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Harriet Tubman was a short-term missionary on seventeen different occasions from
1849 to 1860.
Harriet's family were slaves in the deep south of the United States. When she
was at the age of thirteen, one of the supervisors on the plantation where they
lived fractured her skull with a .9 kilogram weight because she tried to save
another slave from punishment. This caused her to have blackouts for the rest
of her life.
In 1849 Harriet decided that she would run away to find freedom without her
husband. She had heard of the underground railroad and knew of a woman who was
willing to help her if she could make it to her house. Harriet succeeded in her
escape by following the directions she was given. Her father had taught her all
he knew about the woods. This became very useful in her mission efforts and her
own escape.
When she arrived in Pennsylvania she decided to go back to help free her family.
She became known as Moses. After she had freed her brothers she had a dream that
her father was in deep trouble and that God would help her free him and her
mother. At this time there was a $40,000 reward for her capture. She had a
strong faith in God, whom she trusted to make it possible for her mission to
be successful. Hence, against all advice from her friends, she went back. God
used one of her father's boss's helpers in this rescue to help her.
In 1844 she married John Tubman, who was a freed slave. Her maiden name was
Araminta Ross but even as a child she became known as Harriet, which was her
mother's name.
In the 1850s Harriet was able to rescue over 300 slaves from Maryland, the state
of her birth. She worked as a spy and a nurse during the Civil War for the Union
Army and turned her home into a refuge for the sick and the destitute after the
war. She died at the age of 93 on March 10th in 1913.
- Anna Kroeker
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