Harriet Tubman - Research Paper Example

? Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman is a that is appropriately famous both among children and adults. She has been one of the best-known African American of history. There have been many phases in her life. She spent her early life as a slave. Then escaping from slavery she worked as a ‘conductor’ in the Underground Railroad. After spending her own life in poverty, she always worked for the welfare and upliftment of African Americans. However, government did not provide her with military pensions but she received military honor by the people of Auburn after her death1. The Underground Railroad operation marked a significant turn in the lives of the slaves who found a safe way to reach Canada when the would be able to escape the laws such as the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 which permitted the owners of the slaves to redeem the escaped slaves back to the south. The paper focuses upon the role of Harriet Tubman in this Underground Railroad Operation. Introduction Harriet Tubman was born somewhere around 1820 in the country of Dorchester located on the east shore of Maryland. She was a slave by birth on the plantations of Edward Brodas. From birth her name was Araminta, which in short became Minty. Her father’s name was Benjamin Ross and her mother was Harriet Green. Her parents were ‘enslaved Ashanti Africans’. The slave owners had sold many of their eleven children in Deep South. At the age of five, the neighbors rented her for doing household works in which she was never that good and hence was regularly beaten up by the owners. Since she was uneducated, she was engaged to work in fields as a helping hand that contributed to her strength and she preferred the work. In the initial years of her teen, she altered her name to Harriet following her mother. When she was fifteen years old, she was unintentionally hit on the head by a heavy weight by her master, and sustained a severe fracture in the skull. She remained ill for a long period and never fully recovered. In the early years of injury, she had periodic sleeping fits that affected her looks negatively as a slave. The injury resulted in narcolepsy that made her suddenly fall asleep any moment of time no matter wherever she happened to be. After the death of her old master, the son sold her to a lumber merchant. The new owner appreciated her work and allowed her to keep the money earned from extra work. At the age of twenty-four or twenty-five she married, a free black man named John Tubman but the marriage did not work well. Shortly after that she hired an attorney for investigating her official history which resulted in the finding that her mother had been free from slavery and she was also born free which made her instinct rise and run for freedom. In the year 1849, her husband was inclined to sell her to Deep South along with her two brothers. A white neighbor of her helped her with the contacts of some people she could seek help from in times of need. She ended up alone trying to persuade her brothers to escape and alone made her way to freedom and fled to Philadelphia in the year 1849 escaping through the Underground Railroad. Her freedom that day led to the freedom of thousands of other slaves through the same. She led this solely with all her strengths and courage risking her life for liberty so that every individual could experience freedom. When the civil war broke in the country she did not even wait for the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ but instantly participated in order to free the slaves. After the war ended, she returned to Auburn and continued to help the class by raising money for the welfare of the impoverished children, transforming her home into the home for the aged and the black people2,3,4. The Underground Railroad operation undertaken by Harriet Tubman resulted in freedom for 300 slaves. The journey towards escape of Harriet Tubman and the other slaves Harriet Tubman was first marked as a criminal when she fled from the Maryland farm in 1849. Instead of directly going to Canada, she stayed in Philadelphia for sometime and collected some money by washing dishes in order to move back to Maryland and help her sister and two children escape. She tried to collect her husband too but learnt that he remarried. She came back some months later to direct her brother and two other slaves through the route to safety. She took the slaves to the “Secret Vigilance Committee of free Negroes in Philadelphia”. Gradually over the next decade, she kept on returning to the south in order to free more than 300 slaves in 19 trips to Maryland. Prizes worth $12000 were announced for her arrest. Once, the value declared for her collection of slaves summed at $400005. The path undertaken by Tubman was the secret and invisible Underground Railroad operation, which initiated in the slavery states and went towards the North