Harriet Tubman and the freedom train: Harriet Tubman knew the cruelties of slavery firsthand. That's one reason she risked her life--again and again--to help others gain freedom. (American History).In the dead of night in 1849, Harriet Tubman stole away for the first time. Her master had just died, and she feared that she would be sold to someone else Now was her time to escape. Tubman had been born a slave in Dorchester County Dorchester County is the name of several counties in the United States:
So she set off alone, on foot. By night she followed the North Star. During the day, she hid and slept. With help from a friendly white woman near the plantation where she lived, and others along the way, Tubman soon arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where slavery had been outlawed. She was finally free. But Tubman felt completely alone. She later described her feelings to Sarah H. Bradford, who recorded them in a book called Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman: "I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home, after all, was down in Maryland; because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there... I would make a home in the North and bring them there, God helping me." Tubman kept her word. Rescuing Her Family A year after arriving in Philadelphia, Tubman made the dangerous journey back to Maryland. The first time, she accompanied her sister and her sister's two children north to freedom. Later, she brought back her brother and two other men. During one trip, she learned that her husband had taken another wife. Tubman returned to the South again and again to help other fugitive (runaway) slaves escape. On her last, most difficult journey, she escorted her 70-year-old parents north to freedom. During the final leg of this trip, Tubman and her parents set our for Canada from upstate New York Upstate New York is the region of New York State north of the core of the New York metropolitan area. It has a population of 7,121,911 out of New York State's total 18,976,457. Were it an independent state, it would be ranked 13th by population. . They started with ''an old horse, wrote Thomas Garrett Thomas Garrett (August 21, 1789 – January 25, 1871) was an abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War. Garrett was born into a prosperous landowning Quaker family on their homestead called "Thornfield" in Delaware County, , a Quaker from Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. , who aided Harriet. The horse was "fitted out in primitive style with a straw collar, a pair of old wheels with a board on the axle to sit on [and] another board swung with ropes, fastened to the axle, to rest their feet on. She transported her parents, who were both slaves belonging to different masters, on this rude vehicle to the railroad [and] put them in the cars.., happy at having arrived safe." The Underground Railroad Underground Railroad, in U.S. history, loosely organized system for helping fugitive slaves escape to Canada or to areas of safety in free states. It was run by local groups of Northern abolitionists, both white and free blacks. Like other Quakers, Garrett helped many slaves in the South win freedom. In the span of 40 years, he assisted about 2,700 fugitives as they made their way north to such "free" states as New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Massachusetts. After Congress passed the Fugitive Slave In the history of slavery in the United States, a fugitive slave was a slave who had escaped his or her enslaver often with the intention of traveling to a place where the state of his or her enslavement was either illegal or not enforced. Act of 1850, which required Northern stares to return runaways, many slaves fled to Canada. Others went to Mexico. Their escape routes were known as the Underground Railroad, which was neither a "railroad" nor "underground." It was a loose network (group) of individuals like Garrett who fed, hid, and assisted fugitive slaves. Homes that offered shelter were called "stations." Garrett, Tubman, and others served as "conductors." The runaways were "passengers," or "baggage." The Moses of Her People Tubman had not been taught to read, but she was brave and clever. She knew how to outwit out·wit tr.v. out·wit·ted, out·wit·ting, out·wits 1. To surpass in cleverness or cunning; outsmart. 2. Archaic To surpass in intelligence. masters, slave catchers (people who made money hunting for runaways), and anyone else hoping to stop her. In all, she helped 300 slaves gain their freedom. Tubman would often rake slaves from a plantation in the master's horse and buggy The horse and buggy (in American English) or horse and carriage (in British English) refers to a light, simple two-person carriage drawn by one or two horses. It was made with two wheels in England and with four wheels in the United States. . Since no one would expect such a bold escape, she and the fleeing slaves would not arouse suspicion. She would also depart on Saturday nights: If a master or overseer (supervisor) noticed that a slave was missing, he could not place a runaway notice in the newspaper until Monday morning. Tubman was so successful in her efforts that a reward of $40,000 was offered for her capture. When she overheard some men reading her wanted poster, which described her as illiterate (unable to read), she pulled out a book and pretended to read it, thus escaping notice. Tubman always carried a gun--for protection and to turn it on exhausted fugitives if they wanted to turn back. "You'll be free or die," she would say. Tubman never lost a passenger on the Underground Railroad. She earned the nickname "Moses," for the biblical prophet who led slaves to freedom. "I know of no one," said Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist (antislavery activist) and writer, "who has willingly encountered more perils [dangers] and hardships to serve our enslaved Enslaved may refer to:
