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Overview
In 1863, the Union was unable to adequately fill its black regiments. In an attempt to remedy that, Col. James Montgomery led a raid up the Combahee River on June 2 to gather recruits and punish the plantations.
Aiding him was an expert at freeing slaves—famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The remarkable effort successfully rescued about 750 enslaved men, women, and children. Only one soldier was killed in the action, which marked a strategy shift in the war that took the fight to civilians. This book details the fascinating true story that became a legend.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781625850041 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Arcadia Publishing SC |
| Publication date: | 01/23/2019 |
| Series: | Civil War Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
THEY CALLED HER MOSES
She was known by many names during her life. As a child, she was "Minty." John Brown referred to her as "General." The slaves called her "Moses." But no matter how she was known, she was a woman of deep convictions, extraordinary wisdom and courage. She was Harriet Tubman.
The earliest accounts of Harriet's early life were revealed in 1863 in the Commonwealth, a Boston newspaper edited by Franklin B. Sanborn, a fervent abolitionist from New England who would become one of her greatest supporters. According to the Commonwealth, Tubman was born sometime in 1820 or 1821. In her book Bound for the Promised Land, Kate Clifford Larson makes note of a midwife receipt that dates her birth to 1822.
Born Araminta Ross, "Minty," as she was known, was the child of Harriet "Rit" Green and Ben Ross. Minty was initially raised on the Anthony Thompson farm in Dorchester County, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Minty had seven siblings: Linah, born 1808; Mariah, 1811; Soph, 1813; Robert, 1816; Ben, 1823, Henry, 1839; and Moses, 1832. A couple years later, the family was torn apart when Rit's owner, Edward Brodess, took her and her children to his farm near Bucktown, leaving Ben Ross with Thompson. Three of Minty's sisters — Soph, Mariah and Linah — were sold by Brodess. When Brodess tried to sell her brother Moses, the youngest child, to a slave trader, Rit, with the help of free blacks in the community, hid him in the woods for a month. Rit resisted all efforts to turn over her son to Brodess and the slave trader. Brodess eventually abandoned the sale of Moses, leaving him on the farm. The resistance of Rit in the sale of her son contributed to Minty's belief in the resistance to slavery. Her strong bond to her relations and this fracturing of the family must have had a great deal to do with her later trips on the Underground Railroad.
Minty was occasionally hired out to temporary masters by Brodess. Her master had too many mouths to feed for a farm of his size. By hiring out his slaves, he relieved himself of the need to feed and clothe them and also made additional money on the side, which he used to increase the size of his farm. Within the system of chattel slavery, slaves were no more than property to be bought, sold and rented.
At the age of six or seven, Minty was hired out to James Cook, the owner of a small nearby farm, to learn the art of weaving, which she refused to do. Cook and his wife were harsh masters, and Minty endured many beatings. At one point in the winter, while ill with the measles, she was sent into the swamps to check the muskrat traps. She was sent back to her mother, who nursed her back to health, only to see her returned back to the Cooks.
After serving the Cooks, Minty was hired out to a young married woman, a "Miss Susan." Here she endured daily beatings for the smallest of infractions. Minty was charged with taking care of Miss Susan's child, often staying up all night to rock him when sick. If she fell asleep or the child cried, a whip would be brought down on Minty's face, neck or shoulders — scars she carried with her for the rest of her life.
Life with other temporary masters was no better. As she was someone else's property, the temporary masters cared little about the well-being of the young girl in their charge. On one occasion, she refused to be whipped by her mistress. When the master of the house arrived home, he sent Minty upstairs to do some menial task. While she was engaged in this, he came up behind her and beat her savagely, breaking her ribs in the process. Unable to work from the beating, she was sent home to the Brodresses and the care of her mother.
As a teenager, while trying to intervene between an overseer and a slave, Minty was hit in the head by a two-pound weight thrown by the overseer. Bleeding profusely from her wound, she was carried inside with her skull fractured and partially caved in. Receiving only the care of her fellow slaves, she eventually recovered but was left with fainting spells and bouts of severe headaches for the rest of her life.
Once again, Minty was returned to the Brodesses as damaged goods. Brodess tried to sell her, to no avail, as no one wanted to buy a slave unable to work.
Eventually, Minty recovered and worked for five or six years for John T. Stewart, where she also ended up working alongside and probably living with her father. This also brought her closer to her mother and other members of her family. By 1840, her father, Ben Ross, had been manumitted by a provision in the will of his former master, Anthony Thompson. So while Ben was now free, Rit and her children were still in bondage.
In 1844, Minty Ross married free black John Tubman and took on the name Harriet, most likely in honor of her mother. They had no children. While John Tubman was somewhat vilified in later stories told by Harriet, Kate Larson argued that it took a lot for John to marry Harriet. She was still a slave and subject to the desires of her master. In addition, any children she would have borne him would also be enslaved — not a matter to be taken lightly by a free black.
