Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People

Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People (African American) Paperback – November 29, 2004
by Sarah Bradford

Harriet Tubman — who was named Araminta “Minty” Ross when she was born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in the late winter of 1822 — learned at age 27 that her widowed enslaver, Eliza Brodess, intended to sell her to pay mounting debts. Desperate to avoid an unknown future in the cotton fields of the Deep South, Tubman determined she would have her liberty or death.

With the aid of sympathetic helpers along a network known as the Underground Railroad, she escaped to the free city of Philadelphia. Once there, she realized she could never be completely free while her loved ones remained enslaved. Over the next 11 years, she repeatedly returned to Maryland to liberate family members and friends, earning national prominence and the nickname “the Moses of her people.”

Denied a formal education, Harriet Tubman was never able to write down her own story. However Sarah Bradford, a white abolitionist in New York state, conducted in-depth interviews with Tubman to write this biography.

This simple, unvarnished account recalls the courageous life of Harriet Tubman, one of the best-known “conductors” on the Underground Railroad. First published in 1869 and privately printed to raise funds for “the Moses of her people,” Sarah Bradford’s memorable biography recalls the former slave’s grim childhood; her perilous experiences leading slaves into Canada; her efforts as a Civil War nurse, cook, and scout for the Union Army; and her post-conflict endeavors to aid and educate former slaves.
An inspiring story of bravery, perseverance, and self-sacrifice, this accurate, reliable account by Tubman’s contemporary is essential reading for students of American history and African-American studies.