Harriet Tubman was one of the most influential women in the Civil War. She was the owner of many titles during that time, including the one “Moses,” which compared her to Moses from the Bible. Both Moses and Tubman were known for saving and rescuing many people. Tubman is credited with rescuing about 300 slaves from the South during the Civil War. She continued to return back to the South, in order to bring more slaves to freedom in the North. Harriet Tubman had a harsh childhood due to slavery, a dangerous career freeing slaves, and received many awards and accomplished tremendous things.
Harriet Tubman was born in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was named Araminta Ross when she was born, though she changed it soon after she married Jon Tubman. She inherited his last name and changed her name to her mother’s name, Harriet. Tubman was one of 11 children in her family and they were all born into slavery. She had a very tough childhood. Her parents’ master sold three of her sisters to other plantations very distant, which devastated the entire family. Soon after, Tubman’s father was approached about selling his youngest son, but he declined the offer. This set an admirable example, which inspired Tubman.
Tubman was first hired by a master to take care of his and his wife’s small baby. She rarely got sleep because she was required to stay awake and make sure the baby did not cry. If the baby did cry and woke the mother or father, Tubman would be whipped (americaslibrary.gov 2014). At one time, Tubman was asked to assist in the whipping of a man who went to the store with no permission. She refused to assist, and the slave being whipped got up in an attempt to escape. So the master picked up a heavy iron weight to throw at...
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...s, and beliefs. She spoke on behalf of women’s voting rights in Washington D.C, Boston, and New York. She also was the first speaker for the foundation, National Federation of Afro-American Women. On top of all of it, she helped to organize the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (blackhistorystudies.com 2014).
Harriet Tubman was a selfless woman, who devoted her life to save others. Many other slaves from the South escaped to freedom in the North like Tubman. Many of these people stayed where they were free, frightened to go anywhere near the South again. However, that was not Tubman, she was different. She wanted everyone to have the feeling of freedom that she had newly discovered. Harriet was known “to bring people of her race from bondage to liberty,” (S Bradford et al 1869). Harriet Tubman was known as a hero to lots of people during the Civil War.
Consequently, Harriet Tubman was born a slave into a slave family. As a slave, at five years old, Tubman was "rented" to families where she was put to work winding yarn, checking animal traps, cleaning the houses and nursing children among many more laborious tasks. When she was older, she decided she prefered to work outside of the house as opposed to laboring inside the house with domestic chores. As a teenager, she would upset her owners and often was reprimanded and sent home because of her rebellious attitude. Later on in Tubman’s life, she married a free man and also found out that her mother was freed by her owner, but her mother was never informed of her freedom. This directly affected Tubman because her mother’s freedom also meant that Tubman was b...
Harriet Ross Tubman was an African American who escaped slavery and then showed runaway slaves the way to freedom in the North for longer than a decade before the American Civil War. During the war she was as a scout, spy, and nurse for the United States Army. After that she kept working for rights for blacks and women.
Harriet Tubman Who is a great female hero from the 1800s? Who freed herself from slavery? Who freed other people from slavery? Not Wonder Woman, but Harriet Tubman. As you will see Harriet Tubman is a hero as seen through her personal background and lifetime accomplishments.
“I freed thousands of slaves, and could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.” (History.com) This Harriet Tubman quote is a great representation of the kind of person she was. Harriet Tubman was a great woman, not only did she escape slavery; she went back several times to save more people. She conducted the Underground Railroad and did great things that have changed our history in one of its darkest times in our history. Being a slave was not easy but that didn’t stop her.
In the year 1825 in Maryland a true hero was born. This hero did the impossible. This hero dared to do what no one else would do. This hero devoted her life to making America better. This hero overcame something that no one at the time thought would ever be overcame. This hero is Harriet Tubman. No one since Harriet has devoted their whole life to one thing and overcoming it and making a huge difference, which was slavery. From being a toddler to the day of her death she devoted all of it to making a difference in slavery, and she sure did make quite a difference. From being a slave herself to freeing over one thousand slaves Harriet Tubman is a true hero. Imagining America without having Harriet Tubman in it is a hard thing to do. Harriet changed America into a better place and was one of the main reasons that slavery came to an end. Harriet Tubman overcame slavery by escaping persecution, risking her life, and refusing to give up.
Araminta Harriet Ross, formally known as Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in March of 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland (Civil War, 2014). As a child, Tubman was “hired out” to various masters who were mean and cruel to her (Civil War, 2014). She suffered a terrible head injury at the hands of one of these cruel slave masters that caused her to have seizures and “visions” for the rest of her life, which she believed were sent from God (Civil War, 2014). In 1840, Tubman’s father was granted freedom as a results of a stipulation of his master’s will, but continued to work for his former owner’s family (Civil War, 2014). Araminta and the rest of her family were supposed to be granted freedom as well, but the law was ignored and kept the rest of the family enslaved (Civil War, 2014). In 1844, Araminta married a free black man and changed her name from Araminta Ross to Harriet Tubman (Civil War, 2014). In 1849, Tubman became critically ill with complications from her head injury, which led to her owner deciding to sell her, but he could not find a buyer (Civil War, 2014). After his own sudden death, the family began selling all of their slaves (Civil War, 2014). Not wanting the rest of her family to be separated, Tubman was determined to escape (Civil War, 2014).
