home of Philadelphia she found work, yet decided to travel to Maryland to find her husband, how upon her arrival, she discovered had married another woman. Seeing as though her domestic life with this man would not work out, so from approximately 1845 to 1860 she helped escort approximately 50 to 60 slaves to freedom. Thomas Garret, in a letter, is quoted saying, “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 two 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.”Harriet remarked that God guided her on her path, she followed his directions to guide her and the people she was escorting to safety. It is said that to the people she escorted, sometimes all the way to Canada, “Harriet was their good

(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.

The first contribution of Harriet Tubman is that she served as a spy for the union army, because she wanted freedom for all the people who were forced into slavery not just the people she could help by herself. One day Tubman took one of the most

Harriet Tubman 's background heavily impacted her beliefs as an adult. Harriet Tubman was born around the year 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland. “She was the child of Benjamin Ross, and her mother, Harriet Greene. Her master 's name at the time was Edward Brodas” (Lesson). She was born into slavery and as soon as she could talk and walk, she was put to work. She worked as a house servant when only 6 years old and started to work on the fields at the age of 13 (ELibrary). Harriet was very uneducated and never learned to read or write. She learned to be strong and independent at a very young age because of the way she was treated by her parents and owner (Social Leaders). When Harriet entered her teen years, she refused to tie up a runaway slave when her owner ordered her to. Her disobedience angered her owner and he then threw a heavy weight

Araminta Ross( Harriet Tubman) was born in Maryland to Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross. As a child she was a slave. She would help plant tobacco. She hated her life as a slave. As she got older, she was hired out (sold) by Master Brodas to Mrs. Susan. One day while Mrs. Susan and her husband were quarreling, Minta (Araminta) stole a lump of sugar and Mrs. Susan saw her. Mr and Mrs. Susan chased Harriet for a couple minutes until they gave up. Minta hid in a pig pen fighting other pigs for food for a couple days. She soon got very hungry and had to go back. She was whipped very hard by Mr. Susan and got sent back to Master Brodas's plantation. One day when Minta went into a store she saw and oversee trying to whip up a slave. He told Minta to help him tie the slave, but she said no. Then the slave escaped. The oversee tried to through a weight at the slave, but the weight missed the slave a hit Minta in the

One year after the marriage Brodess plans to sell Harriet but he dies leaving his wife Eliza Brodess in debt. So to pay off the debt Eliza to plans to sale Harriet But this time Harriet thought she 'll take matters in her own hands On September 17, 1849 Harriet and her two brothers Ben and Henry Escaped from slavery. But the family constantly argue over directions due to the lack of knowledge of directions the brothers decided to return to the plantation which also forced Harriet to go with them. Finally ran off on her on realizing that it would be too dangerous to reveal her plans her family. She traveled at night and hid during the day. She would get food from free dock workers the willingly provided her food and shelter and guided her through hidden tunnels and pathways. She was also helped by Hannah Leverton which whose was a white women . Leverton drove Harriet to Delaware border and gave her a piece of paper with the information of Thomas Garrett, a Quaker Abolitionist whose Underground railroad station was the last stop in Delaware before the Pennsylvania boundary dividing the free and slave states. Which leads to Harriet crossing the Mason-Dixon Line finally giving her freedom.