Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the Underground Railroad. Harriet married twice. In 1844 Harriet married a black man named John Tubman. Little is known about John or his marriage to Harriet, including whether and how long they lived together. He was a free man. She was enslaved. John declined to make the voyage on the Underground Railroad with Harriet, preferring to stay in Maryland with a new wife. In 1869 Harriet married Nelson Davis. In 1874, the couple adopted a baby girl named Gertie.
The Underground Railroad: Between 1850 and 1860 Tubman made 19 trips from the South to the North following the network known as the Underground Railroad. She guided more than 300 people, including her parents and several siblings from slavery to freedom earning the nickname “Moses” for her leadership. Tubman first encountered the Underground Railroad when she used it to escape slavery herself in 1849. Following a bout of illness and the death of her owners, Tubman decided to escape slavery in Maryland for Philadelphia. She feared that her family would be further severed and was concerned for her own fate as a sickly slave of low economic value. Two brothers accompanied Harriet on Sept. 17, 1849. After a notice was published offering a $300 reward for her return, her brothers had second thoughts and returned to the plantation. After seeing her brothers safely home, Harriet soon set off alone for Pennsylvania. Making use of the Underground Railroad, Tubman traveled nearly 90 miles to Philadelphia. She crossed into the free state of Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief and awe and recalled later: ” When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees and over the field, and I felt like I was in heaven.” (www.biography.com) NOTE; THERE WILL BE A PART THREE AND FOUR TO THIS BIOGRAPHY.
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