Along the way, there were those who decided at some point along the journey that the cost of freedom was too high. The fear of the flight to freedom became too great. They would rather turn back to the plantation life of slavery. Well, somebody should have told them about our ancestor Tubman. As one of the original conductors of the Underground Railroad, the passage on her train was a one-way ticket. No stop overs and no return tickets. This was reasonable. Slaveholders treated slaves as commodities, promoting childbearing to increase their property interests. These same slavers would have no remorse on a returned slave when it came to torturing the freedom route right out of him. The brutality that such a slave would undergo is beyond our
In 1849, Tubman set her mind of escaping to the north. On September 17, 1849, Tubman with her two brothers, Ben and Harry, left Maryland. After seeing runaway notice offering $300, Ben and Harry had reconsiderations and returned to the plantation. Tubman, with her strong will, continued to escape nearly 90 miles to Philadelphia for her freedom using the secret network known as the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was neither a rail road nor underground. The routes taken at night to were called “lines” and at places they stopped to rest were called “stationed”. “Conductors” such as Harriet Tubman and Quaker Thomas used their knowledge and luck to securely free slaves from slave states to the Free states. (Biography, 2017) As she cross the state line into Pennsylvania she recalled “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, and I felt like I was in Heaven”
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.
Harriet Tubman was like a conductor on a train. Running the underground railroad to free innocent slaves from certain neglect. What do people think when they hear the name Harriet Tubman. some might think of her as a dirty black others might call her a hero, or moses. Harriet Tubman was a very brave, and courageous woman. In this paper we will explore the childhood, life of slavery, and how she came to be known as the women called moses.
“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one, I would have the other.” Stated by a freed Northern slave in his journal. The civil war affected the course of America and changed the World we know today. With the effect of slavery thousands of African Americans were outlawed into slaves across United States. With civil war storm clouds building, blacks did anything to be free by running to the free lands of so called “equality.” Many took a route called the Underground Railroad to the North lands. People thought that the North was free and equal but wasn’t so. The outcome of ex-fugitive slaves in the North wasn’t great. Through segregation and inequality, the blacks were restricted in North. They
Harriet Tubman is probably the most famous “conductor” of all the Underground Railroads. Throughout a 10-year span, Tubman made more than 20 trips down to the South and lead over 300 slaves from bondage to freedom. Perhaps the most shocking fact about Tubman’s journeys back and forth from the South was that she “never lost a single passenger.”
On the Underground Railroad there would be several “conductors” that would help those escaping get to where they escaping to, one these conductors happened to be Harriet Tubman, an ex slave. As an illustration Keri states, “‘ Tell Brad I said that the hype on Harriet Tubman- the ‘never run off the track de track, and I ain’t lost a passenger’ thing- that had to be a PR spin. She must have lost somebody.’ But maybe not forever” (Campbell 301). In this quote Keri is talking about her so called ‘conductor’ that tried to lead her to a freedom from her daughter’s illness. Throughout the duration of her attempt at getting her daughter treatment her ‘conductor’ Brad would always refer to himself as Harriet Tubman and how neither of them ever lost
"Oppressed slaves should flee and take Liberty Line to freedom." The Underground Railroad began in the 1780s while Harriet Tubman was born six decades later in antebellum America. The Underground Railroad was successful in its quest to free slaves; it even made the South pass two acts in a vain attempt to stop its tracks. Then, Harriet Tubman, an African-American with an incredulous conviction to lead her people to the light, joins the Underground Railroad’s cause becoming one of the leading conductors in the railroad. The Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman aided in bringing down slavery and together, they put the wood in the fires leading up to the Civil War. The greatest causes of the Civil War were the Underground Railroad
A strong and powerful lady said these wise words: “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”. The brave women who said these words were Harriet Tubman and she was one of the leaders of the Underground Railroad that helped slaves reach freedom. “Although not an actual railroad of steel rails, locomotives and steam engines, the Underground Railroad was real nevertheless” (encyclopedia The Civil War and African Americans 329) The term “Underground Railroad” referred to the
The “Underground Railroad” was a secret network organized by people who helped men, women, and children escape from slavery to freedom . The “Underground Railroad” provided hiding place, food, and often transportation. Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people along the route of the “Underground Railroad.” Harriet Tubman was not a criminal because she could have died freeing slaves for the right reasons, she was breaking the law to rescue slaves, and she persuaded the slaves to come with her.
That is how slaves felt everyday and that is why they wanted to be free. Most slaves wanted to escape. The underground railroad gave them new opportunities, a chance to get to know white people, and injuries or death. This would all not be possible without the underground railroad which impacted many slave lives.
According to the story Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet did not think wisely, she made a wrong decision for breaking the law. Harriet ran away with slaves, she could have hurt the slaves while running away. The slaves had no warm clothes for the night and they could of starve to death in the winter time. Also, she did not take any supplies with her that could have helped her while running away. Critics may argue, running away with the slaves will help them no longer live with their owners while suffering in their hands. However, the slaves had a chance to die in the middle of nowhere, without food and excellent gear. Another way she broke the law is by assaulting a slave with a gun. By pointing the gun at the slave's
The Underground Railroad had many notable participants, including John Fairfield in Ohio, the son of a slaveholding family, who made many daring rescues, Levi Coffin, a Quaker who assisted more than 3,000 slaves, and Harriet Tubman, who made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom.
The Underground Railroad is viewed as simply a series of trails that led slave to freedom. It was more than that. What were the motivations behind the creation of it? Were there political involvements? Was it developed with financial gain in mind? The Underground Railroad is another one of those subjects that gets swept under the proverbial carpet. Slavery happened everywhere, whether people want to admit it or not. The Underground Railroad was a positive and a negative thing. Most people don’t comprehend what it fully entailed or the impact that it had on all people. It is important to review the past, so we can make an attempt to not make the same mistakes. The above questions will be answered in a well rounded account of all parties involved from the abolitionists to the slaves and those who were supporters.
The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad nor was it underground. The Underground Railroad was a vast number of what was called ‘stations’ consisting of abolitionist’s houses and churches, or anything that could keep the runaways safe for a night or two (The Underground). Traveling the Underground could not have been fun, yet I'm sure anyone would do it if it meant freedom . The only things that kept Tubman and the other runaways in check was her faith and the pistol on her side. Tubman once said, “Dead Negroes tell no tales,” people around her always showed courage, and no one ever turned on her (Harriet
Slavery has always been an anomaly, although abolitionists such as Harriet Tubman did much to ameliorate, and later, abolish slavery. Harriet was a strong and courageous woman and a well-known conductor of the Underground Railroads, around the 1850s. Harriet Tubman personal experiences throughout her life have shaped her to become the stout-hearted woman who helped many slaves escape to freedom, by using the Underground Railroad—a network of secret routes.