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Essay about The Legacy of Harriet Tubman

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Discrimination and slavery filled our nation in the mid 19th century. African Americans were discriminated and seen as “property,” not human beings. Having been born as a slave, Harriet Tubman was no stranger to the harsh reality of slavery. Tubman’s childhood included working as a house servant and later in the cotton fields. With the fear of being sold, Tubman decided to escape for a better life. Harriet Tubman spent her life trying to save others from slavery, becoming one of the most famous women of her time who was able to influence the abolition of slavery, and effect the lives of many African Americans. Harriet Tubman was born in 1820 as Aranminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland. She later changed her name to Harriet after …show more content…

In 1849, Tubman feared that she, along with other slaves, would be sold, so she decided she was going to run away. At first she left with her two brothers, Ben and Henry, on September 17th, but after a notice was published offering three-hundred dollars for the return of Tubman, and her brothers, her brothers started having second thoughts about escaping, so they returned to the plantation. Tubman didn’t want to stay and have to live life as a slave, so one night she set out on foot alone. By following the North star at night, she as able to make her way to Pennsylvania. She then went to Philadelphia where she started to work and save her money. A year after, she went back to Maryland to bring her sister and her sister’s two children to freedom. She then went back two other times to rescue the rest of her family and her husband, but he had already been with his new wife. Tubman made the dangerous trip from Maryland to the North many times. She put her life on the line to save many other slaves who wanted to escape to freedom and she became known as the “Moses of her people.” When Harriet Tubman crossed over the Mason Dixon Line into the free state of Pennsylvania she said, “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields,

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