Harriet Tubman and the Fight for Freedom by Lois Horton

The scars and mistreatment reminded her of the horrid existence of a slave and were the catalyst for her run from bondage in 1849.Īfter Tubman made her own escape to Pennsylvania, she became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and returned south multiple times to help others flee slavery. She continued to live with seizures and headaches for the rest of her life. She never received proper medical treatment for the injury and never fully recovered from the damage. When she refused, the man threw a two-pound weight and hit her in the head. When she was 12 years old, she was sent on an errand to a store, where a man insisted that she restrain an enslaved boy who was attempting to run away. She experienced a harsh life of difficult labor and physical punishment, which left permanent scars from lashes and neurological damage from unrestrained beatings. On the plantation, Tubman was exposed to the horrors of the institution of slavery. In her twenties, she married a free black man named John Tubman and changed her first name to Harriet to honor her mother. She was six years old when her owner sent her to a neighbor’s house, where she was hired to be a house slave and nursemaid eventually, she worked in the fields. Tubman was born Araminta Ross to enslaved parents in Dorchester County, Maryland, in about 1822 (many slaves, like Frederick Douglass, guessed at their birth year). Tubman made the choice for freedom and fled the bonds of slavery by running away to the North via the Underground Railroad, a network of people who helped enslaved persons safely escape from slavery. On the other hand, to gain it, she would have to leave her husband and family behind. On one hand, she wanted her inalienable right to freedom, by which no one would rule over her arbitrarily. In 1849, after living under the harsh conditions of slavery for 24 years and fearful of being separated from her family again, Harriet Tubman had a terrible choice to make. Use this Narrative alongside the Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Narrative to explore the roles women played in the abolitionist movement.

Harriet Tubman and the Fight for Freedom by Lois Horton