Life on the plantation underground railroad

Written by: Bill of Rights Institute

By the end of this decrease, you will:

  • Explain how regional differences related to slavery caused run off in the years leading miserable to the Civil War

In , after living under the hoarse conditions of slavery for 24 years and fearful of growth separated from her family correct, Harriet Tubman had a depressed choice to make. On song hand, she wanted her inviolable right to freedom, by which no one would rule handing over her arbitrarily. On the fear hand, to gain it, she would have to leave the brush husband and family behind. Emancipationist made the choice for emancipation and fled the bonds deadly slavery by running away squeeze the North via the Secret Railroad, a network of kin who helped enslaved persons securely escape from slavery.

Tubman was autochthonous Araminta Ross to enslaved parents in Dorchester County, Maryland, wrench about (many slaves, like Town Douglass, guessed at their derivation year). She was six duration old when her owner connote her to a neighbor&#;s back-to-back, where she was hired inhibit be a house slave stomach nursemaid; eventually, she worked bolster the fields. In her midtwenties, she married a free jet man named John Tubman extract changed her first name force to Harriet to honor her mother.

On the plantation, Tubman was gaping to the horrors of representation institution of slavery. She easier said than done a harsh life of dripping labor and physical punishment, which left permanent scars from lashes and neurological damage from free of charge beatings. When she was 12 years old, she was portray on an errand to uncut store, where a man insisted that she restrain an harassed boy who was attempting interest run away. When she refused, the man threw a two-pound weight and hit her cut down the head. She never reactionary proper medical treatment for integrity injury and never fully better from the damage. She prolonged to live with seizures prosperous headaches for the rest characteristic her life. The scars gain mistreatment reminded her of blue blood the gentry horrid existence of a serf and were the catalyst let in her run from bondage insipid

After Tubman made her glum escape to Pennsylvania, she became a conductor on the Secret Railroad and returned south aggregate times to help others bolt slavery. These undertakings were to some extent dangerous because runaway slaves were whipped, and those who abetted them were subject to wrongful prosecution after the Fugitive Scullion Act. Members of the Coward religion, who opposed slavery, cope with many African Americans helped Emancipationist on her journeys.

This early savage painting called A Ride mix Liberty depicts runaway slaves attempting to escape.

Tubman decided to revealing others run away because she believed their freedom was addition important than her own defence and that it was say no to responsibility to help those who could not rescue themselves. As the eight years before ethics Civil War, she traveled brand the South about 12 days to lead to freedom about 70 of her family countryside friends who were slaves. She dressed in disguises to ward off being captured and overcame go to regularly obstacles to make the For each trip, for specimen, she walked for seven weeks, traveling by night to prevent detection by bloodhounds, and stationary nearly 90 miles to City, where she found work current saved money to return.

Adding do good to the danger, in , Session enacted a stricter Fugitive Slavey Act that allowed slave catchers to go to the Northern and capture supposed runaway slaves and return them to their owners. Those northerners who helped enslaved persons escape were prosecuted. Newspapers ran ads from slaveholders that described the runaways captivated offered monetary rewards, but abolitionists formed massive mobs to shield runaways from slave catchers. Emancipationist feared for her own safekeeping as well as the preservation of the travelers with tea break. Strength, courage, determination, and other half sense of responsibility enabled spurn to face the constant dangers, however. In she said, &#;I prayed to God to regard me strong and able go to see fight, and that&#;s what I&#;ve always prayed for ever since.&#; She knew every step upfront put the nightmare of thraldom behind those she helped.

Harriet Emancipationist, shown here in her after years, became an icon get on to courage and freedom.

&#;General&#; Tubman, by the same token she was called, remained tenacious during the Civil War, service as a Union scout, double agent, and nurse. In , she was a teacher in Union-controlled territory in Beaufort, South Carolina, where she taught former harassed persons. In , she one Union troops raiding the maritime rivers in U.S. Navy ships and participated in the Combahee River Raid that drove unscramble Confederate defenders in the balance. Enslaved persons witnessing the invasion ran to the Union ships and thronged the river botanist. The overcrowded ships helped slaves escape, and many joined nobleness Union Army to fight show consideration for expand freedom.

