There are many different ways people use to define heroes. Sometimes when we think of heroes, we think of super powers, strong people or someone brave and courageous. There are also a lot of heroes. When I think of a hero, I think of Harriet Tubman. Being born a slave herself, she knew the terrible lifestyle that they lived. Imagine her constant fear as she overcame her obstacles to help bring freedom to her fellow slaves. Araminta Harriet Ross, most commonly known to the public as “Harriet Tubman”, was born into slavery in the 1820’s in Dorchester County, Maryland. Growing up was not easy for Harriet because she was raised around harsh and brutal conditions. Even as a terrified, defenseless small child she was subjected to constant beatings …show more content…
Often she would sleep as closely to the warm, crackling fire as she could during the cold frigid nights. Sometimes the nights were so cold she would stick her toes in the smoldering ashes to avoid getting frostbite. Most often Harriet and her siblings would go hungry, because their parents would have to earn the privilege to hunt and fish so they could have meat for dinner. Her family’s main source of food was cornmeal. Imagine if your family could only enjoy the luxury of meat when they had “earned” the privilege to eat it. Harriet was considered old enough to begin working at the young age of six. Since she was technically considered ineligible to work in the fields along with the other slaves her master, Edward Brodas, then loaned her to a couple who made her work weaving. Quite frequently Harriet’s …show more content…
Then this kind hearted individual proceeded to tell her how to reach the first house on her journey to freedom. Upon reaching the first house, although she was tired and weary, she was put into a wagon, covered with a sack, and began the bumpy ride to her next destination. The people in the first house were kind enough to her to give her directions to safe houses and names of people who were willing to help her cross the Mason-Dixon line. Harriet caught a ride with a kind married abolitionist couple who happened to be passing by and helped her get to
In order to be a hero, one must be courageous. Some people that are heroes are Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Jacob had spent seven years in hiding in hopes to make it to the northern states to be free. She finally achieved it when the Dr. Flint had died and way followed by his daughter’s husband in Boston to have her buy her freedom. I have heard her say she would go to the ends of the earth, rather than pay any man or woman for her freedom, because she thinks she has a right to it. Besides, she couldn't do it, if she would, for she has spent her earnings to educate her children."(Incidents, pg. 180). She would never give up and there was no way that she would give in and pay for her own freedom. She had devoted her life to raising her children and educating them. While Sojourner Truth continued to persuaded people about the women’s rights. These women worked to get the truth out about the treatment they had received while in slavery. The Life and Incidents of a Slave Girl would be more convincing then the speeches of Sojourner Truth. Harriet had been fighting for a case for herself and a better life of her children where they would not have to live like she
We know her as the “Moses” of her people; she left a remarkable history on the tracks of the Underground Railroad that will never be forgotten. Harriet Tubman born into slavery around 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland, Harriet Tubman was a nurse, spy, social reformer and a feminist during a period of economic upheaval in the United States. For people to understand the life of Harriet Tubman, they should know about her background, her life as a slave, and as a free woman.
Harriet Jacobs was born in 1813 into a slave family. Her father, a carpenter, was highly skilled in his trade. For the first few years of her life, Jacobs lived a happy, normal childhood. She was fortunate enough to live in the same household as her parents and her younger brother, William. When she turned six, her mother passed away, leaving her under the care of her grandmother. In her narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet describes her life as a southern slave, calling herself Linda. She discusses the abuse she endured during servitude and how she managed to overcome it.
In the earliest part of Harriet?s life the whole idea of slavery was foreign to her. As all little girls she was born with a mind that only told her place in the world was that of a little girl. She had no capacity to understand the hardships that she inherited. She explains how her, ?heart was as free from care as that of any free-born white child.?(Jacobs p. 7) She explains this blissful ignorance by not understanding that she was condemned at birth to a life of the worst kind oppression. Even at six when she first became familiar with the realization that people regarded her as a slave, Harriet could not conceptualize the weight of what this meant. She say?s that her circumstances as slave girl were unusua...
