WfrMs' 
 
 University of California Berkeley 
 


HARRIET TTJBMAN. 
 
SCENES 
 
 IN THE LIFE OF 
 
 HARRIET TUBMAN. 
 
 SARAH H. BRADFORD. 
 
 AUBURN: 
 W. J. MOSES, PRINTER. 
 
 1860. 
 
E44f 
 T3 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, 
 
 BY WILLIAM G. WISE, 
 In the Clerk's Offl^^e Di^*<^*| Northem Districl 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY 
 
 DENNIS BRO'S & CO., 
 
 AUBURN, N. Y. 
 
rnTBODUOTKXST. 
 
 THE following little story was written by Mrs. Sarah H. 
 Bradford, of Geneva, with the single object of furnishing 
 some help to the subject of the memoir. Harriet Tubman's 
 services and sufferings during the rebellion, which are 
 acknowledged in the letters of Gen. Saxton, and others, it 
 was thought by many, would justify the bestowment of a 
 pension by the Government. But the difficulties in the 
 way of procuring such relief, suggested other methods, and 
 finally the present one. The narrative was prepared on 
 the eve of the author's departure for Europe, where she 
 still remains. It makes no claim whatever to literary 
 merit. Her hope was merely that the considerably numer- 
 ous public already in part acquainted with Harriet's story, 
 would furnish purchasers enough to secure a little fund for 
 the relief of this remarkable woman. Outside that circle 
 she did not suppose the memoir was likely to meet with 
 much if any sale. 
 
 In furtherance of the same benevolent scheme, and in or- 
 der to secure the whole avails of the work for Harriet's 
 benefit, a subscription has been raised more than sufficient 
 to defray the entire cost of publication. This has been 
 effected by the generous exertions of Wm. G. Wise, Esq., 
 of this city. The whole amount was contributed by citi- 
 
 M79798 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 zens of Auburn, with the exception of two liberal subscrip- 
 tions by Gcrrit Smith, Esq., and Mr. Wendell Phillips. 
 
 Mr. Wise has also consented, at Mrs. Bradford's request, 
 to act as trustee for Harriet ; and will receive, invest, and 
 apply, for her benefit, whatever may accrue from the sale 
 of this book. 
 
 The spirited wood- cut likeness of Harriet, in her costume 
 as scout, was furnished by the kindness of Mr. J. C. Darby, 
 of this city. S. M. H. 
 
 AUBUKN, Dec. 1, 1868. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 IT is proposed in this little book to give a plain 
 and unvarnished account of some scenes and adven- 
 tures in the life of a woman who, though one of 
 earth's lowly ones, and of dark-hued skin, has 
 shown an amount of heroism in her character rarely 
 possessed by those of any station in life. Her name 
 (we say it advisedly and without exaggeration) 
 deserves to be handed down to posterity side by 
 side with the names of Joan of Arc, Grace Darling, 
 and Florence Nightingale ; for not one of these 
 women has shown more courage and power of en- 
 durance in facing danger and death to relieve hu- 
 man suffering, than has this woman in her heroic 
 and successful endeavors to reach and save all whom 
 she might of her oppressed and suffering race, and 
 to pilot them from the land of Bondage to the 
 promised land of Liberty. Well has she been call- 
 ed " Moses" for she has been a leader and deliverer 
 unto hundreds of her people. 
 
2 PREFACE. 
 
 Worn down by her sufferings and fatigues, her 
 health permanently affected by the cruelties to 
 which she has been subjected, she is still laboring 
 to the utmost limit of her strength for the support 
 of her aged parents, and still also for her afflicted 
 people by her own efforts supporting two schools 
 for Freedmen at the South, and supplying them 
 with clothes and books ; never obtruding herself, 
 never asking for charity, except for " her people." 
 
 It is for the purpose of aiding her in ministering 
 to the wants of her aged parents, and in the hope 
 of securing to them the little home which they are 
 in danger of losing from inability to pay the whole 
 amount due which amount was partly paid when 
 our heroine left them to throw herself into the work 
 of aiding our suffering soldiers that this little ac- 
 count, drawn from her by persevering endeavor, is 
 given to the friends of humanity. 
 
 The writer of this story has till very lately known 
 less personally of the subject of it, than many others 
 to whom she has for years been an object of inter- 
 est and care. But through relations and friends in 
 Auburn, and also through Mrs. Commodore Swift 
 of Geneva, and her sisters, who have for many years 
 known and esteemed this wonderful woman, she 
 has heard tales of her deeds of heroism which 
 
PREFACE. 3 
 
 seemed almost too strange for belief, and were in- 
 vested with the charm of romance. 
 
 During a sojourn of some months in the city of 
 Auburn, while the war was in progress, the writer 
 used to see occasionally in her Sunday-school class 
 the aged mother of Harriet, and also some of those 
 girls who had been brought from the South by this 
 remarkable woman. She also wrote letters for the 
 old people to commanding officers at the South, mak- 
 ing inquiries about Harriet, and received answers 
 telling of her untiring devotion to our wounded and 
 sick soldiers, and of her efficient aid in various ways 
 to the cause of the Union. 
 
 By the graphic pen of Mrs. Stowe, the incidents 
 of such a life as that of the subject of this little 
 memoir might be wrought up into a tale of thrilling 
 interest, equaling, if not exceeding, anything in her 
 world-renowned " Uncle Tom's Cabin ; " but the 
 story of Harriet Tubman needs not the drapery of 
 fiction ; the bare unadorned facts are enough to stir 
 the hearts of the friends of humanity, the friends of 
 liberty, the lovers of their country. 
 
 There are those who will sneer, there are those 
 who have already done so, at this quixotic attempt 
 to make a heroine of a black woman, and a slave ; 
 but it may possibly be that there are some natures, 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 though concealed under fairer skins, who have not 
 the capacity to comprehend such general and self- 
 sacrificing devotion to the cause of others as that 
 .here delineated, and therefore they resort to scorn 
 and ridicule, in order to throw discredit upon the 
 whole story. 
 
 Much has been left out which would have been 
 highly interesting, because of the impossibility of 
 substantiating by the testimony of others the truth 
 of Harriet's statements. But whenever it has been 
 possible to find those who were cognizant with the 
 facts stated, they have been corroborated in every 
 particular. 
 
 A few years hence and we seem to see a gather- 
 ing where the wrongs of earth will be righted, and 
 Justice, long delayed, will assert itself, and perform 
 its office. Then not a few of those who had 
 esteemed themselves the wise and noble of this 
 world, " will begin with shame to take the lowest 
 place ; " while upon Harriet's dark head a kind hand 
 will be placed, and in her ear a gentle voice will 
 sound, saying : " Friend ! come up higher ! " 
 
 S. H. B. 
 
 The following letters to the writer from those 
 well-known and distinguished philanthropists, Hon. 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips, and one from 
 Frederick Douglass, addressed to Harriet, will serve 
 as the best introduction that can be given of the 
 subject of this memoir to its readers : 
 
 Letter from Hon. Gerrit Smith. 
 
 PETERBORO, June 13, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR MADAME : I am happy to learn that 
 you are to speak to the public of Mrs. Harriet 
 Tubman. Of the remarkable events of her life I 
 have no personal knowledge, but of the truth of 
 them as she describes them I have no doubt. 
 
 I have often listened to her, in her visits to my 
 family, and I am confident that she is not only 
 truthful, but that she has a rare discernment, and a 
 deep and sublime philanthropy. 
 
 With great respect your friend, 
 
 GERRIT SMITH. 
 
 Letter from Wendell Phillips. 
 
 JUNE 16, 1868. 
 
 DEAR MADAME : The last time I ever saw John 
 Brown was under my own roof, as he brought 
 Harriet Tubman to me, saying : " Mr. Phillips, I 
 bring you one of the best and bravest persons on 
 this continent Cr finer cil Tubman, as we call her." 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 He then went on to recount her labors and sacri- 
 fices in behalf of her race. After that, Harriet spent 
 some time in Boston, earning the confidence and 
 admiration of all those who were working for free- 
 dom. With their aid she went to the South more 
 than once, returning always with a squad of self 1 
 emancipated men, women, and children, for whom 
 her marvelous skill had opened the way of escape. 
 After the war broke out, she was sent with indorse- 
 ments from Governor Andrew and his friends to 
 South Carolina, where in the service of the Nation 
 she rendered most important and efficient aid to 
 our army. 
 
 In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps 
 few colonels, who have done more for the loyal 
 cause since the war began, and few men who did 
 before that time more for the colored race, than our 
 fearless and most sagacious friend, Harriet. 
 Faithfully yours,' 
 
 WEXPELL PHILLIPS. 
 
 Letter from Frederick Douglass. 
 
 ROCHESTER, August 2*9, 1868. 
 DEAR HARRIET: Iain glad to know that the 
 storv of your eventful life has been written by u 
 
PREFACE. I 
 
 kind lady, and that the same is soon to be published. 
 You ask for what you do not need when you call 
 upon me for a word of commendation. I need such 
 words from you far more than you can need them 
 from me, especially where your superior labors and 
 'devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our 
 land are known as I know them. The difference 
 between us is very marked. Most that I have 
 done and suffered in the service of our cause has 
 been in public, and I have received much encour- 
 agement at every step of the way. You on the 
 other hand have labored in a private way; I have 
 wrought in the day you in the night. I have had 
 the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that 
 comes of being approved by the multitude, while 
 the most that you have done has been witnessed 
 by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen 
 and women, whom you have led out of the house 
 of bondage, and whose heartfelt " God bless you" 
 has been your only reward. The midnight sky and 
 the silent stars have been the witnesses of your de- 
 votion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting 
 John Brown of sacred memory I know of no one 
 who has willingly encountered more perils and 
 hardships to serve our enslaved people than you 
 have. Much that you have done would seem im- 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 probable to those who do not know you as I know 
 you. It is to me a great pleasure and a great privi- 
 lege to bear testimony to your character and your 
 works, and to say to those to whom you may come, 
 that I regard you in every way truthful and trust- 
 worthy. Your friend, 
 
 FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 
 
SOME SCENES 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 
 
 HARRIET TUBMAN, known at various times,* and 
 in various places, by many different names, such as 
 " Moses," in allusion to her being the leader and 
 guide to so many of her people in their exodus from 
 the Land of Bondage ; " the Conductor of the Under- 
 ground Railroad ; " and " Moll Pitcher," for the en- 
 ergy and daring by which she delivered a fugitive 
 slave who was about to be dragged back to the 
 South ; was for the first twenty-five yours of her 
 life a slave on the eastern shore of Maryland. Her 
 own master she represents as never unnecessarily 
 cruel ; but as was common among slaveholders, he 
 often hired out his slaves to others, some of whom 
 proved to be tyrannical and brutal to the utmost 
 limit of their power. 
 
 She had worked only as a field-hand for many 
 years, following the oxen, loading and unloading 
 wood, and carrying heavy burdens, by which her 
 
10 SOME SCENES IX THE 
 
 naturally remarkable power of muscle was so devel- 
 oped that her feats of strength often called forth 
 the wonder of strong laboring men. Thus was she 
 preparing for the life of hardship and endurance 
 which lay before her, for the deeds of daring she 
 was to do, and of which her ignorant and darkened 
 mind at tii'iit i .ii'<" i:<-\ cr dreamed. 
 
 Tin liivt, <perso>i ,by w,hom she was hired was a 
 vcuuv.i who, though married and the mother of a 
 iamily, was still " Miss Susan " to her slaves, as is 
 customary at the South. This w r oman was possess- 
 ed of the good things of this life, and provided lib- 
 erally for her slaves so far as food and clothing 
 went. But she had been brought up to believe, 
 and to act upon the belief, that a slave could be 
 taught to do nothing, and would do nothing but 
 under the sting of the whip. Harriet, then a young 
 girl, was taken from her life in the field, and having 
 never seen the inside of a house better than a cabin 
 in the negro quarters, was put to house-work with- 
 out being told how to do anything. The first thing 
 was to put a parlor in order. " Move these chairs 
 and tables into the middle of the room, sweep the 
 carpet clean, then dust everything, and put them 
 back in their places ! " These were the directions 
 given, and Harriet was left alone to do hor work. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 11 
 
 The whip was in sight on. the mantel-piece, as a 
 reminder of what was to be expected if the work 
 was not done well. Harriet fixed the furniture as 
 she was told to do, and swept with all her strength, 
 raisins: a tremendous dust. The moment she had 
 
 O 
 
 finished sweeping, she took her dusting cloth, and 
 wiped everything " so you could see your fo.cc in 
 'em, de shone so," in haste to go and set the table 
 for breakfast, and do her other work. The dust 
 which she had set flying only settled down again 
 on chairs, tables, and the piano. " Miss Susan " 
 came in and looked around. Then came the call 
 for " Minty " Harriet's name was Araminta at 
 the South. 
 
 She drew her up to the table, saying, " What do 
 you mean by doing my work this way, you ! " 
 and passing her finger on the table and piano, she 
 showed her the mark it made through the dust. 
 " Miss Susan,! done sweep and dust jus' as you tole 
 rue." But the whip was already taken down, and 
 the strokes were falling on head and face and neck. 
 Four times this scene was repeated before break- 
 fast, when, during the fifth whipping, the door 
 opened, and "Miss Emily" came in. She was a 
 married sister of " Miss Susan," and was making 
 her a visit, and though brought up with the same 
 
12 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 associations as her sister, seems to have been a per- 
 son of more gentle and reasonable nature. Not 
 being able to endure, the screams of the child any 
 longer, she came in, took her sister by the arm, and 
 said, " If you do not stop whipping that child, I 
 will leave your house, and never come back ! " Miss 
 Susan declared that " she would not mind, and she 
 slighted her work on purpose." Miss Emily said, 
 " Leave her to me a few moments ; " and Miss Susan 
 left the room, indignant. As soon as they were 
 alone, Miss Emily said : " Now, Minty, show me 
 how you do your work." For the sixth time Har- 
 riet removed all the furniture into the middle of 
 the room; then she swept; and the moment she 
 had done sweeping, she took the dusting cloth to 
 wipe off the furniture. " Now stop there," said 
 Miss Emily ; " go away now, and do some of your 
 other work, and when it is time to dust, I will call 
 you." When the time came she called her, and ex- 
 plained to her how the dust had now settled, and 
 that if she wiped it off now, the furniture would 
 remain bright and clean. These few words an hour 
 or two before, would have saved Harriet her whip- 
 pings for that day, as they probably did for many 
 a day after. 
 
 While with this woman, after working from early 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 13 
 
 morning till late at night, she was obliged to sit up 
 all nio-ht to rock a cross, sick child. Her mistress 
 
 O 
 
 laid upon her bed with a whip under her pillow, 
 and slept ; but if the tired nurse forgot herself for 
 a moment, if her weary head dropped, and her hand 
 ceased to rock the cradle, the child would cry out, 
 and then down would come the whip upon the neck 
 and face of the poor weary creature. The scars are 
 still plainly visible where the whip cut into the 
 flesh. Perhaps her mistress was preparing her, 
 though she did not know it then, by this enforced 
 habit of wakefulness, for the many long nights of 
 travel, when she was the leader and guide of the 
 weary and hunted ones who were escaping from 
 bondage. 
 
 " Miss Susan " got tired -of Harriet, as Harriet 
 was determined she should do, and so abandoned 
 her intention of buying her, and sent her back to 
 her master. She was next hired out to the man 
 who inflicted upon her the life-long injury from 
 which she is suffering now, by breaking her skull 
 with a weight from the scales. The injury thus 
 inflicted causes her often to fall into a state of 
 somnolency from which it is almost impossible to 
 rouse her. Disabled and sick, her flesh all wasted 
 away, she was returned to her owner. He tried to 
 
14 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 sell her, but no one would buy her. " Dey said dey 
 wouldn't give a sixpence for me," she said. 
 