in order to free the blacks. They stopped first at Kentucky at the Revolutionary John Rankin’s house at Ripley in Ohio. Here a light illuminated the path of the travelers in the rowboats to cross the Ohio River. One day a woman who had crossed the frozen river on foot by creeping from one floe to another with her child stumbled at the door of Rankin. This was told to Harriet Beecher Stowe and later turned into the famous scene in her work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Tubman claimed regarding her leadership of the Underground Railroad project, “I nebber run my train off de track and I nebber los’ a passenger.6” Underground Railroad comprised of more than 3200 volunteers including several other Negroes. Unofficially the superintendent was Levi Coffin who was a Quaker trader. The passengers were carried in enclosed farm wagons and hidden amongst lumber and coal heaps on the coastal ferries like the freight in nailed boxes. Sometimes they were picked up from the Mississippi River and hidden amongst the wood taken to the neighborhood for fuel. The path comprised of tunnels, houses and roads which were built by the abolitionists and the slaves who had gained freedom arranged in a secret array such that the slaves could be guided out of the Deep South known for its oppression. Harriet was well acquainted with these ways and therefore did not fail to guide her passengers to the safe destination7. Significance of the Underground Railroad operation Harriet Tubman made her way to freedom through the Underground Railroad to Philadelphia only to return back to help the other slaves in their path to freedom. This first step of Harriet towards her individual freedom thus brought about the emancipation of many other slaves. The Underground Railroad had huge significance in her life and the lives of the slaves who also achieved their freedom, and it deserves a special mention in the life of the African American Woman. The Underground Railroad was therefore not a railroad or located under the ground. It was a special name given to a network of houses safe for the slaves from where they could flee from one house to the other until they reached the Canadian border where they were set to be completely free. The last slave state just before the Canadian border was Delaware that was the critical leg to freedom. The people associated with these operations had to do it secretly and hence it was named, ‘underground’ or sometimes called covert operation. The safe houses were named as the stations and the owners of those houses were the stationmasters. There were some considerate pious groups of Quakers who were the stationmasters and there were some free Negros sympathetic to the slaves. People who traveled with the slaves to make them reach safely were called the conductors of the Underground Railroad and hence Harriet was later rightly named as the conductor8. She used to think that she had the right to either death or liberty, if she were caught then she would face death, otherwise would be free for always. She was always ready to fight for liberty with all her strength. Guided by the North Star she used to journey by night and hid herself during daylight to reach freedom. Harriet contacted the person recommended by her white neighbor and she traveled through a series of safe houses and ultimately made her way to be free. After establishing her as a free woman her fight for the liberty and freedom started. The sole motive of Harriet Turban was the redemption of her friends in the years that followed her escape. She started working hard and save more, that she could spend in helping her friends and families to be free from slavery. As a good amount was saved, she left for Maryland and appeared mysteriously in the plantations. She appeared almost nineteen times and freed almost three hundreds of the enslaved individuals. Her first expedition started in the year 1851. She had grim determination to protect her people and those who assisted her. She had no pretensions and ‘a more ordinary specimen of humanity’ rarely found among the unfortunate inmates of the south. She even used to point revolvers towards her inmates to help them overcome the pain of the hectic northward journey and the fear and also to ensure the safety of the other inmates because if a single individual returned back then the life of all others would be in danger. She considered death to be the only way out for any individual who were willing to go back9. If anyone changed his or her mind, she would pull out a gun saying, “You’ll be free or die a slave!” Harriet Tubman was so renowned as the leader directing the slaves to the path of freedom that she was entitled as “Moses of Her People”. Several slaves who dreamt of emancipation sang the spiritual song “Go Down Moses”10. Harriet was only five feet tall but with her great determination and organizational skills she managed to conduct the operation successfully. She