Harriet Tubman Essay

Harriet Tubman was a woman who changed the course of history by fighting against slavery throughout her entire life. Most modern-day individuals know her for conducting the Underground Railroad and helping hundreds of enslaved people escape from their captors. She went on several perilous journeys to southern plantations despite the heavy reward sum that plantation owners eventually placed on her head. Her courage and readiness to risk her own capture allowed many to live better lives in the North. However, conducting the Underground Railroad was not the only way she contributed to the abolition of slavery. Tubman also served in the Civil War, liberating hundreds of enslaved people. Even after her war duties were over, she continued to help

The Fugitive Slave Act granted plantation overseers permission to travel north to recapture and enslave freed or escaped individuals. Because of the dangers this law brought with it, Tubman began to take those she had rescued as far north as Canada for their safety. Over time, plantation owners gathered knowledge of Tubman. She was so successful with her charges that the plantation overseers placed a forty thousand dollar reward over her head, which, in modern finances, is equivalent to over one million dollars. By the time her trips to the plantations were over, Tubman had led a minimum of seventy people to freedom in the north and become the most well known “conductor” of the Underground

She took a job as a nurse for the Union during the beginnings of the Civil War; she gradually gained jobs such as the head of a group of spies; she was one of the first African-American women to serve in a war. She reported important information with which the Union Commanders were able to free seven hundred enslaved individuals from a plantation; Tubman herself took part in the rescue. After the Civil War ended, Tubman did not receive nearly enough pay for her war services, and she took drastic measures to make up for her debt. She was only recognized for her war deeds thirty years after the conflict ended. Later in her life, Tubman supported oppressed minorities by giving speeches in favor of universal suffrage. In order to further aid those in need, she allowed many individuals in need to stay at her house and eventually bought a plot of land to house aged people of color.
After the Civil War, Harriet settled with family and friends on land she owned in Auburn, New York. She married former enslaved man and Civil War veteran Nelson Davis in 1869 (her husband John had died 1867) and they adopted a little girl named Gertie a few years