 " And so," she said, " from Christmas till March 
 I worked as I could, and I prayed through all the 
 long nights I groaned and prayed for ole master : 
 ' Oh Lord, convert master ! ' 'Oh Lord, change 
 dat man's heart!' 'Pears like I prayed all de 
 tune," said Harriet ; " 'bout my work, everywhere, 
 I prayed an' I groaned to de Lord. When I went 
 to de horse-trough to wash my face, I took up do 
 water in my han' an' I said, ' Oh Lord, wash me, 
 make me clean ! ' Den I take up something to 
 wipe my face, an' I say, ' Oh Lord, wipe away 
 all my sin ! ' When I took de broom and began 
 to sweep, I groaned, ' Oh Lord, wha'soebber sin 
 dere be in my heart, sweep it out, Lord, clur an' 
 clean !' ' No words can describe the pathos of her 
 tones, as she broke out into these words of prayer, 
 after the manner of her people. "An' so," said 
 she, " I prayed all night long for master, till the 
 first of March ; an' all the time he was bringing 
 people to look at me, an' trying to sell me. Den 
 we heard dat some of us was gwine to be sole to go 
 wid de chain-gang down to de cotton an' rice fields, 
 and dey said I was gwine, an' my brudders, an' sis- 
 ters. Den I changed my prayer. Fust of March 
 
LIFE OF HAKBIET TUBMAN. 15 
 
 I began to pray, 4 Oh Lord, if you ant nebber 
 gwine to change clat man's heart, kill him, Lord, 
 MII' take him out ob de way.' 
 
 " Nex' ting I heard old master was dead, an' he 
 died jus' as .he libed. Oh, then, it 'peared like I'd 
 give all de world full ob gold, if I had it, to bring 
 dat poor soul back. But I couldn't pray for him 
 no longer." 
 
 The slaves were told that their master's will pro- 
 vided that none of them should be sold out of the 
 State. This satisfied most of them, and they were 
 very happy. But Harriet was not satisfied ; she 
 never closed her eyes that she did not imagine she 
 saw the horsemen coming, and heard the screams 
 of women and children, as they were being dragged 
 away to a far worse slavery than that they were 
 enduring there. Harriet was married at this time 
 to a free negro, who not only did not trouble him- 
 self about her fears, but did his best to betray her, 
 and bring her back after she escaped. She would 
 start up at night with the cry, " Oh, dey're comin', 
 dey're comin', I mus' go ! " 
 
 Her husband called her a fool, and said she was 
 like old Cudjo, who when a joke went round, never 
 laughed till half an hour after everybody else got 
 through, and so just as all danger was past she be- 
 
16 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 gan to be frightened. But still Harriet in fancy 
 saw the horsemen coming, and heard the screams 
 of terrified women and children. "And all that 
 time, in my dreams and visions," she said, " I 
 seemed to see a line, and on the other side of that 
 line were green fields, and lovely flowers, and 
 beautiful white ladies, who stretched out their arms 
 to me over the line, but I couldn't reach them no- 
 how. I always fell before I got to the line." 
 
 One Saturday it was whispered in the quarters 
 that two of Harriet's sisters had been sent off with 
 the chain-gang. That morning she started, having 
 persuaded three of her brothers to accompany her, 
 but they had not gone far when the brothers, ap- 
 palled by the dangers before and behind them, 
 determined to go back, and in spite of her re- 
 monstrances dragged her with them. In fear and 
 terror, she remained over Sunday, and on Monday 
 night a negro from another part of the plantation 
 came privately to tell Harriet that herself and 
 brothers were to be carried off that night. The 
 poor old mother, who belonged to the same mis- 
 tress, was just going to milk. Harriet wanted to 
 get away without letting her know, because she 
 knew that she would raise an uproar and prevent 
 her going, or insist upon going with her, and the 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 17 
 
 time for this was not yet. But she must give some 
 intimation to those she was going to leave of her 
 intention, and send such a farewell as she might to 
 the friends and relations on the plantation. These 
 communications were generally made by singing. 
 They sang as they walked along the country roads, 
 and the chorus was taken up by others, and the 
 uninitiated knew not the hidden meaning of the 
 words 
 
 When clat ar ole chariot comes, 
 
 I'm gwine tolebe you ; 
 I'm boun' for de promised laud, 
 
 I'm gwine to lebe you. 
 
 These words meant something more than a- jour- 
 ney to the Heavenly Canaan. Harriet said, " Here, 
 mother, go 'long; I'll do the niilkin' to-night and 
 bring it in." The old woman went to her cabin. 
 Harriet took down her sun-bonnet, and went on 
 to the " big house," where some of her relatives 
 lived as house servants. She thought she could 
 trust Mary, but there were others in the kitchen, 
 and she could say nothing. Mary began to frolic 
 with her. She threw her across the kitchen, and 
 ran out, knowing that Mary would follow her. 
 But just as they turned the corner of the house, the 
 master to whom Harriet was now hired, came rid- 
 ing up on his horse. Mary darted back, and Har- 
 
18 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 riot thought there was no way now but to sing. 
 But " the Doctor," as the master was called, was 
 regarded with special awe by his slaves ; if they 
 were singing or talking together in the field, or on 
 the road, and " the Doctor " appeared, all was hush- 
 ed till he passed. But Harriet had no time for 
 ceremony; her friends must have a warning ; and 
 whether the Doctor thought her " imperent " or 
 not, she must sing him farewell. So on she- went to 
 meet him, singing : 
 
 I'm sorry I'm gwine to lebe you, 
 
 Farewell, oh farewell ; 
 But I'll meet you in the mornin', 
 
 Farewell, oh farewell. 
 
 The Doctor passed, and she bowed as she went 
 on, still singing : 
 
 I'll meet you in the mornin', 
 
 I'm boun' for de promised land, 
 On the oder Bide of Jordan, 
 
 Boun' for de promised land. 
 
 She reached the gate and looked round; the 
 Doctor had stopped his horse, and had turned 
 around in the saddle, and was looking at her as if 
 there might be more in this than " met the ear." 
 Harriet closed the gate, went on a little way, came 
 back, the Doctor still gazing at her. She lifted up 
 the gate as if she had not latched it properly, 
 waved her hand to him., and burst out again : 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAX. 19 
 
 I'll meet you in the morniiT, 
 Safe in de promised land, 
 On the oder side of Jordan, 
 Bonn 1 for de promised land. 
 
 And she started on her journey, " not knowing 
 whither she went," except that she was going to 
 follow the north star, till it led her to liberty. 
 Cautiously and by night she traveled, cunningly 
 feeling her way, and finding out who were friends ; 
 till after a long and painful journey she found, in 
 answer to careful inquiries, that she had at last 
 crossed tfcat magic "line" which then separated 
 the land of bondage from the land of freedom ; for 
 this was before we were commanded by law to 
 take part in the iniquity of slavery, and aid in 
 taking and sending back those poor hunted fugi- 
 tives who had manhood and intelligence enough 
 to enable them to make their way thus far towards 
 freedom. 
 
 " When I found I had crossed dat line? she 
 said, " I looked at my hands to see if I was de 
 same pusson. There was such a glory ober ebery 
 ting ; de sun came like gold through the trees, and 
 ober the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaben." 
 
 But then came the bitter drop in the cup of joy. 
 fehe said she felt like a man who was put in State 
 Prison for twenty-five years. All these twenty- 
 
20 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 five years he was thinking of his home, and long- 
 ing for the time when he would see it again. At 
 last the day comes he leaves the prison gates he 
 makes his way to his old home, but his old home 
 is not there. The house has been pulled down, 
 and a new one has been put up in its place ; his 
 family and friends are gone nobody knows where ; 
 there is no one to take him by the hand, no one to 
 welcome him. 
 
 " So it was with me," she said. " I had crossed 
 the line. I was/ree / but there was no one to wel- 
 come me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger 
 in a strange land ; and my home, after all, was down 
 in Maryland; because my father, my mother, my 
 brothers, and sisters, and friends were there. But 
 I was free, and they should be free. I would 
 make a home in the North and bring them there, 
 God helping me. Oh, how I prayed then," she 
 *aid ; " I said to de Lord, ' I'm gwine to hole stiddy 
 on to you, an' I know you'll see me through.' ' : 
 
 She came to Philadelphia, and worked in hotels, 
 in club houses, and afterwards at Cape May. 
 Whenever she had raised money enough to pay 
 expenses, she would make her way back, hide her- 
 self, and in .various ways give notice to those who 
 were ready to strike for freedom. When her 
 
LIFE OF HAKKIET TUJJMAS. 21 
 
 party was made up, they would start always on 
 Saturday night, because advertisements could not 
 be sent out on Sunday, which gave them one day 
 in advance. 
 
 Then the pursuers would start after them. 
 Advertisements would be posted everywhere. 
 There was one reward of $12,000 offered for the 
 head of the woman who \vus constantly appearing 
 and enticing away parties of slaves from their 
 master. She had traveled in the cars when these 
 posters were put up over her head, and she heard 
 them read by those about her for she could not 
 read herself. Fearlessly she went on, trusting in 
 the Lord. She said, u I started with this idea in 
 my head, ' Dere's two things I've got a riyht to, 
 and dese are. Death or Liberty one or tother I 
 mean to have. No one will take me back alive ; I 
 shall fight for my liberty, and when de time has 
 come for me to go, de Lord will let dem kill me." 
 And acting upon this simple creed, and firm in this 
 trusting faith, she went back and forth nineteen 
 times, according to the reckoning of her friends. 
 She remembers that she went eleven times from 
 Canada, but of the other journeys she kept no reck- 
 oning. 
 
 While Harriet was working as cook in one of 
 
22 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 the large hotels in Philadelphia, the play of " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin " was being performed for many weeks 
 every night. Some of her fellow-servants wanted 
 her to go and see it. "No," said Harriet, " I haint 
 got no heart to go and see the sufferings of my peo- 
 ple played 011 de stage. I've heard ' Uncle Tom's 
 Cabin ' read, and I tell you Mrs Stowe's pen hasn't 
 begun to paint what slavery is as I have seen it at 
 the far South. I've seen de real ting, and I don't 
 want to see it on no stage or in no teater." 
 
 I will give here an article from a paper published 
 nearly a year ago, which mentions that the price 
 set upon the head of Harriet was much higher than 
 I have stated it to be. When asked about this, 
 Harriet said she did not know whether it was so, 
 but she heard them read from one paper that the 
 reward offered was $12,000. 
 
 " Among American women," says the article re- 
 ferred to, " who has shown a courage and self-devo- 
 tion to the welfare of others, equal to Harriet 
 Tubman? Hear htr story of going down again 
 and again into the very jaws of slavery, to rescue 
 her suffering people, .bringing them off through 
 perils and dangers enough to appall the stoutest 
 heart, till she was known among them as ' Moses.' 
 
 " Forty thousand dollars was not too great a 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 23 
 
 reward for the Maryland slaveholders to offer for 
 her. 
 
 " Think of her brave spirit, as strong as Daniel's 
 of old, in its fearless purpose to serve God, even 
 though the fiery furnace should be her portion. I 
 have looked into her dark face, and wondered and 
 admired as I listened to the thrilling deeds her lion 
 heart had prompted her to dare. 'I have heard 
 their groans and sighs, and seen their tears, and I 
 would give every drop of blood in my veins to free 
 them,' she said. 
 
 " The other day, at Gerrit Smith's, I saw this he- 
 roic woman, whom the pen of genius will yet make 
 famous, as one of the noblest Christian hearts ever 
 inspired to lift the burdens of the wronged and op- 
 pressed, and what do you think she said to me ? She 
 had been tending and caring for our Union black* 
 (and white) soldiers in hospital during the war, 
 and at the end of her labors was on her way home, 
 coming in a car through New Jersey. A white man, 
 the conductor, thrust her out of the car with such 
 violence that she has not been able to work scarcely 
 any since ; and as she told me of the pain she had 
 and still suffered, she said she did not know what 
 she should have done for herself, and the old father 
 and mother she takes care of, if Mr. Wendell 
 
24- 
 
 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 Phillips had not sent her $00, that kept them warm 
 through the winter. She had a letter from W. II. 
 Seward to Maj.-Gen. Hunter, in which he says, ' I 
 have known her long, and a nobler, higher spirit, 
 or truer, seldom dwells in the human form.' " 
 
 It will be impossible to give any connected ac- 
 count of the different journeys taken by Harriet for 
 the rescue of her people, as she herself has no idea 
 of the dates connected with them, or of the order 
 in which they were made. She thinks she was 
 about 25 when she made her own escape, and this 
 was in the last year of James K. Folk's administra- 
 tion. From that time till the be^innin^ of the war 
 
 O O 
 
 her years were spent in these journeyings back and 
 forth, with intervals between, in which she worked 
 only to spend the avails of her labor in providing 
 "for the wants of her pext party of fugitives. By 
 night she traveled, many times on foot, over moun- 
 tains, through forests, across rivers, mid perils by 
 land, perils by water, perils from enemies, " perils 
 among false brethren." Sometimes members of 
 her party would become exhausted, foot-sore, and 
 bleeding, and declare they could not go on, they 
 must stay where they dropped down, and die ; 
 others would think a voluntary return to slavery 
 better than being overtaken and carried back, and 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAX. 25 
 
 would insist upon returning ; then there was no 
 remedy but force ; the revolver carried by this bold 
 and daring pioneer would be pointed at their 
 heads. " Dead niggers tell no tales," said Harriet ; 
 "Go on or die;" and so she compelled them to 
 drag their weary limbs on their northward journey. 
 
 At one time she collected and sent on a gang of 
 thirty-nine fugitives in the care of others, as from 
 some cause she was prevented from accompanying 
 them. Sometimes, when she and her party were 
 concealed in the woods, they saw their pursuers 
 pass, on their horses, down the high road, tacking 
 up the advertisements for them on the fences and 
 trees. 
 
 " And den how we laughed," said she. " We 
 was de fools, and dey was de wise men ; but we 
 wasn't fools enough to go down de high road in de 
 broad daylight." At one time she left her party in 
 the woods, and went by a lon^ and roundabout 
 way to one of the " stations of the Underground 
 Railway," as she called them. Here she procured 
 food for her famished party, often paying out of her 
 hardly-gained earnings, five dollars a day for food 
 for them. But she dared not go back to them till 
 night, for 'fear of being watched, and thus reveal- 
 ing their hiding-place. After nightfall, the sound 
 
26 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 of a hymn sung at a distance comes upon the ears 
 of the concealed and famished fugitives in the 
 woods, and they know that their deliverer is at 
 hand. They listen eagerly for the words she sings, 
 for by them they are to be warned of danger, or 
 informed of safety. Nearer and nearer comes the 
 unseen singer, and the words are wafted to their 
 ears: 
 
 Hail, oh hail ye happy spirits, 
 
 Death no more shall make you fear, 
 No grief nor sorrow, pain nor anger (anguish) 
 
 Shall no more distress you there. 
 
 Around him are ten thousan' angels, 
 
 Always ready to 'bey comman'. 
 *Dey are always hobring round you, 
 Till you reach the hebbenly Ian'. 
 
 Jesus, Jesus will go wid you ; 
 
 He will lead you to his throne ; 
 He who died has gone before you, 
 
 Trod de wine-press all alone. 
 
 He whose thunders shake creation ; 
 
 He who bids the planets roll ; 
 He who rides upon the temple, (tempest) 
 
 An' his scepter sways de whole. 
 
 Dark and thorny is de desert, 
 
 Through de pilgrim makes his ways, 
 Yet beyon' dis vale of sorrow, 
 
 Lies de fiel's of endless days. 
 
 I give these words exactly as Harriet sang them 
 to me to a sweet and simple Methodist air. " De 
 first time I go by singing dis hymn, dey don't come 
 out to me," she said, " till I listen if de coast is 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 
 
 27 
 
 clar ; den when I go back and sing it again, dey 
 come out. But if I sing : 
 
 Moses go clown in Egypt, 
 
 Till ole Pharo' let me go ; 
 Hadn't been for Adam's fall, 
 
 Shouldn't hab to died at all, 
 
 den dey don't come out, for dere's danger in de 
 way." 
 
