Harriet Tubman

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a spy- in the worst way, too. It was somewhat of an obssession for awhile which did not go away until I was old enough to ascertain spies got themselves killed on a regular basis. I seem to remember not completely abandoning the project, thinking well, if I could be assured of being a really, really GOOD spy, the odds would at least be skewed in my favor. No idea where the ambition came from, although thinking about it, it may have evolved from one of the first books I got my hands on.

It was early elementery school, and the book was a bio on the life of Harriet Tubman. I swiped it from the 4th grade classroom, where Mom sometimes substituted. There was a series of bios on notable Americans written for children- this was one of them. When I finally got to sit in that classroom as a 4th grader, I chose a seat in the back of the room on purpose- it was right in front of that bookcase with this collection and I swiped and read every, single one, frequently during class. That darn book on Harriet started a life-long habit, which is re-reading favorite books endlessly, like visiting old, nice friends you're vastly familiar with. I still do it, still could probably recite pages of Harriet Tubman's juvenile novel I got my hands on gosh, 45 years ago. I'm a fan.


This is from the Central Intelligence Agency Website, seems a good place to borrow information on Harriet.


The Conductor Becomes a Spy

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Ross was born into slavery in Maryland in 1819 or 1820. She was whipped when she was a small child, and, when she was 15 years old, was struck on the head by a scale weight hurled at a slave she was helping escape. The injury produced a lifelong suffering from headaches and seizures. When she was 25 years old, she married John Tubman, a free African-American. About four years later, when her master died, she feared that she and her kin would be sold and scattered. So she began to think about escaping. Her husband declined to go with her, as did her brothers.

The courage and skill she used in her escape she would later use again as a spy for the Union.

Harriet Tubman fled to the North on the Underground Railroad, the network of abolitionists who helped slaves make their way to freedom. After freeing herself, she returned to Maryland, became a conductor on the railroad, and brought out members of her family. She made a score of dangerous trips, helping some 300 slaves reach the North. With each trip, she taught herself the ways of covert work behind enemy lines.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott, a black man who had moved from a free state to a slave state, had no right to sue for his freedom because African-Americans could not be citizens; the court also ruled that Congress did not have the power to prohibit slavery in the territories. The decision emboldened slaveholders and put Tubman in even more jeopardy. But, in that same year, she slipped into Maryland and conducted her elderly parents to freedom.

Because of fugitive slave laws, escapees could find ultimate freedom only in Canada. Tubman went frequently to the main underground terminal in Canada, St. Catherines, Ontario. There she met John Brown, who told her of his plans for an armed raid on Harpers Ferry. She later said that if she had not been ill at the time, she would have joined in the raid.

Tubman went to war in May 1861, joining a Union force dispatched to her native Maryland, which was a hotbed of Southern sympathizers. There, she knew, her knowledge of the land would be helpful to Union troops. Later, she served in the Union’s Fort Monroe in Virginia. But it would be at her next duty post, in South Carolina, that she would become a full-fledged undercover operative.

In the spring of 1862, Tubman sailed from New York City to Beaufort, South Carolina, the operations center for Union forces that held the southeastern coast of South Carolina. She was sent to the region at the suggestion of Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, who believed that “she would be a valuable person to operate within the enemy’s lines in procuring information & scouts.”

The Union-held area was a magnet for slaves fleeing to freedom. Tubman helped to clothe and feed them while also setting up agent networks and conferring with Union officers, including Colonel James Montgomery. He made her his second-in-command for the night raid up the Combahee River that freed more than 750 plantation slaves.

After the war, Harriet Tubman lived on a small farm in Auburn, New York. Years before, William A. Seward, then an anti-slavery senator from New York—later to be Lincoln’s Secretary of State—had sold her the property and arranged for a mortgage. She continued to help exslaves and black veterans and supported the crusade for women’s suffrage. In 1869, two years after the death of John Tubman, she married Nelson Davis, an ex-slave whom she had met when he was a Union soldier.

Citing her work for the Union Army, especially the Combahee River raid, she petitioned for a pension. A member of Congress who had been a Union general backed her claim, noting “her services in the various capacities of nurse, scout, and spy.” But not until 1890, two years after the death of Davis, did she receive a pension of eight dollars a month. By then, she was in poverty, and neighbors were providing her with food. Nine years later, her monthly pension was raised to twenty dollars.

In 1903, she donated the farm to a church group on the condition that the home be maintained as a refuge for “aged and indigent colored people” and that she be allowed to live in the house for the rest of her life. In 1913, the woman known in the Union Army as “the General” died and was buried with military honors.




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I still check out all the children's books. Since have grandchildren, want to get them started with the children bios on famous historical figures. There are so many good ones out there. This is the way I got started on my love of history so many years ago.