The fear of being separated was only one of the many brutal trials Tubman had to endure as a slave. As a very young child, she was in charge of caring for her younger siblings while her mother worked. At the age of six, Tubman was hired out as a nursemaid and was constantly whipped for allowing the baby to cry. When she was a bit older, she was again hired out, this time by a planter who had her trap muskrats in a nearby marsh. It was at this time she contracted measles and was returned to the plantation to be nursed by her mother. Once Tubman had recovered, she was sent out to work for yet another master.
Harriet was very instrumental for abolishing slavery in the 1800’s. When Harriet Tubman was younger she went through tough times with her family. She was always around violence but this made her a stronger person. Escaping from her plantation, Harriet found her way to Philadelphia and found work there to raise money for freeing slaves. She was the conductor of the Underground Railroad and she led hundreds of slaves to freedom. Harriet was put in danger by leading slaves through the Underground Railroad. Even after escaping herself, she came back for her family and friends to get them out. One thing that Harriet was also known for was public speaking. She was a very dynamic public speaker and she traveled around the country to speak out in favor of women’s voting right. Harriet Tubman is an amazing woman who risked her own life to save others.
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 dangerous and dramatic roles she helped Colonel James Montgomery plan to free slaves from a plantation along the Combahee River in South Carolina. They helped seven hundred and fifty Negroes into the free lines. The river is now known as the “Jordan River” it is the symbol of bondage and freedom. It is also a sign of significance of the military in America...
Her family never left her mind, and in December 1850, when she received word that her niece and her niece’s children were going to be sold, she returned to the south to lead them to freedom. She returned to Maryland again the following spring to rescue more family members and others desiring freedom. On a subsequent trip she attempted to return to where she had previously lived to find her husband, only to discover that he had taken another wife. Deciding that he wasn’t worth the trouble, she instead found a group of slaves who wanted to escape, and led them to freedom. Because of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, she began leading slaves to Canada where slavery was illegal, instead to the northern states where they could be recaptured and returned to slavery. While escorting fugitive slaves to Canada, she occasionally worked with Fredrick Douglass, a former slave and abolitionist. When leading slaves to freedom, Tubman was known to carry a gun to defend against slave catchers but also to persuade those she was guiding to continue the trek and not turn back if they had second thoughts. Over the course of eleven years, Harriet Tubman rescued over seventy slaves in approximately thirteen journeys into slave owning territories. She also specifically instructed over fifty more on the best ways to journey to freedom. In 1858 Tubman met John brown, an abolitionist who advocated using violence to end slavery. Tubman admired his direct action, although she didn’t promote using violence herself. With knowledge of the underground networks of people who condemned slavery, Harriet was a valuable resource To John Brown. She helped him in gathering a fighting force of ex slaves and in planning his raid on Harpers Ferry, although Harriet was not present while the raid took
In April 1858, Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown, who advocated the use of violence to disrupt and destroy the institution of slavery. Tubman shared Brown’s goals and at least tolerated his methods. Tubman claimed to have had a prophetic vision of Brown before they met. When Brown began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders at Harper’s Ferry, he turned to “General Tubman” for help. After Brown’s subsequent execution, Tubman praised him as a martyr.
Tubman’s intense desire for freedom can be traced back to her earliest days as a child. Born in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman never knew her birthdate. It is thought that she was born in either 1820 or 1821, however, there are no formal records stating the exact date due to the fact that slave owners did not find it necessary to document the birthdate of their property (“Harriet Tubman”). At the age of seven, Tubman was hired out to a woman named Miss Susan. Living under Miss Susan, Tubman was no stranger to whipping and other cruel punishments whenever she did not complete her job as it was demanded. Even at such a young age, Tubman knew t...
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland around 1820. By the time Tubman had reached the age of 5 or 6, she started working as a servant in her master’s household. Approximately seven years after she began working as a servant, Tubman was sent to work out in the fields. While Tubman was still a teenager, she sustained an injury that would affect her for the rest of her life. One day, Tubman stood up for another slave and blocked a doorway in order to protect them from an upset overseer. The overseer threw a weight at one of the field hands, missing them and instead hitting Tubman on the head. Tubman was never able to fully heal from the wound she sustained from the overseer. This injury caused a chroni...
Many people do not know what Harriet Tubman’s greatest achievement was. Harriet Tubman was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822. When she was born she was first named Araminta Ross and was like every other African-American, born into slavery. In 1844 Araminta married a free black man named John Tubman and later changed her name to Harriet Tubman, her first name from her mother and her last name from her husband. Five years later Harriet’s master died, which gave Harriet a decision, whether she could be free or dead.
Using the Underground Railroad, Tubman was able to help around three hundred slaves escape including most of her family. However, when The Fugitive Slave Act came around, people’s doubt of her began to increase. Setbacks such as The Fugitive Slave Act, and people offering rewards for her capture caused to have to travel further to Canada and more cautiously. However, Harriet was determined, and got through these challenges without ever being caught. Lastly, Tubman served as a spy, scout, and nurse for the Union during the Civil War.