 And so by night travel, by hiding, by signals, 
 by threatening, she brought the people safely to 
 the land of liberty. But after the passage of the 
 Fugitive Slave law, she said, " I wouldn't trust Un- 
 cle Sam wid my people no longer ; I brought 'em 
 all clar off to Canada." 
 
 Of the very many interesting stories told me by 
 Harriet, I cannot refrain from telling to my read- 
 ers that of Joe, who accompanied her upon her sev- 
 enth or eighth journey from Maryland to Canada. 
 
 Joe was a noble specimen of a negro, and was 
 hired out by his master to a man for whom he work- 
 ed faithfully for six years, saving him the expense of 
 an overseer, and taking all trouble off his hands. At 
 length this man found him so absolutely necessary 
 to him, that he determined to buy him at any cost. 
 His master held him proportionably high. How- 
 ever, by paying a thousand dollars down for him, 
 and promising to pay another thousand in a cer- 
 
28 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 tain time, Joe passed into the hands of his new 
 master. 
 
 As may be imagined, Joe was somewhat surprised 
 when the first order issued from his master's lips, 
 was, " Now, Joe, strip and take a whipping ! " 
 Joe's experience of whippings, as he had seen them 
 inflicted upon others, was not such as to cause him 
 particularly to desire to go through the same ope- 
 ration on his own account ; and he, naturally 
 enough, demurred, and at first thought of resisting. 
 But he called to mind a scene which he had wit- 
 nessed a few days before, in the field, the particu- 
 lars of which are too horrible and too harassing 
 to the feelings to be given to my readers, and he 
 thought it best to submit ; but first he tried remon- 
 strance. 
 
 " Mas'r," said he, " habn't I always been faith- 
 ful to you? Habn't I worked through sun an' 
 rain, early in de mornin', and late at night ; habn't 
 I saved you an oberseer by doin' his work ; hab 
 you any ting to complain of agin me ? " 
 
 " No, Joe ; " I've no complaint to make of you ; 
 you're a good nigger, and you've always worked 
 well ; but the first lesson my niggers have to learn 
 is that I am master^ and that they are not to resist 
 or refuse to obey anything I tell 'em to do. So 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAK. 29 
 
 the first thing they've got to do, is to be whipped ; 
 if they resist, they get it all the harder ; and so 
 I'll go on, till I kill 'em, but they've got to give up 
 at last, and learn that I'm master." 
 
 Joe thought it best to submit. He stripped off 
 his upper clothing, and took his whipping without 
 a word ; but as he drew his clothes up over his 
 torn and bleeding back, he said, " Dis is de last ! " 
 That night he took a boat and went a long dis- 
 tance to the cabin of Harriet's father, and said, 
 " Next time Moses comes, let me know." It was 
 only a week or two after that, that the mysterious 
 woman whom no one could lay their finger on ap- 
 peared, and men, women, and children began to 
 disappear from the plantations. One fine morning 
 Joe w r as missing, and his brother William, from 
 another plantation ; Peter and Eliza, too, were gone ; 
 and these made part of Harriet's next party, who 
 began their pilgrimage from Maryland to Canada, 
 or as they expressed it, from " Egypt to de land of 
 Canaan." 
 
 Their adventures were enough to fill a volume ; 
 they were pursued ; they were hidden in " potato 
 holes," while their pursuers passed within a few 
 feet of them ; they were passed along by friends in 
 various disguises ; they scattered and separated, to 
 
30 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 be led by guides by a roundabout way, to a meet- 
 ing-place again. They were taken in by Sana 
 Green, the man who was afterwards sent to State 
 Prison for ten years for having a copy of " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin " in his house ; and so, hunted and 
 hiding and wandering, they came at last to the 
 long bridge at the entrance of the city of Wil- 
 mington, Delaware. The rewards posted up 
 everywhere had been at first five hundred dollars for 
 Joe, if taken within the limits of the United States ; 
 then a thousand, and then fifteen hundred dollars, 
 " an' all expenses clar an' clean, for his body in 
 Easton Jail." Eight hundred for William, and four 
 hundred for Peter, and twelve thousand for the 
 woman who enticed them away. The long Wil- 
 mington Bridge was guarded by police officers, 
 and the advertisements were everywhere. The 
 party were scattered, and taken to the houses 
 of different colored friends, and word was sent 
 secretly to Thomas Garrett, of Wilmington, of 
 their condition, and the necessity of their being 
 taken across the bridge. Thomas Garrett is a Qua- 
 ker, and a man of a wonderfully large and generous 
 heart, through whose hands, Harriet tells me, two 
 thousand self-emancipated slaves passed on their 
 way to freedom. He was always ready, heart and 
 
LIFE OF HAUEIET TUBMAN. 31 
 
 hand and means, in aiding these poor fugitives, 
 and rendered most efficient help to Harriet on 
 many of her journeys back and forth. A letter 
 received a few days since by the writer, from 
 this noble-hearted philanthropist, will be given 
 presently. 
 
 As soon as Thomas Garrett heard of the condi- 
 tion of these poor people, his plan was formed. 
 He engaged two wagons, filled them with brick- 
 layers, whom of course he paid well for their share 
 in the enterprise, and sent them across the bridge. 
 They went as if on a frolic, singing and shouting. 
 The guards saw them pass, and of course expected 
 them to re-cross the bridge. After nightfall (and 
 fortunately it was a dark night) the same wagons 
 went back, but with an addition to their party. 
 The fugitives were on the bottom of the wagons, 
 the bricklayers on the seats, still singing and 
 shouting ; and so they passed by the guards, who 
 were entirely unsuspicious of the nature of the 
 load the wagons contained, or of the amount of 
 property thus escaping their hands. And so they 
 made their way to New York. When they entered 
 the anti-slavery office there, Joe was recognized at 
 once by the description in the advertisement. 
 "Well," said Mr. Oliver Johnson, "I am glad to 
 
32 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 see the man whose head is worth fifteen hundred 
 dollars." At this Joe's heart sank. If the adver- 
 tisement had got to New York, that place which ii 
 had taken them so many days and nights to reach, 
 lie thought he was in danger still. a And how far 
 is it now to Canada ? " he asked. When told how 
 many miles, for they were to come through Xew 
 York State, and cross the Suspension Bridge, he was 
 ready to give up. " From dat time Joe was silent," 
 said Harriet ; " he sang no more, he talked :io 
 more ; he sat wid his head on his hand, and nobody 
 could 'muse him or make him take any interest in 
 anyting." They passed along in safety, and at 
 length found themselves in the cars, approach- 
 ing Suspension Bridge. The rest were very 
 joyous and happy, "but Joe sat silent and sad. 
 Their fellow-passengers all seemed interested in 
 and for them, and listened with tears, as Harriet 
 and all their party lifted up their voices and 
 sang : 
 
 I'm on ray way to Canada, 
 
 That cold and dreary land ; 
 The sad effects of slavery, 
 
 I can't no longer stand. 
 I've served my master all my day?, 
 
 Widout a dime's reward ; 
 And now I'm forced to run away, 
 
 To floe the lash abroad. 
 Farewell, ole master, don't think hard of me, 
 I'll travel on to Canada, where all the slaves are free. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 'A3 
 
 The hounds are baying on my track, 
 
 Ole master comes behind. 
 Resolved that he will bring me back, 
 
 Before I cross de line ; 
 I'm now embarked for yonder shore, 
 
 There a man's a man by law ; 
 The iron horse will bear me o'er, 
 
 To shake de lion's paw. 
 Oh, righteous Father, wilt thou not pity me, 
 And aid me on to Canada where all the slaves are free. 
 
 Oh, I heard Queen Victoria say, 
 
 That if we would forsake 
 Our native land of slavery, 
 
 And come across the lake ; 
 That she was standin' on de shore, 
 
 Wid arms extended wide, 
 To give us all a peaceful home 
 
 Beyond de rolling tide. 
 Farewell, ole master, etc. 
 
 The cars began to cross the bridge. Harriet 
 was very anxious to have her companions see the 
 Falls. William, Peter, and Eliza came eagerly to 
 look at the wonderful sight; but Joe sat still, with, 
 his head upon his hand. 
 
 " Joe, <-<-n e look at de Falls ! Joe, you fool you, 
 come see de Falls ! its your last chance." But Joe 
 sat still and never raised his head. At length Har- 
 riet knew by the rise in the center of the bridge, 
 and the descent on the other sid^ that they had 
 crossed " the line." She sprang across to Joe's 
 seat, shook him with all her might, and shouted, 
 " Joe, you've shook de lion's paw ! " Joe did not 
 know what she meant. " Joe, you're free ! " shout- 
 
34: SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 ed Harriet. Then Joe's head went up, he raised 
 his hands on high, and his face, streaming with 
 tears, to heaven, and broke out in loud and thrill- 
 ing tones: 
 
 " Glory to God and Jesus too, 
 
 One more soul is safe ! 
 Oh, go and carry de news, 
 One more soul got safe." 
 
 " Joe, come and look at de Falls ! " called Har- 
 riet. 
 
 " Glory to God and Jesus too, 
 One more soul got safe." 
 
 was all the answer. The cars stopped on the other 
 side. Joe's feet were the first to touch British soil, 
 after those of the conductor. 
 
 Loud roared the waters of Niagara, but louder 
 still ascended the anthem of praise from the over- 
 flowing heart of the freeman. And can we doubt 
 that the strain was taken up by angel voices, and 
 that through the arches of Heaven echoed and re- 
 echoed the strain : 
 
 Glory to God in the Highest, 
 Glory to God and Jesus too, 
 One more soul is safe. 
 
 " The ladies and gentlemen gathered round him," 
 said Harriet, " till I couldn't see Joe for the crowd, 
 only I heard ' Glory to God and Jesus too ! ' louder 
 than ever." William went after him, and pulled 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 35 
 
 him, saying, " Joe, stop your noise ! you act like 
 a fool ! ' Then Peter ran in and jerked him mos' 
 off his feet, " Joe, stop your hollerin' ! Folks '11 
 think you're crazy ! " But Joe gave no heed. 
 The ladies were crying, and the tears like rain ran 
 down Joe's sable cheeks. A lady reached over 
 her fine cambric handkerchief to him. Joe wiped 
 his face, and then he spoke. 
 
 " Oh ! if I'd felt like dis down South, it would 
 hab taken nine men to take me ; only one more 
 journey for me now, and dat is to Hebben ! " 
 " Well, you ole fool you," said Harriet, with whom 
 there seems but one step from the sublime to the 
 ridiculous, " you might a' looked at de Falls fust, 
 and den gone to Hebben afterwards." She has 
 seen Joe several times since, a happy and industri- 
 ous freeman in Canada. 
 
 When asked, as she often is, how it was possible 
 that she was not afraid to go back, with that tre- 
 mendous price upon her head, Harriet always an- 
 swers, " Why, don't I tell you, Missus, t'wan't me, 
 'twas de Lord ! I always tole him, ' I trust to you. 
 I don't know where to go or what to do, but I ex- 
 pect you to lead me,' an' he always did." At one 
 time she was going down, watched for everywhere, 
 after there had been a meeting of slaveholders in 
 
36 SOME SCENES IN TIIK 
 
 the court-house of one of the large cities of Mary- 
 land, and an added reward had been put upon her 
 head, with various threats of the different cruel de- 
 vices by which she should be tortured and put to 
 death ; friends gathered round her, imploring her 
 not to go on directly in the face of danger and 
 death, and this was Harriet's answer to them : 
 
 " Now look yer! John saw the city, didn't he? 
 Yes, John saw the city. Well, what did he 
 see? He saw twelve gates three of dose gates 
 was on de north three of 'em was on de east 
 and three of 'em was on de west but dere was 
 three of 'em on de South too ; an' I reckon if dey 
 kill me down dere, I'll o-it into one of dem <rates, 
 
 7 <T> O 
 
 don't you ? " 
 
 Whether Harriet's ideas of the geographical 
 bearings of the gates of the Celestial City, as seen 
 in the Apocalyptic vision, were correct or not, we 
 cannot doubt that she was right in the deduction her 
 faith drew from them ; and that somewhere, whether 
 north, south, east, or west, to our dim vision, 
 there is a gate to be opened for Harriet, where the 
 welcome will be given, " Come in thou blessed of 
 my Father/' 
 
 Many of the stories told me by Harriet, in an- 
 swer to questions, have been corroborated by let- 
 
LIFI-: OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 37 
 
 ters, some of which will appear in this book. Of 
 others, I have not been able to procure confirma- 
 tion, owing to ignorance, of the address of those 
 conversant with the facts. I find among her pa- 
 pers, many of which are defaced by being carried 
 about with her for years, portions of letters ad- 
 dressed to myself, by persons at the South, and 
 speaking of the valuable assistance Harriet was 
 rendering our soldiers in the hospital, and our 
 armies in the field. At this time her manner of 
 life, as related by herself, was this : 
 
 " Well, Missus, I'd go to de hospital, I would, 
 early eb'ry mornin'. I'd get a big chunk of ice, I 
 would, and put it in a basin, and fill it with water; 
 den I'd take a sponge and begin. Fust man I'd 
 come to, I'd thrash away de flics, an' dey'd rise, 
 dey would, like bees roun' a hive. Den I'd begin 
 to bathe der wounds, an' by de time I'd bathed off 
 three or four, de fire and heat would have melted 
 de ice and made de water warm, an' it would be as 
 red as clar blood. Den I'd go an' git more ice, I 
 would, an' by de time I got to de nex' ones, de 
 flies would be roun' de fust ones black an' thick as 
 eber." In this way she worked, day after day, 
 till late at night; then she went home to her 
 little cabin, and made, about fifty pies, a great 
 
38 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 quantity of ginger-bread, and two casks of root 
 beer. These she would hire some contraband to 
 sell for her through the camps, and thus she would 
 provide her support for another day ; for this 
 woman never received pay or pension, and never 
 drew for herself but twenty days' rations during 
 the four years of her labors. At one time she was 
 called away from Hilton Head, by one of our offi- 
 cers, to come to Fernandina, where the men were 
 " dying off like sheep," from dysentery. Harriet 
 had acquired quite a reputation for her skill in 
 curing this disease, by a medicine which she pre- 
 pared from roots which grew near the waters 
 which gave the disease. Here she found thou- 
 sands of sick soldiers and contrabands, and imme- 
 diately gave up her time and attention to them. 
 At another time, we find her nursing those who 
 were down by hundreds with small-pox and ma- 
 lignant fevers. She had never had these diseases, 
 but she seems to have no more fear of death in 
 one form than another. " De Lord would take 
 keer of her till her time came, an' den she was 
 ready to go." 
 
 S When our armies and gun-boats first appeared 
 in any part of the South, many of the poor negroes 
 were as much afraid of " de Yankee Buckra " as of 
 
LIFE OF HAKRIET TUBMAN. 39 
 
 their own masters. It was almost impossible to win 
 their confidence, or to get information from them. 
 But to Harriet they would tell anything ; and so it 
 became quite important that she should accompany 
 expeditions going up the rivers, or into unexplored 
 parts of the country, to control and get information 
 from those whom they took with them as guides. 
 
