Harriet Tubman Dbq

“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.” Words of bravery and true independence from one of the most historical figures: Harriet Tubman. According to the background essay, Tubman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1822. She was enslaved, but strong enough that by the age of twelve, she was moving logs. When her master died in 1849, Tubman made the courageous choice to free herself from enslavement and fled to Pennsylvania (Background Essay). Her bravery didn’t end there; she continued to help and free many people on the Underground Railroad and with the Union during the Civil War (Documents A, B, C, D). Tubman had many achievements during her life, but the greatest achievement

Back and forth multiple times over a decade. Each route was different as well, and most likely after the Fugitive Slave Act, new routes were used that were longer than past trails were traversed. This was because northern states were required by this law to take back any escaped enslaved people. Unquestionably, walking that many miles for a decade takes a lot of strength, and her only way to guide herself and the escapees was to use the North Star to get north. Tubman also had to keep in contact with the owners of the safe houses, and back in the day, communication like that was very difficult to keep up. However, most recorded missions on Harriet Tubman’s end successfully say that no second was wasted on making sure that everyone would get their freedom when they reached the north safely. Now, even with all those challenges, there were many other dangers that were out for Tubman. In Document B, the gap between each mission becomes larger, starting right around the introduction of the Fugitive Slave Act. Along with this, a bounty sat on Harriet Tubman’s head. Rescue missions had become so dangerous that if someone she rescued wanted to turn back, Tubman would pull a gun out on them to keep herself and other escapees

Furthermore, most supplies that would have been very helpful to her on the trails were most likely not available to her due to her status at the time. Admittedly, working as a nurse is a very noble task. Even so, when analyzing Tubman’s work as a conductor, her nurse experience seems to pale in comparison to that. Now others also believe that her greatest achievement was helping the poor, old, and disabled and caring for them (Document E). At the time, Tubman was much older than she was when she was a conductor, her old age coming with many health issues and issues moving around that didn’t plague Tubman when she worked on the Underground Railroad. However, her time caring for all those people took place after slavery was officially abolished, and Tubman was now officially free without the risk of being kidnapped back into slavery. In addition to that, she was now living in her home with access to many more resources and wasn’t traveling back and forth for hundreds of miles between the north and south with the many risks listed