Harriet Tubman by Lauren

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Harriet Tubman By: Lauren Doubrava "I freed one thousand slaves. I could have freed one thousand more if only I knew they were slaves," said Harriet Tubman after a lifetime spent freeing slaves. Harriet Tubman was a slave who escaped and went to free the other slaves using the Underground Railroad she constructed. Harriet was always mistreated and neglected. Here is her story of how all do that came to be. Harriet Tubman was born in slavery to her mom and dad along with two brothers. She was born in 1819, Dorchester county, Maryland in slavery. Her name that she was born with was Ariminta Harriet Ross. Ariminta was exposed to whipping. Every time she did something wrong or when she didn't listen to her master she was whipped. When Ariminta was only six years old she had to start work. At 8 years old she was shipped back and forth from homes, because she always did something wrong. When she reached twelve years of age she was defending a slave that was trying to escape, her master was displeased with her so he threw a 2 pound weight at her head. Throughout her life she suffered head pains. She was never the same since. In 1844, Ariminta Ross got married to John Tubman. He was a freed save. They had no children. Harriet Tubman was the name Ariminta changed to. She renamed herself after her mother. Harriet wanted to be free as a honey bee, just like her spouse, so at night she escaped with her two brothers. She had to leave her husband behind because he wasn't supportive of her. A reward was offered for the three escaped slaves. Soon the two brothers went back home, they would rather be in slavery than die trying to escape. But Harriet kept going, she didn't care, she wanted to be free. The brave girl never stopped believing as long as Christ was watching over her. In 1849, Harriet received a piece of paper from an abolitionist while she was escaping. It was for the first house on the escape route. She had to be shipped to other houses in a wagon covered with hay. The people she stayed with were always willing to help her. What she was using to travel was the Underground Railroad. 1
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Transcript of Harriet Tubman by Lauren

Page 1: Harriet Tubman by Lauren

Harriet Tubman By: Lauren Doubrava

"I freed one thousand slaves. I could have freed one thousand more if only I knew they were slaves," said Harriet Tubman after a lifetime spent freeing slaves. Harriet Tubman was a slave who escaped and went to free the other slaves using the Underground Railroad she constructed. Harriet was always mistreated and neglected. Here is her story of how all do that came to be.

Harriet Tubman was born in slavery to her mom and dad along with two brothers. She was born in 1819, Dorchester county, Maryland in slavery. Her name that she was born with was

Ariminta Harriet Ross. Ariminta was exposed to whipping. Every time she did something wrong or when she didn't listen to her master she was whipped. When Ariminta was only six years old she had to start work. At 8 years old she was shipped back and forth from homes, because she always did something wrong. When she reached twelve years of age she was defending a slave that was trying to escape, her master was displeased with her so he threw a 2 pound weight at her

head. Throughout her life she suffered head pains. She was never the same since.

In 1844, Ariminta Ross got married to John Tubman. He was a freed save. They had no children. Harriet Tubman was the name Ariminta changed to. She renamed herself after her mother.

Harriet wanted to be free as a honey bee, just like her spouse, so at night she escaped with her two brothers. She had to leave her husband behind because he wasn't supportive of her. A reward was offered for the three escaped slaves. Soon the two brothers went back home, they would rather be in slavery than die trying to escape. But Harriet kept going, she didn't care, she wanted to be free. The brave girl never stopped believing as long as Christ was watching over her.

In 1849, Harriet received a piece of paper from an abolitionist while she was escaping. It was for the first house on the escape route. She had to be shipped to other houses in a wagon covered with hay. The people she stayed with were always willing to help her. What she was using to travel was the Underground Railroad.

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Page 2: Harriet Tubman by Lauren

The Underground Railroad took her to Philadelphia. Here, Harriet got a job where she saved her pay/money to help free slaves. She also met William Still. William Still was one of the Underground Railroad's busiest "station masters." He helped slaves escape with a safe route.

In September 1850, Harriet was made an official "conductor" of the UGRR. (Under

Ground Rail Road).This honor meant that she knew all the routes to free territory. She had to take an oath of silence so the secret of the Underground Railroad, would be kept secret. She also made a second trip to the South to rescue her brother James and other friends. Her brother and friends were already in the process of running away so Harriet brought them across a river and to the home of Thomas Garret. Thomas Garret was the most famous Underground "Stationmaster" in history.

Around this time the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was passed. It stated that it was illegal for any citizen to assist an escaped slave. They demanded that if an escaped slave was sighted, he or she should be apprehended and turned in so they would be taken back to the "rightful" owner down south. Any United States Marshall who refused to return a runaway slave would pay a hefty penalty of $1,000. Since that law was passed, the Underground Railroad had to tighten security. It created a code to make things more secret. It also sent the escaping slaves into Canada instead of the "North" of the U.S.