 Gen. Hunter asked her at one time if she would 
 go with several gun-boats up the Combahee River, 
 the object of the expedition being to take up the 
 torpedoes placed by the rebels in the river, to de- 
 stroy railroads and bridges, and to cut off supplies 
 from the rebel troops. She said she would go if 
 Col. Montgomery was to be appointed commander 
 of the expedition. Col. Montgomery was one of 
 John Brown's men, and was well known to Harriet. 
 Accordingly, Col. Montgomery was appointed to 
 the command, and Harriet, with several men un- 
 der her, the principal of whom was J. Plowden, 
 whose pass I have, accompanied the expedition. 
 Harriet describes in the most graphic manner the 
 appearance of the plantations as they passed up 
 the river ; the frightened negroes leaving their work 
 and taking to the woods, at sight of the gun-boats ; 
 then coming to peer out like startled deer, and 
 scudding away like the wind at the sound of the 
 
40 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 steam-whistle. " Well," said one old negro, " Mas'r 
 said de Yankees had horns and tails, but I nebber 
 beliebed it till now." But the word was passed 
 along by the mysterious telegraphic communication 
 existing among these simple people, that these were 
 " Lincoln's gun-boats come to set them free." In 
 vain, then, the drivers used their whips, in their ef- 
 forts to hurry the poor creatures back to their quar- 
 ters ; they all turned and ran for the gun-boats. 
 They came down every road, across every field, 
 just as they had left their work and their cabins; 
 women with children clinging around their necks, 
 hanging to their dresses, running behind, all mak- 
 ing at full speed for " Lincoln's gun-boats." Eight 
 hundred poor wretches at one time crowded the 
 banks, with their hands extended towards their de- 
 liverers, and they were all taken off upon the gun- 
 boats, and carried down to Beaufort. 
 
 " I nebber see such a sight," said Harriet ; we 
 laughed, an' laughed, an' laughed. Here you'd see 
 a woman wid a pail on her head, rice a smokin' in 
 it jus as she'd taken it from de fire, young one hang- 
 in' on behind, one han' roun' her forehead to hold 
 on, 'tother han' diggin' into de rice-pot, eatin' wid 
 all its might ; hold of her dress two or three more ; 
 down her back a bag wid a pig in it. One woman 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAJNT. 41 
 
 brought two pip;?, a white one, an' a black one; 
 we took 'em all on board ; named de white ] ng 
 Beaurcgard, an 1 de black pig Jeff Davis. Some- 
 times de women would come wid twins lian<nn' 
 
 O 
 
 roun' der necks; 'pears like I nebbcr see so many 
 twins in my life; bags on der shoulders, baskets on 
 der heads, and young ones taggin' behin', all loaded ; 
 pigs squealin", chickens screamin', young ones squal- 
 lin'." And so they came pouring down to the gun- 
 boats. When they stood on the shore, and the small 
 boats put out to take them off, they all wanted to 
 get in at once. After the boats were crowded, they 
 would hold on to them so that they could not leave 
 the shore. The oarsmen would beat them on their 
 hands, but they would not let go; they were afraid 
 the gun-boats would go off and leave them, and all 
 wanted to make sure of one of these arks of ref- 
 uge. At length Col. Montgomery shouted from 
 the upper deck, above the clamor of appealing 
 tones, "Moses, you'll have to give 'em a song." 
 Then Harriet lifted up her voice aijd sang : 
 
 " Of all the whole creation in the east <& in the west, 
 The glorious Yankee nation is the 'greatest and the best. 
 Come along ! Come along ! don't be alarmed, 
 Uncle Sam is rich enough to give yon all a farm.' 1 
 
 At the end of every verse, the negroes in their 
 enthusiasm would throw up their hands and shout 
 
42 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 " Glory," and the row-boats would take that op- 
 portunity to push off; and so at last they were all 
 brought on board. The masters fled ; houses and 
 barns and railroad bridges were burned, t*acks 
 torn up, torpedoes destroyed, and the expedition 
 was in all respects successful. 
 
 This fearless woman was often sent into the rebel 
 lines as a spy, and brought back valuable informa- 
 tion as to the position of armies and batteries ; 
 she has been in battle when the shot was falling- 
 like hail, and the bodies of dead and wounded men 
 were dropping around her like leaves in autumn ; 
 but the thought of fear never seems to have had 
 place for a moment in her mind. She had her duty 
 to perform, and she expected to be taken care of 
 till it was done. 
 
 Would that instead of taking them in this poor 
 way at second-hand, my readers could hear this 
 woman's graphic accounts of scenes she herself 
 witnessed,, could listen to her imitations of negro 
 preachers in their own very peculiar dialect, her 
 singing of camp-meeting hymns, her account of 
 " experience meetings," her imitations of the dances, 
 and the funeral ceremonies of these simple people. 
 " Why, dcr language down dar in de far South is 
 jus' as different from ours in Maryland, as you can 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 
 
 think," said she. " Dey laughed when dey heard me 
 talk, an' I could not understand dem, no how." 
 She described a midnight funeral which she at- 
 tended ; for the slaves, never having been allowed 
 to bury their dead in the day time, continued the 
 custom of night funerals from habit. 
 
 The corpse was laid upon the ground, and the 
 people all sat round, the group being lighted up 
 by pine torches. 
 
 The old negro preacher began by giving out a 
 hymn, which was sung by all. "An' oh ! I wish 
 you could hear 'em sing, Missus," said Harriet. 
 " Der voices is so sweet, and dey can sing eberyting 
 we sing, an' den dey can sing a great many hymns 
 dat we can't nebber catch at all." 
 
 The old preacher began his sermon by pointing 
 to the dead man, who lay in a rude box on the 
 ground before him. 
 
 "Shum? Ded-a-de-dah ! Shum, David? Ded- 
 a-de-dah ! Now I want you all to flee* for moment. 
 Who ob all dis congregation is gwine next to lie 
 ded-a-de-dah ? You can't go nowheres, my frien's 
 and bredren, but Deff '11 fin' you. You can't dig 
 no hole so deep an' bury yourself dar. but God 
 A'mighty's far-seein' eye '11 fine you, an' Deff '11 
 come arter you. You can't go into that big fort 
 
44 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 (pointing to Hilton Head), an' shut yourself up dar ; 
 dat fort dat Sesh Buckner said de debil couldn't 
 take, l)ut I)eff '11 fin' you dar. All your frien's may 
 forget you, but Deff '11 nebber forget you. Now, 
 my bredren, prepare to lie ded-a-de-dah !" 
 
 This was the burden of a very long sermon, after 
 which the whole congregation went round in a soil 
 of solemn dance, called the " spiritual shuffle," 
 shaking hands with each other, and calling each 
 other by name as they sang : 
 
 My sis'r Mary 's bouiv to go ; 
 My sip'r Nanny 's boun' to go ; 
 My brudder Tony 's boun' to go ; 
 My bradder July 's boun' to go. 
 
 This to the same tune, till every hand had been 
 shaken by every one of the company. When they 
 came to Harriet, who was a stranger, they sang : 
 
 Eberybody 's boun' to go ! 
 
 The body was then placed in a Government wagon, 
 and by the light of the pine torches, the strange, 
 dark procession moved along, singing a rude fune- 
 ral hymn, till they reached the place of burial. 
 
 Harriet's account of her interview with an old 
 negro she met at Hilton Head, is amusing and 
 interesting. He said, " I'd been yere seventy- 
 three years, workin' for my master widout even a 
 
LIFE OF IIAKIilET TUBMAN. 45 
 
 dime wages. I'd worked rain-wet sun dry. I'd 
 worked wid my mouf full of dust, but would not 
 stop to get a drink of water. I'd been whipped, 
 an' starved, an' I was always prayin', ' Oh ! Lord, 
 come an' delibber us ! ' All dat time de birds had 
 been flyin', an' de rabens had been cryin', and de 
 fish had been sunnin' in de waters. One day I 
 look up, an' I see a big cloud ; it didn't come up 
 like as de clouds come out far yonder, but it 
 'peared to be right ober head. Der was tunders 
 out of dat, an' der was lightnin's. Den I looked 
 down on de water, an' I see, 'peared to me a big 
 house in de water, an' out of de big house came 
 great big eggs, arid de good eggs went on trou' de 
 air, an' fell into de fort; an' de bad eggs burst 
 before dey got dar. Den de Sesh Buckra begin 
 to run, an de neber stop running till dc git to de 
 swamp, an' de stick dar an' de die dar. Den I 
 heard 'twas the Yankee ship* firm' out de big 
 eggs, an dey had come to set us free. Den I praise 
 de Lord. He come an' put he little finger in de 
 work, an' dey Sesh Buckra all go ; and de birds stop 
 flyin', and de rabens stop cryin', an' when I go to 
 catch a fish to eat wid my rice, de 's no fish dar. 
 De Lord A'mighty 'd come and frightened 'em all 
 * The Wabaeh. 
 
46 SOME SCENES IX THE 
 
 out of tie waters. Oh ! Praise de Lord ! I 'd 
 prayed seventy-three years, an' now he 's come an' 
 we's all free." 
 
 The last time Harriet was returning from the 
 war, with her pass as hospital nurse, she bought a 
 half-fare ticket, as she was told she must do ; and 
 missing the other train, she got into an emigrant 
 train on the Amboy Railroad. When the con- 
 ductor looked at her ticket, he said, " Come, hus- 
 tle out of here ! We don't carry niggers for half- 
 fare." Harriet explained to him that she was in 
 the employ of Government, and was entitled to 
 transportation as the soldiers were. But the con- 
 ductor took her forcibly by the arm, and said, 
 " I'll make you tired of trying to stay here," She 
 resisted, and being very strong, she could probably 
 have got' the better of the conductor, had he not 
 called three men to his assistance. The car was 
 filled with emigrants, and no one seemed to take 
 her part. The only words she heard, accompa- 
 nied with fearful oaths, were, " Piti'h the nagur 
 out ! " They nearly wrenched her arm off, and 
 at length threw her, with all their strength, into a 
 baggage-car. She supposed her arm was broken, 
 and in intense suffering she came on to New York. 
 As she left the car, a delicate-looking young man 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAX. 4:7 
 
 came up to her, and, handing her a card, said, 
 " You ought to sue that conductor, and if you 
 want a witness, call on me." Harriet remained all 
 winter under the care of a physician in New York; 
 he advised her to sue the Railroad company, and 
 said that he would willingly testify as to her inju- 
 ries. But the card the young man had given her 
 was only a visiting card, and she did not know 
 where to find him, and so she let the matter go. 
 
 The writer here finds it necessary to apologize 
 for the very desultory and hasty manner in which 
 this little book is written. Being herself pressed 
 for time, in the expectation of soon leaving the 
 country, she is obliged to pen down the material to 
 be used in the short and interrupted interviews she 
 can obtain with Harriet, and also to use such let- 
 ters and accounts as may be sent her, as they come, 
 without being able to work them in, in the order of 
 time. A very material assistance is to be rendered 
 her by the kind offer of an account of Harriet's 
 services during the war, written by Mr. Charles P. 
 Wood, of Auburn, and kindly copied by one of 
 Harriet's most faithful and most efh'cient friends, 
 Mrs. S. M. Hopkins, of that place. 
 
 It was a wise plan of our sagacious heroine to 
 leave her old parents till the last to be brought 
 
48 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 away. They were pensioned off as too old to work, 
 had a cabin, and a horse and cow, and were quite 
 comfortable. If Harriet had taken them away be- 
 fore the young people, these last would have been 
 sold into Southern slavery, to keep them out of her 
 way. But at length Harriet heard that the old 
 man had been betrayed by a slave whom lie had 
 assisted, but who had turned back, and when ques- 
 tioned by his wife, told her the story of his intended 
 escape, and of the aid he had received from "Old 
 Ben." This woman, hoping to curry favor with 
 her master, revealed the whole to him, and " Old 
 Ben " was arrested. He was to be tried the next 
 week, when Harriet appeared upon the scene, and, 
 as she says, "saved dem de expense ob de trial, and 
 removed her father to a higher court, bv taking 
 
 O */ O 
 
 him off to Canada. The manner of their escape is 
 detailed in the following letter from Thomas Gar- 
 rett, the Wilmington Quaker : 
 
 WILMINGTON, 6th Mo., 1868. 
 
 MY FRIEND: Thy favor of the 12th reached me \ 
 yesterday, requesting such reminiscences as I could 
 give respecting the remarkable labors of Harriet 
 Tubmari, in aiding her colored friends from bondage. 
 I may begin by saying, living as I have in a slave 
 State, and the laws being very severe where any 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 49 
 
 proof could be made of any one aiding slaves on 
 their way to freedom, I have not felt at liberty to 
 keep any written word of Harriet's or my own la- 
 bors, except in numbering those whom I have aided. 
 For that reason I cannot furnish so interesting an 
 account of Harriet's labors as I otherwise could, and 
 now would be glad to do ; for in truth I never met 
 with any person, of any color, who had more confi- 
 dence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her 
 soul. She has frequently told me that she talked 
 with God, and he talked with her every day of her 
 life, and she has declared to me that she felt no 
 more fear of being arrested by her former master, 
 or any other person, when in his immediate neigh- 
 borhood, than she did in the State of New York, 
 or Canada, for she said she never ventured only 
 where God sent her, and her faith in a Supreme 
 Power truly was great. 
 
 I have now been confined to my room w r ith in- 
 disposition more than four weeks, and cannot sit to 
 write much ; but I feel so much interested in Har- 
 riet that I will try to give some of the most remark- 
 able incidents that now present themselves to my 
 mind. The date of the commencement of her la- 
 bors, I cannot certainly give ; but I think it must 
 have been about 1845 ; from that time till I860, I 
 
50 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 think she must have brought from the neighborhood 
 where she had been held as a slave, from 60 to 80 
 persons, from Maryland, some 80 miles from here. 
 No slave who placed himself under her care, was 
 ever arrested that I have heard of; she mostly had 
 her regular stopping places on her route ; but in 
 one instance, when she had two stout men with her, 
 some 30 miles below here, she said that God told 
 her to stop, which she did ; and then asked him 
 what she must do. He told her to leave the road, 
 and turn to the left ; she obeyed, and soon came to 
 a small stream of tide water; there was no boat, 
 no bridge ; she again inquired of her Guide what 
 she was to do. She was told to go through. It 
 was cold, in the month of March; but having con- 
 fidence in her Guide, she went in ; the water came 
 up to her arm-pits ; the men refused to follow till 
 they saw her safe on the opposite shore. They then 
 followed, and if I mistake not, she had soon to wade 
 a second stream ; soon after which she came to a 
 cabin of colored people, who took them all in, put 
 them to bed, and dried their clothes, ready to pro- 
 ceed next night on their journey. Harriet had run 
 out of money, and gave them some of her under- 
 clothing to pay for their kindness. When she called 
 on me two days after, she was so hoarse she could 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 51 
 
 hardly speak, and was also suffering with violent 
 toothache. The strange part of the story we found 
 to be, that the master of these two men had put up 
 the previous day, at the railroad station near where 
 she left, an advertisement for them, offering a large 
 reward for their apprehension ; but they made a 
 safe exit. She at one time brought as many as 
 seven or eight, several of whom were women and 
 children. She was well known here v in Chester 
 County and Philadelphia, and respected by all true 
 abolitionists. I had been in the habit of furnish- 
 ing her and those that accompanied her, as she re- 
 turned from her acts of mercy, with new shoes; 
 and on one occasion when I had not seen her for 
 three months, she came into my store. I said, 
 " Harriet, I am glad to see thee ! I suppose thee 
 wants a pair of new shoes." Her reply was " I 
 want more than that." I, in jest, said, " I- have al- 
 ways been liberal with thee, and wish to be ; but I 
 am not rich, and cannot afford to give much." Her 
 reply was : " God tells me you have money for me." 
 I asked her "if God never deceived her?" She 
 said, " Ts T o ! " " Well ! how much does thee want ? " 
 After studying a moment, she said : " About twenty- 
 three dollars." I then gave her twenty-four dol- 
 lars and some odd cents, the net proceeds of five 
 
52 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 pounds sterling, received through Eliza Wigham, 
 of Scotland, for her. I had given some accounts 
 of Harriet's labor to the Anti-Slavery Society of 
 Edinburgh, of which Eliza Wigham was Secretary. 
 On the reading of my letter, a gentleman present 
 said he would send Harriet four pounds if he knew 
 of any way to get it to her. Eliza Wigham offered 
 to forward it to me for her, and that was the first 
 money ever received by me for her. Some twelve 
 months after, she called on me again, and said that 
 God told her I had some money for her, but not so 
 much as before. I had, a few days previous, re- 
 ceived the net proceeds of one pound ten shil- 
 lings from -Europe for her. To say the least, there 
 was something remarkable in these facts, whether 
 clairvoyance, or the divine impression on her mind 
 from the source of all power, I cannot tell ; but 
 certain -it was she had a guide within herself other 
 than the written word, for she never had any edu- 
 cation. She brought away her aged parents in a 
 singular manner. They started with an old horse, 
 fitted out in primitive style with a straw collar, a 
 pair of old chaise wheels, with a board on the axle 
 to sit on, another board swung with ropes, fastened 
 to the axle, to rest their feet on. She got her par- 
 ents, who were both slaves belonging to different 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 53 
 
 masters, on this rude vehicle to the railroad, put 
 them in the cars, turned Jehu herself, and drove to 
 town in a style that no human being ever did be- 
 fore or since ; but she was happy at having arrived 
 safe. Next day, I furnished her with money to 
 take them all to Canada. I afterwards sold their 
 horse, and sent them the balance of the proceeds. 
 I believe that Harriet succeeded in freeing all her 
 relatives but one sister and her three children. 
 
