Harriet Tubman Thesis

Frederick Douglass said in a letter that he wrote to Harriet: “Excepting John Brown – of sacred memory -- I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have .” Harriet faced many perils and challenges when working as a ‘conductor’ on the Underground Railroad. The job she was doing was made more dangerous and perilous by the implementation of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. Escaped slaves could now be recaptured in the North and returned to slavery, leading to the abduction of many former slaves and some free blacks living in the Free States. Law enforcement officials were compelled to capture and return slaves to the plantations, regardless of their own beliefs. Upon her escape,

a bounty had been placed by Eliza Ann Brodess on the capture and return of Harriet to the plantation.

However, despite these risks to her freedom, Harriet continued to disregard her own liberty in order to help others. This tenacious attitude was witnessed by many including John Brown, who stated that in his opinion, Harriet was “one of the best and bravest persons of this continent ”.

Harriet Tubman’s work as part of the Underground Railroad was ended by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. However, her determined opposition and resistance to slavery did not end there. She assisted the Union throughout the war in a variety of roles. Her practice of partaking in the Underground Railroad meant that she had an understanding and ability to take part in secretive missions and this, in combination with her devotion to helping other people, made her a useful resource for the Union army

throughout the war. She served as a nurse in South Carolina, attending to whites and blacks, soldiers and contrabands. She also served as a scout and spy, using her knowledge of the local geography and the personal contacts she had established whilst working on the Underground Railroad to gather valuable information for the Union Army. Information that she gathered included the locations of the Confederates ammunition and food supplies, which allowed Union soldiers to find and capture or destroy them. She was also the first woman to lead a group of U.S. soldiers into combat. During Colonel Montgomery’s Combahee River campaign, Tubman lead a contingent of soldiers using intelligence gathered about the locations of the ammunition depots and storage houses of South Carolina. She led a group of soldiers down the Combahee River on June 2 1861 and by the end of the mission, her troops and she had burned down many of the plantations and had liberated around 750 enslaved blacks . Her role for the Union army during the Civil War was summarised in a letter from General Saxton, in which he stated: “She was employed in the hospitals and as a spy. She made many a raid inside the enemy lines, displaying remarkable courage, zeal and fidelity ”.

Once the Civil War was over in 1865, Harriet returned to Auburn, New York.

Again her campaign to help others was not over: she spent much of her time taking care of her elderly parents, as well as looking after many other needy men and women. In early 1859, abolitionist Senator William H. Seward had sold Harriet a small piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn. This land became a haven for Tubman’s family and friends. She spent her years following the war on this property, tending to her family and others who took up residence there. Harriet had very little money in her later years: she received a meagre $20 per month from her military pension, as well as a small profit from the sale of her biography Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (Sarah Hopkins Bradford, 1869). Despite having little money, Harriets unselfishness shined through again, when she used what little money she had, not to look after herself, but to provide food, clothes, housing and education amongst other things, for both family, friends and neighbours. It was whilst doing this, that Harriet met Nelson Davis, a Civil War veteran: they married in 1869 and adopted a daughter, named Gertie in 1874. Harriet continued her work over the following years, despite her failing health. She died of pneumonia in Auburn New York, surrounded by her family, in

1913.

Harriet Tubman spent her life dedicated to helping others: not just her friends and family, but strangers too. All of these peoples lives were dramatically improved by her unselfishness and determination to help others. She regularly, without considering the risks to her own liberty, fought to free enslaved blacks from the institution of slavery. She was little known during the nineteenth and early twentieth century outside of abolitionist networks and those that she had helped. Frederick Douglass recognised that much of Harriet’s devotion was not seen by many, as in his letter he stated that she had “labored in a private way ” and that “The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism ”. Her bravery, devotion, unselfishness and drive to help others, makes her one of the most important and impressive figures in American history, and her role in helping destroy an institution which had thrived in the Americas for hundreds of years deserves recognition.