Harriet Tubman: early years, fight, death

HarrietTubman she was an African American woman who was born enslaved but gained her freedom by fleeing captivity. She dedicated her life to fighting slavery, speaking at abolitionist associations and helping enslaved people flee the southern U.S through escape routes. She also had a prominent role in the American Civil War.

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First years

Harriet Tubman was born on a farm in Dorchester County, Maryland, United States. Being the daughters of enslaved blacks, Tubman did not have a birth certificate, a fact that makes it difficult to confirm the precise year in which she was born. Historians know she was born in the early 1820s, probably between the years 1820 and 1822.

Harriet Tubman was a black woman who dedicated her life to fighting slavery in nineteenth-century America.[1]

Tubman's birth name was AramintaRoss, being well known in her childhood as Minty. Harriet was the fifth child of a total of nine that the couple

HarrietGreen (her mother) and BenjaminRoss (her father her) had together. As Tubman's parents were slaves, she soon began to do the first jobs under the same condition as well.

With just five years old, Tubman began to do forced labor. At that age, it was “rented” to neighbors of its owner, who was named Edward Brodess. In this first job, Tubman was forced to housework. The reports tell that, as a child, she had difficulties with this type of work, which resulted in physical punishment.

While still in her childhood, Tubman was forced to work at checking muskrat traps. These traps were placed in marshy places, which forced her to constantly get wet. She was forced to do this even during the winter, and during the period when she performed this function, came to contract smallpox.

During her adolescence, an event marked her life. She was on her way to the local warehouse when she spotted a foreman chasing a slave who had fled. She stood in front of the foreman to help the person who was on the run and ended up being hit in the head by a 1 kg weight thrown by the foreman against the fugitive.

This accident caused serious injuries to Tubman, and it is speculated that she suffered a concussion. She was left with serious sequelae, as she started to suffer from severe headaches and had bouts of narcolepsy (disease that causes a person to sleep deeply during the day, even if he slept well the day before).

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search for freedom

Between 1844 and 1845, Tubman married JohnTubman, a free black. Soon after her marriage, she made official her name change, abandoning Araminta and adopting Harriet, the same name as her mother, and with that she was renamed Harriet Tubman. It is speculated that the name change was already part of her strategy for a possible escape. Other historians suggest it was just a way to honor her mother.

Before getting married, Tubman discovered that his mother's former owner had left a testament what guaranteed her and her children's freedom. So, legally, Tubman should have been born free, but the Brodess would have ignored that determination of their mother's former owner. She didn't go to court because the chances that she could win were slim.

Tubman decided that she should flee the Brodess' domain after her owner began to manifest intentions to sell it. These intentions were reinforced when Edward Brodess died, and, fearing that her family would be separated and that she and her relatives would be sent to the southern United States, Tubman opted for escape.

In 1849, Tubman fled along with Ben and Henry, his two brothers. After the escape, both decided to return to their owners, forcing Tubman to go with them. However, she ran away again later, but this time alone. During the escape, she used the Underground Railroad, a secret network of people who provided help to fleeing enslaved people.

Through this network, many people provided aid to the enslaved, taking them along routes that allowed them reach cities in the north of the United States, where slavery was not allowed, or to Canada. During the journey, many gave shelter to the enslaved, and it was through this network that Tubman reached Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania.

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Fight against slavery

Once free, Tubman started working taking care of people's homes. In addition, she was engaged in the struggle to ensure that other enslaved blacks gained their freedom, and became one of the best guides on the net gives Underground Railroad. whereby, Tubman gotrescue your family and get her safely to Canada.

She also served dozens of other missions throughout the 1850s. On his expeditions, Tubman used to take sleeping pills to use on the children, in case they started to cry, and had a rifle, used to threaten those who decided to abandon the expedition and return to the slavery. This was a safety measure, as those who left the group could jeopardize everyone else who was on the run.

Tubman, during his missions, passed through abandoned paths and took routes that were difficult to access, such as swampy regions. The trips took place, preferably, at night, when it was more difficult to see the group of enslaved people on the run. In this way she managed to rescue her siblings in 1854 and her parents in 1857. Furthermore, hundreds of enslaved managed to escape with her help.

Her family did not adapt to the Canadian climate, so she took her in on land she had acquired in Auburn, New York. O former husband de Tubman did not move to Auburn because he did not want to leave Maryland and also because, after his wife's escape, he moved away. married another woman.

The land on which Tubman housed her family was bought with the money she earned from working in other people's homes. Furthermore, her engagement as an abolitionist earned her financial support that kept her on expeditions and helped her survive.

American Civil War

In 1861, the American Civil War, also known as WarinSecession. In this conflict, the southern states of the United States declared their separation from the Union, announcing the formation of Confederate States of America. This conflict lasted until 1865, with the defeat of the southerners and a balance of 600 thousand dead.

Harriet Hubman took part in this conflict enlisting in the Union army, therefore fighting for the northerners. By this time, her fame as a guide on expeditions to the south was already very high and she played important roles in the civil war. Worked How beater It is like spy, gathering information on Confederate troops and facilities in the south.

In July 1863, she led James Montgomery's troops in a expedition on the Combahee river. In this expedition, Union troops destroyed important Confederate supply lines, in addition to having managed to free about 750 enslaved people. This military action was the first led by a woman in American history.

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Last years

Harriet Tubman's home in Auburn, New York.

After the war, Tubman supported the construction of schools for freedmen. Despite this, Tubman was not literate. In 1869 she married NelsonDavis, a freed black who fought in the civil war for Union troops. With her husband, Tubman adopted a daughter named Gertie, in 1874.

Tubman also worked on a memoir of her life and acted in the cause suffragist, which defended the right of women to vote. She also devoted the last years of her life to campaigns to help impoverished African Americans. After she was widowed and after her health deteriorated, Tubman settled in a nursing home in Auburn.

Harriet Tubman's death happened on the day March 10, 1913, in Auburn, on behalf of a pneumonia. her funeral happened with military honors, and she became a anti-racist fight icon in the United States. Since 2016, there has been a project in the United States that debates the inclusion of Tubman's face in the 20 dollar bill.

Image credits:

[1] spatuletail and Shutterstock

By Daniel Neves
History teacher