Harriet Tubman Essay -- essays research papers

Harriet Tubman was an important African American who ran away from slavery and guided runaway slaves to the north for years. During the Civil War she served as a scout, spy, and nurse for the United States Army. After that, she worked for the rights of blacks and women.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Harriet Tubman was really named Araminta Ross, but she later adopted her mother’s first name. She was one of eleven children of Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross. She was five when she worked on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was first a maid, and a children’s nurse before she started working as a field hand when she was twelve. While she was thirteen, her master hit her head with a heavy weight. The hit put permanent neurological damage (she couldn’t learn as well as before), and she passed out without warning throughout the rest of her life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1844 she got permission from her owner to marry a free black man, John Tubman. For the next five years Harriet Tubman lived in a state with only a little slavery. She remained a slave, but her master allowed her to live with her husband. But the death of her master three years after she was married made Tubman’s status uncertain. There were rumors going around the slave houses that the slaves would be sold to settle the estate. Tubman ran away to the north and became a free person. In 1849 he moved to Pennsylvania, but came back to Maryland after about two years hoping that her husband would...