Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
Harriet had taken them away before the young people, these last would
have been sold into Southern slavery, to keep them out of her way. But
at length Harriet heard that the old man had been betrayed by a slave
whom he had assisted, but who had turned back, and when questioned by
his wife, told her the story of his intended escape, and of the aid he
had received from "Old Ben." This woman, hoping to curry favor with her
master, revealed the whole to him, and "Old Ben" was arrested. He was to
be tried the next week, when Harriet appeared upon the scene, and, as
she says, "saved dem de expense ob de trial," and removed her father to
a higher court, by taking him off to Canada. The manner of their escape
is detailed in the following letter from Thomas Garrett, the Wilmington
Quaker:
WILMINGTON, 6th Mo., 1868.
MY FRIEND: Thy favor of the 12th reached me yesterday, requesting
such reminiscences as I could give respecting the remarkable labors
of Harriet Tubman, in aiding her colored friends from bondage. I
may begin by saying, living as I have in a slave State, and the
laws being very severe where any proof could be made of any one
aiding slaves on their way to freedom, I have not felt at liberty
to keep any written word of Harriet's or my own labors, except in
numbering those whom I have aided. For that reason I cannot furnish
so interesting an account of Harriet's labors as I otherwise could,
and now would be glad to do; for in truth I never met with any
person, of any color, who had more confidence in the voice of God,
as spoken direct to her soul. She has frequently told me that she
talked with God, and he talked with her every day of her life, and
she has declared to me that she felt no more fear of being arrested
by her former master, or any other person, when in his immediate
neighborhood, than she did in the State of New York, or Canada, for
she said she never ventured only where God sent her, and her faith
in a Supreme Power truly was great.
I have now been confined to my room with indisposition more than
four weeks, and cannot sit to write much; but I feel so much
interested in Harriet that I will try to give some of the most
remarkable incidents that now present themselves to my mind. The
date of the commencement of her labors, I cannot certainly give;
but I think it must have been about 1845; from that time till 1860,
I think she must have brought from the neighborhood where she had
been held as a slave, from 60 to 80 persons, from Maryland, some 80
miles from here. No slave who placed himself under her care, was
ever arrested that I have heard of; she mostly had her regular
stopping places on her route; but in one instance, when she had two
stout men with her, some 30 miles below here, she said that God
told her to stop, which she did; and then asked him what she must
do. He told her to leave the road, and turn to the left; she
obeyed, and soon came to a small stream of tide water; there was no
boat, no bridge; she again inquired of her Guide what she was to
do. She was told to go through. It was cold, in the month of March;
but having confidence in her Guide, she went in; the water came up
to her arm-pits; the men refused to follow till they saw her safe
on the opposite shore. They then followed, and if I mistake not,
she had soon to wade a second stream; soon after which she came to
a cabin of colored people, who took them all in, put them to bed,
and dried their clothes, ready to proceed next night on their
journey. Harriet had run out of money, and gave them some of her
under-clothing to pay for their kindness. When she called on me two
days after, she was so hoarse she could hardly speak, and was also
suffering with violent toothache. The strange part of the story we
found to be, that the master of these two men had put up the
previous day, at the railroad station near where she left, an
advertisement for them, offering a large reward for their
apprehension; but they made a safe exit. She at one time brought as
many as seven or eight, several of whom were women and children.
She was well known here in Chester County and Philadelphia, and
respected by all true abolitionists. I had been in the habit of
furnishing her and those that accompanied her, as she returned from
her acts of mercy, with new shoes; and on one occasion when I had
not seen her for three months, she came into my store. I said,
"Harriet, I am glad to see thee! I suppose thee wants a pair of new
shoes." Her reply was "I want more than that." I, in jest, said, "I
have always been liberal with thee, and wish to be; but I am not
rich, and cannot afford to give much." Her reply was: "God tells me
you have money for me." I asked her "if God never deceived her?"