Harriet was never considered a good slave. After her head injury, a neighbor wanted to hire her as a nurse-girl, and her owner was more than willing to let her go. (Taylor 8). Harriet was required to “do all the housework, milk the cows, as well as to be at the side of the cradle every time the little darling cried.” (Taylor 8). Because she wasn't able to be at all places at all times, she was beaten and sent back to her owner with the recommendation, “She don’t worth the salt that seasons her grub.” (Taylor 8). Once Harriet was returned, her owner greeted her with “I will break you in!” (Taylor 8). “From early morn till late at night she was made to work, beaten and cuffed upon the slightest provocation.” (Taylor 8).
Once she got there, she got a job and started saving money. The following year she returned and took her sister and her two children to freedom. She went back to the South to rescue her brother and two others. She went back a third time for her husband, but he had married someone else. She wound up taking other slaves back with her.
In her story Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs presents what life was like living as a female slave during the 19th century. Born into slavery, she exhibits, to people living in the North who thought slaves were treated fairly and well, how living as a slave, especially as a female slave during that time, was a heinous and horrible experience. Perhaps even harder than it was if one had been a male slave, as female slaves had to deal with issues, such as unwanted sexual attention, sexual victimization and for some the suffering of being separated from their children. Harriet Jacobs shows that despite all of the hardship that she struggled with, having a cause to fight for, that is trying to get your children a better life
When Harriet went to work, they did as well. She had helped them find good food to eat, and safe shelters to rest in, and even begged for them sometimes. Harriet even participated in vigilance committees that mother said abolitionists took part of to help former fugitives find work or apprentice opportunities. Even though Harriet had carried out the biggest part of her job, she had continued to service the people who were once in her position; new to freedom. Mom always tells us that many fugitives needed people like Harriet to support them because they were new to working for pay, being treated nicely by their bosses, and living independently. This bold act shows that Harriet not only wanted to lead these fugitives to freedom, but that she also wanted to make sure that they were safe and secure and had something to rely on again. I hope my family and I are to be lead to our inalienable freedom by someone as warm-hearted and courageous as Harriet.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl. 2nd Edition. Edited by Pine T. Joslyn. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, INC., 2001.
Harriet Tubman was born in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was named Araminta Ross when she was born, though she changed it soon after she married Jon Tubman. She inherited his last name and changed her name to her mother’s name, Harriet. Tubman was one of 11 children in her family and they were all born into slavery. She had a very tough childhood. Her parents’ master sold three of her sisters to other plantations very distant, which devastated the entire family. Soon after, Tubman’s father was approached about selling his youngest son, but he declined the offer. This set an admirable example, which inspired Tubman.
In Pennsylvania, Harriet Tubman became an abolitionist. She worked to end slavery. She decided to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad (a network of antislavery activists who helped slaves escape from the South). On her first trip in 1850, Harriet Tubman brought her sister and her sister's two children out of slavery in Maryland. In 1851 she rescued her brother, and in 1857 Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland and brought her parents to freedom.
After Harriet escaped slavery in 1849. She made her first trip back to the slavery grounds, to help her niece and her two children flee slavery. She made plenty of trips back to rescue her younger brothers and attempted to bring along her husband John Tubman, but he resented because he remarried to a free woman. In the mid 1850’s, she travels back to rescue the rest of her brothers and sisters, along with others. In the late 1850’s, she made another trip to help her parents flee, during that time she gained information that her father was endangered of being incarcerated for assisting runaway slaves. However, Harriet did fail two of her family members of being free slaves, her sister Rachel’s children. In 1860, Harriet made her last rescue trip on
At the mere age of six, Harriet Jacobs discovered she was a slave after the passing of her mother. This seems a bit odd for one to not know th...
In conclusion, women were considered property and slave holders treated them as they pleased. We come to understand that there was no law that gave protection to female slaves. Harriet Jacob’s narrative shows the true face of how slaveholders treated young female slave. The female slaves were sexually exploited which damaged them physically and psychologically. Furthermore it details how the slave holder violated the most sacred commandment of nature by corrupting the self respect and virtue of the female slave. Harriet Jacob writes this narrative not to ask for pity or to be sympathized but rather to show the white people to be aware of how female slaves constantly faced sexual exploitation which damaged their body and soul.