It was during this period of her life that Harriet took to hiring herself out to different masters to do a variety of work. Brodess found this a good way to relieve himself of the burden of trying to hire out "damaged goods" and to bring in a steady income. Harriet's fee to Brodess was guaranteed by Dr. Anthony Thompson, who paid Brodess. Harriet then paid Thompson and was free to keep any additional money she earned. With the additional money, she bought oxen and used them to haul timber from the forests, making her a more valuable hire.
During her middle years, Harriet worked a variety of jobs in the community, including farming, hauling timber and working the stock in Stewart's store. She was known as a strong and hard worker, despite her bouts of fainting. Working the store and the wharfs brought Tubman into direct contact with a large group of both freed blacks and slaves. Many of these men were mariners, hired to transport goods to ports farther up the coast. Being free, they were able to mingle with people in both black and white communities, particularly those in the abolitionist movement and those who aided escaping slaves. Information about escape routes and contacts would have been available to one who was actively seeking it.
With the death of Edward Brodess in 1849, Tubman feared the further breakup of the family. Eliza Brodess sought to sell some of the family's slaves but was stymied by stipulations in the will. In his will, Edward had left the bulk of his assets to his wife — but not his slaves, who remained the property of his estate. He left them for her to use, but she did not own them. Eliza petitioned the courts to sell some of the slaves to pay off her many debts, but to no avail. For the moment, Harriett and her family members remained together.
In the late 1840s, Harriet hired a lawyer to research the will of her mother's first owner, Atthow Pattison. The attorney determined that her mother, Rit, had been manumitted in his will to be freed when she reached the age of forty-five. Edward Brodess had ignored the will, keeping Rit in bondage and thus illegally selling two of her daughters and profiting from the sales. This resulted in a number of legal challenges to Brodess's ownership and the right of Eliza to sell some of the slaves to pay debts. Eliza petitioned the court to sell Kessiah, Harriet's niece. Hearing of the rumors, Harriet decided that it was now time to make her escape. Convincing her two brothers, Ben and Henry, to go with her, they left for the North. However, they shortly returned on their own, bringing Harriet back with them. A few weeks later, Tubman made good on her escape once again, this time making her way to freedom in Philadelphia. Tubman later recounted crossing the Pennsylvania line, "When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven."
Tubman, using connections in the free black community, aided in the escape of her niece Kessiah and her two children. Kessiah was scheduled to be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. At the auction, held on the courthouse steps, a high bid of $500 was made. But as it turned out, it was a false bid by Kessiah's husband, John Bowley. Before the ruse was uncovered, Bowley had secreted away Kessiah and her children. They traveled to Baltimore, where they met Tubman and were then taken to Philadelphia.
Tubman returned to Baltimore to aid in the escape of her brother Moses and two other men shortly after Kessiah's escape.
With these successes, Tubman decided to return to her former home and bring her husband back with her up North. Making her way to Dorchester County, she sent word to John that she wanted him to go with her. Tubman was devastated to learn that John, in the two years since she had left, had taken another wife, a free black woman, and refused to go. She was furious at John for turning his back on her, but she soon got over the heartbreak. Harriet didn't leave Maryland empty-handed, however, as she guided a small group of slaves to Philadelphia.
With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, slaves who had escaped to the North were no longer considered free. This federal law forced Northerners to assist Southern slave owners or bounty hunters in their efforts to recapture escaped slaves. Consequently, the United States was no longer a safe haven. Kessiah and John Bowley and their family headed for Canada.
In December 1851, Tubman escorted a group of eleven escapees to Canada, stopping at the home of Fredrick Douglass. Douglass, an escaped slave himself, was one of the leaders of the abolitionist movement. He might have known Tubman from his days as a slave in Maryland, or they might have simply had any number of close friends and family ties. They had many close ties in the Eastern Shore area. Douglass probably helped spread the story of Tubman among his friends and supporters in the North, helping Tubman enlarge her circle of contacts and giving her more legitimacy in her efforts.
Word got to Harriet that her three brothers — Henry, Ben and Robert — were to be put on the auction block by Eliza Brodess the day after Christmas 1854. Accordingly, Harriet quickly made plans to get to them through intermediaries. Robert had a dilemma, however: his wife, Mary, was pregnant and about to give birth. If Robert left now, he would be leaving his wife, two young sons and infant daughter. If he didn't leave, he would probably be sold and moved to the Deep South, never to see his family again. While Mary was initially unaware of his plans, Robert finally confessed to her his desire to escape. Seeing no other option, Mary finally relented and gave him her blessing. Robert hurried to meet his brothers and sister.
Harriet, her brothers and three others — including Ben's fiancée, Jane — made their way north. Traveling at night and hiding during the day, they covered the one hundred miles to Philadelphia in four days, arriving in the city on December 29.
