Biography of Harriet Tubman
(Davis)
There is hardly a more picturesque character among I the
workers and traffic managers of the "Underground
Railroad'' than Harriet Tubman, who was born in
Maryland, when men and women were slave property. In
1848, when she was between twenty and twenty five years
of age she made her escape from the house of bondage.
The thing that strengthened her will and aroused her
determination to make a break for freedom, was the
thought of herself and brothers being "sold South." As
she said, guided only by the North Star, she and her
brothers started out for freedom. But after they had
gone some distance, through fear that they would not
succeed, like Lot's wife, her brothers turned back.
Harriet, however, continued her journey alone, and
reached the Promised Land. But, so intense was her love
for her people that she determined to become a "Moses,"
in the work of the great Underground Railroad. She made
nineteen different trips in the South and safely
conducted more than three hundred persons to freedom in
the Northern States, and Canada. A most remarkable thing
it is that not a single fugitive under her direction,
was ever captured. During the Civil War she was employed
in the secret service of the United States Army, and,
during the last year of the war, she was armed with
papers which admitted her through the lines of the army
in any part of the country. In the history, by Prof.
Albert Bushnell Hart, is given a unique description of
the battle of Gettysburg, from the lips of Harriet
Tubman, to the historian. A sentence from that
description is as follows: "And then we saw the
lightning, and that was the guns; and, then we heard the
rainfall, and that was the drops of blood falling: and
when we came to get in the crops it was dead men that we
reaped."
Mr. William Still, in his invaluable work, describes the
subject of our sketch, as follows:
"Harriet was a woman of no pretensions, indeed, a more
ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found
among the most unfortunate looking farm hands of the
South. Yet in point of courage, shrewdness and
disinterested exertions to rescue her fellowmen, by
making personal visits to Maryland among the slaves, she
was without equal.
Her success was wonderful. Time and again she made
successful visits to Maryland on the Underground
Railroad, and would be absent for weeks, at a time,
running risks while making preparations for herself and
passengers. Great fears were entertained for her safety,
but she seemed wholly devoid of personal fear. The idea
of being captured by slave-hunters or slave-holders,
seemed never to enter her mind. She was apparently proof
against all adversaries. While she thus manifested such
utter personal indifference, she was much more watchful
with regard to those she was piloting. Half of her time,
she had the appearance of one asleep, and would actually
sit down by the road side and go fast asleep, when on
her errands of mercy through the South, yet, she would
not suffer one of her party to whimper once, about
giving out or going back," however wearied they might be
from hard travel day and night. She had a very short and
pointed rule of law of her own, which implied death to
any who talked of giving out and going back. Thus, in an
emergency she would give all to understand that ''times
were very critical and therefore no foolishness would be
indulged in on the road." That several who were rather
week-kneed and faint-hearted were greatly invigorated by
Harriet's blunt and positive manner and threat of
extreme measures, there could be no doubt. After having
once enlisted, "they had I to go through or die.'' Of
course Harriet was supreme, and her followers generally
had full faith in her, and would back up any word she
might utter. So when she said to them that ''a live
runaway could do great harm by going back, but that a
dead one could tell no secrets," she I was sure to have
obedience. Her like it is probable was I never known
before or since."
Harriet Tubman's last trip into Maryland is graphically
given in Mr. Still's 'Underground Railroad." It was in
the year 1860, and she led five passengers, of
Dorchester County, out of bondage into freedom; a man,
his wife, and three children, one of the children being
a babe in the arms of her mother. The following note
from the great Thomas Garrett, whose name was enrolled
in the Lamb's Book of Life, long ago, will throw light
upon these last arrivals. Mr. Garrett says:
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"I write to let thee know that Harriet Tubman is
again in these parts. She arrived last evening
from one of her trips of mercy to God's poor,
bringing two men with her as far as New Castle.
I agreed to pay a man last evening to pilot them
on their way to Chester County; the wife of one
of the men, with two or three children, was left
some thirty miles below, and I gave Harriet ten
dollars, to hire a man with a carriage, to take
them to Chester County. She said a man had
offered for that sum to bring them on. I shall
be very uneasy about them till I hear they are
safe. There is now much more risk on the road,
till they arrive here, than there has been for
several months past, as we find that some poor,
worthless wretches are constantly on the lookout
on two roads, that they cannot well avoid, more
especially with carriage, yet, as it is Harriet
who seems to have had a special angel to guard
her on her journey of mercy, I have hope.
Thy Friend, Thomas Garrett, Wilmington, Del."
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These slaves from Maryland, were the last that Harriet
Tubman piloted out of the prison-house of bondage, and
these "came through great tribulation."
Stephen, the husband, had been a slave of John Kaiger,
who would not allow him to live with his wife. She lived
eight miles distant, hired her time, maintained herself,
and took care of her little children (until they became
of service to their owner) and paid ten dollars a year
for her hire. She was owned by Algier Pearcy. Both
mother and father desired to deliver their children from
his grasp. They had too much intelligence to bear the
heavy burdens thus imposed without feeling the pressure
a grevious one. Harriet Tubman being well acquainted in
the neighborhood, and knowing of their situation, and
having confidence that they would prove true, as
passengers on the Underground Railroad, engaged to pilot
them within reach of Wilmington, at least to Thomas
Garrett's. Thus the father and mother, with their
children, and a young man named John, found aid and
comfort on their way with Harriet for their Moses." A
poor woman escaping from Baltimore in a delicate state,
happened to meet Harriett's party at the station and was
forwarded on with them. They were cheered with clothing,
food and material aid, and sped on to Canada.
This great Moses, Mrs. Tubman Davis, after the Civil
War, made Auburn, N. Y., her home, and established there
a home for aged colored people. She entered into rest
eternal on the tenth of March, 1913. On Friday, June 12,
1914, at the Auditorium, in Auburn, was unveiled a
tablet in honor of this great and good woman. It was
provided by the Cayuga County Historical Society, and
Dr. Booker T. Washington was the chief speaker on the
occasion. The ceremonies were attended by great crowds,
both colored and white citizens, to do honor to the
memory of such a unique and interesting character.
Maryland
Biographies | Maryland
AHGP
Source: Gazetteer of Maryland,
by Henry Gannett, Washington, Government Printing
Office, 1904.
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