FACTS ABOUT HARRIET TUBMAN

1. She was born probably in 1822 in Maryland.  Her name was Arminta Ross.  Her mother called her “Minty”.  Both her parents were slaves.
2. Three of her sisters were sold away. When the master came to sell away one of her sons, she threatened to split his skull and he backed off.  It was the threat of being sold away that caused Minty to escape. 
3. Some of the jobs she did as a slave included nursemaid. If the baby cried, she was whipped.  She was left with scars from that.  Another job was checking muskrat traps.  And of course, she worked in the fields.
4. She was hit in the head by a two-pound weight that an overseer was throwing at a fleeing slave. She was not given any medical care for two days.  This resulted in severe headaches and seizures.  She also had visions and dreams that she attributed to God.  She became very religious and loved the Old Testament, especially the Exodus.
5. In 1844, she married John Tubman. She took his last name and her mother’s first name.
6. The first time she escaped, it was with her brothers. She had to give it up when they decided to return.  She escaped for good in 1849.  She got to Pennsylvania and hooked up with the Underground Railroad. 
7. Her first trip back was to get family members. Her husband had remarried and refused to go. 
8. From 1851-1862, she made 13 trips and rescued around 70 slaves. She never lost a “passenger”.  She carried a gun to “encourage” passengers.  She used disguises.  Sometimes she carried life chickens.  Or she held a newspaper because slaveholders knew she was illiterate.
9. In 1858, she met John Brown and helped him prepare for his raid. He called her “General Tubman.”  She did not participate because she was ill.
10. When the Civil War began, she came to army camps to help with the refugee slaves who were called “contraband”. She served as a scout and a spy.  She was a nurse.  She used her knowledge of plants and medicinal herbs to treat dysentery.  In spite of all that, she was once traveling by train and was bodily removed for a whites-only car.  She met Col. Robert Gould Shaw of the famous 54^th Massachusetts Regiment.  She may have served him his last meal before the attack on Fort Wagner.  She helped plan and lead the Combahee Raid in South Carolina.  700 slaves were freed.
11. After the war, she worked for women’s suffrage. She was friends with Susan B. Anthony.  She made speeches.  She was a speaker at the first meeting of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896.
12. When she was elderly, she had brain surgery on her head. She refused anesthesia because she had seen soldiers have to have surgery without it.  She bit on a bullet like they did.
13. She was inducted into S. Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in  February, 2021.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

https://www.pbs.org/articles/harriet-tubman-facts-and-quotes

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-harriet-tubman

https://www.npca.org/articles/2314-5-facts-you-might-not-know-about-harriet-tubman

https://visitdorchester.org/the-things-you-didnt-know-about-harriet-tubman/