also had to work in coordination with the other supporters of the Underground Railway project in order to help the slaves and ensure they were not detected. When she reached Philadelphia she was legally a free woman but her status had altered as the Fugitive Act was passed and therefore she had to seek careful and secretive operations. During her mission the women Susan B Anthony, and men like William H. Seward, Ralph Waldo Emerson and others also supported her. Some of them like Susan B. Anthony later took part in the Women Suffrage Movement. Anthony even offered her house as the hiding place during the Railroad operation11. Rewards were declared against her. These rewards stimulated the officers and the slave owners to keep a watch on the inhabitants of the plantation of Maryland. Her organizing ability, adventurous spirit, and disregard for any consequences were the key to her success and hence the rates of her success were wonderful. Despite her short features she was strong and fearless. She used to work in the underground railroads with the inmates, organize conveyance of messages to the slaves regarding their meet outside the plantation for avoiding detention, and plan their escape mainly in the evenings of Saturdays. She was free from personal fear of being caught by the slave hunters or the slaveholders. She set up Underground Railroad stations in every center of the abolitionist where the fugitives were fed and hidden by day and then aided their journey to Canada by night. They used secret codes to refer to safe houses and quilts with those secret codes were in display. She worked for over fifteen years in the Underground Railroad in helping the slaves towards freedom. She provided morale boost to the people in her cheerful way in helping them to overcome their fear. Her ability and accuracy in doing such work was nothing less than marvelous. The inmates used to have implicit trust in their leader and always felt safe with no danger threatening them when they were with her. She had huge belief in the Almighty and hoped that God would save these peoples from every trouble12. Harriet had always been able to evade the slave catcher even when due to illiteracy she had sometimes fallen asleep under the poster displaying that she was wanted. Her sense of responsibility and her ability to plan a proper and safe escape made her all the more dependable among the inmates. She never used to make wishes for herself but always prayed for the betterment of her fellowmen. When people were in need, nothing stood as the barriers in her petitions. She used to arrange money for the rescue of the old people of the plantation in any possible way and nothing mattered in her path of meeting the aim. Her belief in the supreme power was great and she never feared of being caught. There had been a record that no slaves have ever been caught in her plan of action. Stories revealed that the Almighty used to show her path to safety and had always saved those poor dependable human beings. She was famous in the Chester country and Philadelphia and truly respected as abolitionist. She never wanted anything for herself but never hesitated to call her friends for financial and other possible helps when those poor people were in need. When Harriet arrived alone in Philadelphia, she was a free woman by law. With the passage of the Fugitive State Law just in the succeeding year her status changed to a fugitive slave and by the law every citizen were bound to help the governing body in recapturing and returning her to the previous owner and helping any slaves were punishable. This made her adopt more secretive and silent work policies but soon she became known in the ‘abolitionist circle and the freedman’s communities’13. With the clear impact of the fugitive law, Harriet guided the passengers of the Underground Railroad straight to Canada where they would be treated free truly. Many citizens in the Auburn area of New York were in favor of antislavery, which made her spend a part of the year in the city and the rest in Canada. She used to visit Maryland twice a year for freeing more and more slaves of the plantation area. She then delivered her speeches appearing openly in public anti slavery meetings and later in Women Rights meetings. A value of about 40,000 dollars was placed as the price of her head and an amount of 12,000 dollars for her body were declared by the planters of the south whose slaves she was retrieving for freedom but she was never betrayed. Since she was not educated, she proceeded in a simple manner with a simple faith for carrying over the action and never followed any stringent strategies. Her experience of narrowly escaping danger made both the Negros and the white friends of her believe that she was blessed with spiritual inspirations and blessings. Once teasingly presented as the conductor of the Underground Railroad she declared that being a conductor she had set the