Research and Describe A Biography Of Harriet Tubman (Essay Sample)

HARRIET TUBMAN BIOGRAPHY
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Harriet Tubman was born Araminta “Minty” Ross in 1820 in Maryland. Born to enslaved parents, she was one of the nine children of Harriet Green and Ben Ross. Her parents were slave property of Anthony Thompson and Mary Pattison Brodess. Their slave masters were also married to each other. Life in the plantation was harsh for the young Araminta. Her three sisters were sold into slavery in another far-offplantation. This move deeply traumatized Araminta’s mom. She successfully resisted further attempts to sell off her last born son. According to McGowan& Kashatus (2011)Harriet Tubman: A Biography this was the first instance in which Harriet felt emboldened and wanted to rise against slavery and oppression.
An unfortunate incident occurred in her adolescent life when she was heading to buy groceries that she encountered a slave on the run. The man who was chasing after the slave asked Araminta to restrain him (McGowan & Kashatus 2011). She refused and the man viciously struck her with what was believed to be a heavy object. Deeply injured, she suffered severe headaches and hallucinations that were to continue to the end of her life. At the age of 45, Araminta’s father Ben Ross was set free as the law. However, her mother and the rest of the siblings remained in slavery. Their father’s free status did little to emancipate them. Financially challenged, he decided to continue working for his masters (Clinton, 2005).
At the time Harriet became an adult, many slaves had gained freedom, even though she was still a slave. A man named John Tubman, a freed slave married Harriet. So even though Tubman was a free man, Harriet wasn’t and this complicated her life. Any offspring of an enslaved mother and a free father assumed the mother’s status. This meant that their kids were also slaves. It is at this point that ythe young Harriet changed her name from Araminta to Harriet in honor of her mother who was a source of strength and inspiration to her.
Her owner fell sick and died. A little later she fell ill too. The death of her owner presented a perfect opportunity for escape and in 1849, Harriet staged a daring escape to Philadelphia (Nielsen, 2002. P.7). Along with her two brothers, a bounty was put in place with a reward for $300, published in the Cambridge Democrat. Fearing capture, her brothers Ben and Henry grew cold feet and decided to return. Harriet nonetheless decided to run into freedom (Sadlier. 2012). Along the way she decided to head to Pennsylvania, the Free State. An underground railroad was very instrumental in her escape. Once in Pennsylvania, she was overwhelmed by the feeling of freedom that felt like being reborn. As she was to later narrate “
Sadlier (2012) writes that Tubman made use of the network known as the Underground Railroad to travel nearly 90 miles to Philadelphia. She crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief and awe, as she later narrated“When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.” (Sadlier, 2012).
In the following year, Harriet began her mission of rescuing and sneaking in slaves into Pennsylvania. She targeted members of her family who included her mother, her siblings and her niece Kessiah who was about to be sold to another plantation. So successful and daring were her attempts that she managed to sneak about 70 slaves into Pennsylvania. Her husband refused to leave with her even though he was a free man. He remarried another woman (Nielsen, 2002).
However, her dream to rescue more came tumbling down when a new piece of legislation was passed in 1850. The new law known as Fugitive Slave Law, made it in legal to capture slaves who were thought to have escaped. Law enforcers were therefore compelled to seek and detain all suspected slaves in Pennsylvania. Many black people were abducted, whether free of slaves and taken back to Maryland. Tubman had to find another way out.
Now working on the Underground Railroad, She decided to reroute to Canada, where slavery was against the law. During one such trip, in the company of about 11 fugitives, they reached the home of a former slave who was now an active abolitionist. Tubman was to later meet John Brown, a militant abolitionist who viewed violence as the only way to challenge slavery. Inspired by Tubman’s story that she had a prophetic premonition about meeting him, he recruited supporters to go and attack Harper’s Ferry where some slaves were being held. Sadly Brown was captured and executed. Tubman eulogized her friend referring to him as a martyr.
In the years that followed, there was less activity as regards rescuing the slaves. A civil war broke out. Tubman was recruited and into the Union Army working as a cook and a nurse (Housel, 2011 p.15). Rising through the ranks to be the first woman to lead an armed expedition. While guiding the Combahee River raid which liberated about 700 slaves in South Carolina. The civil war was about theabolition of slavery between the northern states that abolished slavery and the south whom slavery was a way of life. She immensely contributed to the army by being a spy and through her effoerts a lot of triumphs were realized (Taylor & Wagner. 2005 p.77). in 1863, through her vast knowledge of the railroad routes, she led a scouting expedition to gather information about the confederates activities.
In 1859, Tubman acquired a piece of land in Auburn, New York. William H. Seward a fellow abolitionist helped Tubman set up a home that took care of all the slaves that sought refuge. Ten years later she married a war veteran known as Nelson Davis (Housel 2011). Together they adopted a baby girl called Gertie. The years after the war proved to be very tough for Harriet and her spouse. Having done so much for the society, she was still financially challenged. Living on meager contributions from her supporters.
She petitioned the US govermnt to pay her for the cotributions as ...