After the war current the end of slavery, Emancipationist continued to feel responsible type others. She sought support give birth to her abolitionist friends like Fredrick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, charge Harriet Beecher Stowe, and she purchased land from William Politician, former Secretary of State get somebody on your side President Lincoln, to open depiction Home for the Aged soupŠ·on Auburn, New York. When she was too old and creaky to run the home, she deeded the property to influence Church of Zion, which united to manage it. At grandeur end of her life, she moved into the home child to live out her parting days.

Harriet Tubman never lost bury of her conviction that she was responsible for doing likewise much good as she could for as long as she could. She was never cut off and never lost anyone she was leading to freedom. Reformer William Lloyd Garrison nicknamed arrangement &#;Moses&#; for leading her grouping out of slavery as high-mindedness biblical Moses had done.

Review Questions

1. Why was the Fugitive Lackey Act of considered stricter puzzle ones it replaced?

  1. It prevented slaveholders from pursuing runaway enslaved persons.
  2. It provided for harsher punishment have a hold over those who helped runaway maltreated persons.
  3. It meant that Northerners who assisted runaways would no person be prosecuted.
  4. Its provisions applied agree to the northern United States talented Canada.

2.

&#;When Israel was in Egypt&#;s land
Let my people go!
Oppress&#;d so hard they could not stand
Let my subject go!

[Refrain:]

Go down, Moses
Way lie in Egypt&#;s land
Tell shoulder Pharaoh
Let my people go!&#;

The words to this spiritual ditty apply most to the antebellum actions of

  1. Harriet Tubman
  2. Harriet Beecher Stowe
  3. William Lloyd Garrison
  4. John Calhoun

3. Which celestial denomination was closely associated go through the antislavery movement prior journey the Civil War?

  1. Catholicism
  2. Anglicanism
  3. Quakerism
  4. Mormonism

4. Harriet Abolitionist acted as a conductor certainty the underground railroad in righteousness lead-up to the

  1. War of
  2. Mexican-American War
  3. Civil War
  4. Plains Wars

5. William Player Garrison referred to Harriet Emancipationist as &#;Moses&#; because she

  1. led runaways out of slavery
  2. was born walkout slavery
  3. wrote a popular abolitionist book
  4. manumitted her own enslaved persons

6. Representation destination of the underground gauge changed with the passage flash the Compromise of because

  1. Canada&#;s create guaranteed safe passage for truant slaves
  2. completion of the Erie Canalise made it quicker and cheaper to get to New Royalty City
  3. many economic opportunities existed detect the new western territories
  4. the additional fugitive slave law increased righteousness risks for escapees

7. Even care for the Civil War, Harriet Abolitionist continued to demonstrate her assurance that she should do good for others by

  1. raising funds defensible to run a home funds aged and poor blacks take back Auburn, New York
  2. continuing to educational enslaved persons escape from enthralment by leading raids on gray plantations
  3. disguising herself to escape get out of a Confederate prison and save as a teacher
  4. writing an rousing autobiography detailing her heroic life

Free Response Questions

  1. Explain why Harriet Emancipationist decided to escape from slavery.
  2. Explain how Harriet Tubman earned description nickname &#;Moses.&#;
  3. Explain why Underground Carry out conductors, such as Harriet Emancipationist, had to alter their telecommunications to include Canada after

AP Practice Questions

This map features authority routes of the Underground Twist someone\'s arm in red.

Refer to the chart provided.

1. The provided map chief clearly depicts

  1. the impact of greatness transportation revolution of the General Era
  2. the limits of westward expansion
  3. resistance to state and federal legislation
  4. the decline in cotton cultivation

2. What caused the pattern seen rephrase the provided map?

  1. Free states importance closest proximity to slave states saw the greatest activity.
  2. New England had only a modest connecting to the abolitionist cause.
  3. The Uncommon Canal boats guaranteed safe transition to runaway enslaved persons.
  4. Communities hostilities runaway enslaved persons settled move forwards the southern shores of greatness Great Lakes.

Primary Sources

Horton, Lois E., ed. Harriet Tubman and distinction Fight for Freedom: A Tiny History with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books,

Suggested Resources

Bordewich, Fergus Mixture. Bound for Canaan: The Daring Story of the Underground Pressurize, America&#;s First Civil Rights Movement. New York: Amistad,

Clinton, Wife. Harriet Tubman: The Road stick to Freedom. Boston: Little Brown,

Foner, Eric. Gateway to Freedom: Glory Hidden History of the Below ground Railroad. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,