1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstey, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstaff Lauren 2 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: Volgebaum here. Harriet Tubman stood just five feet tall that's 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: one and a half meters. She never made much money 4 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,360 Speaker 1: in her lifetime and lived humbly, eating mostly food that 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 1: she grew in her own garden, but she's one of 6 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:28,440 Speaker 1: the most famous civilians admired black Americans in United States history. 7 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 1: After escaping from enslavement in eighteen forty nine, she became 8 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: a conductor on the underground railroad, venturing back into Maryland, 9 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: a state where enslavement was legal, thirteen times during the 10 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: eighteen fifties, to help numerous other freedom seekers find their 11 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,560 Speaker 1: way north. During the Civil War, Tubman traveled south again 12 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:50,479 Speaker 1: to work as a spy, scout, nurse, and cook for 13 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: the Union Army. After the conflict, she established the first 14 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:59,959 Speaker 1: nursing home for elderly black Americans. Tubman has grown into 15 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: such an American icon that her legend sometimes obscures the 16 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: real person behind it. So today let's look at the 17 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,640 Speaker 1: facts of her life and some misconceptions about it, as 18 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: well as how she became such an enduring symbol of freedom. 19 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: Harriet Ross Tudman was born enslaved around eighteen twenty two 20 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:24,720 Speaker 1: in Dorchester County on the Maryland Eastern Shore. Her parents 21 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,760 Speaker 1: named her air Minta or Minty for short. She was 22 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 1: the fifth of nine children of Harriet or Writt Green 23 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,480 Speaker 1: Ross and her husband Ben Ross, who had met when 24 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: they're in slaver's households, had merged in eighteen oh three 25 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:41,640 Speaker 1: in a marriage of their own. Tudman's youth was harsh 26 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: and brutal. At an early age, she was set to 27 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: work as a field hand. Her father had learned timber inspection, 28 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 1: and their enslavers often sent him away to work. As 29 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,800 Speaker 1: the estate was small, Tudman and her siblings and mother 30 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: were often hired out, meaning that sometimes Tudman had to 31 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: act as a parent to her siblings, and sometimes she 32 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:04,800 Speaker 1: wound up among strangers who whipped her for failing to 33 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:09,600 Speaker 1: do work. She had never been taught. As a teenager 34 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,960 Speaker 1: running errands, she once refused to help an overseer who 35 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,920 Speaker 1: was tracking an escaped man. When the enslaver threw an 36 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,160 Speaker 1: iron weight to attempt to stop the man who was 37 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: seeking freedom, it caught her instead, fracturing her skull. The 38 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: injury went essentially untreated beyond her mother's modest means and 39 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: caused headaches and seizures for the rest of Tubman's life. 40 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:35,679 Speaker 1: Around the age of twenty two, she married a free 41 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: black man by the name of John Tubman. Though the 42 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: marriage wouldn't last, she kept his surname and began using 43 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,680 Speaker 1: her mother's first name as her own, becoming Harriet Tubman. 44 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: In March of eighteen forty nine, Tubman's enslaver died, leaving 45 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: behind an estate deeply in debt. Tubman had already seen 46 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:58,959 Speaker 1: three of her sisters auctioned off feared being sent to 47 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 1: an even crueler house. When her husband, John refused to 48 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: go along, she and her brothers Ben and Henry escaped together. 49 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: After a few weeks, the two young men lost their 50 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,360 Speaker 1: nerve and returned, but Tumman refused to give up. She 51 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:18,839 Speaker 1: slipped off again, this time alone. She traveled by night, 52 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: using the North Star to guide her, and sought refuge 53 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:24,400 Speaker 1: during the day with abolitionist Quaker families who were willing 54 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: to break Maryland law to help escapees. She made her 55 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: way through Delaware and eventually crossed into Free Pennsylvania. She 56 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: later recalled, there was such a glory over everything. The 57 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields, 58 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:44,480 Speaker 1: and I felt like I was in heaven. But Tubman's 59 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: joy was muted because her family remained behind. After settling 60 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, she worked as a hotel cook and saved 61 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:55,680 Speaker 1: her earnings to subsidize her secret career as a conductor 62 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: on the underground Railroad, a clandestine abolitionist network that it 63 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:03,080 Speaker 1: exists did since the eighteen twenties. It was a highly 64 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:07,480 Speaker 1: dangerous mission. Anyone caught helping enslaved people break free faced 65 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: the risk of being publicly branded and jailed, and, in 66 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:17,560 Speaker 1: Tumman's case, enslaved once more. A Tumman followed elaborate procedures 67 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:22,159 Speaker 1: to maintain stealth. She wore disguises, communicated with freedom seekers 68 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:24,800 Speaker 1: through third parties, and arranged for them to meet her 69 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: miles away from their homes to reduce the chance that 70 