Harriet Tubman Hero

Harriet Tubman-A Revolutionary Hero

Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the "Moses of her people”. Harriet Tubman is widely known for developing the Underground Railroad which was used to get slaves North and Canada to freedom. She later became a leader in the abolitionist movement, and during the Civil War she was a spy with for the federal forces in South Carolina as well as a nurse (Tubman 1). With her countless contributions to the African American people at this time, Harriet Tubman single handedly altered hundreds of lives by doing what she believed was necessary.

In her 12 years of freedom before the American Civil War began, Harriet helped make the Underground Railroad one of the most important

aspects of abolitionism and became one of the most active figures in the movement (Tubman 9).The Underground Railroad was not a railroad, nor was it underground. It was simply a series of safe houses founded by Tubman where slaves would stay and move silently, usually at night time, from one to the next until reaching freedom in the North and Canada. According to one estimate, the South lost 100,000 slaves between 1810 and 1850 (PBS 1). Harriet Tubman made 19 trips to the South in a ten year span to rescue a total of about 300 slaves to freedom. In addition, not once has she ever lost a single “passenger” in any of her trips. She began rescuing so many people that word got out to slave owners and a bounty was put on her. The bounties were as much as 40 thousand dollars or a little over one million dollars in today’s money (PBS 6). Yet she returned many times to rescue both family members and non-relatives from the plantation system.
Every time Tubman returned back to the South she was putting her life at risk as well as the others tagging along with her, but the thought of being captured never once crossed her mind.

Slave owners at this time became stricter because the number of slaves escaping in the South was rising rapidly. Harriet Tubman and others had to come up with ways to outsmart the slave owners and continue to keep rescuing slaves without being caught. Thus the use of “quilt language” and “secret songs” began to emerge. Quilt language is simply the use of different shapes, designs, or patterns on a quilt which delivered a specific message. The quilts would be left hanging up on homes for slaves currently traveling through the underground rail road. This was the perfect idea due to the fact that people passing by, especially slave owners or slave catchers, were absolutely oblivious of the quilts. Slaves developed “secret songs” that had messages in them to help other slaves escape. The most famous secret song is called “Follow the Drinking Gourd. They called it that because the constellation of stars looked like a drinking cup with a long handle coming from the side and back then that was known as a gourd. It was used as a reference of locating the North Star due to the fact that slaves did not know where North was. Many escaping slaves — including Harriet Tubman, James Pennington, and Josiah Henson — may have “followed the Drinking Gourd” to freedom. Today, many people know of a song called

“Follow the Drinking Gourd.” (Freedom 6).
During the Civil War, at the request of the federal government, Harriet Tubman served with the U.S.

Army in South Carolina, as a scout, spy, nurse and soldier (LeSourd 1). When working as a nurse, her main goals were to heal and make people feel better. During this time many people in the hospital died from dysentery, a disease associated with terrible diarrhea. Tubman knew that if she gathered up a few roots and herbs in that grew in Maryland she would make them feel better. One night she spent hours searching the woods by herself until she found water lilies and crane's bill. She boiled the water lily roots and the herbs and made a bitter-tasting brew that she gave to a man who was dying. As time passed, Tubman and other nurses discovered that the roots and herbs were working. Every man who was given the brew survived. Harriet Tubman was praised for her life saving discovery. Furthermore, she was very successful working as a union spy. Tubman ended up leading the Combahee River expedition along with the African-American 2nd South Carolina regiment designed to disrupt Southern supply lines and free hundreds of slaves (LeSourd 2). This raid took place on June 1st, 1863 and resulted in over 700 slaves being

freed.
This is only a handful of the many selfless acts performed by Tubman. It is clear to see why she was known as the Moses of her people. Harriet Tubman was a true hero during this time and is still viewed as one today. It is rare to find someone as courageous, caring, and as heroic as she was. It is imperative that her name lives on and the people of the future realize the importance of her actions during her time.