record of never losing any passengers and running no trains off the track. She saved her brothers and sisters before making the most important trip to the south in the year 1857 when she freed her 70-year-old parents from the life of slavery. They were brought to Auburn that was an important station of the Underground Railroad, where she built a house for her parents. Her funds for these rescue operations were mainly provided from her own funds that she earned as cook or as working in laundry service etc. Moreover, many public figures of New York and abolitionists also provided her with financial help for the fulfillment of the operations. Many of them also provided their homes to be used as stations of the Underground Railroad. Harriet also supported the rebellion organized by John Brown that was believed to end slavery. She supported by helping in raising the required fund, recruiting soldiers and supplied arms to slaves to empower them in rising in rebellion against their enslavement. But luck did not favor and Harriet fell ill and she mourned the death of her friends throughout her lifetime14,15. The fight of Harriet Tubman for providing liberty to scores of her friends and relatives led to a political, strategic and military consciousness growing within her that prepared her to adopt a role in the battlefield. She had a combination of leadership skills along with passion and commitment for freedom that made her suitable for the union war efforts. The civil war that was partly fought on the issue of slavery catches the attention of Harriet and she immediately joined the war in order to help the remaining race of slaves to fight for their freedom16. Conclusion Harriet Tubman died at the age of ninety-three in the year 1913. She was given full military funeral and buried in the cemetery of Fort Hill. According to John Brown, she was not only the bravest but also the best person in the continent of that particular time. According to some historians, the sacrifice that she made and her selfless service for the Negro race made her name to be taken not too short of Joan of Arc or Florence Nightingale. A small medal by Queen Victoria honored her. After her death, she achieved many honors. ‘The Liberty Ship Harriet Tubman’ was the name given to a ship in her honor. Moreover, the Federal Government in the year 1995 issued a ‘commemorative postage stamp’ in the honor of Harriet. On June 1914, the Cayuga country placed a large bronze plaque in their courthouse and civil holiday was declared in the honor of Harriet. In Auburn, a Freedom Park was opened as a tribute to her in the summer of 1994. Moreover, Harriet Tubman day is celebrated every year in the 10th day of March on her death17. The year of her first death anniversary was declared by the people of Auburn as a one-day memorial to their savior. She remained alive among her inmates, in the memory of the thousands of slaves she helped towards freedom and the others she inspired in the name of Moses. She had set an example of how a black woman who was once enslaved, could fight for her own liberty and freedom, then for the freedom of the entire class of slaves and then with her will and courage occupy a significant place in the history of north and south America. Harriet always took the position in favor of her strong belief. The gravestone of her rightly read “Servant of God, well done”18. She is still recalled as a conductor of Underground Railroad operation, which marked the beginning of her leadership during the mission of emancipation from slavery and saved the lives of around 300 slaves. References 1. Benge, Janet and Geoff, Benge, Harriet Tubman: Freedom bound, YWAM publishing: Juvenile, 2002 2. Bradford, Sarah, Harriet Tubman, Apple wood Books, 1993 3. Garden of Praise, “Harriet Tubman”, 2011, http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdtub.htm 4. “Harriet Tubman: Runaway Slave”, American Civil War, 1862, http://americancivilwar.com/women/harriet_tubman.html (accessed on March 6, 2011) 5. Harriet Tubman: Leader of the Underground Railroad”, America.gov, 2008, http://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2008/April/20080427110234eaifas4.378474e-02.html (accessed on March 6, 2011) 6. “Harriet Tubman”, About.com, http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blharriettubman.htm (accessed on March 6, 2011) 7. “Harriet Tubman: Runaway Slave”, American Civil War, 1862, http://americancivilwar.com/women/harriet_tubman.html (accessed on March 6, 2011) 8. Harriet Tubman, “Harriet Tubman is dead”, March 11, 1913, 9. “Liberator”, Life, 65.21,pp.101-102 10. Lewis, Jone Johnson, “Harriet Tubman –From Slavery to Freedom”, About.com Guide, 2011, http://womenshistory.about.com/od/harriettubman/a/tubman_slavery.htm 11. Lewis, Jone Johnson, Harriet Tubman Facts, About.com Guide, 2011, 12. New York History Net, “The life of Harriet Tubman”, 13. Tubman’s Civil War, Harriet Tubman Biography, n.d., Read More