Civil War Women
Harriet Tubman: Conductor, Nurse, Cook, Spy, and Scout
Harriet Ross Tubman Davis (c. 1822 -- 1913) was best known for her role as a conductor on the Underground Railroad prior to and during the American Civil War (Sernett 22). What many people may not realize is that she was actively involved in the war effort as a Union nurse, cook, spy, and scout (Sernett 75). A remarkable woman in many ways, not only because she engaged in these activities in spite of social norms dictating that women should be passive participants, but also because she was very effective in what she was able to accomplish. This essay will examine the myths and facts surrounding Harriet Tubman's efforts to end slavery in American and reveal that the truth is much more remarkable than the myths could ever be.
Escape from Slavery
Harriet Tubman was born to Benjamin Ross and Harriet "Rit" Greene in late February or early March in 1822, based on a record of slave owner Anthony Thompson paying $2 to a midwife during that period (Sernett, 15). Born Araminta Ross and called Minty, Tubman was born into slavery on the Thompson farm in Dorchester County, Maryland. Prior accounts based more on myth than fact pegged her birth to 1820 or 1821 and in Bucktown County on the farm of Edward Brodess. Tubman's African ancestry more recently has been suggested to be West African on her grandmother's side, possibly Ghana, rather than Asante.
Minty began to take exception to the duties assigned to her from an early age (Sernet 16). When just six years old she was sent to the Cook farm to learn the weaver trade, but became so homesick that she refused to drink her favorite beverage -- milk. She was returned to the Thompson Farm to recover, but when she was returned to the Cook farm she refused to learn weaving, wanted nothing to do with her mistress, and was forced to wade into streams in the winter to check muskrat traps even when she was suffering from the measles.
As a teenager between 13 or 15 years of age, Minty was struck in the head with a two pound weight when she and other slaves tried to intervene in an argument between an overseer and a slave (Sernett 16-17). Accounts of this incident suggest that Minty almost died from the blow. Based on Tubman's own words in 1905, the blow was so severe that it fractured her skull and drove a piece of her head shawl into her head. It took two days of bed rest to recover. Many myths surround this incident (Bradford 74), but Tubman's own words reveal that she was caught in the crossfire between an overseer and belligerent slave when working in a field, rather than the incident occurring in a store.
Minty was later sent to work for John T. Stewart (Sernett 17) and worked in the house and later in the fields and forests performing the same tasks expected of men. These tasks included plowing and driving teams of oxen. Her father, Ben Ross, had her cutting and hauling logs. It seems obvious that Tubman would have shed any shyness she may have had about taking on labors normally assigned to men, such as being a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
In 1844, Minty Ross married John Tubman, a free black man in Maryland, but she remained a slave (Sernett 17-19). In 1847 Harriet Tubman was sent to work for the son of Anthony Thompson, but when he died two years later Tubman escaped before she could be sold and separated from her family and husband. An ad for the return of an escaped slave was circulated by Eliza Ann Brodess, which would explain why many myths claim that the Brodess' owned Tubman. In the ad, Tubman was referred to as Minty, about 27 years of age, fine-looking, and about 5 feet tall. In her company were Harry (Henry) and Ben, two of Harriet's brothers. The date of the escape was Monday, September 17, 1849; however, the brothers changed their minds and all three returned. About two weeks later Harriet decided to go it alone.
Underground Railroad Conductor
Lucretia Mott, a Philadelphia Quaker and women's suffragist, was reported to be the first person to help Tubman after her escape from slavery (Larson 10). Through Mott, Tubman became connected to the abolitionist movement in Philadelphia. Mott's sister, Martha Coffin Wright in Auburn, New York, was the connection through which Tubman became known to some of the most famous...
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery as Harriet Ross, around 1819 in Maryland. For her work as an Underground Railroad conductor, during which she freed many slaves, she is affectionately known as the "Moses of Her People." She was thus a type of savior who slaves hoped would rise to set them free (Library of Congress). Her extraordinary spirit and courage served as an inspiration not only for the slaves
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