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,799 Speaker 1: they would lead pursuers to her if all else failed, 71 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:36,159 Speaker 1: She carried a pistol. She warned her underground passengers that 72 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:38,320 Speaker 1: if they tried to turn back, she would shoot them 73 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: to prevent them from betraying her and the rest of 74 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: the group. A newspaper ad in eighteen forty nine offered 75 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 1: fifty dollars for Tummen's capture in Maryland and one hundred 76 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: dollars for her capture outside the state, the equivalent of 77 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:57,080 Speaker 1: thousands of dollars today. In eighteen fifty, Congress passed the 78 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: so called Fugitive Slave Act, which made such a efforts 79 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: a federal crime. It also made anyone who escaped to 80 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,839 Speaker 1: freedom subject to capture and re enslavement if they were caught. 81 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:12,840 Speaker 1: That didn't stop Tubman. That same year, she slipped back 82 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 1: into Maryland and helped her niece spend her two children escape. 83 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,719 Speaker 1: Over the next decade, she repeated that mission a dozen 84 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,159 Speaker 1: more times, cautiously confining her efforts to farms that she 85 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 1: knew on Maryland's eastern shore. As word got around of 86 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 1: Tubman's successful missions, she became a sought after speaker at 87 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:35,800 Speaker 1: abolitionist fundraiser meetings. She also became a target of mercenaries 88 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:40,080 Speaker 1: who earned money catching people who had managed to escape. 89 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: Their failure to apprehend her only added to her legend. 90 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: Her admirers nicknamed her General Tubman. In eighteen sixty, she 91 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:52,440 Speaker 1: pulled off an even more daring feat by thwarting federal 92 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:56,279 Speaker 1: marshals in Troy, New York. They were attempting to deport 93 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: a freedom seeker back to Virginia. Tubman disguised herself as 94 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: an elderly woman and slipped into a government building. When 95 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 1: the prisoner and his captors stepped out into the street, 96 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 1: Tubman shouted a signal from an upper story window, and 97 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: a mob of abolitionists converged on them and seized the prisoner, 98 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 1: who they spirited away to a waiting riverboat. Numbers reported 99 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:21,720 Speaker 1: contemporarily seemed to have been inflated, but according to research 100 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:25,880 Speaker 1: by historian Caate Clifford Larsen, Tubman led about seventy people 101 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,359 Speaker 1: to freedom and provided instructions that enabled another seventy or 102 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:33,160 Speaker 1: so to flee on their own. Tubman claimed, I never 103 00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: ran my train off the track, and I never lost 104 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:40,839 Speaker 1: a passenger. After the Civil War broke out in eighteen 105 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:45,720 Speaker 1: sixty one, Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, a fervent abolitionist, 106 00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: contacted Tubman, a friend of his, and told her that 107 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: the Union forces needed her help. He arranged transportation for 108 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: Tubman to travel to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where she 109 00:06:56,200 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: went to work for Major General David Hunter. Ostensibly, her 110 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:03,360 Speaker 1: mission was to help provide food and clothing to the 111 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:07,159 Speaker 1: escaped enslaved people who were flocking to the Union Army's camps, 112 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:09,880 Speaker 1: but that seems to have been a cover story for 113 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: her real work in gathering intelligence. With a budget of 114 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:17,040 Speaker 1: one hundred dollars in secret Service money, she recruited a 115 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: small team of escaped people to scout for the Union forces, 116 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,320 Speaker 1: who were experienced riverboat pilots and knew every inch of 117 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:28,520 Speaker 1: the South Carolina coast line. After President Abraham Lincoln authorized 118 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: the recruiting and deployment of Black troops in the summer 119 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty two, Tubman and her spies provided intelligence 120 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:39,000 Speaker 1: for the new units. In January of eighteen sixty three, 121 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,800 Speaker 1: her team's efforts helped Union forces evade Confederate guards and 122 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: stage a nine day covert operation to seize needed supplies. 123 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: Her team operated as a kind of special forces a, 124 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: sneaking into enemy territory to gather information on their troop 125 00:07:55,400 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: movements and fortifications. In June of eighteen sixty three, accompanied 126 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: a Union colonel and his forces into the southern low 127 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: country of South Carolina and helped lead a crucial raid. 128 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,720 Speaker 1: Tubman and her scouts sailed up river and stealthily went 129 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: ashore to talk to the enslaved people who had placed 130 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:15,960 Speaker 1: mines in the water for Confederate forces, so that they 131 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: could map the locations and locate the enemy's storehouses. Then 132 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:23,360 Speaker 1: she helped guide the Union crafts around the deadly mines. 