As a daring female hero, slave liberator, and brave escapee from slavery, many of us remember the vibrant stories from middle school of Harriet Tubman's countless slave rescue mission along the underground railroad in the 19th century. However, while they stories are valuable in their own right for the sake of thrill or entertainment, it is important to take a deeper look into what significance Tubman's work had both for her individually and for the collective population of slaves in America during her time of operation. The truth his, Harriet Tubman was not only a bold heroine who sacrificed her status as a free women countless times for the sake of freeing others, but she was also a tactical genius, planning out her expeditions carefully and utilizing strategies that left slaveowners clueless as to where she and their slaves had gone.
From a game plan standpoint, Harriet Tubman was a women who was elusive and so incredibly sneaky that she could conceal herself well even when traveling with groups of escaped slaves. One effective method that Tubman used when going out on her 13 rescue expeditions over the course of 11 years was to travel only during the wintertime. While a seemingly chilly season to choose for such dangerous expeditions, Tubman realized that her rescue missions would take place in the southern United States where slavery was legal and the climate got cold, but never so unbearably cold that the slaves would be unable to complete their journey. Furthermore, the benefits of going on such missions during the winter far outweighed the cons, as the wintertime allowed for longer nights that provided Tubman cover and kept slave-owning families indoors for a larger portion of the day, making them oblivious to Tubman's rescue attempts. Also, while Tubman cared deeply about the slaves she rescued, she was quite harsh with them in order to ensure they kept the focus and composure necessary to avoid detection before arrival in the North. There is even an account of her once pulling a gun on one of her rescued slaves who grew tired of traveling with a large group and wanted to travel elsewhere on his own, for she feared that if he went solo, he could be caught and forced to give away the position of Harriet and the other slaves. Moreover, Harriet also ingeniously planned her rescue missions so that her and the slaves would begin their retreat to the North on Saturdays, as most towns at the time did not print notices for runaway slaves until Monday mornings, so she and slaves would be long gone by the time a significant portion of the local population was notified of their presence nearby. Traveling in groups aside, Tubman was also very clever when individually traveling on her outings. She did things such as sit on street corners to advertise her own bounty in order to avoid detection and even pretended to read a book in front of some suspicious local authorities on one occasion in order to quell their suspicion that she could be a runaway. By the end of her eleven trips, Tubman is confirmed to have personally rescued over 70 slaves.
While Harriet Tubman's individual ingenuity was a thing of marvel in itself, the physical path she took to escape with her slaves was perhaps most key to her success: the Underground Railroad. While not an actual railroad involving some form of locomotive transportation as its name implies, the Underground railroad was a secret network of escape routes, hiding spots, and safe houses set up by various abolitionists and ex-slaves in order to aid the cause of freeing slaves. Spread out across various locations in the Southeastern and Northeastern United States, the Underground railroad was responsible for the freeing of thousands of slaves during the 1800's and provided a safety for Tubman and her groups of slaves. Abolitionists could also face hefty fines and punishments for aiding runaway slaves, however the brave men and women who participated in fueling the Underground Railroad's activity were persistent in their efforts and had significant impact on hiding slaves from pursuing authorities who often scouted homes along the railroad to make sure no such activity took place. So, next time Harriet Tubman comes to mind, don't just think of her bravery and heroism, but her intelligence and strategy as well. Furthermore, don't forget about the significance of the Underground Railroad that sheltered her and the slaves either, for if it wasn't for this elaborate system of escape routes, perhaps Harriet Tubman would have never become what we remember her for today.
Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad
http://www.duboislc.net/read/TubmanEscapeTechniques.html
http://www.harriet-tubman.org/moses-underground-railroad/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/escapes-following-harriet-tubman-on-the-trail-to-freedom/2013/05/02/21fbc8b2-b11d-11e2-bbf2-a6f9e9d79e19_story.html?utm_term=.fe6efaf405c5
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