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Birth
In March, 1822 Harriet Tubman was born. -
Early life
Araminta was severely injured in the head with a heavy metal weight aimed at a runaway slave. After the injury she started having seizures which affected her for the rest of her life. She started having premonitions and vivid dreams, she said that God communicated with her. -
Family
Her father, Ben Ross, was manumitted when he turned 45 years old. She found out that her mother’s owner’s will stipulated that she and her children be manumitted when they reached 45 years old. Brodess refused to honor his mother’s will. -
Slave Life
– Harriet and her brothers, Ben and Henry, escaped from the Poplar Neck Plantation. Ben and Henry had second thoughts and returned to the plantation. The newspaper The Cambridge Democrat published a $300 reward for the return of Harriet and her two brothers. Harriet travelled 90 miles to Pennsylvania, a free state, using the Underground Railroad. -
Family
Harriet fell ill. Her owner, Brodess, died leaving the plantation in a dire financial situation. Three of her sisters, Linah, Soph and Mariah Ritty, were sold. -
Slavery
Using her connections in the Underground Railroad, Harriet took her first trip to guide a family in their journey to freedom. Her niece, Kessiah, her husband, John Bowley, and their two children were freed from the bondage of slavery. -
Civil War
Beginning of the American Civil War. Tubman worked as a cook and nurse in South Carolina and Florida. Death was all around her. Tubman helped General David Hunter recruit former slaves for a regiment of African American soldiers. She served as a spy and scout under the command of Col. James Montgomery. -
Mid-life
Tubman became the first woman to lead an assault during the Civil War in the Combahee River Raid where 700 slaves where set free. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation setting slaves in the Confederacy free. -
After slavery
Harriet Tubman married Nelson Davis, 22 years younger than her. They were married in the Presbyterian Church. Sarah Hopkins Bradford published a biography of Tubman, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. She got $1,200 from its publication. -
Later Life
Tubman became involved in women’s suffrage giving speeches in Boston, New York and Washington. Unable to sleep, Tubman underwent brain surgery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. She refused anesthesia and instead chewed on a bullet just like she had seen soldiers do when they had a leg amputated. -
Late life
ubman donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn to be converted into a home for the “aged and indigent colored people”. Even when she was dying, she wanted to help. This shows how generous she was. -
Death
Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia, she was 93. She was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.
