Lars Olson 4-9-09 Harriet Tubman Notes Harriet Tubman was an African-American slave, but was also and

abolitionist, a humanitarian, and a Union spy in the Civil war. She escaped slavery in 1849 by going to Philadelphia. After she escaped, she went back around 20 different times to free over 300 slaves. She accomplished this by using the Underground Railroad. Later in her life, she helped John Brown get men for his invasion on Harpers Ferry. In the post-war-era, she struggled for womens suffrage. On her trips, she first rescued family, but she also rescued dozens of other slaves as well. She accomplished all of these rescues through the Underground Railroad, and by traveling only at night and in extreme secrecy so that no slave owners could catch them. She was called Moses by the people she saved. She never lost a person she attempted to save. Very large rewards were offered to those who caught the slaves she freed, but none were put on Harriets head because they didnt know she was the one freeing all of the slaves. In 1850, a United States Fugitive Slave Law was passed so Tubman continued to help the freed slaves by guiding them to Canada and even helped them find work. Harriet Tubmans real name was Araminta Ross. She later changed her first name to Harriet because that was her mothers name. She changed her last name to Tubman when she married John Tubman. She was born around 1820, but no one is sure of the exact date. She was born in Dorchester County, Maryland. She married John Tubman around 1844, after being forced to do so by her mother. She found out much later that John Tubman had married another woman and so they separated. In 1869 she remarried to Nelson Davies and they stayed married the rest of her life. She died in Auburn, New York on March 10, 1913 of pneumonia. She was laid to rest at Fort Hill Cemetery, Auburn, New York. During her life, she lived in Dorchester County, Maryland on a slave plantation. When she escaped she went to Philadelphia, and lived and raised some money by working there for a year. After that, she went back to Maryland to find her husband. She saw he was remarried and left him. She then freed many, many slaves without living in any one place too permanently. After she was done freeing slaves, she went to Auburn, New York, and spent most of the rest of her life living there with her new husband Nelson Davies. Tubmans mother was assigned to the big house so she didnt have much time to take care of her family. This meant that Harriet, or Araminta at the time, had to take care of her younger brother and a baby. When she was 5 or so, she was hired as a nursemaid. She was whipped a lot. When she stole a lump of sugar, she was threatened so she hid in a pig sty for 5 days where she fought for food scraps with the animals. She was starving so she went back to the house and received a beating. She wrapped herself in many layers of clothing so it didnt hurt so badly later on. She sometimes fought back so people stayed away from her somewhat. She was forced to check traps in a marsh where she got the measles and had to return home to be treated by her mother. When she was well, she was immediately put back to work. Once, an overseer got angry with her and threw a 2-pound weight at her head almost killing her. It did cause her to have sudden, periodic sleeping seizures her entire life though. She had to perform extremely difficult work as a child so she grew very strong.

Since she was a slave and was working all of the time, she was raised without an education, but she still had an innate intelligence with remarkable foresight and great judgment. Harriet Tubman was a slave until she escaped, a civil war nurse, and a suffragette. She didnt really have an occupation that earned her very much money though. She had two husbands; John Tubman, and Nelson Davies. When Harriet shared her secret plans of escaping slavery with her husband, he disagreed with her and threatened to turn her in. She shared no more of her plans to escape from then on with her husband. John Tubman did not stop her from escaping though. Later in life, while guiding a group of black soldiers in South Carolina, she met Nelson Davies, her second husband. They shared a calm, peaceful 19 years of marriage until Harriet died. Her allies were her fellow slaves mostly, and the antagonists were the lave owners. Some more of her allies were the people who housed the stops on the Underground Railroad. Two of these people were Ezekiel Hunn and Thomas Garrett. Harriet became involved in freeing slaves because she was one, and obviously she wanted to be free. What made her special was that she wanted others to be free and she actually freed them. 300 or so of them actually. She worked toward freeing all of these people one step at a time by taking one trip at a time and rescuing a certain number each time. Her major accomplishments were freeing herself, freeing around 300 other slaves, she worked in the Union army as a spy, scout, nurse, and a cook, she also helped to fight for woman suffrage. She wasnt ever an official leader of anything, but she was considered a leader by many and was called the Moses of her people. She never held a political position. She did not attend any meetings either because she wasnt involved in anything that has meetings. Here are some quotes by Harriet Tubman: I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger. I grew up like a neglected weed -- ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it. I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.

PREPARE

1. Slavery because it is wasting thousands of peoples lives that could be spent with happiness, and some of those people couldve bettered life for everyone in this world, but since they never had an education, they never had the chance. It also puts all of those innocent people in pain and suffering their entire lives. 2. She just very much believed that slavery was an extremely terrible thing and that she can help free some of the slaves. 3. Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists would be her ally. Susan B. Anthony and people for womens rights would also be her allies. A. They also believe that slavery and being against women is bad. B. Theyre selfish people who dont care about the lives of blacks or women. They thought blacks werent people like them and that they should not be treated like white men. 4. 1. Did your person think slavery should be stopped or not? 2. What has your person done to do about the problems they think are there? 3. Did your person believe in treating every human the same way? 5. umm.. 6. Done.

Bibliography

Marck, John T. "Harriet Tubman - History Celebrities." Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People. 10 Apr. 2009 <http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1002.html>. Davis, Daniel S. "Tubman, Harriet." The New Book of Knowledge. New ed. 2003. 328328.

Source Evaluations

1. This site was very helpful because it showed what happened throughout her entire life so this was one of the only sites I used. It had most of the information I needed. It was factually very strong. 2. This Encyclopedia was very helpful because it gave the basic information that I needed straightforward and it was easy to find since the article wasnt very long. It was very strong, factually.