Harriet Tubman is you, me, and us, for a heroine sleeps within every Black woman, wherever she may be and whatever her time.
Queens and Heroines of Africa
The story begins in 1821, in the town of Araminta Ross, Maryland, in the southern United States. A Black enslaved woman gives birth to her first child, a little girl she simply names Harriet, because at that time, slaves had no family names. As Harriet grows, she will see the birth of her nine siblings and, like them, perform various tasks, such as cleaning the master’s house, picking cotton on plantations, or doing the hard labor of the farm. Her days are full; she does nothing else. Whenever she tries to rest or work at her own pace, she receives terrible lashes, and even as a child, all of this feels horribly unfair to her!
Harriet was still a little girl when she decided to help a young slave escape from the plantation. The boy had committed a serious misdeed and was promised a terrible punishment. Some slaves cannot survive such punishments, and they die; Harriet therefore preferred that her friend take the risk of fleeing. Unfortunately, the escape attempt failed, and she and her companion received several blows to the head. Harriet, who nearly died, ultimately survived.
As a teenager, Harriet and other slaves from the plantation were sold to Dr. Anthony Thomson, a Protestant preacher, who was less violent than their previous master. But a few years later, she was resold to another master who forced her to marry a man named John Tubman, a free Black man. Harriet became Harriet Tubman. Not only did this arranged marriage fail to make her happy, it did not emancipate her either. After a few years, she separated from John and moved from master to master. She quickly realized that even her years of service would never make her a free woman, and by age thirty, she knew that the mistreatment she had endured all her life would one day lead her to death. Between fleeing or dying, she chose to flee.
When Harriet decided to escape one summer night, none of her companions encouraged her, and not a single one agreed to follow; which was understandable, as the punishment for a runaway slave was akin to a visit to the gates of hell—and many never returned. If the master was merciless, he would not hesitate to hang the slave, lynch them to death, or sever their tendons. Faced with such horrendous possibilities, Harriet did not hesitate and left. But where would she go? To Pennsylvania, a state where slavery had already been abolished. For her, it was enough to cross the border by heading north out of Maryland.
Fortune accompanied Harriet: she met a Black man who was part of the Underground Railroad, a network that helped Black people escape plantations and reach Northern states where slavery had already been abolished. The worker helped Harriet hide in a train, inside a bag of goods. After several days of extreme suffering, she arrived at her destination without being detected.
The Underground Railroad helped Harriet settle in Philadelphia, and she was finally a free woman!
However, despite her new life and newly won freedom, Harriet could not stop thinking about the mistreatment and atrocities suffered by the companions she had left behind. Anger soon took hold of her: she knew it was imperative to pull all Black people from the hands of slaveholders. She could not remain in Philadelphia while her companions risked death every day. She had to return and help them escape!
Thus, Harriet decided to join the Underground Railroad and became a “conductor,” risking her life. She carefully studied the lessons taught by members of the Underground Railroad: how to infiltrate plantations secretly, how to contact slaves wishing to escape, how to help entire families cross borders, how to handle a firearm, how to evade police hunts, and more—a whole set of near-military techniques.
Once ready, Harriet decided to return to her former plantation to free her sister and her two children. The operation succeeded and encouraged her to continue liberating slaves who wished to escape. Gradually, she became an expert in “runs,” completing no fewer than 19 journeys into Southern plantations.
Over the years, she helped more than 300 slaves flee and become free, with none captured. Here are some of the challenges Harriet faced during these clandestine journeys:
- She sometimes had to act as a skilled psychologist, as many slaves suffered panic attacks during these runs. Harriet often spent entire nights talking to them to calm their fears.
- To soothe babies prone to crying and revealing their location, Harriet carried sedatives to administer when necessary.
- Time was critical, as they had only forty-eight hours before the slave master alerted the press to publish notices of missing slaves. This window allowed them to get as far as possible before the police began the pursuit.
- They had to skillfully avoid police hunts and manhunts. Harriet would carry her rifle in case of emergency. She even once pointed the gun at a slave who decided to give up and return to his master. By this brutal gesture, Harriet wanted to show him that surrender meant certain death; she would rather kill him herself than let a White man do it. The slave chose to continue.
Slaveholders could no longer tolerate so many slaves slipping through their fingers. In 1850, they passed a decree called the Fugitive Slave Act. This law allowed masters to pursue slaves anywhere in the United States, even in states where slavery had been abolished.
This law did not deter Harriet; on the contrary! She believed it was better to risk her life trying to save others than to die in cowardice. Harriet’s fame spread across the United States. Her activism made her famous. Black people admired and revered her, while White people sought her capture. She constantly taunted the authorities and even freed her own parents, who were now elderly.
Even though Harriet knew she might die if she did not give up her role as a conductor, another historical event would give her confidence in a long life. The Civil War broke out, pitting Northern states against Southern states. The abolition of slavery became a key issue of the war. In 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the abolition of slavery.
By the end of slavery, more than 30,000 slaves had been liberated by the Underground Railroad since its founding in 1780. Among them, 300 were freed by one woman: Harriet Tubman. But our dear Harriet did not stop there. She joined the Northern Army, which supported abolition, continuing to fight against the Southern Army, which still held slaves captive. She played multiple roles: nurse, cook, scout, and, given her abilities, the Army even entrusted her with secret missions, during which she infiltrated Southern plantations to gather intelligence.
She participated in a battle at Combahee River, South Carolina, where she formed her own unit. Harriet was the first African-American woman to play a military role in the Army. She was given the name General Tubman, though it was only an honorary title.
In 1865, at the end of the war, Harriet Tubman retired to a small town in New York. She remarried Nelson Davis and devoted her time to educating Black children and helping people with social difficulties. Later, in 1908, she built a home to host the poor and elderly in the Black community, dedicating herself to them until her death in 1913, when Harriet Tubman was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery.
Harriet Tubman is you, me, and us, for a heroine sleeps within every Black woman, wherever she may be and whatever her time.
