Harriet Tubman was an African American woman who escaped slavery and later worked to free slaves by leading the Underground Railroad. She was the “conductor” of the railroad which was their codename for the leader. She was born on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland sometime in 1821, where she would have to work as a slave. She had eight siblings, but she was kept apart from them because of slavery. She first started working as a nursemaid at the age of 5, where she was whipped whenever she messed up, leaving her physically and emotionally scarred. Despite the physical and emotional abuse, Harriet was not afraid to stand up for others, which was shown when she jumped in front of a heavyweight heading to a fugitive, which caused lifelong injuries and effects such as hallucinations. Despite this, she still had to work for the next few years. In 1840, Harriet’s father was set free and discovered that his wife’s previous owner had written in his will that she and her kids would be free. Despite this, their new owner did not honor this will and kept them on the plantation. About 4 years later, two of Harriet’s brothers would be sold so she knew she had to do something before they were all separated. She had also recently married John Tubman, giving her more reason to get off the plantation. Five years later in 1849, She was put up for sale and took the chance to run away. She asked John if he would come with her, but he preferred to stay on the farm and urged her to stay with him. She decided to go without him and with her two brothers who successfully made it out on September 17th. However, they did not want to leave the rest of their families, so Harriet’s brother went back and forced her with them. About a month or 2 later she escaped by herself and this time did not return. The Underground Railroad led her to Philadelphia where she stayed free. For the next year, she would help free family members like her younger brother, and nieces. She would eventually return to her plantation to rescue her husband, but he had already remarried and wanted to remain there. This angered her, but she still worked to free other slaves in the area and return them to Philadelphia. The Fugitive slave act made it much harder to free slaves, because now if they were caught they would have to be returned to their owners. This did not deter Tubman from rescuing them, because from 1951 to 1962, she rescued 70 slaves, and helped an additional 60 find their way to the refuge. Because of this, she was named Moses, like the character from the bible who led the Egyptian slaves to their freedom. She did good work as a Railroad operative and used many code words to make it harder for people to know what they were doing. She would stop working on directly freeing slaves when the Civil War broke out. She knew that the war could lead to the end of slavery altogether, so she helped the soldiers. She would do scouting and work as a nurse for the Union in many different military camps. This work would provide valuable information and support for the Union Army. The Union would later win the war and abolish slavery in the South. With her goal accomplished she would settle down in Auburn, Alabama, and lived off of money she gained from her supporters from her railroad days. She had a massive impact on the Railroad and helped about 60 slaves to freedom. She is remembered as the best conductor in the history of the Underground Railroad for her efforts in freeing slaves.
