Term Papers on Harriet Tubman

Term Paper Title	Harriet Tubman
# of Words	1057
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.23

harriet tubman

written by Shawnda Fletcher

Harriet Ross Tubman was an African American who escaped slavery and then

showed runaway slaves the way to freedom in the North for longer than a

decade before the American Civil War. During the war she was as a scout,

spy, and nurse for the United States Army. After that she kept working for

rights for blacks and women.

Harriet Tubman was originally named Araminta Ross. She was one of 11 children

born to Harriet Greene and Benjamin Ross on a plantation in Dorchester
County,

Maryland. She later took her mother's first name. Harriet was working at the

age of five. She was a maid and a children's nurse before she worked in the

field when she was 12. A year later, a white guy either her watcher or her

master smacked her on the head with a really heavy weight. The hit was so

hard it left her with permanent neurological damage. In result of the hit she

had sudden blackouts during the rest of her life.

In 1844 she got permission from her master to marry John Tubman, a free black

man. For the next five years Harriet Tubman was a semi-slave. She was still

legally a slave, but her master let her live with her husband. In 1847 her
master

died. Followed by the death of his recipient and young son in 1849. That made

Harriet’s status uncertain. In the middle of rumors that the family's
slaves were

being sold to clear the estate, Harriet Tubman went to the North and freedom.

Her husband stayed in Maryland. In 1849 Harriet Tubman moved to

Pennsylvania. She returned to Maryland two years later hoping to get her

husband to come to The North with her. John Tubman had remarried by then.

Harriet did not marry again until after John Tubman died.

In Pennsylvania, Harriet Tubman became an abolitionist. She worked to end

slavery. She decided to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad (a

network of antislavery activists who helped slaves escape from the South). On

her first trip in 1850, Harriet Tubman brought her sister and her sister's
two

children out of slavery in Maryland. In 1851 she rescued her brother, and in
1857

Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland and brought her parents to freedom.

Over a time period of ten years Harriet Tubman made an estimated 19 trips

into the South and brought about 300 slaves to the North. The Fugitive Slave

Law of 1850 had created federal commissioners in every county to support the

return of runaways. It gave harsh punishments for those convicted of helping

slaves to escape. The law wanted Harriet Tubman, so in 1851 she moved to St.

Catharines, a city in Ontario, Canada. That was the destination of many

escaped slaves. By the late 1850s a number of Northern states passed

personal liberty laws that protected the rights of fugitive slaves. Harriet
Tubman

was able to buy land and move with her parents to Auburn, New York.

Harriet Tubman faced great danger guiding slaves to freedom. Southerners

offered big rewards for her to be caught. Harriet Tubman used disguises

(sometimes posing as a deranged old man and, at other times, as an old

woman) to stay away from touch when traveling in slave states. She carried

sleeping powder to stop babies from crying and always had a pistol to

prevent the people from backing out once they started going to freedom.

Harriet Tubman always changed her...

This is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Digital Term Papers. Please register below now!

Digital Term Papers has over 63,000 essays, term papers, and book notes online. Many paper sites will charge you hundreds of dollars for a single paper. Digital Term Papers only charges $14.95 for a one month membership with instant account activation!

Don't waste anymore time! Join NOW!!!

1 Month (automatic renewal) ($14.95)

3 Months (automatic renewal) ($29.95)

6 Months (one-time billing) ($39.95)

Pay by: