Harriet Tubman: Comprehensive Exam Notes

Background and Birth

• Birth name: Aromenta “Minty” Ross.
• Place of birth: Dorchester County, Maryland.
• Time of birth: early 1820s (exact year uncertain, scholars often cite 1820–1822).
• Family status: born into chattel slavery.
• Family size: Minty was the 5^{th} of 9 children.
• Legal condition: “chattel slavery” meant enslaved people were treated as movable property that could be bought, sold, or inherited.
  • Significance: under U.S. law at that time, enslaved individuals possessed no legal personhood; they could not own property, enter contracts, or protect family ties.

Early Childhood and Trauma

• Two older sisters sold “to a chain gang.”
  • Chain gangs were groups of enslaved persons bound together, forced to march long distances to new owners.
• Minty was frequently “hired out” to other households, exposing her to multiple overseers and punishments.
• Major traumatic injury: while on an errand to a neighborhood store an overseer hurled a 2-pound iron weight at another enslaved person; it missed and struck Minty’s head.
  • Immediate effects: skull fracture and severe concussion.
  • Lifelong effect: recurring “sleeping spells,” now identified as narcolepsy (sudden, uncontrollable bouts of sleep).
• Attempted sale: because of her narcolepsy, Minty’s enslaver tried but failed to sell her—buyers avoided an enslaved person perceived as “damaged property.”

Development of Skills and Knowledge

• Assigned to work with her father, Ben Ross, in the lumber industry.
  • Tasks: felling trees, hauling logs—significantly increased her physical strength and endurance, traits later crucial for rescue missions.
  • Exposure to free Black sailors who transported timber northward.
• Learned clandestine communication along coastal and river trade routes.
  • Importance: built a mental map of safe contacts, routes, and timing—an embryonic form of the Underground Railroad network.

Marriage and Self-Renaming

• Met John Tubman: a free Black man.
• Married in 1844.
• Adopted mother’s name “Harriet” after marriage, becoming Harriet Tubman.
  • Renaming signified autonomy and connection to matrilineal heritage despite enslavement.

Impending Sale and Escape Decision

• In 1849 Tubman’s enslaver died; the widow announced plans to liquidate the “property” (i.e., sell enslaved persons individually).
• Harriet feared family separation and permanent Deep South sale—a fate colloquially called “sold down the river.”
• Heard of the “Underground Railroad”: a decentralized network of abolitionists—safe-house owners, boat captains, wagon drivers—who aided escapes.
  • Misleading term: not an actual railroad, but used railway metaphors (e.g., “conductors,” “stations,” “passengers”).

First Escape Attempt (with Brothers)

• Companions: brothers Ben and Henry (nicknamed Harry).
• Left plantation but brothers lost nerve fearing capture; all three turned back.

Visionary Dream and Solo Escape

• During a narcoleptic spell Harriet dreamed she could fly like a bird and saw “the path to liberation” from the sky.
• In 1849 she departed alone, guided by the North Star (Polaris).
  • Astronomy link: Polaris appears almost stationary above the northern horizon; escaping slaves used it to maintain a northerly heading by night.
• Destination: Pennsylvania, a free state—symbolized legal freedom though federal Fugitive Slave Acts still posed danger.

Underground Railroad Conductor (Active 1850–1860)

• Total return trips: 13 documented missions into slaveholding states.
• Rescued relatives: niece, brothers, parents, and “many others.”
  • Estimates of people personally guided vary: approx. 70 direct rescues plus strategic advice to another 60–70.
• Nickname: “Black Moses” (allusion to biblical Moses leading Israelites out of bondage).
• Collaboration with Northern abolitionists and free Black communities; eventually extended routes to Canada after 1850 Fugitive Slave Law tightened recapture risk in U.S. North.

Civil War Service (Union Army, 1861–1865)

• Roles: nurse, scout, spy.
  • Nurses cared for wounded soldiers and formerly enslaved refugees (“contrabands”).
  • Scouts gathered intelligence on Confederate positions.
  • Spies infiltrated local populations to assess supply lines and troop movements.
• Combahee River Raid (South Carolina, June 2–3, 1863)
  • Planning leadership: Harriet Tubman became first woman in U.S. history to plan & lead an armed military raid.
  • Outcome: about 700 enslaved persons liberated; Confederate property and supplies destroyed; no Union casualties.
• Significance: validated African-American women’s capacity for military leadership, contradicted gender and racial stereotypes of the period.

Constitutional Milestones After the War

• 13^{th} Amendment (1865): abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, “except as punishment for crime.”
• 14^{th} Amendment (1868): defined citizenship, equal protection, due process.
• 15^{th} Amendment (1870): prohibited voter discrimination by “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
  • Limit: enfranchised Black men but not women, laying groundwork for Tubman’s later suffrage work.

Post-War Philanthropy and Community Development

• Raised funds for formerly enslaved persons.
• Helped establish schools and a hospital (often cited: the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged in Auburn, New York).
• Continued economic struggle: despite heroic service, received no regular military salary for decades.

Women’s Suffrage Advocacy

• Became increasingly active by 1888.
• Appeared at the 1896 founding convention of the National Association of Colored Women (Washington, D.C.).
• Spoke at women’s suffrage meeting in Rochester, New York (late 1890s).
• Quoted statement: “I was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and I can say what many others cannot. I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.”
  • Uses railroad metaphor—underscoring impeccable record.

Pension Fight and Late-Life Recognition

• Allies lobbied Congress for military pension.
• 1899: finally granted \$20 per month (classified as nurse’s pension, later widow’s pension based on husband’s service).
• 2016: U.S. Treasury announced redesigned \$20 bill will feature Tubman’s portrait (replacing Andrew Jackson on the face).
  • Symbolic reversal: a formerly enslaved woman honored on currency historically used to price human bondage.

Death and Final Words

• Date of death: 03/10/1913 (March 10, 1913).
• Age: about 91 years.
• Reported last words: “I go away to prepare a place for you.”
  • Echoes biblical language (John 14:2) and lifelong commitment to liberation.

Ethical, Philosophical, and Practical Implications

• Moral Courage: Tubman repeatedly risked re-enslavement or death to free others—illustrates principle of altruistic resistance to unjust law.
• Intersectionality: Worked simultaneously for racial justice and gender equality, decades before term “intersectionality” coined.
• Grass-Roots Networks: Success of Underground Railroad & Combahee Raid highlight power of decentralized, covert collaboration.
• Historical Memory: Currency redesign debates reflect ongoing struggle over which figures society chooses to honor.
• Resilience & Disability: Narcolepsy could have incapacitated her; instead she leveraged visions for guidance—reframes disability as unique perspective rather than mere limitation.

Quick Timeline Recap (all dates in \text{YYYY})

• \text{c.1820}: Birth.
• 1844: Marriage, adopts name Harriet.
• 1849: Escape to Pennsylvania.
• 1850–1860: 13 rescue missions.
• 1863: Combahee River Raid.
• 1896: NACW founding convention speech.
• 1899: Military pension approved (\$20/month).
• 1913: Death.
• 2016: Treasury announces Tubman on \$20 bill.