Harriet Tubman was one of America’s very first civil rights activists, escorting 300 of the estimated 60,000 slaves that escaped the iron grips of slavery. These missions made her one of America’s most iconic heroes. In her time period, this was a title unheard of for women and blacks, making this an achievement especially astounding for Tubman. The influence she built through many efforts in the fields of equality dissipated through America and contributed to a fight that paved the way for the enduring and current struggle against racial oppression still in the country today. The legacy of Harriet Tubman first begins with the establishment of Jamestown in 1619 when ships mainly from the African west coast brought the first generation of enslaved Africans to America. From this, slave codes that “made blacks and their children the property (or ‘chattels’) for life of their white masters” arose (Kennedy, 72). Slavery continued within America until 1865 when the thirteenth amendment (which declared slavery illegal) was ratified and deeply rooted white supremacy into American soil, fueling segregation, racism, oppression and terrorism against black Americans for centuries. In the span of 246 years, millions of blacks were enslaved some by birth while others by trade. Of these millions, Tubman’s parents, Ben Ross and Harriet Green are included. Despite living on the same plantation, Tubman’s parents belonged to different owners, Green and five of their children (including Tubman) belonged to the step-son of Ben’s slaveholder. In Dorchester County, Maryland between 1820-1821, they welcomed Tubman, the fifth of their nine children, into the world. She was initially given the first name Araminta but changed it to Harriet after marriage, in honor of her mother. Tubman’s large family is most likely responsible for the ingrained family-oriented ideals she held herself to. Tubman viewed slavery as the “next thing to hell” for many reasons, the separation and pain it brought to her family conflicted with her family ideals and served as a leading factor that fertilized the deep seed of abhorrence for slavery within her (Larson, 54). Between late 1823 to early 1824, Tubman’s mother and the five children enslaved by the step-son of Ben’s slaveholder were moved ten miles from the plantation they previously lived on with Ben. After relocation, several of Tubman’s siblings were illegally sold out of state. The sense of loss Tubman experienced already due to her broken family was furthered by the fact her slaveholder hired her out to other temporary slaveholders, who were often times cruel and negligent. Not only did slavery drag Tubman’s loved ones away from her in chains, it also stripped her of a childhood. Tubman stated in an interview she "grew up like a neglected weed, - ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.” By the time she was five, she was sent to work as a house servant, here she was responsible for cooking, cleaning, and looking after children of the house. Tubman shared her room in the house with all of the other house servants, therefore issuing little space and no privacy. The room contained no beds or mattresses, therefore, Tubman had to lay on the wooden floor, which had no insulation and was cold during the winter. Even a faint cushion to serve as a pillow was a luxury most were not
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In her late adulthood and elderly years, she opened her home to anyone in need, most commonly impoverished and sickly former slaves and orphaned children. In 1903 she officially donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn which became the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, providing service to “aged and indigent colored people,” it opened its doors in 1908 (Larson, 387). It was also during this time that she became friends with many famous abolitionists of the day such as Franklin Douglass and John Brown. Despite being well known herself, she spent the rest of her life having no other option but to beg for food, money and clothing. Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10th, 1913 falling victim to history’s ironic tendency to leave those who bring good to the world to die in poverty and
In her late adulthood and elderly years, she opened her home to anyone in need, most commonly impoverished and sickly former slaves and orphaned children. In 1903 she officially donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn which became the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, providing service to “aged and indigent colored people,” it opened its doors in 1908 (Larson, 387). It was also during this time that she became friends with many famous abolitionists of the day such as Franklin Douglass and John Brown. Despite being well known herself, she spent the rest of her life having no other option but to beg for food, money and clothing. Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10th, 1913 falling victim to history’s ironic tendency to leave those who bring good to the world to die in poverty and