She was, said another ex-slave, "one of the bravest persons on this continent." RELATED ARTICLE: The man in the box Desperate slaves did whatever they could to escape their cruel masters. Henry Brown, for example, had himself shipped from Virginia to Pennsylvania in a box. With help from a white man, Brown arranged to be sent to James McKim, an abolitionist in Philadelphia. Brown survived the trip and later became a popular speaker against slavery He also wrote an autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown Henry "Box" Brown was a 19th century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom by arranging to have himself mailed to Philadelphia abolitionists in a dry goods container. He became a noted abolitionist speaker and later a showman. (1851). In this excerpt, Brown describes part of his journey north: "We arrived [in] the city of Washington, where I was taken from the steam-boat, and again placed upon a waggon and carried to the depot right side up with care; but when the driver arrived at the depot, I heard him call for some person to help to rake the box off the waggon ... it is marked 'this side up with care. "The other, answered him that it did not matter if he broke all that was in it, the railway company were able enough to pay for it. No sooner were these words spoken than I began to tumble from the waggon, and falling on the end where my head was, I could hear my neck give a crack, as if it had been snapped asunder a·sun·der adv. 1. Into separate parts or pieces: broken asunder. 2. Apart from each other either in position or in direction: The curtains had been drawn asunder. , and I was knocked completely insensible INSENSIBLE. In the language of pleading, that which is unintelligible is said to be insensible. Steph. Pl. 378. ." CODE WORDS Here are some words and phrases Words and Phrases® A multivolume set of law books published by West Group containing thousands of judicial definitions of words and phrases, arranged alphabetically, from 1658 to the present. used by "conductors" and "passengers" along the Underground Railroad. Heaven: Canada French leave: secret departure Drinking gourd gourd (gôrd, g  rd), common name for some members of the Cucurbitaceae, a family of plants whose range includes all tropical and subtropical areas and extends into the temperate zones. : the North StarLoad of potatoes: fugitive slaves hidden under crops in farm wagons The wind blows from the South today: runaway slaves are in the area ESCAPE TO FREEDOM Before the U.S. Civil War The U.S. Civil War, also called the War between the States, was waged from April 1861 until April 1865. The war was precipitated by the secession of eleven Southern states during 1860 and 1861 and their formation of the Confederate States of America under President Jefferson Davis. began in 1861, thousands of slaves risked their lives to reach freedom on the Underground Railroad. About 100,000 fugitives were able to escape. But some unlucky runaways were caught and returned to slavery. The map above shows some of the main routes that Southern slaves took to freedom. The map also shows which states allowed slavery (slave states), and which states banned it (free states those of the United States before the Civil War, in which slavery had ceased to exist, or had never existed. - Abbott. See also: Free ). The numbers on the map represent the total number of slaves in each state in 1860. Study the map, and answer the questions. QUESTIONS 1. Before the Civil War began, how many states were slave states? __________ 2. Which state had the largest number of slaves? __________ 3. Which states had more than 400,000 slaves? __________ 4. Which Southern states Southern States U.S. Confederacy government of 11 Southern states that left the Union in 1860. [Am. Hist.: EB, III: 73] Dixie popular name for Southern states in U.S. and for song. [Am. Hist. had fewer than 100,000 slaves? __________ 5. Slaves from Texas often fled south into which country? __________ 6. Many slaves fled north through New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. to what city in Canada? __________ 7. Slaves from Georgia and Florida could escape to which two nearby countries? __________ 8. What city in Ohio was often a stop on the Underground Railroad? __________ 9. If slaves in South Carolina South Carolina, state of the SE United States. It is bordered by North Carolina (N), the Atlantic Ocean (SE), and Georgia (SW). Facts and Figures Area, 31,055 sq mi (80,432 sq km). Pop. (2000) 4,012,012, a 15. headed north on the land route shown on the map, how many slave states would they pass through before reaching a free state? __________ 10. Slaves escaping from Kentucky could immediately cross into which free states? __________ GeoSkills questions, p. 15 1. 15 2. Virginia 3. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Virginia 4. Delaware, Maryland, and Florida 5. Mexico 6. Montreal 7. Cuba and the Bahamas 8. Cincinnati 9. Three 10. Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio Your Turn WORD MATCH 1. abolitionist A. supervisor 2. fugitive B. unable to read 3. overseer C. runaway 4. network D. antislavery activist 5. illiterate E. group THINK ABOUT IT What qualities made Harriet Tubman a leader and a heroine? If you could write to her, what would you say? (web) THE LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN www.nyhistory.com/ harriettubman/life.htm American History word match. 1. D 2. C 3. A 4. E 5. B |
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