 Etc., etc. Thy friend, 
 
 THOS. GARRETT. 
 
 Friend Garrett probably refers here to those who 
 passed through his hands. Harriet was obliged to 
 come by many different routes on her different 
 journeys, and though she never counted those 
 whom she brought away w r ith her, it would seem, 
 by the computation of others, that there must have 
 been somewhere near three hundred brought by 
 her to the Northern States and Canada. 
 
 Extracts from a letter written by Mr. Sanborn, 
 Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of State 
 Charities. 
 MY DEAR MADAME : Mr. Phillips has sent me 
 
 your note, asking for reminiscences of Harriet Tub- 
 
54. SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 man, and testimonials to her extraordinary story, 
 which all her New England friends will, I am 
 sure, be glad to furnish. 
 
 I never had reason to doubt the truth of what 
 Harriet said in regard to her own career, for I 
 found her singularly truthful. Her imagination is 
 warm and rich, and there is a whole region of the 
 marvelous in her nature, which has manifested 
 itself at times remarkably. Her dreams and visions, 
 misgivings and fore warnings, ought not to be 
 omitted in any life of her, particularly those re- 
 lating to John Brown. 
 
 She was in his confidence in 1858-9, and he had 
 a great regard for her, which he often expressed to 
 me. She aided him in his plans, and expected to 
 do so still further, when his career was closed by 
 that wonderful campaign in Virginia. The first 
 time she came to my house, in Concord, after that 
 tragedy, she was shown into a room in the evening, 
 where Brackett's bust of John Brown was stand- 
 ing. The sight of it, which was new to her, threw 
 her into a sort of ecstacy of sorrow and admiration, 
 and she went on in her rhapsodical way to pro- 
 nounce his apotheosis. 
 
 She has often been in Concord, where she resided 
 at the houses of Emerson, Alcott, the Whitneys, 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 55 
 
 the Brooks family, Mrs. Horace Mann, and other 
 well known persons. They all admired and re- 
 spected her, and nobody doubted the reality of her 
 adventures. She was too real a person to be sus- 
 pected. In 1862, I think it was, she went from 
 Boston to Port Royal, under the advice and encour- 
 agement of Mr. Garrison, Governor Andrew, Dr. 
 Howe, and other leading people. Her career in 
 South Carolina is well known to some of our offi- 
 cers, and I think to Colonel Higginson, now of 
 Newport, R. I., and Colonel James Montgomery, 
 of Kansas, to both of whom she was useful as a 
 spy and guide, if I mistake not. I regard her as, 
 on the whole, the most extraordinary person of her 
 race I have ever met. She is a negro of pure or 
 almost pure blood, can neither read nor write, and 
 has the characteristics of her race and condition. 
 But she has done what can scarcely be credited on 
 the best authority, and she has accomplished her 
 purposes with a coolness, foresight, patience, and 
 wisdom, which in a ichite man would have raised 
 him to the highest pitch of reputation. 
 
 I am, dear Madame, very truly your servant, 
 
 F. B. SANBORN. 
 
 Of the " dreams and visions " mentioned in this 
 
56 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 letter, the writer might have given many wonder- 
 ful instances ; but it was thought best not to 
 insert anything which, with any, might bring dis- 
 credit upon the story. When these turns of som- 
 nolency come upon Harriet, she imagines that her 
 " spirit " leaves her body, and visits other scenes 
 and places, not only in this world, but in the world 
 of spirits. And her ideas of these scenes show, to 
 say the least of it, a vividness of imagination seldom 
 equaled in the soarings of the most cultivated minds. 
 Not long since, the writer, on going into Harriet's 
 room in the morning, sat down by her and began 
 to read that wonderful and glorious description of 
 the heavenly Jerusalem in the two last chapters of 
 Revelations. When the reading was finished, Har- 
 riet burst into a rhapsody which perfectly amazed 
 her hearer telling of what she had seen in one of 
 these visions, sights which no one could doubt had 
 been real to her, and which no human imagination 
 could have conceived, it would seem, unless in dream 
 or vision. There was a wild poetry in these descrip- 
 tions which seemed to border almost on inspiration, 
 but by many they might be characterized as the 
 ravings of insanity. All that can be said is, how- 
 ever, if this woman is insane, there has been a won- 
 derful " method in her madness." 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 57 
 
 At one time, Harriet was much troubled in 
 spirit about her three brothers, feeling sure that 
 some great evil was impending over their heads. 
 Slio wrote a letter, by the hand of a friend, to a 
 man named Jacob Jackson, who lived near there. 
 Jacob was a free negro, who could both read and 
 write, and who was under suspicion at that time, 
 as it was thought he had something to do with the 
 disappearance of so many slaves. It was neces- 
 sary, therefore, to be very cautious in writing to 
 him. Jacob had .an adopted son, William Henry 
 Jackson, also free, who had come South ; and so 
 Harriet determined to sign her letter with his 
 name, knowing that Jacob would be clever enough 
 to understand, by her peculiar phraseology, what 
 meaning she intended to convey to him. She, 
 therefore, after speaking of indifferent matters, 
 said, "Read my letter to the old folks, and give 
 my love to them, and tell my brothers to be 
 always watching unto prayer, and when the good 
 old ship of Zion comes along, to be ready to step 
 aboard" 
 
 The letter was signed " William Henry Jackson." 
 Jacob was not allowed to have his letters till the 
 self-elected inspectors had had the reading of 
 them, and studied into their secret meaning. 
 
58 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 They, therefore, got together, wiped their glasses, 
 and got them on, and proceeded to a careful peru- 
 sal of this mysterious document. What it meant, 
 they could not imagine ; William Henry Jackson 
 had no parents or brothers, and the letter was in- 
 comprehensible. White genius having exhausted 
 itself, black genius was called in, and Jacob's 
 letter was at last handed to him. Jacob saw at 
 once what it meant, but tossed it down, saying, 
 " Dat letter can't be meant for me, no how. I 
 can't make head nor tail of it," and walked off and 
 took immediate measures to let Harriet's brothers 
 know secretly that she was coming, and they must 
 be ready to start at a moment's notice for the North. 
 When Harriet arrived there, it was the day before 
 Christmas, and she found her three brothers, who 
 had attempted to escape, were advertised to be 
 sold on Christmas day to the highest bidder, to go 
 down to the cotton and rice fields with the chain- 
 gang. Christmas came on Sunday, and therefore 
 they were not to be sold till Monday. Harriet 
 arrived on Saturday, and gave them secret notice 
 to be ready to start Saturday night, immediately 
 after dark, the first stopping-place to be their 
 father's cabin, forty miles away. When they 
 assembled, their brother John was missing ; but 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TPBMAN. 59 
 
 when Harriet was ready, the word was " For- 
 ward ! " and she " nebber waited for no one." 
 Poor John was almost ready to start, when his 
 wife was taken ill, and in an hour or two, another 
 little inheritor of the blessings of slavery had come 
 into the world. John must go off for a "Granny," 
 and then he would not leave his wife in her pres- 
 ent circum stances. But after the birth of the 
 child, he began to think he must start ; the North 
 and Liberty, or the South and life-long Slavery 
 these were the alternatives, and this was his last 
 chance. He tried again and again to steal out of 
 the door, but a watchful eye was on him, and he 
 was always arrested by the question, " Where you 
 gwine, John ? " At length he told her he was 
 going to try to see if he couldn't get hired out on 
 Christmas to another man. His wife did not 
 think that he was to be sold. He went out of the 
 door, and stood by the corner of the house, near 
 her bed, listening. At length, he heard her sob- 
 bing and crying, and not being able to endure it, 
 he went back. " Oh ! John," said his wife, " you's 
 gwine to lebe me ; but, wherebber you go, remem- 
 ber me an' de chillen." John went out and started 
 at full speed for his father's cabin, forty miles 
 away. At daybreak, he overtook the others in 
 
60 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 the " fodder house," near the cabin of their pa- 
 rents. Harriet had not seen her mother there for 
 six years, but they did not' dare to let the old 
 woman know of their being in her neighborhood, 
 or of their intentions, for she would have raised 
 such an uproar in her eiforts to detain them with 
 her, that the whole plantation would have been 
 alarmed. The poor old woman had been expect- 
 ing the boys all day, to spend Christinas with her 
 as usual. She ,had been hard at work, had killed 
 a pig, and put it to all the various uses to which 
 sinner's flesh is doomed, and had made all the 
 preparations her circumstances admitted of, to 
 give them a sumptuous entertainment, and there 
 she sat watching. In the night, when Harriet and 
 two of her brothers and two other men, who had 
 escaped with them, arrived at the "fodder house," 
 they were exhausted and famished. They sent 
 the two strange men up to the house to try and 
 speak to " Old Ben," their father, but not to let 
 their mother know of their being in the neighbor- 
 hood. The men succeeded in rousing old Ben, 
 who came out, and as soon as he heard their story, 
 he gathered together a quantity of provisions, and 
 came down to the fodder house, and slipped them 
 inside the door, taking care not to see his children. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 61 
 
 Up among the ears of corn they lay, and one of 
 them he had not seen for six years. It rained 
 very hard all that Sunday, and there they lay all 
 day, for they could not start till night. At about 
 daybreak, John joined them. There were wide 
 chinks in the boards of the fodder house, and 
 through them they could see their father's cabin ; 
 and all day long, every few minutes, they would see 
 the old woman come out, and, shading her eyes 
 with her hand, take a long look down the road to 
 see if her children were coming, and then they 
 could almost hear her sigh as she turned into the 
 house, disappointed. 
 
 Two or three times the old man came down, and 
 pushed food inside the door, and after nightfall he 
 came to accompany them part of the way upon 
 their journey. When he reached the fodder house, 
 he tied his handkerchief tight over his eyes, and 
 two of his sons taking him by each arm, he 
 accompanied them some miles upon their' jour- 
 ney. They then bade him farewell, and left 
 him standing blind-fold in the middle of the 
 road. When he could no longer hear their foot- 
 steps, he took off the handkerchief, and turned 
 back. 
 
 But before leaving, they had gone up to the cabin 
 
62 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 to take a silent farewell of the poor old mother. 
 Through the little window of the cabin, they saw 
 the old woman sitting by her fire with a pipe 
 in her mouth, her head on her hand, rocking back 
 and forth as she did when she was in tiouble, and 
 wondering what new evil had come to her children. 
 With streaming eyes, they watched her for ten or 
 fifteen minutes ; but time was precious, and they 
 must reach their next station before daybreak, and 
 so they turned sadly away. 
 
 When the holidays were over, and the men came 
 for the three brothers to sell them, they could not 
 be found. The first place to search was of course 
 the plantation where all their relatives and friends 
 lived. They went to the " big house," and asked 
 the "Doctor" if he had seen anything of them. 
 The Doctor said, " No, they mostly came up there 
 to see the other niggers when they came for Christ- 
 mas, but they hadn't been round at all. " Have 
 you been down to Old Ben's ? " the Doctor asked. 
 " Yes." " What does Old Kit say ? " " Old Kit 
 says not one of 'em came this Christmas. She was 
 looking for 'em most all day, and most broke her 
 heart about it." "What does Old Ben say?" 
 " Old Ben says that he hasn't seen one of his chil- 
 dren this Christmas." " Well, if Old Ben says that, 
 
LIFE OF HAKRLET TUBMAN. 63 
 
 they haven't been round. " And so the man-hunters 
 went off disappointed. 
 
 One of the other brothers, William Henry, had 
 long been attached to a girl named Catherine, 
 who lived with another master; but her master 
 would not let her marry him. When William 
 Henry made up his mind to start with Harriet, he 
 determined to bring Catherine with him. And so 
 he went to a tailor's, and bought a new suit of 
 men's clothes, and threw them over the garden 
 fence of Catherine's master. The garden ran down 
 to a run, and Catherine had been notified where to 
 find the clothes. When the time had come to get 
 ready, Catherine went to the foot of the garden 
 and dressed herself in the suit of men's clothes. 
 She was soon missed, and all the girls in the house 
 were set to looking for Catherine. Presently they 
 saw coming up through the garden, as if from the 
 river, a well-dressed little darkey, and they all 
 stopped looking for Catherine to stare at him. He 
 walked directly by them round the house, and 
 went out of the gate, without the slightest sus- 
 picion being excited as to who he was. In a fort- 
 night from that time, the whole party were safe in 
 Canada. 
 
 William Henry died in Canada, but Catherine 
 
64 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 has been seen and talked with by the writer, at the 
 house of the old people. 
 
 Of the many letters, testimonials, and passes, 
 placed in the hands of the writer by Harriet, the 
 following are selected for insertion in this book, 
 and are quite sufficient to verify her statements. 
 
 A Letter from Gen. Saxton to a Lady of Auburn. 
 
 ATLANTA, GA., March 21, 1868. 
 
 MY DEAR MADAME : I have just received your 
 letter informing me that Hon. Wm. H. Seward, 
 Secretary of State, would present a petition to 
 Congress for a pension to Harriet Tubman, for 
 services rendered in the Union Armv durin<>- the 
 
 / O 
 
 late war. I can bear witness to the value of her 
 services in South Carolina and Florida. She was 
 employed in the hospitals and as a spy. She made 
 many a raid inside the enemy's lines, displaying 
 remarkable courage, zeal, and fidelity. She was 
 employed by General Hunter, and I think by 
 Generals Stevens and Sherman, and is as deservino- 
 
 O 
 
 of a pension from the Government for her services 
 as any other of its faithful servants. 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 RUFUS SAXTOX, Bvt. Brig.-Gen. U. S. A. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 65 
 
 Letter from* Ilo r n. Wm.H. Seward. 
 
 WASHINGTON, July 25, 1868. 
 MAJ.-GEN. HUNTER 
 
 MY DEAR SIR: Harriet Tubman, a colored 
 woman, lias been nursing our soldiers during nearly 
 all the war. She believes she has a claim for faith- 
 ful services to the command in South Carolina with 
 which you are connected, and she thinks that you 
 would be disposed to see her claim justly settled. 
 
 I have known her long, and a nobler, higher spirit, 
 or a truer, seldom dwells in the human form. I 
 commend her, therefore, to your kind and best 
 attentions. Faithfully your friend, 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
 
 Letter from Col. James Montgomery. 
 
 ST. HELENA ISLAND, S. C., July 6, 1863. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS COLORED BRIGADE. 
 
 BRIG.-GEN. GILMAX, Commanding Department of 
 
 the South 
 
 GENERAL : I wish to commend to your atten- 
 tion, Mrs. Harriet Tubman, a most remarkable 
 woman, and invaluable as a scout. I have been 
 acquainted with her character and actions for 
 several years. 
 
66 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 Walter D. Plowden is a man of tried courage, 
 and can be made highly useful. 
 
 I am, General, your most ob't servant, 
 
 JAMES MONTGOMERY, Col. Com. Brigade. 
 
 Letter from Mrs. Gen. A. JBaird. 
 
