Harriet Tubman

Presentation created by Robert MartinezPrimary Content Source: War, Terrible War by Joy HakimImages as cited.

Harriet Tubman never knew for sure when she was born, few people recorded slaves’

birthdays. But it was in Maryland, approximately 1820.

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Her owner considered her a problem child. He sent her off to work when she was six. He got the wages, she did the work. She was sent to dust and sweep and tend a

baby.

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When Harriet didn’t dust well she beat her. Hard. When the baby cried, Harriet was

supposed to rock her and make her stop crying. Sometimes little Harriet fell asleep.

Her mistress beat her. Hard.

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Harriet ran away. But she didn’t know where to go, so she hid in a pig pen. Living with pigs may have been easier than living

with cruel humans, but she didn’t have anything to eat except the potato peelings

the pigs ate.

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Soon she was starving and had to go back. This time her mistress beat her so hard she

carried scars for the rest of her life. Now Harriet was too sick to work at all….

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….so she was sent back home. Her mother and father nursed her back to health. The

master sent her out to work again, this time to a house where the woman was a

weaver and the man a hunter.

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She was sent to check the hunter’s traps. She had to wade through cold water. One day she said she was too sick to go. The hunter didn’t believe her. Harriet had the

measles and bronchitis.

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After going in the cold water she almost died. She was sent back home again. Again

her parents cared for her, but her throat had been damaged. After that she always

had a low, husky voice.

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She was happy to be back home with her parents and her 10 brothers and sisters.

The slave owner could see that she was no good to hire out, so he sent her to work in

the fields.

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Of course, slaves couldn’t go to school, so no one taught Harriet to read or write, but

she learned to listen and to remember, and she soon had an unusual memory.

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She learned that a few slaves were freed by their masters. She learned that others ran

away north, and found freedom. She learned that if a slave tried to escape and

was caught, he would be whipped, branded, and sold.

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The slave would be sold deep south, to cotton plantations where life was even

harder for blacks than it was in Maryland and there was little chance of escape.

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Harriet learned that some people, black and white, helped escaping blacks. They

were part of something called the “Underground Railroad.” It wasn’t a real railroad, although Harriet thought it was

when she first heard of it.

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The Underground Railroad was a way to get north. It was a series of places where

blacks would find help. The places, houses, barns, and boats, were called “stations.”

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People who traveled the route were called “passengers.” People who led them were

“conductors.”

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One day Harriet was in a store. An overseer was there. Suddenly he yelled at a slave

who was running away. The overseer threw a lead weight at the running slave. The

weight hit Harriet, right in the forehead. She passed out. For months she lay

unconscious….

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….Everyone thought she would die. For the rest of her life she had fainting spells and times when she would fall asleep and no

one could wake her.

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She was sent to work with her father, who was one of the most trusted slaves on the

plantation. He was in charge of a woodcutting operation. Harriet soon learned to cut trees as easily as the

strongest of men.

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Her father taught her the ways of the woods. He taught her to walk softly, as the Native Americans did. He showed her the

plants she could eat, and the ones that were poisonous.

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Then she met a white woman who said she could help her. Harriet guessed that the

woman was part of the Underground Railroad. She guessed right.

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Soon, Harriet escaped North, to freedom, she didn’t feel free without her family and friends. So she went back and got them.

She got all of her brothers and sisters and her parents. It took many dangerous trips.

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She didn’t stop with just her family. She became the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. She is said to have

led 300 blacks to freedom.

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Harriet Tubman was daring and ingenious and soon there was a huge reward for her

capture. Often she wore disguises.

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She made Northerners think differently about slavery. The blacks who escaped on the Underground Railroad told of children

being taken from their parents. They showed scars from whippings.

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When the Civil War began she was asked to help the Union army. She went behind

enemy lines as a scout and spy.

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After the war, Queen Victoria of England, heard of Harriet Tubman and wrote her a letter inviting her to England for a visit.

Harriet didn’t have the money to go. Little Harriet Tubman had become famous.

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