Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
to the cause of our country. She is poor and has poor parents. Such
a servant of the country should be well paid by the country. I hope
that the Government will look into her case.
GERRIT SMITH.
_Testimonial from Gerrit Smith._
PETERBORO, Nov. 22, 1864.
The bearer, Harriet Tubman, needs not any recommendation. Nearly
all the nation over, she has been heard of for her wisdom,
integrity, patriotism, and bravery. The cause of freedom owes her
much. The country owes her much.
I have known Harriet for many years, and I hold her in my high
esteem.
GERRIT SMITH.
_Certificate from Henry K. Durrant, Acting Asst. Surgeon, U. S. A._
I certify that I have been acquainted with Harriet Tubman for
nearly two years; and my position as Medical Officer in charge of
"contrabands" in this town and in hospital, has given me frequent
and ample opportunities to observe her general deportment;
particularly her kindness and attention to the sick and suffering
of her own race. I take much pleasure in testifying to the esteem
in which she is generally held.
HENRY K. DURRANT,
Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A.
In charge "Contraband" Hospital.
Dated at Beaufort, S. C., the 3d day of May, 1864.
I concur fully in the above.
R. SAXTON, Brig.-Gen. Vol.
The following are a few of the passes used by Harriet throughout the
war. Many others are so defaced that it is impossible to decipher them.
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HILTON HEAD, PORT ROYAL,
S. C., Feb. 19, 1863.
Pass the bearer, Harriet Tubman, to Beaufort and back to this
place, and wherever she wishes to go; and give her free passage at
all times, on all Government transports. Harriet was sent to me
from Boston by Gov. Andrew of Mass., and is a valuable woman. She
has permission, as a servant of the Government, to purchase such
provisions from the Commissary as she may need.
D. HUNTER, Maj.-Gen. Com.
General Gillman, who succeeded General Hunter in command of the
Department of the South, appends his signature to the same pass.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, July 1, 1863.
Continued in force.
I. A. GILLMAN, Brig.-Gen. Com.
BEAUFORT, Aug. 28, 1862.
Will Capt. Warfield please let "Moses" have a little Bourbon
whiskey for medicinal purposes.
HENRY K. DURRANT, Act. Ass. Surgeon.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
March 20, 1865.
Pass Mrs. Harriet Tubman (colored) to Hilton Head and Charleston,
S. C., with free transportation on a Government transport.
By order of the Sec. of War.
LOUIS H., Asst. Adj.-Gen., U. S. A.
To Bvt. Brig.-Gen. Van Vliet, U. S. Q. M., N. Y.
Not transferable.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
July 22, 1865.
Permit Harriet Tubman to proceed to Fortress Monroe, Va., on a
Government transport. Transportation will be furnished free of
cost.
By order of the Secretary of War.
L. H., Asst. Adj.-Gen.
Not transferable.
_Appointment as Nurse._
SIR:--I have the honor to inform you that the Medical Director
Department of Virginia has been instructed to appoint Harriet
Tubman nurse or matron at the Colored Hospital, Fort Monroe, Va.
Very respectfully, your obdt. servant,
V. K. BARNES, Surgeon-General.
HON. WM. H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
_Names of Harriet's Assistants, Scouts, or Pilots._
Scouts who are residents of Beaufort, and well acquainted with the
main land: Peter Barns, Mott Blake, Sandy Selters, Solomon Gregory,
Isaac Hayward, Gabriel Cohen, George Chrisholm.
Pilots who know the channels of the rivers in this vicinity, and
who acted as such for Col. Montgomery up the Combahee River:
Charles Simmons, Samuel Hayward.
App'd, R. SAXTON, Brig.-Gen.
At this point the following good and kind letter from Rev. Henry Fowler
is received:
AUBURN, June 23, 1868.
MY DEAR FRIEND:--I wish to say to you how gratified I am that you
are writing the biography of Harriet Tubman. I feel that her life
forms part of the history of the country, and that it ought not to
depend upon tradition to keep it in remembrance. Had not the
pressure of professional claims prevented, I should have aspired to
be her historian myself; but my disappointment in this regard is
more than met by the satisfaction experienced in hearing that you
are the chosen Miriam of this African "Moses;" the name by which
she was known among her emancipated followers from the land of
bondage. Blessed be God! a "Greater than Moses" has at last broken
every bond.
As ever, with warm regard, your friend,
HENRY FOWLER.
The following account of the subject of this memoir is cut from the
_Boston Commonwealth_ of 1863, kindly sent the writer by Mr. Sanborn:
"It was said long ago that the true romance of America was not in the
fortunes of the Indian, where Cooper sought it, nor in the New England
character, where Judd found it, nor in the social contrasts of Virginia
planters, as Thackeray imagined, but in the story of the fugitive
slaves. The observation is as true now as it was before war, with swift,
gigantic hand, sketched the vast shadows, and dashed in the high lights
in which romance loves to lurk and flash forth. But the stage is
enlarged on which these dramas are played, the whole world now sit as
spectators, and the desperation or the magnanimity of a poor black woman
has power to shake the nation that so long was deaf to her cries. We
write of one of these heroines, of whom our slave annals are full,--a
woman whose career is as extraordinary as the most famous of her sex can
show.