 PETERBOKO, Nov. 24, 1864. 
 
 The bearer of this, Harriet Tubman, a most ex- 
 cellent woman, who has rendered faithful and good 
 services to our Union army, not only in the hos- 
 pital, but in various capacities, having been em- 
 ployed under Government at Hilton Head, and in 
 Florida ; and I commend her to the protection of 
 all officers in whose department she may happen 
 to be. 
 
 She has been known and esteemed for years by 
 the family of my uncle, Hon. Gerrit Smith, as a 
 person of great rectitude and capabilities. 
 
 MRS. GEN. A. BAIRD. 
 
 letter from Hon. Gerrit /Smith. 
 
 PETERBORO, N. Y., Nov. 4, 1867. 
 
 I have known Mrs. Harriet Tubman for many 
 years. Seldom, if ever, have I met with a person 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TDBHAN. 67 
 
 more philanthropic, more self-denying, and of more 
 bravery. Nor must I omit to say that she com- 
 bines with her sublime spirit, remarkable discern- 
 ment and judgment. 
 
 During the late war, Mrs. Tubman was eminently 
 faithful and useful to the cause of our country. 
 She is poor and has poor parents. Such a servant 
 of the country should be well paid by the country. 
 I hope that the Government will look into her 
 case. GERRIT SMITH. 
 
 Testimonial from G err it Smith. 
 
 PETERBORO, Nov. 22, 1864. 
 
 The bearer, Harriet Tubman, needs not any rec- 
 ommendation. Nearly all the nation over, she has 
 been heard of for her wisdom, integrity, patriotism, 
 and bravery. The cause of freedom owes her much. 
 The country owes her much. 
 
 I have known Harriet for many years, and I 
 hold her in my high esteem. GERRIT SMITH. 
 
 Certificate from Henry K. Dum*ant, Acting Asst. 
 
 Surgeon, U. 8. A. 
 
 I certify that I have been acquainted with Har- 
 riet Tubman for nearly two years ; and my position 
 
68 SOME SCENES IX THE 
 
 as Medical Officer in charge of " contrabands " in 
 this town and in hospital, has given me frequent 
 and ample opportunities to observe her general de- 
 portment ; particularly her kindness and attention 
 to the sick and suffering of her own race. I take 
 much pleasure in testifying to the esteem in which 
 she is generally held. 
 
 HKNEY K. DUEEANT, 
 Acting Assistant Surgeon, II. S. A. 
 In charge " Contraband " Hospital. 
 Dated at Beaufort. S. C., the 3d day of May, 
 1864. 
 
 I concur fully in the above. 
 
 R. SAXTON, Brig.-Gen. Vol. 
 
 The following are a few of the passes used by 
 Harriet throughout the war. Many others are so 
 defaced that it is impossible to decipher them. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OP THE SOUTH, 
 HILTON HEAD, PORT ROYAL, S. C., Feb. 19, 1863. 
 
 Pass the bearer, Harriet Tubman, to Beaufort and 
 back to this place, and wherever she wishes to go ; 
 and give her free passage at all times, on all Gov- 
 ernment transports. Harriet was sent to me from 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 69 
 
 Boston by Gov. Andrew of Mass., and is a valua- 
 ble woman. She has permission, as a servant of 
 the Government, to purchase such provisions from 
 the Commissary as she may need. 
 
 D. HUNTER, Maj.-Gen. Com. 
 
 General Gillman, who succeeded General Hunter 
 in command of the Department of the South, ap- 
 pends his signature to the same pass. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, 
 
 July 1, 1863. 
 Continued in force. 
 
 I. A. GILLMAN, Brig. -Gen. Com. 
 
 BEAUFORT, Aug. 28, 1862. 
 
 Will Capt. Wai-field please let " Moses " have a 
 little Bourbon whiskey for medicinal purposes. 
 
 HENRY K. DURBANT, Act. Ass. Surgeon. 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., 
 March 20, 1865. 
 
 Pass Mrs. Harriet Tubman (colored) to Hilton 
 Head and Charleston, S. C., with free transporta- 
 tion on a Government transport. 
 
 By order of the Sec. of War. 
 
 Louis II., Asst. Adj.-Gen., U. S. A. 
 
 ToBvt. Brig. -Gen. Van Vliet, U. S. Q. M., N. Y. 
 
 Not transferable. 
 
70 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 WAR DEPAHTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., 
 July 22, 1865. 
 
 Permit Harriet Tubman to proceed to Fortress 
 Monroe, Va., on a Government transport. Trans- 
 portation will be furnished free of cost. 
 
 By order of the Secretary of War. 
 
 L. H., Asst. Adj.-Gen. 
 Not transferable. 
 
 Appointment as Nurse. 
 
 Sin : -I have the honor to inform you that the 
 
 Medical Director Department of Virginia has been 
 
 instructed to appoint Harriet Tubman nurse or 
 
 matron at the Colored Hospital, Fort Monroe, Va. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obdt. servant, 
 
 V. K. BAKXES, Surgeon-General. 
 Hon. WM. H. SEWAKD, 
 
 Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Names of Harriet's Assistants, /Scouts, or Pilots. 
 Scouts who are residents of Beaufort, and well 
 acquainted with the main land : Peter Barns, Mott 
 Blake, Sandy Selters, Solomon Gregory, Isaac Hay- 
 ward, Gabriel Cohen, George Chrisholm. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 71 
 
 Pilots who know the channels of the rivers in 
 this vicinity, and who acted as such for Col. Mont- 
 gomery up the Cornbahee River : Charles Simmons, 
 Samuel Hay ward. 
 
 App'd, R. SAXTON, Brig.-Gen. 
 
 At this point the following good and kind letter 
 from Rev. Henry Fowler is received : 
 
 AUBURN, June 23, 1868. 
 
 Mr DEAR FRIEXD: I wish to say to you how 
 gratified I am that you are writing the biography 
 of Harriet Tubrnan. I feel that her life forms part 
 of the history of the country, and that it ought not 
 to depend upon tradition to keep it in remembrance. 
 Had not the pressure of professional claims pre- 
 vented, I should have aspired to be her historian 
 myself; but my disappointment in this regard is 
 more than met by the satisfaction experienced in 
 hearing that you are the chosen Miriam of this Af- 
 rican " Moses ; " the name by which she was known 
 among her emancipated followers from the land of 
 bondage. Blessed be God! a "Greater than 
 Moses " has at last broken every bond. 
 
 As ever, with warm regard, your friend, 
 
 HENRY FOWLER. 
 
72 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 The following account of the subject of this 
 memoir is cut from the Boston Commonwealth of 
 1863, kindly sent the writer by Mr. Sanborn : 
 
 " It was said long ago that the true romance of 
 America was not in the fortunes of the Indian, 
 where Cooper sought it, nor in the New England 
 character, where Judd found it, nor in the social 
 contrasts of Virginia planters, as Thackeray im- 
 agined, but in the story of the fugitive slaves. 
 The observation is as true now as it was before 
 war, with swift, gigantic hand, sketched the vast 
 shadows, and dashed in the high lights in which 
 romance loves to lurk and flash forth. But the 
 stage is enlarged on which these dramas are 
 played, the whole world now sit as spectators, and 
 the desperation or the magnanimity of a poor 
 black woman has power to shake the nation that 
 so long was deaf to her cries. We write of one 
 of these heroines, of whom our slave annals are 
 full, a woman whose career is as extraordinary 
 as the most famous of her sex can show. 
 
 " Araminta Ross, now known by her married 
 name of Tubman, with her sounding Christian 
 name changed to Harriet, is the grand-daughter 
 of a slave imported from Africa, and has not a 
 drop of white blood in her veins. Her parents 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. J3 
 
 were Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both 
 slaves, but married and faithful to each other. 
 They still live in old age and poverty, but free, on 
 a little property at Auburn, N". Y., which their 
 daughter purchased for them from Mr. Seward, 
 the Secretary of StatA She was born, as near as 
 she can remember, in 1820 or in 1821, in Dorchester 
 County, on the Eastern shore of Maryland, and 
 not far from the town of Cambridge. She had ten 
 brothers and sisters, of whom three are now living, 
 all at the North, and all rescued from slavery by 
 Harriet, before the War. She went back just as 
 the South was preparing to secede, to bring away 
 a fourth, but before she could reach her, she 
 was dead. Three years before, she had brought 
 away her old father and mother, at great risk to 
 herself. 
 
 " When Harriet was six years old, she was taken 
 from her mother and carried ten miles to live with 
 James Cook, whose wife was a weaver, to learn 
 the trade of weaving. While still a mere child, 
 Cook set her to watching his musk-rat traps, which 
 compelled her to wade through the water. It 
 happened that she was once sent when she was ill 
 with the measles, and, taking cold from wading in 
 the water in this condition, she grew very sick, 
 
74 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 and her mother persuaded her master to take her 
 away from Cook's until she could get well. 
 
 " Another attempt was made to teach her weav- 
 ing, but she would not learn, for she hated her 
 mistress, and did not want to live at home, as she 
 would have done as a weaver, for it was the cus- 
 tom then to weave the cloth for the family, or a 
 part of it, in the house. 
 
 " Soon after she entered her teens she was hired 
 out as a field hand, and it was while thus em- 
 ployed that she received a wound which nearly 
 proved fatal, from the effects of which she still 
 suffers. In the fall of the year, the slaves there 
 work in the evening, cleaning up wheat, husking 
 corn, etc.- *On this occasion, one of the slaves of a 
 farmer named Barrett, left his work, and went to 
 the village store in the evening. The overseer 
 followed him, and so did Harriet. When the slave 
 was found, the overseer ' swore he should be 
 whipped, and called on Harriet, among others, to 
 help tie him. She refused, and as the man ran 
 away, she placed herself in the door to stop pur- 
 suit. The overseer caught up a two-pound weight 
 from the counter and threw it at the fugitive, but 
 it fell short and struck Harriet a stunning blow on 
 the head. It was long before she recovered from 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 75 
 
 this, and it has left her subject to a sort of stupor 
 
 or lethargy at times ; coming upon her in the 
 
 1 
 midst of conversation, or whatever she may be 
 
 doing, and throwing her into a deep slumber, from 
 which she will presently rouse herself, and go on 
 with her conversation or work. 
 
 " After this she lived for five or six years with 
 John Stewart, where at first she worked in the 
 house, but afterwards ' hired her time,' and Dr. 
 Thompson, son of her master's guardian, ' stood 
 for her,' that is, was her surety for the payment 
 of what she owed. She employed the time thus 
 hired in the rudest labors, drove oxen, carted, 
 plowed, and did all the work of :i man, some- 
 times earning money enough in a year, beyond 
 what she paid her master, 'to buy a pair of 
 steers,' worth forty dollars. The amount exacted 
 of a woman for her time was fifty or sixty dollars, 
 of a man, one hundred to one hundred and fifty 
 dollars. Frequently Harriet worked for her 
 lather, who was a timber inspector, and superin- 
 tended the cutting and hauling of great quantities 
 of timber for the Baltimore ship-yards. Stewart, 
 his temporary master, was a builder, and for the 
 work of Ross used to receive as much as five 
 dollars a day sometimes, he being a superior work- 
 
76 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 man. While engaged with her father, she would 
 cut wood, haul logs, etc. Her usual ' stint ' was 
 half a cord of wood in a day. 
 
 " Harriet was married somewhere about 1844, 
 to a free colored man named John Tubman, but 
 she had no children. For the last two years of 
 slavery she lived with Dr. Thompson, before men- 
 tioned, her own master not being yet of age, and 
 Dr. T.'s father being his guardian, as w r ell as the 
 owner of her own father. In 1849 the young man 
 died, and the slaves were to be sold, though pre- 
 viously set free by an old will. Harriet resolved 
 not to be sold, and so, with no knowledge of the 
 North having only heard of Pennsylvania and 
 New Jersey she walked away one night alone. 
 She found a friend in a white lady, who knew her 
 story and helped her on her way. After many ad- 
 ventures, she reached Philadelphia, where she found 
 work and earned a small stock of money, ^ith 
 this money in her purse, she traveled back to Mary- 
 land for her husband, but she found him married 
 to another woman, and no longer caring to live with 
 her. This, however, was not until two years after 
 her escape, for she does not seem to have reached 
 her old home in her first two expeditions. In 
 December, 1850, she had visited Baltimore and 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAK. 77 
 
 brought away her sister and two children, who had 
 come up from Cambridge in a boat, under charge 
 of her sister's husband, a free black. A few months 
 after she had brought away her brother and two 
 other men, but it was not till the fall of 1851 that 
 she found her husband and learned of his infidelity. 
 She did not give way to rage or grief, but collected 
 a party of fugitives and brought them safely to 
 Philadelphia. In December of the same year, she 
 returned, and led out a party of eleven, among them 
 her brother and his wife. With these she journey- 
 ed to Canada, and there spent the winter, for this 
 was after the enforcement of Mason's Fugitive 
 Slave Bill in Philadelphia and Boston, and there 
 was no safety except ' under the paw of the British 
 Lion,' as she quaintly said. But the first winter 
 was terribly severe for these poor runaways. They 
 earned their bread by chopping wood in the snows 
 of a Canadian forest ; they were frost-bitten, hun- 
 gry, and naked. Harriet was their good angel. 
 She kept house for her brother, and the poor 
 creatures boarded with her. She worked for them, 
 begged for them, prayed for them, with the strange 
 familiarity of communion with God which seems 
 natural to these people, and carried them by the 
 help of God through the hard winter. 
 
78 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 "In the spring she returned to the States, and 
 as usual earned money by working in hotels and 
 families as a cook. From Cape May, in the fall of 
 1852, she went back once more to Maryland, and 
 brought away nine more fugitives. 
 
 " Up to this time she had expended chiefly her 
 own money in these expeditions money which she 
 had earned by hard work in the drudgery of the 
 kitchen. Never did any one more exactly fulfill the 
 sense of George Herbert 
 
 "A servant with this clause 
 Makes drudgery divine." 
 
 " But it was not possible for such virtues long to 
 remain hidden from the keen eyes of the Abolition- 
 ists. She became known to Thomas Garrett, the 
 large-hearted Quaker of Wilmington, who has aided 
 the escape of three thousand fugitives ; she found 
 warm friends in Philadelphia and New York, and 
 wherever she went. These gave her money, which 
 she never spent for her own use", but laid up for the 
 help of her people, and especially for her journeys 
 back to the ' land of Egypt,' as she called her old 
 home. By reason of her frequent visits there, al- 
 ways carrying away some of the oppressed, she 
 got among her people the name of ' Moses,' which 
 it seems she still retains. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET Tt'BMAN. 79 
 
 "Between 1852 and 1857, she made but two of 
 these journeys, in consequence partly of the in- 
 creased vigilance of the slaveholders, who had suf- 
 fered so much by the loss of their property. A 
 great reward was offered for her capture, and she 
 several times was on the point of being taken, but 
 always escaped by her quick wit, or by ' warnings ' 
 from Heaven for it is time to notice one singular 
 trait in her character. She is the most shrewd and 
 practical person in the world, yet she is a firm be- 
 liever in omens, dreams, and warnings. She de- 
 clares that before her escape from slavery, she used 
 to dream of flying over fields and towns, and 
 rivers and mountains, looking down upon them 
 ' like a bird,' and reaching at last a great fence, or 
 sometimes a river, over which she would try to fly, 
 4 but it 'peared like I wouldn't hab de strength, and 
 jes as I was sinkin' down, dare would be ladies all 
 drest in white ober dere, and dey would put out 
 dere arms and pull me 'cross.' There is nothing 
 strange in this, perhaps, but she declares that when 
 she came Xorth she remembered these very places 
 as those she had seen in her dreams, and many of 
 the ladies who befriended her were those she had 
 15een helped by in her visions. 
 
