Biography: Harriet Tubman was born as a slave on a Maryland farm. Her birth is said to have taken place in 1820 or 1821, but most enslavers didn't keep all birth documents. Life as a slave was very difficult for Harriet Tubman, her family of eleven children were living in a one-room cabin with her. She was only 6 years old when she was sold to a new family where she had to take care of a baby. She occasionally was given beatings and got only table scraps to eat. She worked a number of jobs on the farm, like plowing fields and helping to produce food and load wagons. This made her become very strong due to all the hard labor she has done, including carrying heavy logs and steering oxen. Harriet suffered a terrible head injury when she was thirteen years old. …show more content…
An enslaver tried to throw it at one of his slaves but missed and it hit Harriet. As a result, she suffered from dizziness and blackouts for the rest of her life. The website, Ducketers, states that there were states in the northern United States where slavery was outlawed. The enslaved in the South would try to escape to the North using the Underground Railroad (Ducksters, page 1). Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery was carefully planned and executed. She used a network of abolitionists and conductors on the Underground Railroad to help her. She ran away from her Maryland farm and traveled more than 100 miles to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where slavery was no longer practiced. Later, Tubman worked as a conductor for the Underground Railroad and frequently returned to the South to aid in the emancipation of other slaves. Over 300 slaves are thought to have been freed by her while she was a conductor. Underground Railroad was a secret network of people and safe houses that helped slaves escape to freedom in the