Harriet Tubman always a very interesting person. Thanks for post.
 
Harriet Tubman was able to maintain her house until 1911 when she was moved into the Home for the Aged that she had run for some years. She died in there in 1913. The Harriet Tubman Home and the Home for the Aged still exist on the southern edge of Auburn NY. The Home for the Aged is open for tours. Her house is currently undergoing renovation.

Last March I read that legislation has been proposed to add these buildings to the newly created Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument, but I do not know the current status. The site is currently owned by the A.M.E. Zion Church and run by a private organization that does not receive government funding. http://www.harriethouse.org/

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Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged

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Harriet Tubman Home
 
Thanks for the photos- they've done a super, super job maintaining these houses, haven't they? Around here, homes of that era become unrecognizable- plastic siding, knock off the porches, install small windows, you have rentals becoming more and more run-down every year which all look the same. Some you'll go into, underneath those awful drop-ceilings will be an amazing, pressed-tin ceiling, some gingerbread moldings- beautiful stuff.
 
Isn't that awful? There's a heart-breaking, mid 1800's house around here, used to be a pub/hotel on a small scale, with a really unique name. Kind of a landmark and up to 20 years ago still functioned as a bar. Gosh, it was a lovely old thing. Then the bar closed, the owners turned it into a private residence. Drive by it now, you can't tell it from the rest of the newer houses. Vinyl siding, small windows, just a little landing in lieu of a porch, front and back, all the gingerbread gone-bet a zillion bucks there's drop ceilings in there. Ouch. It used to be that mellow red brick, wrapped porch, gingerbread galore, long, long sash windows- wide, shallow steps up to the porch, an early Victorian dream of a brick building.
 
I am totally at a loss to explain why someone would knock off a porch and put up a deck. Even worse, IMO, painting over brick.

Worse yet, why would someone paint over the beauty of the grains of lumber! :furious:
 
Decks! They're absolutely for this ' modern ' era- I think a deck has to be attached to arcitecture which can withstand the thing- pasted on to one of the old buildings, it always looks hideous. I'm sure looks would not be what the owners are going for- folks just wish for something to put a grill and picnic table on, keep both up off the grass, less bugs, etc. Still- never does well, does it?

We lived in a huge, rambling 1850's house once- it had hardwood floors throughout. The ones in the little attic rooms? Painted- and one million coats of paint, too. You'd have thought the attic rooms would have been the wide plank, pine boards- and nope- hardwood. Used to give my mother the willies, thinking about all the paint up there. The house was pretty haunted, too- bet it was the original builders having a snit over those floors. :smile:
 
Why would some people paint over wood, (lumber), hardwood flooring, the rocking chair at CrackleBarrel store are made of Red and White Oak, showing the beauty of the grains, the ribbon rays of the wood. I have worked in hardwood lumber for 53 years and it amazes me to see the different grains, which none are the same!
 
HOLY Gee Whiz, that is crazy!! What a GREAT photo! Yes, I'd read Harriet was petite, quite feminine woman. Her harrowing life as an enslaved child makes you wince, thinking of such a dinky, dear little girl at the mercy of ' owners '. I do wish people who throw around ' slavery ' as some concept would think about individuals when they do this- their own little girl in place of the entire, silly argument.

I can't find permissions on that photo but will keep looking. Love to bring it here! It's possible because it is going to auction, there are no restrictions. When controlling one of these, you're generally threatened with the removal of your first born child.
 
Georgia Public Broadcasting has a program called "Georgia Traveler" which takes you different places of interest in Georgia.they had a show on about the "Tubman Museum" in Macon,Ga.I had never heard of this place but it is a 42,000 sq.ft. museum dedicated ti her and Afro-American history.some of the collections that they showed on TV were very interesting especially about the conductor and the Underground Railroad. Here is a link to the museum.

www.tubmanmuseum.com
 
According to the bible she was disobedient and she broke the law by running away and helping others to run away. Nice photos do not change the fact that tubman deprived people of their lawful property.
 
Georgia Public Broadcasting has a program called "Georgia Traveler" which takes you different places of interest in Georgia.they had a show on about the "Tubman Museum" in Macon,Ga.I had never heard of this place but it is a 42,000 sq.ft. museum dedicated ti her and Afro-American history.some of the collections that they showed on TV were very interesting especially about the conductor and the Underground Railroad. Here is a link to the museum.

www.tubmanmuseum.com
Thanks
 
According to the bible she was disobedient and she broke the law by running away and helping others to run away. Nice photos do not change the fact that tubman deprived people of their lawful property.
Biblical slavery was entirely different and at any rate was not race based.
Since slaves didn't get a vote, I think I'm safe in saying the law was unjust. Resisting unjust law, at great personal risk, is what made her a hero, Mr Calhoun.
 
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