Facts on Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman, a slave herself, devoted her life towards the banishment of slavery. Throughout life, she strove for freeing the Blacks from the ill treatment by the Whites. Her life was a sacrifice for the Blacks that culminated in a success. She was successful in abolishing slavery and establishing humanity in society. Success did not come easy. She had to go through trauma and torture to finally see slavery to have banished from society.

Facts on Harriet Tubman

• Harriet Tubman, an African American, was born to parents Harriet Green and Ben Moss in Dorchester, Maryland. It is interesting to know that there exists no proof about her exact year of birth. She is believed to have been born in 1819, 1820 or 1825.
• At the early age of five or six, her master rented her to Miss Susan. Her master used to beat her badly. She protected herself from the beating by wrapping her self in multiple layers of clothes.
• At the age of twelve, she had to be operated. She suffered from a severe head injury that was the result of a slave's overseer throwing a two-pound weight at her. After this accident, she started getting dreams. She strongly believed her dreams to be indications from God. She suffered from intermittent periods of unconsciousness following her brain injury. Harriet had claimed to be aware of her surroundings when she seemed unconscious to everyone around.
• In 1844, Harriet married John Tubman. He was a free black man.
• In 1849, Harriet's master tried to sell her. Harriet was against this decision. She had later said that she had prayed for her master's death at that time and that God had listened to her. She fled from her master's house soon after his death.
• Tubman performed a great feat of returning to enslavement when she came to know that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold.
• In the American civil war of 1961, Tubman and her supporters saw a Union victory. After this accomplishment, Tubman joined a group of the abolitionists of Boston and Philadelphia. She worked for the Union. She launched an armed attack in the Civil war, later in 1863. She was the first woman to lead an armed attack in that war.
• Once while traveling to New York in a train, The Whites in the train threw Harriet into a smoke car. The Civil war had actually ended by then. But it was clear from this incident that the Whites' approach of looking towards the Blacks had hardly changed.
• Two volumes of the biography of Harriet Tubman were published. Bradford, one of Harriet's admirers released the first volume while the second volume came up by the name, ‘Harriet, the Moses of her people', in 1886.
• Harriet Tubman was awarded a pension of twenty dollars in 1889. Ironically it was not for her services to humanity. It was rather because she was Mr. Davis's widow.
• When a brain surgery had to be conducted on Harriet, she had to be given anesthesia. But she refused to be given an anesthesia. Instead she chewed a bullet during her surgery. She had seen the Civil war soldiers do this when their limbs had to be amputated.
• Harriet Tubman passed away on March 10, 1913. She was entombed at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn. The rituals of her burial were performed with military honors.
• Many important institutes across the US have been named after Harriet. She is one of the most notable figures in the history. A survey at the end of the twentieth century revealed that she is the third most famous individual of American history.

Harriet Tubman dedicated a lifetime to the establishment of equality. She was a source of inspiration for many. Her relentless struggle for equality and civil rights was the one of its kind. Born in a slave family, and after going through all the torture, she emerged instrumental in guiding the Blacks towards liberty.