Harriet Tubman: The Making of a Hero Essay

Harriet Tubman: the Making of a Hero

There are people who are way before the times that they are born into and must live in.

A shining example of this is the woman Harriet Tubman, who led the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800's, freeing over 70 people in her 13 trips to the south. [1]

What was it about this remarkable woman that gave her the strength and courage to risk her life time after time, and then to help so many others to find their freedom also?

Let's look at the key characteristics of this person, to find just what she was made of:

Her childlessness.

She did not have children with John Tubman in their 4 yrs. Of marriage.

"we do know that her childlessness greatly increased her chances for successful escape and made her later Underground Railroad and war work more easily possible." [2]

Her determination not to be 'sold down south', as her two older sisters were.

"I had two sisters carried away in a chain-gang -- one of them left two children. We were always uneasy." (Tubman, 1856)

This was a critical factor in "her extraordinary drive to protect her family members at all costs." [3]

3) The ability to strike out alone.

Her initial escape was with her two brothers, but the brothers, "appalled by dangers before and behind them, decided to go back, & #8230; they tried to force her back also, but she continued on alone."[4]

Thus, Tubman took the initiative of pursuing freedom on her own. This rising above the fear that surrounded her would continue to set her apart from those around her. Time and time again she evidenced this extraordinary strength, and a deeper belief in herself, that she would make it, regardless of circumstances.

4) Her ability to make friends with white Quaker sympathizers.

These friends provided her with information, shelter, provisions, and safe passage from depot to depot of the safe houses that comprised the Underground Railroad.

Notably, "Tubman's ability to form apparently affectionate relationships with politically allied white women, despite her experience of physical and psychological mistreatment by white slave holding women such as those whose whippings scarred her neck and back." One white male operative of the Underground Railroad was the Quaker Thomas Garrett, who helped her find work in Philadelphia and "kept close correspondence with the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, an interracial fugitive aid group." Within 2 yrs. This group helped her formulate her plan to return south and bring her family back to freedom. [5]

And so her friendly nature and political adeptness helped her rise above the racial norms and dictates that oppressed and suppressed her own contemporaries.

5) Her strong familial ties. 1

Garrett noted that Tubman "anticipated an early retirement. . . She says if she gets them away safely, she will be content."

Here we see that her strong attachment to her family vs. The.....