By Toby Moore
For Capital Region Independent Media
On a sprawling plantation in Maryland, Harriet Tubman took her first breath into a life of servitude, surrounded by fields of cotton, tobacco and sorrow.
At age five, Harriet was bought by a cruel trapper who forced her to work in the icy rivers, setting muskrat traps. Soon she was too sick to work and was brought back and made to be a caretaker for the plantation owner’s baby; any cries from the baby would result in a brutal whipping for Harriet.
One day, while the plantation owner and his wife were in a heated argument, Harriet spotted a bowl of sugar, something she had never tasted before. Sneaking a pinch of the sweet treat, she was seen by the “master’s” wife. Harriet bolted out of the house and hid in a pig pen for five hungry days rather than face another whipping.
With no food or refuge, she returned and was beaten brutally.
Harriet’s faith was a defining force in her life that guided her every step of the way. Rumors of escaped enslaved people reaching freedom in the North captivated Harriet. She prayed for a life beyond the constraints of slavery.
Despite her hardships, she found love for a free man named John Tubman. She often confided in John about her dream of escaping, but he threatened to report her if she ever tried.
Harriet said, “I had reasoned it out in my mind; there were two things I had a right to, liberty or death, and if I couldn’t have one, I would have the other.”
One day, a Quaker woman approached her as she worked in the fields. The Quakers were a religious society known for their commitment to anti-slavery beliefs. The lady told Harriet that she could come to her house if she ever wanted to escape.
It was the first time Harriet had met someone who was part of the whispered-about Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses and secret routes used by escaped slaves to reach freedom.
Escaping at night when her husband was asleep, Harriet arrived at the Quaker woman’s house, where she was given food and taught to navigate using the north star, as she would always travel by night.
As she made her way towards her freedom, Harriet was taken from one safe house to another, each one offering her food and shelter along the way.
Delighted to be a free woman in Philadelphia, her mind eventually turned to family. One day news reached Harriet that her sister Mary, her children, and other relatives were to be sold at the auction house, and she was determined to rescue them.
Harriet again traveled by night, returning to the county where she had once lived in slavery. With determination in her heart, she devised a plan with Mary’s husband, a free man, to help her free Mary and her children. He showed up at the auction house with a forged letter, claiming the plantation had a buyer for Harriet’s family, and they were to return home immediately.
The guard hesitated, his hands hovering over his rifle as he read the letter. Mary’s husband held his breath for an eternity, wondering if the ploy would work. It did, and Harriet wasted no time, whisking them away to freedom. She was now a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Harriet faced new dangers with the passage of laws allowing captured escaped slaves to be returned to their owners, even when found in the North.
Determined, she saved for a house in Canada, where she planned to bring escaped slaves. Harriet embarked on multiple rescue missions from Canada.
It wasn’t long before Harriet was a legend amongst enslaved people; they sang gospel songs in the fields about her. They called her Moses, sent to set her people free.
A reward was placed on her head, and she was sometimes forced to disguise herself as a man as she traveled from plantation to plantation to rescue any who desired freedom. She made 19 trips and rescued over 70 enslaved people.
Her legacy serves as a reminder that even in the darkest times, one person can make a difference and that we all have the power to overcome fear and stand up to tyranny in all of its forms.
Toby Moore is a columnist, the star of Emmy-nominated “A Separate Peace,” and the CEO of Cubestream Inc.
