This is the history behind Episode 5, "Harriet," of The Magic Sash, a podcast for young listeners produced by the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission, the National Park Service, PRX and Gen-Z Media. The National Park Service's lesson for the episode asks how our life experiences shape our opinions, decisions and actions.
Harriet Tubman is best remembered for helping enslaved people escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad — she was its best-known conductor, and risked her own safety to lead at least 70 people out of slavery. She is also remembered as an abolitionist, a Civil War nurse and spy, a carer for the poor and the aged, and an activist for the voting rights of women of colour.
Harriet Tubman, 1868. Credit: Library of Congress.
Childhood in slavery
Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, some time around 1820–25; like most enslaved people then, she did not know her birth date. She was one of nine children of Harriet Green and Ben Ross, who were married but enslaved by different plantation owners. Her parents named her Araminta. Some of her brothers and sisters were sold away, and she never saw them again.
- As a child she was made to look after her younger siblings, and was hired out to other households to care for babies and do chores. If a baby in her care woke up crying, she was beaten.
- As a teenager she was struck on the head by a heavy metal object an overseer threw at another enslaved person who was trying to run away. The injury gave her headaches and seizures for the rest of her life.
Escape
Around 1844 she married John Tubman, a free African American man, although she was still enslaved; soon afterwards she took the name Harriet, after her mother, and began planning her escape.
In 1849 she tried twice. The first time she left with two of her brothers, but when they changed their minds about leaving their families she had to go back with them. The second time she went alone, travelling at night through woods and swamps and hiding by day, helped by Underground Railroad "conductors" who gave her hiding places and guided her on to the next safe place.
Enslaved people who escaped could legally be captured and returned. Credit: NPS / Richard Schlecht.
She reached freedom in Pennsylvania, but had left her husband and family in Maryland. Over the next 10 years she went back to Maryland 13 times to help friends and family escape. She and her family settled in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, where they were safe from being captured and returned to slavery in the United States.
Auburn and the Civil War
In 1859 Tubman came back to the United States, escaping Canada's cold winters, and bought land in Auburn, New York, as a home for herself and her family. The area was home to many abolitionists and suffragists, and she soon became their friend. She supported herself and her parents by giving speeches against slavery in cities such as Boston and New York.
During the Civil War she served the Union in South Carolina as a nurse, cook, scout and spy, and helped organise a raid on a Confederate outpost that freed 700 enslaved people.
Harriet Tubman, 1870s. Credit: Library of Congress.
Rights for Black women
After the war Tubman returned to Auburn and kept working for newly freed African Americans. On her land she built a home where poor, elderly African Americans could be safe and cared for.
She also joined the suffrage movement — above all for African American women, since some women's suffrage groups would not let women of colour take part.
- In 1896 she spoke at the first meeting of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in Washington, D.C., where she, Ida B. Wells and other prominent African American women met that year to form the National Association of Colored Women.
- She was a founder of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, which supported voting rights for African American women.
The United States in 1896, the year of the first convention of the National Federation of Afro-American Women. Image from the National Park Service's page.
Nannie Burroughs and other African American suffragists, early 1900s. Credit: Library of Congress.
Harriet Tubman died in 1913 at her home in Auburn, surrounded by family and friends.
Places to visit
- Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, Dorchester County, Maryland, where she was born.
- Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, Auburn, New York, where she lived and worked for human rights after freeing herself and her family.
Stewart's Canal at Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park, Dorchester County, Maryland. Credit: National Park Service.
Sources
- National Park Service, "The Magic Sash, Episode 5: 'Harriet' Lesson Plan." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/magic-sash-episode-5-lesson-plan.htm
- The podcast's script (by its production partners), the lesson's questions and activities, and the podcast's banner are not reproduced.
- Corrected: "St. Catherines" (St. Catharines, Ontario).
- Rewritten in hubnx's own words.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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