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Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the Nineteenth Century by Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel

Call Number: Olin Library ET82 O35

Escaped slave, Civil War spy, scout, and nurse, and champion of women's suffrage, Harriet Tubman is an icon of heroism. Perhaps most famous for leading enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad, Tubman was dubbed "Moses" by followers. But abolition and the close of the Civil War were far from the end of her remarkable career. Tubman continued to fight for black civil rights, and campaign fiercely for women¿s suffrage, throughout her life. In this vivid, concise narrative supplemented by primary documents, Kristen T. Oertel introduces readers to Tubman¿s extraordinary life, from the trauma of her childhood slavery to her civil rights activism in the late nineteenth century, and in the process reveals a nation¿s struggle over its most central injustices.

Tubman was born into slavery in , and later escaped from Dorchester County, Maryland to Philadelphia where she lived as a freewoman  

Once free, Tubman dedicated her life to the abolition of slavery as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She brought approximately 70 enslaved African Americans to freedom in the north 

Tubman remained a philanthropist well into her later years, founding the Home for Aged & Indigent Negroes and supporting women’s rights

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"I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had the right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” – Harriet Tubman,  

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Early Life 

Born Araminta Ross (and affectionately called "Minty") in March of to parents Harriet (Rit) Green Ross and Benjamin Ross, Tubman was one of nine children. The Ross family were enslaved  in Dorchester County, Maryland. Chattel slavery determined that Black people were property that were bought and sold. The children of enslaved women were also considered enslaved, regardless of whether their fathers were enslaved or not. Such was the case for Tubman and her siblings as Benjamin was free, but Rit was not (University at Buffalo).