She said, "No!" "Well! how much does thee want?" After studying a
moment, she said: "About twenty-three dollars." I then gave her
twenty-four dollars and some odd cents, the net proceeds of five
pounds sterling, received through Eliza Wigham, of Scotland, for
her. I had given some accounts of Harriet's labor to the
Anti-Slavery Society of Edinburgh, of which Eliza Wigham was
Secretary. On the reading of my letter, a gentleman present said he
would send Harriet four pounds if he knew of any way to get it to
her. Eliza Wigham offered to forward it to me for her, and that was
the first money ever received by me for her. Some twelve months
after, she called on me again, and said that God told her I had
some money for her, but not so much as before. I had, a few days
previous, received the net proceeds of one pound ten shillings from
Europe for her. To say the least, there was something remarkable in
these facts, whether clairvoyance, or the divine impression on her
mind from the source of all power, I cannot tell; but certain it
was she had a guide within herself other than the written word, for
she never had any education. She brought away her aged parents in a
singular manner. They started with an old horse, fitted out in
primitive style with a _straw collar_, a pair of old chaise wheels,
with a board on the axle to sit on, another board swung with ropes,
fastened to the axle, to rest their feet on. She got her parents,
who were both slaves belonging to different masters, on this rude
vehicle to the railroad, put them in the cars, turned Jehu herself,
and drove to town in a style that no human being ever did before or
since; but she was happy at having arrived safe. Next day, I
furnished her with money to take them all to Canada. I afterwards
sold their horse, and sent them the balance of the proceeds. I
believe that Harriet succeeded in freeing all her relatives but one
sister and her three children. Etc., etc.
Thy friend,
THOS. GARRETT.
Friend Garrett probably refers here to those who passed through his
hands. Harriet was obliged to come by many different routes on her
different journeys, and though she never counted those whom she brought
away with her, it would seem, by the computation of others, that there
must have been somewhere near three hundred brought by her to the
Northern States and Canada.
Extracts from a letter written by Mr. Sanborn, Secretary of the
Massachusetts Board of State Charities.
MY DEAR MADAME: Mr. Phillips has sent me your note, asking for
reminiscences of Harriet Tubman, and testimonials to her
extraordinary story, which all her New England friends will, I am
sure, be glad to furnish.
I never had reason to doubt the truth of what Harriet said in
regard to her own career, for I found her singularly truthful. Her
imagination is warm and rich, and there is a whole region of the
marvelous in her nature, which has manifested itself at times
remarkably. Her dreams and visions, misgivings and forewarnings,
ought not to be omitted in any life of her, particularly those
relating to John Brown.
She was in his confidence in 1858-9, and he had a great regard for
her, which he often expressed to me. She aided him in his plans,
and expected to do so still further, when his career was closed by
that wonderful campaign in Virginia. The first time she came to my
house, in Concord, after that tragedy, she was shown into a room in
the evening, where Brackett's bust of John Brown was standing. The
sight of it, which was new to her, threw her into a sort of ecstacy
of sorrow and admiration, and she went on in her rhapsodical way to
pronounce his apotheosis.
She has often been in Concord, where she resided at the houses of
Emerson, Alcott, the Whitneys, the Brooks family, Mrs. Horace
Mann, and other well known persons. They all admired and respected
her, and nobody doubted the reality of her adventures. She was too
_real_ a person to be suspected. In 1862, I think it was, she went
from Boston to Port Royal, under the advice and encouragement of
Mr. Garrison, Governor Andrew, Dr. Howe, and other leading people.
Her career in South Carolina is well known to some of our officers,
and I think to Colonel Higginson, now of Newport, R. I., and
Colonel James Montgomery, of Kansas, to both of whom she was useful
as a spy and guide, if I mistake not. I regard her as, on the
whole, the most extraordinary person of her race I have ever met.
She is a negro of pure or almost pure blood, can neither read nor
write, and has the characteristics of her race and condition. But
she has done what can scarcely be credited on the best authority,
and she has accomplished her purposes with a coolness, foresight,
patience, and wisdom, which in a _white man_ would have raised him
to the highest pitch of reputation.
I am, dear Madame, very truly your servant,
F. B. SANBORN.
Of the "dreams and visions" mentioned in this letter, the writer might
have given many wonderful instances; but it was thought best not to
insert anything which, with any, might bring discredit upon the story.
When these turns of somnolency come upon Harriet, she imagines that her
"spirit" leaves her body, and visits other scenes and places, not only
in this world, but in the world of spirits. And her ideas of these
scenes show, to say the least of it, a vividness of imagination seldom
equaled in the soarings of the most cultivated minds.
Not long since, the writer, on going into Harriet's room in the morning,
sat down by her and began to read that wonderful and glorious
description of the heavenly Jerusalem in the two last chapters of
Revelations. When the reading was finished, Harriet burst into a
rhapsody which perfectly amazed her hearer--telling of what she had seen
in one of these visions, sights which no one could doubt had been real
to her, and which no human imagination could have conceived, it would
seem, unless in dream or vision. There was a wild poetry in these
descriptions which seemed to border almost on inspiration, but by many
they might be characterized as the ravings of insanity. All that can be
said is, however, if this woman is insane, there has been a wonderful
"method in her madness."
At one time, Harriet was much troubled in spirit about her three
brothers, feeling sure that some great evil was impending over their
heads. She wrote a letter, by the hand of a friend, to a man named Jacob