133 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: The resulting raid not only struck a devastating blow to 134 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:31,120 Speaker 1: Confederate forces, but also resulted in freedom for seven hundred 135 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,280 Speaker 1: enslaved people, many of whom Tubman recruited to serve for 136 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:39,360 Speaker 1: the Union. After the Civil War ended in the Union's 137 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: victory in eighteen sixty five, Tubman left her position and 138 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,319 Speaker 1: set out for the town of Auburn, New York, where 139 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:47,760 Speaker 1: she and her family settled on property that the state's 140 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: former governor had sold her on generous terms. But on 141 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:54,800 Speaker 1: the way she got a rough reminder that the struggle 142 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: for true freedom wasn't over. On a literal train north, 143 00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:03,640 Speaker 1: a train conductor refused to honor Tubman's soldiers pass as 144 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,640 Speaker 1: a train ticket. They got into an argument, and he 145 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 1: and several passengers threw her into the baggage car, breaking 146 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:14,280 Speaker 1: her arm and three ribs. She was unable to work 147 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: for months. This woman, who had helped defeat the Confederacy, 148 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:21,520 Speaker 1: was compelled to accept handouts from neighbors and local grocers 149 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:27,040 Speaker 1: just to feed her family and elderly parents. Once she healed, 150 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: she began growing vegetables and raising chickens. She did domestic 151 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:34,000 Speaker 1: work and took in borders. She fell in love with 152 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:36,880 Speaker 1: one of her guests, a former enslaved man and Union 153 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:39,440 Speaker 1: veteran by the name of Nelson Davis, and the two 154 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:43,360 Speaker 1: married in eighteen sixty nine. In eighteen seventy four, the 155 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 1: couple adopted a baby girl named Gerdy, but Davis's ill 156 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,160 Speaker 1: health and other setbacks meant that Tubman and her family 157 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,960 Speaker 1: continued to struggle to make ends meet. The federal government 158 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: wouldn't give her a pension for her wartime service as 159 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: a spy, but after Davis's death in eighteen eighty eight, 160 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:05,520 Speaker 1: she was able to collect a widow's stipend and eventually 161 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:07,760 Speaker 1: received a pension for having worked as a nurse in 162 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:11,719 Speaker 1: the latter part of the war, and she was determined 163 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:15,400 Speaker 1: to keep helping others. In eighteen ninety six, she scraped 164 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:17,559 Speaker 1: together enough money to buy a second plot of land 165 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:20,840 Speaker 1: alongside her Auburn property, where she started a home for 166 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:26,240 Speaker 1: elderly black Americans. Seven years later, as Tumman aged, she 167 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:29,959 Speaker 1: turned the property over to the African Methodist aposcople Zion Church, 168 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:32,640 Speaker 1: which she was a member of, with the understanding that 169 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:36,440 Speaker 1: they would continue to run the home. Tumman lived next 170 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:39,320 Speaker 1: door until her own health began to decline, at which 171 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:41,319 Speaker 1: point she became one of the residents at the home 172 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 1: she had founded. She passed away there in nineteen thirteen 173 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:51,560 Speaker 1: at the age of ninety years, but her influence did 174 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:56,080 Speaker 1: not end there. Tumman's friends included many prominent figures like 175 00:10:56,160 --> 00:11:00,960 Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Martha coffin Wright, Harriet Beecher Stowe, 176 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:05,440 Speaker 1: Thomas Garrett, and Susan B. Anthony. She was buried with 177 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:09,400 Speaker 1: military honors in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn. The city 178 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: commemorated her legacy with a plaque on the courthouse. During 179 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:16,160 Speaker 1: World War II. After a successful war bond drive by 180 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,560 Speaker 1: an African American women's group, a liberty ship was christened 181 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,600 Speaker 1: the S. S. Harriet Tubman in her honor. She became 182 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:27,200 Speaker 1: the subject of numerous biographies and children's books, and the 183 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:29,880 Speaker 1: Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged was recognized as a 184 00:11:29,960 --> 00:11:33,040 Speaker 1: National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of 185 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:37,120 Speaker 1: Historic Places in nineteen seventy four. Four years later, she 186 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:39,560 Speaker 1: became the first black woman to appear on a US 187 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:45,280 Speaker 1: postage stamp. A tag team of lawmakers have been trying 188 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,120 Speaker 1: to have her image replace President Andrew Jackson's on the 189 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 1: twenty dollar bill for over a decade now, though they 190 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: haven't yet been successful, as she did appear on a 191 00:11:55,120 --> 00:12:00,440 Speaker 1: limited edition uncirculated silver dollar in twenty twenty four. Spend 192 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:02,360 Speaker 1: it as a dollar, but it's worth a good bit 193 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:06,040 Speaker 1: more than that on the collector's market. The US meant 194 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:09,440 Speaker 1: paid proceeds from it to the National Underground Railroad Freedom 195 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and to the Harriet Tubman Home 196 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: in Auburn, New York. Today's episode is based on the 197 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:24,600 Speaker 1: article Harriet Tubman's life and impact on the Underground Railroad 198 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 1: on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Patrick J. Higer. 199 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:30,280 Speaker 1: Brainstuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how 200 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:33,280 Speaker 1: Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. But 201 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 202 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:39,520 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.