Harriet Tubman Research Paper

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Harriet Tubman was a bondwoman who escaped from slavery to become leading abolitionist right before the Civil War. She was born in Maryland in 1820, and successfully escaped twenty-nine years later. She had returned many times, undetected, over the years to rescue family members and friends. She led hundreds to freedom as the famous "Conductor" of the Underground Railroad. Tubman was born to Harriet "Rit" Green and Ben Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was born as Araminta Harriet Ross. Harriet was one of nine children. Tubman's family was torn apart when three of her sisters were sold to a trader. Physical violence was part of her daily life and it caused permanent physical injuries. Harriet Tubman's father was freed from slavery when he was forty-five years old. By the time, Harriet had reached adulthood a majority of the slaves on the Eastern Shore of Maryland were free. In 1844, she married a free black man, named John Tubman. In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery, fleeing to Philadelphia. Harriet decided to escape following sickness and the death of her owner. She had left with two of her brothers. A notice, which offered 300 dollars for the return of Harriet and her brothers, was published in the Cambridge Democrat. Having second thoughts Tubman's brothers wanted to…show more content…
In December 1850, Tubman was warned that her niece, Kessiah, was going to be sold along with her two children. Kessiah's husband who, was a free black man, bought her at the auction. Harriet Tubman then helped her entire family make passage to Philadelphia. This was one of the first out of many trips by Tubman, who earned the nickname "Mosses", for her leadership. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, which required Northerners to capture escaped slaves and return them, Harriet rerouted the Underground Railroad to Canada, which prohibited

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