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Harriet Tubman
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Harriet Tubman's name at birth was Araminta Ross. She was one of 11 children of Harriet and Benjamin Ross born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland. As a child, Ross was "hired out" by her master as a nursemaid for a small baby, much like the nursemaid in the picture. Ross had to stay awake all night so that the baby wouldn't cry and wake the mother. If Ross fell asleep, the baby's mother whipped her. From a very young age, Ross was determined to gain her freedom.
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Harriet Tubman, originally named Araminta Ross, was one of 11 children born to slaves Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. She later adopted her mother’s first name. Harriet was put to work at the age of five and served as a maid and a children’s nurse before becoming a field hand when she was 12. A year later, a white man—either her overseer or her master—hit her on the head with a heavy weight. The blow left her with permanent neurological damage, and she experienced sudden blackouts throughout the rest of her life.
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Harriet Tubman had a mission to help others find freedom from slavery. Once in Philadelphia she was able to get a job and save money to start helping others flee bondage by becoming a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She traveled to Maryland and helped over three hundred slaves escape all the while facing mortal danger. She helped her family, friends, and others reach Philadelphia. Once the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 making it illegal to help escaped slaves and enforcing stiff penalties, her work became even more dangerous. She moved to Canada but continued travelling to Maryland to help more slaves.
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Ben Ross (Harriet Tubman's father) lived on Anthony Thompson's plantation near Woolford from the early 1800s until about 1847. Tubman was the fifth of nine children of Harriet "Rit" Green and Benjamin Ross, both slaves. Originally named Araminta, or "Minty," Harriet Tubman was probably born in early 1822. Edward Brodess, the stepson of Anthony Thompson, claimed ownership of Rit and her children through his mother Mary Pattison Brodess Thompson. Ben Ross, the slave of Anthony Thompson, was a timber inspector who supervised and managed a vast timbering operation on Thompson's land. In 1823 Brodess took Green and her 5 oldest (including baby Araminta) with him to his own farm in Bucktown, a small agricultural village ten miles to the east.
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During the next 10 years Harriet Tubman returned to the South 20 times to help approximately 300 slaves, including her own parents, to escape. Using a complicated system of way stations on the route from the South to Canada, she is believed never to have lost a charge. In 1850 the Federal Fugitive Slave Law was reinforced with a clause that promised punishment to anyone who aided an escaping slave. In addition, a price of $40, 000 was set for Tubman's capture. Thus she began transporting some slaves past the North to refuge in Canada.
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Three biographies of Harriet Tubman were published within months of each other in 2003–04; they were the first book-length studies of the “Queen of the Underground Railroad” to appear in almost sixty years. Sernett examines the accuracy and reception of these three books as well as two earlier biographies first published in 1869 and 1943. He finds that the three recent studies come closer to capturing the “real” Tubman than did the earlier two. Arguing that the mythical Tubman is most clearly enshrined in stories told to and written for children, Sernett scrutinizes visual and textual representations of “Aunt Harriet” in children’s literature. He looks at how Tubman has been portrayed in film, painting, music, and theater; in her Maryland birthplace; in Auburn, New York, where she lived out her final years; and in the naming of schools, streets, and other public venues. He ... investigates how the legendary Tubman was embraced and represented by different groups during her lifetime and at her death in 1913.
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Harriet Tubman