Black History Profile

06 Feb 06 12:00 AM EST

 

Harriet Tubman:

 

Profile in Courage for Black History Month

 

Born Harriet Ross in either 1819 or 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland.  Raised in abject slavery, she was seriously injured at the age of 12 by an overseer for refusing to bind up a captured slave who had attempted escape.  The overseer hit her in the head with a two pound weight. This injury would cause her to suffer blackouts for the rest of her life.

 

She married John Tubman at age 25.  He was a free man, but she could be sold at any time.  When the master of her plantation died, Harriet was amongst the possessions to be sold.  It was then that she escaped from slavery, telling no one but her sister.

 

She moved to Pennsylvania and began her career as a Conductor with the Underground Railroad which led many thousands to freedom in Canada. She completed over 19 missions, rescuing most of her family, but not her husband who chose to remain behind. 

 

During the Civil War she became a spy and nurse. She was fearless. At the close of the Civil War, Ms. Tubman returned to Auburn, NY. There she married Nelson Davis, and lived in a home they built on South Street. This house still stands on the property, and serves as a home for the Resident Manager of the Harriet Tubman Home.

 

Only twelve miles from Seneca Falls, Tubman helped Auburn to remain a center of activity in support of women's rights. With her home literally down the road, Tubman remained in contact with her friends, William and Frances Seward. Here she worked, and herself was cared for in the period before her death in 1913.

 

One of her many honors was a ship, christened by Eleanor Roosevelt, the Liberty Ship Harriet Tubman. In 1995, she was honored by the federal government with a commemorative postage stamp. Many historians have written hints of Ms. Tubman as a same gender loving woman and in the book “Black Lesbians” the authors write that Ms. Tubman “let some of her lesbian leanings be known.”

 

A true shero, we celebrate her courage which helped her free so many.