Tubman made numerous trips back to Maryland, seeking the freedom of the rest of her family. In 1857, she brought out her aged parents, both of whom were over seventy. The mood of the slaveholders on the Eastern Shore grew increasingly militant as their slaves dared to try to escape, at times as many as fifteen from a single plantation. The free black community came under closer scrutiny, and some were arrested. Harriet sometimes spent months in the area, looking for the right opportunity to help her family and friends to escape. After guiding her parents to Canada, the Eastern Shore became too dangerous even for Tubman. That, coupled with the financial and physical hardships she endured, brought an end to her trips down south. However, by this time, Harriet Tubman was known and respected widely by those on the Underground Railroad and in abolitionist circles.
Interestingly, in Sarah Bradford's 1869 biography Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, she records Tubman as having made nineteen trips to the South, during which she rescued three hundred slaves. Conrad, in his book Harriet Tubman, cites various numbers and can't seem to come to a conclusion. Larson states that Tubman made thirteen trips and brought out about seventy to eighty people, a much more believable number. Although according to Larson, Harriet herself claimed only eight or nine trips and fifty people. Regardless of the exact number of trips of enslaved individuals brought to freedom in the less than ten years she led those out of bondage, Tubman was one of the most prolific conductors on the Underground Railroad.
Tubman soon found herself recognized and lauded by the leading abolitionist figures of the day, including Fredrick Douglass, Franklin Sanborn, William H. Seward, William Still, Thomas Wentworth Higginson and even John Brown. It was John Brown himself who probably gave Tubman the nickname "General." To note the occasion of Tubman's death the previous day, the March 11, 1913 Auburn Citizen newspaper printed the following account of Brown introducing her to a friend:
A letter written by Wendell Phillips to an Auburn lady in June 16, 1868, says regarding Harriet Tubman: "The last time I ever saw John Brown was under my roof when he brought Harriet Tubman to me, saying, 'Mr. Phillips, I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent — General Tubman, as we call her."' The famous leader of Ossawatomie, narrating to Boston's famous preacher, the career of Harriet and concluding for himself, said: "In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps few colonels, who have done more for the colored race than our fearless and sagacious friend, Harriet."
John Brown had formulated an idea of leading a slave revolt, an uprising through the South culminating in a free state for the blacks in western Maryland and Virginia. His plans were to attack the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia; supply the slaves and his supporters with arms from the arsenal; and lead the revolt. Brown thought that the only way to end slavery was by force, and he fully expected that the enslaved people of the South would rise up with him against their masters, throwing off the chains of bondage.
Brown solicited the help of some prominent abolitionists of the day, who agreed to financially and materially support Brown and his plan. Known as the Secret Six, these prominent Bostonians were: Franklin B. Sanborn, George L. Sterns, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, Samuel G. Howe and Gerrit Smith.
Tubman was living in Canada at the time John Brown was planning the raid on Harpers Ferry. In April 1858, Brown traveled to Canada to meet with the woman he had heard so much about. He solicited her help in recruiting freed slaves living in Canada to assist in the raid. Tubman held a meeting at her home and invited a few of the former slaves she had helped out of bondage. Here, Brown was able to recruit a number of the men to aid in the insurrection. Tubman became an ardent supporter and admirer of Brown. She sought more recruits to aid Brown in the insurrection. On May 8, Brown held what became known as the Chatham Convention to reveal his plans and sign up recruits. Tubman did not attend, nor did his Massachusetts supporters.
After Brown's convention, word of his plans were leaked by Hugh Forbes to Massachusetts senator Henry Wilson. Afraid of being exposed, the Secret Six met with Brown and decided to delay the raid. Brown simply didn't have the resources to conduct the raid, and he reluctantly returned to Kansas.
In late 1858, Tubman went to Boston to raise funds for the black community in Canada. There, she met Franklin B. Sanborn. Sanborn, a confidant of John Brown and one of the Secret Six, was well regarded in the abolitionist movement. He became one of Tubman's close friends and greatest supporters and later wrote one of the first biographies of Tubman.
Tubman also met and became friends with Senator William H. Seward, who owned a piece of property in Auburn, New York, which he sold to Tubman on very favorable terms. The property was enough for Tubman to move her aged parents and any other family members who wished to accompany them out of the harsh Canadian climate and back to the United States.
In order to help pay for the property, Harriet once again returned to Boston and made the rounds of the supporters of the abolitionist movement, telling tales of her many trips to the Eastern Shore. Harriet soon saw the financial rewards of telling her story and realized that her remarkable life could be financially rewarding. While in Boston, she met with John Brown, who had also returned to the city to raise money for his planned raid. It was in Boston that Brown and Tubman planned their next moves.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Combahee River Raid"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Jeff W. Grigg.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
Introduction,
1. They Called Her Moses,
2. James Montgomery,
3. Black Dave,
4. Department of the South,
5. New Regiments,
6. The Lowcountry,
7. A Different Kind of Warfare,
8. Reaction,
9. Myth and Reality,
Appendix. Documents,
Notes,
Bibliography,
About the Author,