How Did Harriet Tubman Contribute To The Abolitionist Movement

958 Words4 Pages

A woman in the 1860’s who led almost a hundred slaves away from enslavement to freedom through many passages. Do you know who that is? Harriet Tubman was a black woman who escaped from her slave owner’s home. She used the underground railroad to escape and to help enslaved people also escape. She used the things she learned from nature and being enslaved to help find the best routes and stay away from being caught. Harriet Tubman contributed to the abolitionist movement in the United States through her involvement in the underground railroad, the challenges she faced during the movement, and how she influenced others to join the movement through her help during the civil war. Harriet Tubman contributed to the abolitionist movement in the United …show more content…

Once free, she became an operator of the Underground Railroad — a secret network of people, places and routes that provided shelter and assistance to escaping slaves.She courageously returned to Maryland at least 13 times over the course of a decade to rescue her parents, brothers, family members, and friends, guiding them safely to freedom.” Tubman became an operator of the underground railroad guiding and saving many slaves from enslavement through carefully made routes to a safe space where the slaves could live free and out of danger. She did this for many years, soon having to change her route from New York to Canada. According to the article, Harriet Tubman, it says, “Over the course of 11 years, Tubman rescued over 70 slaves from Maryland, and assisted 50 or 60 others in making their way to Canada. During this time, her reputation in the abolitionist community grew, and she became acquainted with Frederick Douglass and John Brown. She also moved her base of operations to Auburn, New York, closer to the Canadian …show more content…

In the article, Harriet Tubman, it states “Her success led slaveowners to post a $40,000 reward for her capture or death.” She risked her life to escape from slavery and risked it even further by helping others escape from it. Of course, there were other challenges she had to face besides being caught. In her childhood, her resistance to slavery showed early resulting in her being hit in the head with a two pound brick leading to lifelong epilepsy episodes. In the text, it says “Early signs of her resistance to slavery and its abuses came at age twelve when she intervened to keep her master from beating an enslaved man who tried to escape. She was hit in the head with a two-pound weight, leaving her with a lifetime of severe headaches and narcolepsy.” As a result of her resistance, it came with consequences like narcolepsy that stayed with her for her whole life. Even though she couldn't help then, it didn't mean she couldn’t help with something in the future, like the civil war. Harriet Tubman helped to convince people to join the abolitionist movement through her time in the Union during the Civil