Life and Success of Harriet Tubman Essay Example

affect her life forever. One day, she was shopping in a store while a slave was trying to escape. His owner saw what was happening and tried to hit him in the head with a heavy metal weight, but hits Araminta instead. This caused her to have a bad head injury that would cause seizures and would take months to recover. After months of recovery and a few years later, she began to start working again, and she, her father, and some of her siblings were hired by a man named John Steward. While working there, she sawed lumber since she was incredibly strong. When she was paid money by her owner she eventually saved it towards her future escape. More years later, her father was qualified to be manumitted, or be freed as a slave which happened in the year of 1840. On the year of 1844, Araminta found and got married to a man named John Tubman. John was freed black man, which was typical in Maryland since it is near the border of the slavery and non-slavery line and half the population of black people in Maryland were free. Unfortunately, since Araminta wasn’t free, the law stated that children of a slave, were born as a slave, which caused the two to not have children. In the year of 1849, her owner at the time, Edward Brodess had passed away. This gave her the opportunity to escape up North to be freed. In addition, she then changed her name, so that when people start looking for her so she wouldn’t be found. Her name, is what we now know as Harriet Tubman,

which was the first name of her mother and the last name of her husband. Anyway, after saving enough money to escape, she and two of her brothers followed some people she knew in the Underground Railroad, which was a secret route for slave escapees. This railroad led the slaves up North to escape from slavery. Eventually, a reward was sparked in capturing Harriet and her brothers, which caused the two to go back. For Harriet, she instead went up North and made it all the way to Pennsylvania, which was free of slavery. After a while, she found a job and realized she had to go back and bring her family, friends, and other slaves. After one trip back, caused about 19 more in return because after rescuing people, she realized she had to rescue more. She was known as the conductor of the Underground Railroad and even gained the nickname “Moses” for saving the people from slavery. Then, during the 1860s, Harriet started working and became apart of the Civil War. Her role was a nurse, a spy, and to make escape routes for slaves and lead them to safety. During this time of the war, the Fugitive Slave Act, which has made slaves who have escaped to the North to still be captured and returned to their owners. This made Harriet Tubman to make her own path, which led the slaves all the way up in what we know as today as Canada. By the end of her life, she has freed a large amount of slaves, which all wouldn't have been possible without her help. After serving in the Civil War,

she then moved to Auburn, New York. In 1869, Tubman’s husband had left her for another woman named Caroline so she got married to man named Nelson Davis. The two got married within the Presbyterian Church. Five year later, in 1874, they adopt a young girl named Gertie. Then in the 1890s, she began to give speeches about her struggles of slavery and how she suffered. This inspired others to not give up. Sadly, the life of Tubman came to an end on March 10, 1913 when she died of pneumonia.

As you can probably already tell, Tubman was a very accomplishing woman. Some of her accomplishments led her to her fame and also a great hero. One of Tubman’s achievements was when she escaped slavery in the Underground Railroad all the way up to Pennsylvania. Another one was her rescue missions to save her family, friends, and other slaves by using the railroad and being its “conductor.” An additional reason was her bravery to be apart of the Civil War where she aided the wounded soldiers, spied on the enemies, and led even more slaves to safety. A final reason is her great act of bravery because being apart of the war and saving slaves with a high possibility of being punished for getting caught. In addition to all of this, her great acts of saving slaves, and contributing her life and help for our country are just some of the many great reasons Harriet Tubman is known for.

In addition to Harriet Tubman’s success, she also faced many challenges throughout her life. One of her dilemmas she faced was being born into slavery. Because she

was a slave, she and her family were often treated differently, perhaps in a cruelly manner from other people who are not slaves. This made her thought that she wanted to escape one day. Another challenge she faced was her head injury. Back when she was twelve, she was hit in the head with a large, heavy weight. This unfortunately, caused very bad headaches, seizures, and much pain throughout her life. A third perplexing challenge she had to face was escaping from slavery. While she and her brothers escaped, she was wanted, and whoever found her would get a reward. Finally, the last tough challenge that she had to deal with was rescuing the slaves. After escaping to the North, Tubman realized she not only had to save her family, but she also had to save the other slaves who are living miserable lives. This caused her to go back and forth nineteen times to save the slaves. Her act of doing this was so dangerous, if caught, she could’ve been sent to jail.

Of course, with challenges, Harriet Tubman managed to conquer them. The first challenge she conquered was her problem with slavery. While working as a slave, Tubman saved as much money as she can, she in fact even worked overtime! Eventually, after all the hard work paid off, she had saved enough money to escape. She escaped when her owner, Edward Burdess, had passed away, which gave her an opportunity to escape. Furthermore, another problem she conquered was her head injury. After some time, she recovered and had surgeries on her head to prevent the symptoms. Although she still felt pain, it wasn’t

as severe as when she didn’t have surgery. The fourth overcame challenge was her escape while being wanted. While escaping to the North, her two brothers were anxious and decided to return back. Harriet though, did not, she instead thought positive about the situation being free and believed that God was guiding her throughout the journey. A final conquered challenge accomplished by Tubman was bringing the slaves up North. With the inspiration of God, and how she knew how important it is to be free, she fought through and did it, freeing over a thousand slaves in her lifetime.

Throughout Tubman’s life, she experienced many events that would change her entity. One example was when she escaped slavery in the Underground Railroad. By doing this, she finally escaped to freedom and was not under the control of an owner anymore. Another event that changed her life was when she came back and forth from the North to the South nineteen times to rescue the slaves. Because of this, she saved the lives of many slaves living in unbearable conditions and became a hero to them due to her act of bravery to save and lead them to freedom. A final historical event that changed her life was when she working in the Civil War and constructed her own Underground Railroad to Canada to free the slaves. This changed her life because freeing the slaves up to the North made caused her success and fame for her act of bravery for the people and the country.

Another interesting fact about Harriet Tubman is that she has changed our history today.

One reason was of course, freeing the slaves in

the South. By doing so, some people today would still be living in the South. Second is that she her act of bravery to save so many people and her role as an abolitionist, someone who is against slavery, caused the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln at the time, to abolish the laws of slavery. It could be very possible that without her brave acts and the acts of many other people, our country would still be in slavery but good thing it is not. A final way dear Harriet Tubman changed history was that she was the one of the first women in history to rebel in war. Her job was to emancipate slaves all the way up to Canada and if she didn’t do so, the lives of the slaves she saved would still be living in slavery.

At the end of the day, Harriet Tubman was an outstanding woman who changed history. Moreover, she is someone in out history who should be more recognized. She is also considered an iconic legend for our country because of her heroic actions such as bringing slaves to freedom was just one out of many things she did. Her life of courage, strength, and bravery should be an example of how people should live their lives today. Thanks to Harriet Tubman, our country’s history has been changed in a very positive way.