"Araminta Ross, now known by her married name of Tubman, with her
sounding Christian name changed to Harriet, is the grand-daughter of a
slave imported from Africa, and has not a drop of white blood in her
veins. Her parents were Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both slaves,
but married and faithful to each other. They still live in old age and
poverty, but free, on a little property at Auburn, N. Y., which their
daughter purchased for them from Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State. She
was born, as near as she can remember, in 1820 or in 1821, in Dorchester
County, on the Eastern shore of Maryland, and not far from the town of
Cambridge. She had ten brothers and sisters, of whom three are now
living, all at the North, and all rescued from slavery by Harriet,
before the War. She went back just as the South was preparing to secede,
to bring away a fourth, but before she could reach her, she was dead.
Three years before, she had brought away her old father and mother, at
great risk to herself.
"When Harriet was six years old, she was taken from her mother and
carried ten miles to live with James Cook, whose wife was a weaver, to
learn the trade of weaving. While still a mere child, Cook set her to
watching his musk-rat traps, which compelled her to wade through the
water. It happened that she was once sent when she was ill with the
measles, and, taking cold from wading in the water in this condition,
she grew very sick, and her mother persuaded her master to take her
away from Cook's until she could get well.
"Another attempt was made to teach her weaving, but she would not learn,
for she hated her mistress, and did not want to live at home, as she
would have done as a weaver, for it was the custom then to weave the
cloth for the family, or a part of it, in the house.
"Soon after she entered her teens she was hired out as a field hand, and
it was while thus employed that she received a wound which nearly proved
fatal, from the effects of which she still suffers. In the fall of the
year, the slaves there work in the evening, cleaning up wheat, husking
corn, etc. On this occasion, one of the slaves of a farmer named
Barrett, left his work, and went to the village store in the evening.
The overseer followed him, and so did Harriet. When the slave was found,
the overseer swore he should be whipped, and called on Harriet, among
others, to help tie him. She refused, and as the man ran away, she
placed herself in the door to stop pursuit. The overseer caught up a
two-pound weight from the counter and threw it at the fugitive, but it
fell short and struck Harriet a stunning blow on the head. It was long
before she recovered from this, and it has left her subject to a sort
of stupor or lethargy at times; coming upon her in the midst of
conversation, or whatever she may be doing, and throwing her into a deep
slumber, from which she will presently rouse herself, and go on with her
conversation or work.
"After this she lived for five or six years with John Stewart, where at
first she worked in the house, but afterwards 'hired her time,' and Dr.
Thompson, son of her master's guardian, 'stood for her,' that is, was
her surety for the payment of what she owed. She employed the time thus
hired in the rudest labors,--drove oxen, carted, plowed, and did all the
work of a man,--sometimes earning money enough in a year, beyond what
she paid her master, 'to buy a pair of steers,' worth forty dollars. The
amount exacted of a woman for her time was fifty or sixty dollars--of a
man, one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars. Frequently Harriet
worked for her father, who was a timber inspector, and superintended the
cutting and hauling of great quantities of timber for the Baltimore
ship-yards. Stewart, his temporary master, was a builder, and for the
work of Ross used to receive as much as five dollars a day sometimes, he
being a superior workman. While engaged with her father, she would cut
wood, haul logs, etc. Her usual 'stint' was half a cord of wood in a
day.
"Harriet was married somewhere about 1844, to a free colored man named
John Tubman, but she had no children. For the last two years of slavery
she lived with Dr. Thompson, before mentioned, her own master not being
yet of age, and Dr. T.'s father being his guardian, as well as the owner
of her own father. In 1849 the young man died, and the slaves were to be
sold, though previously set free by an old will. Harriet resolved not to
be sold, and so, with no knowledge of the North--having only heard of
Pennsylvania and New Jersey--she walked away one night alone. She found
a friend in a white lady, who knew her story and helped her on her way.
After many adventures, she reached Philadelphia, where she found work
and earned a small stock of money. With this money in her purse, she
traveled back to Maryland for her husband, but she found him married to
another woman, and no longer caring to live with her. This, however, was
not until two years after her escape, for she does not seem to have
reached her old home in her first two expeditions. In December, 1850,
she had visited Baltimore and brought away her sister and two children,
who had come up from Cambridge in a boat, under charge of her sister's
husband, a free black. A few months after she had brought away her
brother and two other men, but it was not till the fall of 1851 that she
found her husband and learned of his infidelity. She did not give way to
rage or grief, but collected a party of fugitives and brought them
safely to Philadelphia. In December of the same year, she returned, and
led out a party of eleven, among them her brother and his wife. With
these she journeyed to Canada, and there spent the winter, for this was
after the enforcement of Mason's Fugitive Slave Bill in Philadelphia and