She often fought illness in her HARRIET TUBMAN childhood, but as she grew older, the “sickly” young household girl AND THE END OF SLAVERY grew stronger and even became a fieldhand. On a secluded planta- NICKNAMED THE ‘MOSES OF HER tion during her adolescence, Tub- PEOPLE’ FOR LEADING RUNAWAY SLAVES TO FREEDOM IN THE NORTH, man attempted to warn an HARRIET TUBMAN WAS THE MOST escaping slave that his master was FAMOUS MEMBER OF THE UNDER- nearby. She was caught between GROUND RAILROAD. SHE BECAME A the slave and his master when the CELEBRITY IN HER LIFETIME AND A two confronted each other. The HERO OF THE CIVIL WAR. master slung a lead weight at the The Underground Railroad was escapee, but hit Tubman in the a secret system of anti-slavery ac- head. The force of the blow “broke tivists providing food, shelter, trans- her skull and drove a piece of her portation, and protection for bandana” into her head. The head runaway slaves on their dangerous injury would cause her to have journey north. Most historians headaches, fainting spells, and vi- credit Tubman with personally lead- sions for the rest of her life. ing more than 300 former slaves to In 1844, she married a free freedom on the Underground Rail- black man named John Tubman. road and rallying hundreds more to Around this time, she hired a defect from Confederate forces dur- lawyer to investigate her family’s ing the Civil War. slave contracts. The lawyer found her mother should have been freed The Making of a Fugitive at the age of 45, meaning that The year of her birth is un- some of her siblings should have known. Tubman believed it was been born free. 1825. Her death certificate gives 1815 as her date of birth, but her Escape North gravestone reads 1820. Regardless, The revelation about her mother she was born in Maryland’s Dorch- angered and saddened Tubman, so ester County to slave parents, Har- she decided to do what she had riet Green and Benjamin Ross. Commons Wikimedia thought about for years: flee to the They named their daughter Aram- Harriet Tubman led hundreds of slaves to North. In September 1849, she inta Ross. Later, when she escaped freedom on the Underground Railroad. made off. She was one of about 280 to the North, she took the name slaves who escaped Maryland from Harriet to honor her mother and scars on her neck and back for the June 1849 to June 1850. mask her own identity. rest of her life. Tubman became so closely linked She was one of nine children, As a young girl, Tubman to the Underground Railroad that many of whom she would later lead bounced between several house- many assume she founded it, but by north. Slave traders often purchased holds, serving various masters and the 1840s a system of clandestine young slaves in Dorchester County, mistresses. She fled one home after routes already existed. Women rarely and they routinely separated mem- getting caught stealing a lump of made the dangerous journey alone, bers of slave families. Traders took sugar. She hid in a pigpen for days, but Tubman, with her husband’s away two of Tubman’s siblings, and fighting the swine for scraps of blessing, set out by herself. it’s likely that the painful loss of her food until she grew so hungry that Throughout her life, Tubman sisters drove her later to work with she returned to face punishment at treated the details of her escape the Underground Railroad. the hands of her mistress. Later in as a secret. Freed slaves were in- At just 5 years old, Tubman was life, Tubman would sum up the in- tentionally secretive about how taken from her home to look after a dignities of her childhood by say- they escaped, so as not to reveal white infant. When the child cried, ing she was “a neglected weed, precious escape routes. Histori- Tubman was whipped, leaving ignorant of liberty.” ans suspect Tubman took the 6 U.S. HISTORY most common “liberty line” of the Underground Railroad, which cut inland through Delaware along the Choptank River. Fugitives, or runaways, on the Choptank liberty line traveled by foot at night and rested during the day, generally doing about 10 miles a night on the roughly 90-mile journey to the Pennsylvania state line. The trip usually took between 10 to 20 days. Since it was called a “railroad,” many of its elements were known by common railroad terms. People who gave shelter to fugitives were called “stationmasters,” and their homes were known as “stations” or “depots.” The volunteers who guided fugitives between stations were “conductors,” and the fugitives themselves were called “cargo.” The railroad was “under- ground” in the sense that it was clandestine. Its routes, safe houses, and the identity of participants were closely guarded secrets. Over University