Harriet Tubman Biography
by Krysta CardinaleHarriet Ross Tubman was born into slavery in 1820. She was raised under harsh conditions in Dorchester County, Maryland. Tubman was often subject to whippings, and at the age of 12 suffered a serious head injury from blow to the head (she refused to tie up a slave that tried to escape). After this incident she suffered from epileptic seizures for the rest of her life. When Harriet Tubman was twenty-five she married John Tubman, a free black man. For years Harriet lived in fear of being sold further south. So in the fall of 1849, the real history of Harriet Tubman began as she fled north to freedom.
Harriet Tubman began her escape north with help of a white neighbor. This neighbor gave Tubman a piece of paper with two names on it and directions to the first house on her trip to freedom. When she arrived at the first house she was put in a wagon and remained completely covered until she arrived at the next house. She followed this route of the Underground Railroad initially settling in Philadelphia.
Harriet Tubman: Underground Railroad
Once in Philadelphia, Tubman met William Still. Still was the Philadelphia “stationmaster” for the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman then learned all the under-workings of the Underground Railroad from Still and other members of an anti-slavery society. After only a short amount of time, in 1851, she began moving members of her family to freedom in the north by means of the Underground Railroad. She was successful in bringing her parents and four brothers to safety. Tubman’s sister died in 1859 before she could rescue her.
Known as “Moses” to those involved in the Underground Railroad, Tubman freed over 300 slaves on about 19 expeditions to Maryland. To many others, she would give detailed instructions to those making it on their own. Harriet Tubman was never captured and never lost a “passenger” while participating in the Underground Railroad.
Freeing of slaves was a success for the smart, daring, sly, and ruthless Harriet Tubman. Underground Railroad missions she participated in never failed. She relied mostly on the close-knit black community of the south and her instincts. Tubman often brought disguises with her incase she ever came across anyone she recognized. If anything ever felt wrong or went wrong, Tubman had an alternate plan. Her policy was that she would help any slave that wanted to be free, however if they changed their mind half-way, whoever it was would be shot dead. This was to prevent any betrayal; however she only had to use it as a threat.
The History of Harriet Ross Tubman in the Civil War
Though best known for her work running the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was another important black spy during the Civil War. She provided valuable intelligence to the Union army. Harriet Tubman, known as Moses, made frequent trips to the South to free slaves and bring them to safety via the Railroad. She made her last trip in 1860. At the onset of the war, Tubman spent much of her time caring for slaves who had fled the South.
In 1863, Union officials asked Harriet Tubman to lead a few short spy missions to South Carolina. The Union forces were in dire need of information on how the enemy was holding up, the location of its military camps, and blueprints of its fortifications.
Tubman assembled a trusted group of former slaves with knowledge of the area. She then posed as a field worker for a poor farm wife, and led numerous spy missions while directing her underlings from Union lines. Tubman would then report back to Col. James Montgomery, a Union officer, who commanded an all-black unit specializing in guerilla warfare.
Harriet Tubman provided substantial and valuable intelligence to the Union on a regular basis. Much of her information was used to perpetuate military operations like the 1863 Union raid on the Combahee River in South Carolina. Tubman's previous trips to the area uncovered weaknesses in the Confederate army's troop deployments. Using this knowledge, the Union was able to easily raid the area.
In addition, Harriet Tubman even made it into the thick of the battle in May 1863. Union Gen. David Hunter asked Tubman to lead a raiding party up the Combahee River. On June 2, Tubman led Montgomery and his battalion up the river, and past Confederate lines. In a swift raid that took General Robert E. Lee and his Confederate troops by complete surprise, Montgomery and his black Union brigade destroyed millions of dollars worth of supplies. They also seized more than 800 slaves, and thousands of dollars in Confederate property.
The latter years of the Harriet Tubman
After the end of the Civil War, Tubman returned to her home that she had purchased in Auburn, New York. Here she married Nelson Davis, a Civil War veteran. She was an activist for African American and woman’s rights, and released a biography of her stories in 1869.
On March 10, 1913 a full military funeral was given to Harriet Ross Tubman. Harriet was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery with military honors because of her significant contributions to the Civil War. The history of Harriet Tubman still lives on as she is honored every year on March 10th.
