Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (born 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland, died March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York), also known as Black Moses, was an African-American freedom fighter. An escaped slave, she worked as a guerrilla, farmhand, lumberjack, laundress and cook, refugee organizer, raid leader and intelligence commander, nurse and healer, revival speaker, feminist and fundraiser, all as part of the struggle for liberation from slavery and racism.

Methods

The reason for her success in her adventures was partly due to her cunning, daring and ruthlessness in following well developed plans for her expeditions. For instance, when Tubman scouted an area, she sometimes took the precaution of carrying two chickens with her. Whenever she felt that the people in the area were getting suspicious of her, she would release the chickens and chase them to recapture them. This would amuse the whites who would assume the ineffectual chicken chaser could not be the cunning slave stealer.

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One time at a train station, she found that slave-catchers were watching the trains heading north in hopes of capturing her and her charges. Without hesitation, she had her group board a southbound train, successfully gambling that the retreat into enemy territory would never be anticipated by her pursuers and later resumed her planned route at a safer location.

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In addition, she had a strict policy that while she would respect a slave foregoing the risk of accompanying her to the north when offered, anyone who joined her and then wanted to go back en route would be shot dead to prevent the dissenter from betraying the group. Fortunately, Tubman apparently never had to resort to such measures.

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