Department-Rutgers Michael Siegel, Geography of Courtesy time, the Underground Railroad de- When Harriet Tubman first escaped, she probably followed the route that passes near veloped an elaborate system of Dover and leads to Philadelphia. catchphrases, code words, secret knocks, lamps lit at night, and hymns to warn of slave catchers and to identify sympathizers. high. Tubman found herself feeling The Abductor The gateway for runaway slaves lonely and frustrated by the uncer- Within the growing climate of heading north was Philadelphia, tainty of freedom. fear and persecution, Tubman, most which had a strong Underground By the late 1840s, slave owners likely still in her teens, undertook Railroad network. The city attracted claimed they were losing $200,000 her legendary career as an “abduc- abolitionists and upwardly mobile annually to the Underground Rail- tor.” Abductors, true folk heroes of African Americans. Here, free road. (This would be about $4.5 the Underground Railroad, ventured blacks formed their own busi- million in today’s money.) In 1850, into slave states and led fugitives nesses, schools, and churches. Tub- Congress passed the Fugitive Slave out. Prior to Tubman, most abduc- man got a job and was able to live Law, which opponents dubbed the tors were adventurous white men. freely. She also likely expanded her “Bloodhound Law.” The law gave Tubman was five feet tall, illiterate, network, meeting Underground federal authorities sweeping pow- and a fugitive, with little idea of ge- Railroad members and activists. ers to seize fugitives and return ography and subject to frequent But life in Philadelphia was not them to the South. Without legal fainting spells. easy. Philadelphia was the last stop protection, even free blacks were at Tubman’s first rescue mission for recaptured slaves being shipped risk. As former slaves were was prompted by news that her back south. Slave catchers raided plucked out of unlikely places like niece Keziah would be sold into black communities and were New York and Boston, anger grew slavery in the Deep South. Keziah’s prominent in Philadelphia. Fear of in the anti-slavery community. The husband, John Bowley, sent word to recapture among fugitives was issue of slavery increasingly di- Tubman in Philadelphia of the pend- constant, and racial tensions ran vided the nation. ing sale. In 1850, risking capture, U.S. HISTORY 7 Tubman returned to the slave state Starting in 1852, Tubman made reputation as a mystic, or person in of Maryland. Bowley delivered one or two trips a year, shepherding direct contact with God. Keziah and her children to Tubman fugitives through the night. She fa- Tubman helped her own family in Baltimore, where she hid them mously toted a pistol and was gain freedom. She was able to before using her contacts to move known to point it at fugitives who guide five of her siblings to St. the fugitives into Philadelphia. threatened to turn back and put the Catharines, outside present-day She went south a second time entire band at risk. “You’ll be free or Toronto, Canada. In 1857, her par- in the spring of 1851 to rescue one die,” she would say to them. ents were technically free, but faced of her brothers. Two of his fellow She often worked in winter penalties for sheltering slaves in slaves joined their expedition. In when the days were short, facing their Maryland home. Knowing her the fall of 1851, Tubman returned darkness and bad weather on the ex- parents were in danger but not to Dorchester County to persuade hausting and perilous journey into physically strong, Tubman fash- her husband to return north with Maryland and Virginia. The Under- ioned a primitive horse-carriage and her. The risk of being recognized ground Railroad’s path then took her carried them 80 miles to Garrett’s by a former master was enormous, back through stations in Wilming- safe house in Wilmington. Garrett and the result, heartbreaking. John ton, Philadelphia, New York, and on supplied them with train tickets to Tubman refused to flee with her as to the Canadian border. During this Canada, where they joined their he had taken another wife. time, Underground Railroad mem- children and grandchildren. Tub- Despite her grief, Tubman com- bers and anti-slavery admirers gave man spent time there gathering pletely committed herself to the task her the nickname “Moses.” funds for missions to the South. of freeing slaves. She returned to In 1859, Tubman got help from Maryland in December 1851, rally- General Tubman Senator William Seward, a high- ing a large band of fugitives. Reports As the numbers of fugitives she profile admirer of Tubman’s work. indicate there were as many as 11, rescued swelled, so did her fame.