Harriet's third trip was in September 1851. She went to get her husband, John, but he had remarried and did not want to leave. So she went back up North. Harriet went to Garret's house and found there were more runaways (which were referred to as passengers) to rescue than Harriet expected. That did not stop the couragous girl though. She and her eleven passengers started the journey to Canada. To get into Canada, they had to cross over Niagara Falls on a handmade suspension bridge which would take them into the city of St. Catherine, Ontario in Canada. St. Catherines remained her base of operations until 1857. While there she worked at various activities to save her finance for her activities as a Conductor on the UGRR. She attended the Salem Chapel BME Church on Geneva Street.

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Page 3: Harriet Tubman by Lauren

In the winter of 1852, Tubman was ready to return to the U.S. to help free more slaves. In

the spring, she worked in Cape May and saved enough money to go to Maryland. By now, Tubman had led so many people from the South - the slave's called this the "land of Egypt" - to freedom. Harriet became known as "Moses." Tubman made eleven trips from Maryland to Canada in 1852-1857.

Her most famous trip concerned a passenger who panicked and wanted to turn back. Tubman was afraid if he left he would be tortured and would tell all he knew about the Railroad. The unwilling passenger changed his mind when Tubman pointed a gun at his head and said "dead folks tell no tales."

The spring of 1857 was the time when Harriet set out on her most daring rescue. She had to free her elderly father, Ben Ross. Tubman bought a train ticket for herself and traveled in broad daylight which was dangerous considering the bounty for her head. When she reached Caroline County, she bought a horse and some miscellaneous (misc) parts to make a buggy. She took this and her father and mother to Thomas Garrett who arranged for their passage to go to Canada.

In Canada, she met the famous abolitionist John Brown, who had heard much about Harriet. When he came to St. Catherine, he asked J.W. Loguen to introduce them. When Brown met Tubman, he was overwhelmed by her intelligence and bearing, and said "General Tubman, General Tubman, General Tubman." From then on he would refer to her by this name. Brown called Harriet, "one of the best and bravest persons on this continent." She worked closely with Brown, and reportedly missed the raid on Harper's Ferry only because of illness.

In 1860 in Troy, New York, in which she set her mind to setting free a fugitive who had been captured and was being held at the office of the United States Commisioner. The slave, a man named Charles Nalle, did escape thanks to Tubman's efforts. He later bought his freedom from his master, a man who also happend to be his younger, half-brother.

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Harriet Tubman's career in the Railroad was ending by December 1860. She made her last rescue trip to Maryland, bringing seven people to Canada. In the ten years she worked as a "conductor" on the Railroad, Harriet managed to rescue over 300 people. She had made 19 trips and never lost a passenger on the way. For Tubman's safety, her friends took her to Canada.

Tubman returned to the U.S. from living in Canada in 1861. The Civil War had begun and was asking for all men as soldiers and any women who wanted to join as cooks and nurses. Tubman went into the Union army as a "contraband" nurse in a hospital in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Contrabands were blacks who the Union army helped to escape from the Southern compounds. Often they were half starved and sick from exposure. Harriet nursed the sick and wounded back to health but her work did not stop there. She also tried to find them work. When the army sent her to another hospital in Florida, she found white soldiers and contrabands "dying off like sheep". Harriet treated her patients with medicine from roots and miraculously never caught any of the deadly diseases the wounded soldiers would carry.

During the summer of 1863, Tubman worked with Colonel James Montgomery as a scout. She put together a group of spies who kept Montgomery informed about slaves who might want to join the Union army. After she and her scouts had done the groundwork, she helped Montgomery organize the Combahee River Raid. The purpose of the raid was to harass whites and rescue freed slaves. They were successful in gathering almost 500 slaves. Just about all the freed slaves joined the army.

After the war, Harriet returned home to Auburn. In 1869, she married Nelson Davis and together they shared a calm, peaceful 19 year marriage until he died.

Tubman returned to Auburn, New York after the war and purchased Seward's seven-acre plot in 1873 with $1,200 donated by Sarah Bradford from sale proceeds of her book. The Tubman-Davis brick home remains today on that property.

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Page 5: Harriet Tubman by Lauren

Before she died on March 10, 1913, she gave her home for the elderly to the Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Tubman was buried with military rites in Fort Hill Cemetery, a short drive from the home. A year after her death, Auburn declared a one-day memorial to its anti-slavery hero. Residents of the city that day unveiled the Harriet Tubman Plaque, which remains on display at the entrance of the Cayuga County Court House. She has since received man honors, including the naming of the Liberty Ship Harriet Tubman, christened in 1944 by Eleanor Roosevelt. On June 14, 1914 a large bronze plaque was placed at the Cayuga County Courthouse, and a civic holiday declared in her honor. Freedom Park, a tribute to the memory of Harriet Tubman, opened in the summer of 1994 at 17 North Street in Auburn.

In 1995, Harriet Tubman was honored by the federal government with a commemorative postage stamp bearing her name and likeness.

All because of Harriet Tubman slavery has ended in the United States. If Harriet hadn't done all of the things she has the society wouldn't be like it is now. Just because a Hero didn't affect you directly doesn't mean they aren't a hero. The last words she uttered were " I go to prepare a place for you."

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