 " Then she says she always knows when there is 
 
80 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 danger near her, she does not know how, exactly, 
 but ' 'pears like my heart go flutter, flutter, and den 
 dey may say " Peace, Peace," as much as dey likes, 
 I know its gwine to be war /' She is very firm on 
 this point, and ascribes to this her great impunity, 
 in spite of the lethargy before mentioned, which 
 would seem likely to throw her into the hands of 
 her enemies. She says she inherited this power, 
 that her father could always predict the weather, 
 and that he foretold the Mexican war. 
 
 " In 1867 she made her most venturesome journey, 
 for she brought with her to the North her old pa- 
 rents, who were no longer able to walk such dis- 
 tances as she must go by night. Consequently she 
 must hire a wagon for them, and it required all 
 her ingenuity to get them through Maryland and 
 Delaware safe. She accomplished it, however, and 
 by the aid of her friends she brought them safe to 
 Canada, where they spent the winter. Her account 
 of their sufferings there of her mother's complain- 
 ing and her own philosophy about it is a lesson of 
 trust in Providence better than many sermons. 
 But she decided to bring them to a more comforta- 
 ble place, and so s.he negotiated with Mr. Seward 
 then in the Senate for a little patch of ground 
 with a house on it, at Auburn, near his own home. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 81 
 
 To the credit of the Secretary of State it should be 
 said, that he sold her the property on very favora- 
 ble terms, and gave her some time for payment. 
 To this house she removed her parents, and set 
 herself to work to pay for her purchase. It 
 was on this errand that she first visited Boston 
 we believe in the winter of 1 858-9. She brought 
 a few letters from her friends in New York, but she 
 could herself neither read nor write, and she was 
 obliged to trust to her wits that they were deliv- 
 ered to the right persons. One of them, as it hap- 
 pened, was to the present writer, who received it 
 by another hand, and called to see her at her board- 
 ing-house. It was curious to see the caution with 
 which she received her visitor until she felt assured 
 that there was no mistake. One of her means of 
 security was to carry with her the daguerreotypes 
 of her friends, and show them to each new person. 
 If they recognized the likeness, then it was all 
 right. 
 
 " Pains were taken to secure her the attention to 
 which her great services to humanity entitled her, 
 and she left New England with a handsome sum of 
 money towards the payment of her debt to Mr. 
 Seward. Before she left, however, she had several 
 interviews with Captain Brown, then in Boston. 
 
SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 He is supposed to have communicated his plans to 
 her, and to have been aided by her in obtaining re- 
 cruits and money among her people. At any rate, 
 he always spoke of her with the greatest respect, 
 and declared that ' General Tubman,' as he styled 
 her, was a better officer than most whom he had 
 seen, and could command an army as successfully 
 as she had led her small parties of fugitives. 
 
 " Her own veneration for Captain Brown has 
 always been profound, and since his murder, has 
 taken the form of a religion. She had often risked 
 her own life for her people, and she thought nothing 
 of that; but that a white man, and a man so no- 
 ble and strong, should so take upon himself the 
 burden of a despised race, she could not understand, 
 and she took refuge from her perplexity in the 
 mysteries of her fervid religion. 
 
 "Again, she. laid great stress on a dream which 
 she had just before she met Captain Brown in Can- 
 ada. She thought she was in ' a wilderness sort of 
 place, all full of rocks and bushes,' when she saw 
 a serpent raise its head among the rocks, and as it 
 did so, it became the head of an old man with a 
 long white beard, gazing at her ' wishful like, jes 
 as ef he war gwine to speak to me,' and then two 
 other heads rose up beside him, younger than he, 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TCBMAN. 83 
 
 and as she stood looking at them, and wondering 
 what they could want with her, a great crowd of 
 men rushed in and struck down the younger heads, 
 and then the head of the old man, still looking at 
 her so ' wishful.' This dream she had again and 
 again, and could not interpret it ; but when she 
 met Captain Brown, shortly after, behold, he was 
 the very image of the head she had seen. But 
 still she could not make out what her dream 
 signified, till the news came to her of the tragedy 
 of Harper's Ferry, and then she knew the two 
 other heads were his two sons. She was in New 
 York at that time, and on the day of the affair at 
 Harper's Ferry, she felt her usual warning that 
 something was wrong she could not tell what. 
 Finally she told her hostess that it must be Captain 
 Brown who was in trouble, and that they should 
 soon hear bad news from him. The next day's 
 newspaper brought tidings of what had happened. 
 "Her last visit to Maryland was made after this, 
 in December, 1860 ; and in spite of the agitated 
 condition of the country, and the greater watchful- 
 ness of the slaveholders, she brought away seven 
 fugitives, one of them an infant, which must be 
 drugged with opium to keep it from crying on the 
 way. and so revealing the hiding place of the party. 
 
SOME >C'KNES TX THE 
 
 She brought these safely to New York, but there a 
 new difficulty met her. It was the mad winter of 
 compromises, when State after State, and politician 
 after politician, went down on their knees to beg 
 the South not to secede. The hunting of fugitive 
 slaves began again. Mr. Seward went over to 
 the side of compromise. He knew the history 
 of this poor woman ; he had given his enemies 
 a hold on him, by dealing with her ; it was 
 thought he would not scruple to betray her. The 
 suspicion was an unworthy one, for though the 
 Secretary could betray a cause, he could not surely 
 have put her enemies on the track of a woman who 
 was thus in his power, after such a career as hers 
 had been. But so little confidence was then felt in 
 Mr. Seward, by men who had voted for him and 
 with him, that they hurried Harriet off to Canada, 
 sorely against her will. 
 
 " She did not long remain there. The war broke 
 out, for which she had been long looking, and she 
 hastened to her New England friends to prepare 
 for another expedition to Maryland, to bring away 
 the last of her family. 
 
 " Before she could start, however, the news came 
 of the capture of Port Royal. Instantly she con- 
 ceived the idea of going there and working among 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 85 
 
 her people on the islands and the mainland. Money 
 was given her, a pass was secured through the 
 agency of Governor Andrew, and she went to Beau- 
 fort. There she has made herself useful in many 
 ways has been employed as a spy by General 
 Hunter, and finally has piloted Col. Montgomery 
 on his most successful expedition. We gave some 
 notice of this fact last week. Since then we have 
 received the following letter, dictated by her, from 
 which it appears that she needs some contributions 
 for her work. We trust she will receive them, for 
 none has better deserved it. She asks nothing for 
 herself, except that her wardrobe may be replen- 
 ished, and even this she will probably share with 
 the first needy person she meets. 
 
 " ' BEAUFORT, S. C., June 30, 1868. 
 * * * " ' Last fall, when the people here became 
 very much alarmed for fear of an invasion from the 
 rebels, all my clothes were packed and sent with 
 others to Hilton Head, and lost ; and I have never 
 been able to get any trace of them since. I was 
 sick at the time, and unable to look after them my- 
 self. I want, among the rest, a bloomer dress, 
 made of some coarse, strong material, to wear on 
 expeditions. In our late expedition up the Com- 
 
86 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 bahee River, in coming on board the boat, I was 
 carrying two pigs for a poor sick woman, who had 
 a child to carry, and the order " double quick " was 
 given, and I started to run, stepped on nay dress, it 
 being rather long, and fell and tore it almost off, 
 so that when I got on board the boat, there was 
 hardly anything left of it but shreds. I made up 
 my mind then I would never wear a long dress on 
 another expedition of the kind, but would have a, 
 bloomer as soon as I could get it. So please make 
 this known to the ladies, if you will, for I expect to 
 have use for it very soon, probably before they 
 can get it to me. 
 
 " ' You have, without doubt, seen a fall account of 
 the expedition I refer to. Don't you think we col- 
 ored people are entitled to some credit for that ex- 
 ploit, under the lead of the brave Colonel Montgom- 
 ery ? We weakened the rebels somewhat on the 
 Combahee River, by taking and bringing away 
 seven hundred and fifty -six head of their most val- 
 uable live stock, known up in your region as " con- 
 trabands," and this, too, without the loss of a sin- 
 gle life on our part, though we had good reason to 
 believe that a number of rebels bit the dust. Of 
 these seven hundred and fifty-six contrabands, 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 87 
 
 nearly or quite all the able-bodied men have joined 
 the colored regiments here. 
 
 " ' I have now been absent two years almost, and 
 have just got letters from my friends in Auburn, 
 urging me to come home. My father and mother are 
 old and in feeble health, and need my care and atten- 
 tion. I hope the good people there will not allow 
 them to suffer, and I do not believe they will. But I 
 do not see how I am to leave at present the very im- 
 portant work to be done here. Among other duties 
 which I have, is that of looking after the hospital 
 here for contrabands. Most of those coming from 
 the mainland are very destitute, almost naked. I 
 am trying to find places for those able to work, 
 and provide for them as best I can, so as to lighten 
 the burden on the Government as much as possi- 
 ble, while at the same time they learn to respect 
 themselves by earning their own living. 
 
 " ' Remember me very kindly to Mrs. and her 
 daughters ; also, if you will, to my Boston friends, 
 Mrs. C., Miss H., and especially to Mr. and Mrs. 
 George L. Stearns, to whom I am under great 
 obligations for their many kindnesses. I shall 
 be sure to come and see you all if I live to go 
 Xorth. If you write, direct your letter to the care 
 of 0.' " 
 
88 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 In the Spring of 1860, Harriet Tubman was re- 
 quested by Mr. Gerrit Smith to go to Boston to 
 attend a large Anti-Slavery meeting. On her way, 
 she stopped at Troy to visit a Cousin, and while 
 there, the colored people were one day startled 
 with the intelligence that a fugitive slave, by the 
 name of Charles Nalle, had been followed by his 
 master (who was his younger brother, and not 
 one grain whiter than he), and that he was already 
 in the hands of the officers, and was to be taken 
 back to the South. The instant Harriet heard the 
 news, she started for the office of the U. S. Com- 
 missioner, scattering the tidings as she went. An 
 excited crowd were gathered about the office, 
 through which Harriet forced her way, and rushed 
 up stairs to the door of the room where the fugi- 
 tive was detained. A wagon was already waiting 
 before the door to carry off the man, but the 
 crowd was even then so great, and in such a state 
 of excitement, that the officers did not dare to 
 bring the man down. On the opposite side of the 
 street stood the colored people, watching the win- 
 dow where they could see Harriet's sun-bonnet, 
 and feeling assured that so long as she stood there, 
 the fugitive was still in the office. Time passed 
 on, and he did not appear. " They've taken him 
 
LIFE OF 1IAKKIET TUUMAX. 89 
 
 out another way, depend upon that," said some of 
 the colored people. " No," replied others, " there 
 stands ' Moses ' yet, and as long as she is there, he 
 is safe." Harriet, now seeing the necessity for a 
 tremendous effort for his rescue, sent out some 
 little boys to cry fire. The bells rang, the crowd 
 increased, till the whole street was a dense mass of 
 people. Agpln and again the officers came out to 
 try and clear the stairs, and make a way to take 
 their captive down; others were driven down, but 
 Harriet stood her ground, her head bent down, and 
 her arms folded. " Come, old woman, you must get 
 out of this," said one of the officers ; " I must have 
 the way cleared ; if you can't get down alone, some 
 one will help you." Harriet, still putting on a 
 greater appearance of decrepitude, twitched away 
 from him, and kept her place. Offers were made 
 to buy Charles from his master, who at first agreed 
 to take twelve hundred dollars for him ; but when 
 that was subscribed, he immediately raised the 
 price to fifteen hundred. The crowd grew more 
 excited. A gentleman raised a window and called 
 out, " Two hundred dollars for his rescue, but not 
 one cent to his master !" This was responded to 
 by a roar of satisfaction from the crowd below. 
 At length the officers appeared, and announced to 
 
90 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 the crowd that if they would open a lane to the 
 wagon, they would promise to bring the man down 
 the front way. 
 
 The lane was opened, and the man was brought 
 out a tall, handsome, intelligent white man, with 
 his wrists manacled together, walking between the 
 U. S. Marshal and another officer, and behind him 
 his brother and his master, so like him that one 
 could hardly be told from the other. The moment 
 they appeared, Harriet roused from her stooping pos- 
 ture, threw up a window, arid cried to her friends : 
 " Here he comes take him !" and then darted 
 down the stairs like a wild-cat. She seized one 
 officer and pulled him down, then another, and 
 tore him away from the man ; and keeping her 
 arms about the slave, she cried to her friends : 
 " Drag us out ! Drag him to the river ! Drown 
 him ! but don't let them have him ! " They were 
 knocked down together, and while down she tore 
 off her sun-bonnet and tied it on the head of the 
 fugitive. When he rose, only his head could be 
 seen, and amid the surging mass of people the 
 slave was no longer recognized, while the master 
 appeared like the slave. Again and again they 
 were knocked down, the poor slave utterly help- 
 less, with his manacled wrists streaming with blood. 
 
LLFE OF HARRIET TUBMAX. 91 
 
 Harriet's outer clothes were torn from her, and 
 even her stout shoes were all pulled from her feet, 
 yet she never relinquished her hold of the man, 
 till she had dragged him to the river, where he was 
 tumbled into a boat, Harriet fo' lowing in a ferry- 
 boat to the other side. But the telegraph was 
 ahead of them, and as soon as they landed he was 
 seized and hurried from her sight. After a time, 
 some school children came hurrying along, and to 
 her anxious inquiries they answered, " He is up in 
 that house, in the third story." Harriet rushed up 
 to the place. Some men were attempting to make 
 their way up the stairs. The officers were firing 
 dow T n, and two men were lying on the stairs, who 
 had been shot. Over their bodies our heroine 
 rushed, and with the help of others burst open the 
 door of the room, dragged out the fugitive, whom 
 Harriet carried down stairs in her arms. A gen- 
 tleman who was riding by with a fine horse, stop- 
 ped to ask what the disturbance meant ; and on 
 hearing the story, his sympathies seemed to be 
 thoroughly aroused ; he sprang from his w r agon, 
 calling out, " That is a blood-horse, drive him till 
 he drops." The poor man was hurried in ; some of 
 his friends jumped in after him, and drove at the 
 most rapid rate to Schenectady, 
 
02 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 This is the story Harriet told to the writer. By 
 some persons it seemed too wonderful for belief, 
 and an attempt was made to corroborate it. Rev. 
 Henry Fowler, who was at the time at Saratoga, 
 kindly volunteered to go to Troy and ascertain the 
 facts. His report was, that he had had a long in- 
 terview with Mr. Townsend, who acted during the 
 trial as counsel for the slave, that he had given 
 him a " rich narration," which he would write out 
 the next week for this little book. But before he 
 was to begin his generous labor, and while engaged 
 in some kind efforts for the prisoners at Auburn, he 
 was stricken down by the heat of the sun, and is 
 for a long time debarred from labor. 
 
 FUGITIVE SLAVE RESCUE IN TROY. 
 
 From the Troy Whig, April 28, 1859. 
 
 Yesterday afternoon, the streets of this city and 
 West Troy were made the scenes of unexampled 
 excitement. For the first time since the passage 
 of the Fugitive Slave Law, an attempt was made 
 here to carry its provisions into execution, and the 
 result was a terrific encounter between the officers 
 and the prisoner's friends, the triumph of mob law, 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 93 
 
 and the final r:s';ue of the fugitive. Our city was 
 thrown into a grand state of turmoil, and for a 
 time every other topic was forgotten, to give place 
 to this new excitement. People did not think last 
 evening to ask who was nominated at Charleston, 
 or whether the news of the Heenan and Sayers bat- 
 tle had arrived everything was merged into the 
 fugitive slave case, of which it seems the end is not 
 
 O 
 
 yet. 
 
 Charles Nalle, the fugitive, who was the cause 
 of all this excitement, was a slave on the planta- 
 tion of B. W. Hansbnrough, in Culpepper County, 
 Virginia, till the 19th of October, 1858, when he 
 made his escape, and went to live in Columbia, 
 Pennsylvania, A wife and five children are resid- 
 ing there now. Xot long since he came to Sand- 
 lake, in this county, and resided in the family of 
 Mr. Crosby until about three weeks ago. Since 
 that time, he has been employed as coachman by 
 Uri Gilbert, Esq., of this city. He is about thirty 
 years of age, tall, quite light-complexioned, and 
 good-looking. He is said to have been an excel- 
 lent and faithful servant. 
 
