The breathtaking courage of Harriet Tubman - Janell Hobson

Escaping slavery; risking everything to save her family; leading a military raid; championing the cause of women's suffrage; these are just a handful of the accomplishments of one of America's most courageous heroes. 00:19 Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland, 00:23 in the early 1820s. 00:25 Born into chattel slavery, Araminta, or Minty, was the fifth of nine children. 00:30 Two of Minty's older sisters were sold to a chain gang. 00:33 Even as a small child, 00:35 Minty was hired out to different owners, 00:37 who subjected her to whippings and punishment. 00:39 Young Minty's life changed forever on an errand to a neighborhood store. 00:43 There, an overseer threw a two-pound weight at a fugitive enslaved person, 00:47 missed, and struck Minty instead. 00:50 Her injury caused her to experience sleeping spells, 00:53 which we know of today as narcolepsy, 00:55 for the rest of her life. 00:57 Minty's owner tried to sell her, 00:59 but there were no buyers for an enslaved person who fell into sleeping spells. 01:03 She was instead put to work with her father, Ben Ross, 01:06 who taught her how to lumber. 01:08 Lumbering increased Minty's physical strength 01:10 and put her in touch with free black sailors who shipped the wood to the North. 01:15 From them, Minty learned about the secret communications 01:18 that occurred along trade routes, 01:20 information that would prove invaluable later in her life. 01:24 In this mixed atmosphere of free and enslaved blacks working side by side, 01:28 Minty met John Tubman, a free black man she married in 1844. 01:33 After marriage, she renamed herself Harriet, after her mother. 01:37 Harriet Tubman's owner died in 1849. 01:40 When his widow planned to sell off her enslaved human beings, 01:43 Harriet feared she would be sold away from everyone she loved. 01:47 She had heard of an “underground railroad," 01:49 a secret network of safe houses, 01:51 boat captains, 01:52 and wagon drivers 01:54 willing to harbor fugitive enslaved people on their way north. 01:58 So Tubman fled with two of her brothers, Ben and Harry. 02:01 They eventually turned back, fearing they were lost. 02:04 But in one of her sleeping spells, 02:06 Harriet dreamed that she could fly like a bird. 02:09 Looking down below, she saw the path to liberation. 02:13 And in the autumn of 1849, she set out on her own, 02:17 following the North Star to Pennsylvania, and to freedom. 02:21 Tubman returned to the South 13 times to free her niece, 02:25 brothers, 02:26 parents, 02:27 and many others. 02:28 She earned the nickname Black Moses 02:30 and worked diligently with fellow abolitionists 02:33 to help enslaved people escape, 02:35 first to the North, and later to Canada. 02:38 Harriet Tubman worked as a Union army nurse, 02:41 scout, 02:42 and spy during the Civil War. 02:44 In 1863, she became the first woman in United States history 02:48 to plan and lead a military raid, 02:50 liberating nearly 700 enslaved persons in South Carolina. 02:55 After the war, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 02:59 legally abolished slavery, 03:01 while the 14th expanded citizenship 03:03 and the 15th gave voting rights to formerly enslaved black men. 03:07 But she was undaunted, and she persisted. 03:10 She raised funds for formerly enslaved persons 03:13 and helped build schools and a hospital on their behalf. 03:17 In 1888, Tubman became more active in the fight for women's right to vote. 03:22 In 1896, she appeared at the founding convention 03:25 of the National Association of Colored Women in Washington D.C. 03:29 and later at a woman's suffrage meeting in Rochester, New York. 03:33 There she told the audience: 03:35 “I was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, 03:38 and I can say what many others cannot. 03:41 I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.” 03:45 As her fame grew, 03:47 various friends and allies helped her in the fight 03:50 to collect a veteran's pension for her service in the Union Army. 03:53 In 1899, she was finally granted $20 a month. 03:58 In a fitting twist of fate, 03:59 the United States Treasury announced in 2016 04:02 that Tubman's image will appear on a redesigned twenty dollar bill. 04:07 Harriet Tubman died on March 10, 1913. 04:11 Even on her deathbed at age 91, 04:14 she kept the freedom of her people in mind. 04:16 Her final words were: 04:18 "I go away to prepare a place for you.”