Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad. Here's an overview of her story.

1. Harriet Tubman:
American Joshua
American Moses?
Mother of the Civil
Rights movement
I propose this
amazing woman was
more than a Moses.
Not just a Moses of
her people, but of all
people.
Like Muhammad Ali,
she personifies what
it means to be an
American fighting
for the rights we are
given, and putting it
all on the line.

2. 1820?
1822?
Born and raised in
Bucktown MD
Part of the Brodess
Plantation
Although, she worked
for various families.

3. 11
children
Brodess
Plantation
Amarinta
Ross
House
slave at 5
She would
have been
born into a
cabin much
like this one
Went by the
name of
Amarinta Ross

4. Of the horrors of
slavery, the threat
of separation of
family was likely
the worst.
Families were
sold off or
separated.

5. “worse than dead”

6. “no peace or closure”

7. Her first memory was of being
cradled outdoors in a hollow
log and seeing leaves blow in
the wind above her. Later, her
father taught her to navigate
by the stars. She spent a lot
time with her father out doors.
Despite the fact she couldn’t
read, she was very
comfortable outdoors.

8. The injury led
to visions and
narcoleptic
spells for the
rest of her life
It was late fall, sometime between
1834 and 1836, when Tubman was
nearly killed by a blow to her head
from an iron weight,
Tubman had been hired out as a field
hand to a neighboring farmer, and one
evening she was called to accompany
the plantation cook to the local dry
goods store to purchase items for the
kitchen.
When they arrived at the store,
Tubman attempted to block the path
of the overseer who was in pursuit of
a defiant slave boy.
The overseer picked up a
weight from the store
counter and threw it,
intending to fell the
fleeing young man, but it
struck Tubman with such
crushing force that it
fractured her skull and
drove fragments of her
shawl into her head

9. About 1844, she wed John Tubman. He
was a free black man, highly unusual at
that time. She was 19.
The implication of a slave woman
marrying a free man is that their
children are slaves. By marrying
Araminta Ross, John Tubman was
consigning to slavery any children their
union might produce.
This is not a picture of them. No pictures
exist, but it was a slave wedding around
the same time.

10. Amarinta Harriet
“There was one of two things I had a right to
liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would
have the other.”1849 was a turning point
When Edward Brodess her
master died in March 1849, the
security of Harriet and John's
life together was
threatened. Knowing she was
about to be sold, Tubman fled
to freedom without him with
her brothers, without her
husband. Her brothers
eventually returned
She soon learned he was
not interested in joining
her in the North, and he
married another woman
in the community - a free
woman named Caroline
with whom he had four
free children.
Broken hearted, Tubman,
refusing to sacrifice her
freedom by returning and
fighting for her marriage,
instead committed herself
to liberating her family
and friends.
And she went to
Philadelphia

11. Fugitive Slave Act of
1950
Part of the Compromise of 1850, it drove a
line through the country, free and slave.
Law-enforcement officials everywhere were
required to arrest people suspected of being a
runaway slave on as little as a claimant's
sworn testimony of ownership.
To best fulfill her destiny, Tubman realized she
must actively seek a role in God's plan, rather
than letting others dictate her path."
This inspired Tubman to do more. She had to
go back and help others. In 1851, she came
back again and again.

12. Complex network. Tubman was critical in
this thread.
We’re talking about hundreds of slaves.
UGRR wasn’t started by Tubman. It went
back all the way to 1780s.
This road is the American journey. South
to north. Slave to Freedom. The
underground railroad is bi-directional
and it continues today.
It is true grass roots movement
dedicated to freedom, aligned to the
true visions of freedom. An amazing
network of secret hideouts.

13. Secret rooms
Cellars, secret doors of
the Undergound Railroad

14. This was the common route for Harriet Tubman.
Starting in Maryland, then to Wilmington, Philadelphia
then upstate New York.
She learned the tricks. Taking slaves on Saturday. She
knew the connections along the way. She would head
south sometimes to throw off slave hunters
From 1850 to 1860, Tubman would return to Maryland
to rescue scores of family and friends.
She left her husband and her family. But she made a
daring return to her home plantation to bring back her
husband and her niece. Her husband wouldn’t return.
He had already remarried.

15. Thomas Garrett was a prominent abolitionist:
“he never met with any person, of any color,
who had more confidence in the voice of God,
as spoken direct to her soul . . . and her faith in
a Supreme Power truly was great.”
Working this network required amazing
creativity and network. Amazingly, she did this
without being able to read or write.
Heralded as a military genius, freedom fighter
and a strict disciplinarian, who suffered from
epileptic seizures, Harriet Tubman could neither
read nor write. She was also devoutly religious.
Her faith was strong and unquestionable.
She also carried a gun with her. She was a
fighter. Not a killer, but always willing to fight.

