Harriet Tubman Thesis

Frederick Douglass said in a letter that he wrote to Harriet: “Excepting John Brown – of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have .” Harriet faced many perils and challenges when working as a ‘conductor’ on the Underground Railroad. The job she was doing was made more dangerous and perilous by the implementation of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. Escaped slaves could now be recaptured in the North and returned to slavery, leading to the abduction of many former slaves and some free blacks living in the Free States. Law enforcement officials were compelled to capture and return slaves to the plantations, regardless of their own beliefs. Upon her escape,

However, despite these risks to her freedom, Harriet continued to disregard her own liberty in order to help others. This tenacious attitude was witnessed by many including John Brown, who stated that in his opinion, Harriet was “one of the best and bravest persons of this continent ”.

Harriet Tubman’s work as part of the Underground Railroad was ended by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. However, her determined opposition and resistance to slavery did not end there. She assisted the Union throughout the war in a variety of roles. Her practice of partaking in the Underground Railroad meant that she had an understanding and ability to take part in secretive missions and this, in combination with her devotion to helping other people, made her a useful resource for the Union army

Again her campaign to help others was not over: she spent much of her time taking care of her elderly parents, as well as looking after many other needy men and women. In early 1859, abolitionist Senator William H. Seward had sold Harriet a small piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn. This land became a haven for Tubman’s family and friends. She spent her years following the war on this property, tending to her family and others who took up residence there. Harriet had very little money in her later years: she received a meagre $20 per month from her military pension, as well as a small profit from the sale of her biography Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (Sarah Hopkins Bradford, 1869). Despite having little money, Harriets unselfishness shined through again, when she used what little money she had, not to look after herself, but to provide food, clothes, housing and education amongst other things, for both family, friends and neighbours. It was whilst doing this, that Harriet met Nelson Davis, a Civil War veteran: they married in 1869 and adopted a daughter, named Gertie in 1874. Harriet continued her work over the following years, despite her failing health. She died of pneumonia in Auburn New York, surrounded by her family, in