Harriet Tubman was a leading abolitionist,
civil rights activist and humanitarian. Born to enslaved parents in Maryland,
Harriet is famed for leading other enslaved people to freedom using the
Underground Railroad in the American South to the ‘free’ North. She was
nick-named “The Conductor” and "Black Moses" as Harriet returned to
the South several times to lead hundreds of slaves to freedom.
The year of Harriet’s birth is unknown but is
recognised as being between 1820 and 1825. Her birth
name was Araminta or "Minty” but it is believed she preferred Harriet in
honour of her mother Harriet “Rit” Green. She was one of 9 children and married
twice in her lifetime.
Beatings and lashings were a lamentable inevitability
of bondage and Harriet's experience was no different. She carried the scars of
physical violence for the rest of her life, suffering with narcolepsy and
seizures after a particularly gruesome beating where the overseer threw a weight
at her head.
In 1849 Harriet and her two brothers escaped
slavery after the death of their owner. They planned to escape to Philadelphia
but a bounty was placed on each of them for their return dead or alive, and
Harriet's brothers defected. She accompanied them back to the plantation but in
an effort to remain "free" continued to journey alone through
Pennsylvania and on to Philadelphia. This was approximately 90 miles. Wishing
to free her family and other slaves, Harriet returned several times to the
South to coordinate escapes to Philadelphia. However in 1850 a Fugitive Slave
Law was passed that required the "free" North to return escaped
slaves to their owners in the South. In response
to this, Harriet redirected her escape routes to Canada where slavery was
illegal.
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