NHEG-July-August2022

NHEG WRITERS ARTICLES
Harriet Tubman
Written by: Barbara Bullen
Harriet Tubman an abolitionist renown.
We thank God for her spirit, her strength and her love for her fellow men.
We’ll remember her birthday this March to tell her story of the love for mankind,
despite the cruelty that she, the slaves and the fugitives received
by the merciless slave masters bent on slavery.
March 10 is the day on which it is said that Harriet Tubman (Araminta Ross) famously known as an
abolitionist was born. As most Blacks who were born into slavery in the 1800s, Harriet was like them but
became a hero when she escaped from slavery and helped other enslaved people escape from their masters
or bondage.
Harriet was born in Dorchester County, Maryland where she lived a horrific life like most slaves being beaten
and whipped by her slave masters and even experiencing a life-threatening head injury that induced visions
and dreams she attributed to the works of God. She became deeply religious because of her Methodist
upbringing and these visions and dreams.
“She often fought illness in her childhood, but as she grew older, the “sickly” young household girl grew
stronger and even became a fieldhand. On a secluded plantation during her adolescence, Tubman attempted
to warn an escaping slave that his master was nearby. She was caught between the slave and his master
when the two confronted each other. The master slung a lead weight at the escapee, but hit Tubman in the
head. The force of the blow “broke her skull and drove a piece of her bandana” into her head. The head injury
would cause her to have headaches, fainting spells, and visions for the rest of her life. In 1844, she married
a free black man named John Tubman. Around this time, she hired a lawyer to investigate her family’s slave
contracts. The lawyer found her mother should have been freed at the age of 45, meaning that some of her
siblings should have been born free.”
https://www.crf-usa.org/images/pdf/gates/Harriet-Tubman-End-of-Slavey.pdf
In the mid-1800s she escaped to Philadelphia to return to help those she left behind; she helped her family to
escape and led many others to their freedom.
“The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was part of the Compromise of 1850. This law required the United States
government to actively assist slave holders in recapturing freedom seekers. Under the United States
Constitution, slave holders had the right to reclaim slaves who ran away to free states. With the Fugitive
Slave Law of 1850, the federal government had to assist the slave holders. No such requirement had existed
previously.” https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fugitive_Slave_Law_of_1850
Harriet tried to find and help slaves in captivity escape and this included John Tubman who she later found
out had remarried to a woman named Caroline thereby ending her quest to find him.
Frederick Douglass an abolitionist was also said to have worked with Tubman in helping fugitives.
July - August 2022
“There is evidence to suggest that Tubman and her group stopped at the home of abolitionist and former slave Frederick
Douglass.[63] In his third autobiography, Douglass wrote: “On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my
roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada. It was
the largest number I ever had at any one time, and I had some difficulty in providing so many with food and shelter. ... “[64] The
number of travelers and the time of the visit make it likely that this was Tubman’s group.[63]
Douglass and Tubman admired one another greatly as they both struggled against slavery. When an early biography of Tubman
was being prepared in 1868, Douglass wrote a letter to honor her. He compared his own efforts with hers, writing:
The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public,
and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I
have wrought in the day – you in the night. ... The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to
freedom and of your heroism. 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.[65]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman
In 11 years, Tubman helped rescue 70 slaves in what was said to have taken 13 trips that included family members. Tubman was
called “Moses” because of her efforts to free and rescue the slaves from their slave masters and to help fugitives to escape to the
north.
She was devout and dedicated to God aided by visions, premonitions and the voice of God which is said to sometimes be
attributed to her head injury. Although a religious woman she would not hesitate to use a gun which she carried for her
protection and the protection of the slaves, even to the point of using it on them if they ever turned back to their plantation.
“Despite the efforts of the slaveholders, Tubman and the fugitives she assisted were never captured. Years later, she told an
audience: “I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never
ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”[3]…
Scouting and the Combahee River Raid
“When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Tubman considered it an important step toward the goal of liberating
all Black people from slavery.[107] She renewed her support for a defeat of the Confederacy, and in early 1863 she led a band of
scouts through the land around Port Royal.[108] The marshes and rivers in South Carolina were similar to those of the Eastern
Shore of Maryland; thus, her knowledge of covert travel and subterfuge among potential enemies was put to good use.[108]
Her group, working under the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, mapped the unfamiliar terrain and reconnoitered its
inhabitants. She later worked alongside Colonel James Montgomery, and provided him with key intelligence that aided in the
capture of Jacksonville, Florida.[109]
Later that year, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War.[110] When Montgomery and
his troops conducted an assault on a collection of plantations along the Combahee River, Tubman served as a key adviser and
accompanied the raid.
On the morning of June 2, 1863, Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore.
[111] Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth
of food and supplies.[112]
When the steamboats sounded their whistles, slaves throughout the area understood that they were being liberated. Tubman
watched as slaves stampeded toward the boats. “I never saw such a sight”, she said later,[113] describing a scene of chaos with
women carrying still-steaming pots of rice, pigs squealing in bags slung over shoulders, and babies hanging around their parents’
necks.
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