16. Jacob Lawrence is artist who
painted a series on Harriet
Tubman.
Tubman had ventured 30
times, helping over 300
slaves to safety at a time.
In 1857, on one of her trips
to Maryland, Tubman was
able to bring both of her
parents to freedom.

17. St. Catherine’s Canada. One
her homes. An interesting
story by itself. A strong
African American
community, Salem Chapel
BME church
She had a seasonal pattern.
Rescuing a large party in
the fall, then back to
Canada in the winter.
After a brief hibernation,
she would head for
northern haunts to spend
tie earning money during
the spring and summer
In Autumn: plan and
execute additional raids in
the south

18. Her Hymnbook. She
would sing from it
during her journeys.

20. She met and was
inspired by John
Brown. First met in
1858
They had a strong
emotional and
intellectual bond.
Tubman had long
viewed slavery as a sin,
but under Brown’s
influence, she came to
perceive slavery as a
state of war. She was
ready to consider
insurrections.
Brown dubbed her
General Tubman.

21. John Brown.
He attempted a slave
uprising at Harper’s
Ferry. It was poorly
planned and poorly
executed.
Brown was captured and
soon hanged, making
him a martyr, but
inspiring Tubman.

22. “He gave me my strength, and he set the
North Star in the heavens; he meant I
should be free.” – Harriet Tubman on
John Brown

23. “From this time
forward, she was not
just Moses but had
finally taken on the
mantle of the warrior
Joshua as well.”

25. While Nalle was being held in
an upper floor of a Troy
edifice, Harriet Tubman –
who just happened to be
visiting Troy – got wind of the
situation and rushed to the
scene. Disguising herself as
an old woman, she managed
to get to Nalle, and signaled
him to exit through the
window. A large crowd had
gathered below, and a great
melee ensued, the upshot
being that Charles was
brought down from the
window and hustled across
the river to Watervliet.
“She was repeatedly beaten over the
head with policeman’s clubs, but she
never for a moment released her hold
. . . until they were literally worn out
with their exertions and Nalle was
separated from them.”
But that wasn’t the denouement.
Charles was re-arrested in Watervliet.
Then Tubman and a crowd of blacks
and whites together also crossed the
river and stormed the building where
he was being held for the second time
and, through gunfire, liberated him a
second time

26. She helped in Beaufort as a nurse
Notice the gun. She was a warrior.

27. Combahee
River Raid
Tubman was recognized for her work with
clandestine networks, recognized for her
advanced intelligence
Combahee River Raid
Throughout the Civil War she provided badly
needed nursing care to black soldiers and
hundreds of newly liberated slaves who
crowded Union camps.
In early June 1863, she became the first
woman to command an armed military raid
when she guided Colonel James
Montgomery and his Second South Carolina
Black regiment up the Combahee River,
routing out Confederate outposts,
destroying stockpiles of cotton, food and
weapons, and liberating over seven hundred
slaves. Helping free over 750 slaves with the
help of black troops.
Tubman was an effective secret weapon. Her
skills and familiarity with the land and able
to move people were huge

28. She was active on the suffragist circuit
She conducted a 30 year battle to obtain her
compensation for her military service, not just for her
own gain but for a larger purpose.
She assisted with the housing and hygiene of hundreds
and thousands of veterans.

29. After the war, Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. There she began
another career as a community activist, humanitarian, and suffragist. In
addition to providing a home for numerous friends and relatives, she also
worked to raise money for the Freedmen’s Bureau, which had been
established to provide education and relief to millions of newly liberated
slaves. Set up the Harriet Tubman home for the aged.
Moses of ‘Her’ People. I don’t like that. A better term is Moses of ‘the’ People,
or the American People. But she was also a Joshua. A warrior. Not a killer, but a
fighter.

30. Remarried in 1870, with
her new husband. Charles
Nelson Davis
This picture taken in 1885

31. “If you are tired, keep
going; if you are scared,
keep going; if you are
hungry, keep going; if you
want to taste freedom,
keep going”

34. “I was conductor of the
Underground Railroad for
eight years, and I can say
what most conductors can’t
say – I never ran my train
off the track and I never
lost a passenger.”

35. Tubman’s story is one of action. She’s not a theorist. She’s out there putting it all on the line. She’s more than a Moses, but a Joshua. A warrior and a fighter.
She’s like Ali, Malcolm X, Those individuals who truly define what it means to be American.
She pushed us. She wasn’t willing to wait. She was on the front lines. A warrior.
Joshua was also a general. He led the 7 year battle for the promised land, and recognized as a leader and a model for leadership

37. Joshua 1: “Be strong and
courageous. Do not be
afraid; do not be
discouraged, for
the Lord your God will be
with you wherever you go.”