 At Sandlake, we understand that Nalle was of- 
 ten seen by one H. F. Averill, formerly connected 
 with one of the papers of this city, who commu- 
 
94 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 nicated with his reputed owner in Virginia, and 
 gave the information that led to a knowledge of 
 the whereabouts of the fugitive. Averill wrote let- 
 ters for him, and thus obtained an acquaintance 
 with his history. Mr. Hansborough sent on an 
 agent, Henry J. Wall, by whom the necessary pa- 
 pers were got out to arrest the fugitive. 
 
 Yesterday morning about 11 o'clock, Charles 
 ' Nalle was sent to procure some bread for the family 
 by whom he was employed. He failed to return. 
 At the baker's, he was arrested by Deputy United 
 States Marshal J. W. Holmes, and immediately ta- 
 ken before United States Commissioner Miles 
 Beach. The son of Mr. Gilbert, thinking it strange 
 that he did not come back, sent to the house of 
 William Henry, on Division Street, where he board- 
 ed, and his whereabouts was discovered. 
 
 The examination before Commissioner Beach 
 was quite brief. The evidence of Averill and the 
 agent was taken, and the Commissioner decided to 
 remand Nalle to Virginia, The necessary papers 
 were made out and given to the Marshal. 
 
 By this time it was two o'clock, and the fact be- 
 gan to be noised abroad that there was a fugitive 
 slave in Mr. Beach's office, corner of State and 
 First Streets. People in knots of ten or tweh 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 95 
 
 collected near the entrance, looking at Nalle, who 
 could be seen at an upper window. William 
 Henry, a colored man, with whom Nalle boarded, 
 commenced talking from the curb-stone in a loud 
 voice to the crowd. He uttered such sentences as, 
 " There is a fugitive slave in that office pretty 
 soon you will see him come forth. He is going to 
 be taken down South, and you will have a chance 
 to see him. He is to be taken to the depot, to go 
 to Virginia in the first train. Keep watch of those 
 stairs, and you will have a sight." A number of 
 women kept shouting, crying, and by loud appeals 
 excited the colored persons assembled. 
 
 Still the crowd grew in numbers. Wagons 
 halted in front of the locality, and were soon piled 
 with spectators. An alarm of fire was sounded, 
 and hose carriages dashed through the ranks of 
 men, women, and boys ; but they closed again, and 
 kept looking with expectant eyes at the window 
 where the negro was visible. Meanwhile, angry 
 discussions commenced. Some persons agitated a 
 rescue, and others favored law and order. Mr. 
 Bi'ockway, a lawyer, had his coat torn for express- 
 ing his sentiments; and other melees kept the inter- 
 est alive. 
 ' ' All at once there was a wild hulloa, and every 
 
06 SOME SCENES IX THE 
 
 eye was turned up to see the legs and part of the 
 body of the prisoner protruding from the second- 
 story window, at which he was endeavoring to 
 escape. Then arose a shout ! " Drop him ! " " Catch 
 him ! " " Hurrah ! " But the attempt was a fruitless 
 one, for somebody in the office pulled Nalle back 
 again, amid the shouts of a hundred pair of lungs. 
 The crowd at this time numbered nearly a thousand 
 persons. Many of them were black, and a good 
 share were of the female sex. They blocked up 
 State Street from First Street to the alley, and kept 
 surging to and fro. 
 
 Martin I. Townsend, Esq., who acted as counsel 
 for the fugitive, did not arrive in the Commissioner's 
 office until a decision had been rendered. He im- 
 mediately went before Judge Gould, of the Supreme 
 Court, and procured a writ of habeas corpus in the 
 usual form, returnable immediately. This was given 
 Deputy Sheriff Nathaniel Upham, who at once pro- 
 ceeded to Commissioner Beach's office, and served 
 it on Holmes. Very injudiciously, the officers 
 proceeded at once to Judge Gould's office, although 
 it w,as evident they would have to pass through an 
 excited, unreasonable crowd. As soon as the offi- 
 cers and their prisoner emerged from the door, an 
 old negro, who had been standing at the bottom of 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 97 
 
 the stairs, shouted, " Here they come," and the crowd 
 made a terrific rush at the party. 
 
 From the office of Commissioner Beach, in the 
 Mutual Building, to that of Judge Gould, in Con- 
 gress Street, is less than two blocks, but it was made 
 a regular battle-field. The moment the prisoner 
 emerged from the doorway, in custody of Deputy- 
 Sherift" Upham, Chief of Police Quin, Officers 
 Cleveland and Holmes, the crowd made one grand 
 charge, and those nearest the prisoner seized him 
 violently, with the intention of pulling him away 
 from the officers, but they were foiled ; and down 
 First to Congress Street, and up the latter in front 
 of Judge Gould's chambers, went the surging mass. 
 Exactly what did go on in the crowd, it is impossi- 
 ble to say, but the pulling, hauling, mauling, and 
 shouting, gave evidences of frantic efforts on the 
 part of the rescuers, and a stern resistance from 
 the conservators of the law. In front of Judge 
 Gould's office the combat was at its height. No 
 stones or other missiles were used ; the battle was 
 fist to fist. We believe an order was given to take 
 the prisoner the other way, and there w^as a grand 
 rush towards the West, past First and River Streets, 
 as far as Dock Street. All this time there was a 
 continual melee. Many of the officers were hurt 
 
98 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 among them Mr. Uphani, whose object was solely 
 to do his duty by taking Nalle before Judge Gould 
 in accordance with the writ of habeas corpus. A 
 number in the crowd were more or less hurt, and 
 it is a wonder that these were not badly injured, as 
 pistols were drawn and chisels used. 
 
 The battle had raged as far as the corner of Dock 
 and Congress Streets, and the victory remained with 
 the rescuers at last. The officers were completely 
 worn out with their exertions, and it was impossible 
 to continue their hold upon him any longer. Nalle 
 was at liberty. His friends rushed him down Dock 
 Street to the lower ferry, where there was a skiff 
 lying ready to start. The fugitive was put in, the 
 ferryman rowed off, and amid the shouts of hundreds 
 who lined the banks of the river, Nalle was carried 
 into Albany County. 
 
 As the skiff landed in West Troy, a negro sym- 
 pathizer waded up to the waist, and pulled Nalle 
 out of the boat. He went up the hill alone, how- 
 ever, and there who should he meet but Constable 
 Becker ? The latter official seeing a man with 
 manacles on, considered it his duty to arrest him. 
 He did so, and took him in a wagon to the office of 
 Justice Stewart, on the second floor of the corner 
 building near the ferry. The Justice was absent. 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 99 
 
 When the crowd on the Troy bank had seen 
 Nalle safely landed, it was suggested that he might 
 be recaptured. Then there was another rush made 
 for the steam ferry-boat, which carried over about 
 400 persons, and left as many more a few of the 
 latter being soused in their efforts to get on the 
 boat. On landing in West Troy, there, sure enough, 
 was the prisoner, locked up in a strong office, pro- 
 tected by Officers Becker, Brown and Morrison, 
 and the door barricaded. 
 
 Not a moment was lost. Up stairs went a score 
 or more of resolute men the rest " piling in" pro- 
 miscuously, shouting and execrating the officers. 
 Soon a stone flew against the door then another 
 and bang, bang ! went off a couple of pistols, but 
 the officers who fired them took good care to aim 
 pretty high. The assailants were forced to retreat 
 for a moment. " They 've got pistols," said one. 
 " Who cares ? " was the reply ; " they can only kill 
 a dozen of us come on." More stones and more 
 pistol-shots ensued. At last the door was pulled 
 open by an immense negro, and in a moment he 
 was felled by a hatchet in the hands of Deputy- 
 Sheriff Morrison ; but the body of the fallen man 
 blocked up the door so that it could not be shut, 
 and a friend of the prisoner pulled him out. Poor 
 
100 SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 fellow ! he might well say, " Save me from my 
 friends." Amid the pulling and hauling, the iron 
 had cut his arms, which were bleeding profusely, 
 and he could hardly walk, owing to fatigue. 
 He has since arrived safely in Canada. 
 
 Statements made by Martin I. Townsend, Esq., 
 of Troy, who was counsel for the fugitive, 
 Charles Nalle. 
 
 Nalle is an octoroon ; his wife has the same in- 
 fusion of Caucasian blood. She was the daughter 
 of her master, and had, with her sister, been bred 
 by him in his family, as his own child. When the 
 father died, both of these daughters were married 
 and had large families of children. Under the 
 highly Christian national laws of "Old Virgiuny," 
 these children were the slaves of their grandfather. 
 The old man died, leaving a will, whereby he manu- 
 mitted his daughters and their children, and pro- 
 vided for the purchase of the freedom of their hus- 
 bands. The manumission of the children and 
 grandchildren took effect ; but the estate was insuf- 
 ficient to purchase the husbands of his daughters, 
 and the father of his grandchildren. The manu- 
 mitted, by another Christian, " conservative," and 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAISL, 
 
 " national " provision of law, were forced to leave 
 the State, w^ile the slave husbands remained in 
 slavery. ISTalle and his brother-in-law were allowed 
 for a while to visit their families outside Virginia 
 about once a year, but were at length ordered to 
 provide themselves with new wives, as they would 
 be allowed to visit their former ones no more. It 
 was after this that Nalle and his brother-in-law 
 started for the land of freedom, guided by the 
 steady light of the north star. Thank God, neither 
 family now need fear any earthly master or the 
 bay of the blood-hound dogging their fugitive steps. 
 
 Nalle returned to Troy with his family about 
 July, 1860, and resided with them there for more 
 than seven years. They are all now residents of 
 the city of Washington, D. C. Nalle and his family 
 are persons of refined manners, and of the highest 
 respectability. Several of his children are red- 
 haired, and a stranger would discover no trace of 
 African blood in their complexions or features. It 
 was the head of this family whom H. F. Averill 
 proposed to doom to returnless exile and life-long 
 slavery. 
 
 When Nalle was brought from Commissioner 
 Beach's office into the street, Harriet Tubman, who 
 had been standing with the excited crowd, rushed 
 
t t02c . , < SOME SCENES IN THE 
 
 amongst the foremost to Nalle, and running one 
 of her arms around his manacled arm, held on to 
 him without ever loosening her hold through the 
 more than half-hour's struggle to Judge Gould's 
 office, and from Judge Gould's office to the dock, 
 where Nalle's liberation was accomplished. In the 
 melee, she was repeatedly beaten over the head 
 with policemen's clubs, but she never for a moment 
 released her hold, but cheered Nalle and his friends 
 with her voice, and struggled with the officers un- 
 til they were literally worn out with their exer- 
 tions, and Nalle was separated from them. 
 
 True, she had strong and earnest helpers in her 
 struggle, some of whom had white faces as well as 
 human hearts, and are now in Heaven. But she 
 exposed herself to the fury of the sympathizers 
 with slavery, without fear, and suffered their blows 
 without flinching. Harriet crossed the river with 
 the crowd, in the ferry-boat, and when the men 
 who led the assault upon the door of Judge Stew- 
 art's office, were stricken down, Harriet and a 
 number of other colored women rushed over their 
 bodies, brought Nalle out, and putting him in the 
 first wagon passing, smarted him for the West. 
 
 A livery team, driven by a colored man, was im- 
 mediately s-ent on to relieve the other, and Xalle 
 
LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 103 
 
 was seen about Troy no more until lie returned a 
 free man by purchase from his master. Harriet 
 also disappeared, and the crowd dispersed. How 
 she came to be in Troy that day, is entirely un- 
 known to our citizens ; and where she hid herself 
 after the rescue, is equally a mystery.^ But her 
 struggle was in the sight of a thousand, perhaps 
 of five thousand spectators. 
 
 This woman of whom you have been reading is 
 poor, and partially disabled from her injuries ; yet 
 she supports cheerfully and uncomplainingly her- 
 self and her old parents, and always has several 
 poor children in her house, who are dependent en- 
 tirely upon her exertions. At present she has three 
 of these children for whom she is providing, while 
 their parents are working to pay back money bor- 
 rowed to bring them on. She also maintains by 
 her exertions among the good people of Auburn, 
 two schools of freedmen at the South, providing 
 them teachers and sending them clothes and books. 
 She never asks for anything for herself, but she 
 does ask the charity of the public for "her people." 
 
 For them her tears will fall, 
 
 For them her prayers ascend ; 
 To them her toils and cares be given, 
 
 Till toils and cares will end. 
 
 If any persons are disposed to aid her in her be- 
 
104 
 
 LIFE OF HARRIET TUBMAN. 
 
 nevolent efforts, they may send donations to Rev. 
 S. M. Hopkins, Professor in the Auburn Theologi- 
 cal Seminary, who will make such disposition of 
 the funds sent as may be designated by the donors. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A few circumstances having come out in conver- 
 sation with Harriet, they are added here, as they 
 may be of interest to the reader. 
 
 On asking Harriet particularly as to the age of 
 her mother, she answered, "Well, I'll tell you, Mis- 
 sis. Twenty-three years ago, in Maryland, I paid 
 a lawyer $5 to look up the will of my mother's 
 first master. He looked back sixty years, and said 
 it was time to give up. I told him to go back 
 furder. He went back sixty-five years, and there 
 he found the will giving the girl Ritty to his 
 grand-daughter (Mary Patterson), to serve her 
 and her offspring till she was forty-five years of age. 
 This grand-daughter died soon after, unmarried ; 
 and as there was no provision for Ritty, in case of 
 her death, she was actually emancipated at that 
 time. But no one informed her of the fact, and she 
 and her dear children remained in bondage till 
 emancipated by the courage and determination of 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 this heroic daughter and sister. The old woman 
 must then, it seems, be ninety-eight years of age, 
 and the old man has probably numbered as many 
 years. And yet these old people, living out beyond 
 the toll-gate, on the South Street road, Auburn, 
 come in every Sunday more than a mile to the 
 Central Church. To be sure, deep slumbers settle 
 down upon them as soon as they are seated, which 
 continue undisturbed till the congregation is dis- 
 missed ; but they have done their best, and who can 
 doubt that they receive a blessing. Immediately 
 after this they go to class-meeting at the Methodist 
 Church. Then they wait for a third service, and 
 after that start out home again. 
 
 On asking Harriet where they got anything to 
 eat on Sunday, she said, in her quiet way, " Oh ! 
 de ole folks nebber eats anyting on Sunday , Missis ! 
 We nebber has no food to get for dem on Sunday. 
 Dey always fasts ; and dey nebber eats anyting on 
 Fridays. Good Friday, an' five Fridays hand 
 gwine from Good Friday, my fader nebber eats or 
 drinks, all day fasting for de five bleeding wounds 
 ob Jesus. All the oder Fridays ob de year he neb- 
 ber eats till de sun goes down; den he takes a 
 little tea an' a piece ob bread." " But is he a 
 Roman Catholic, Harriet ? " " Oh no, Misses ; he 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 does it for conscience we was taught to do so 
 down South. He says if he denies himself for the 
 sufferings of his Lord an' Master, Jesus will sustain 
 him." 
 
 It has been mentioned that Harriet never asks 
 anything for herself, but whenever her people 
 were in trouble, or she felt impelled to go South 
 to guide to freedom friend or brother, or father 
 and mother, if she had not time to work for the 
 money, she was persistent till she got it from 
 somebody. When she received one of her inti- 
 mations that the old people were in trouble, and 
 it was time for her to go to them, she asked the 
 Lord where she should go for the money. She 
 was in some way, as she supposed, directed to the 
 office of a certain gentleman in New York. When 
 she left the house of her friends to go there, she 
 said, " I'm gwine to Mr. - 's office, an' I ain't 
 gwine to lebe there, an' I ain't gwine to eat or 
 drink till I git enough money to take me down 
 after the ole people." 
 
 She went into this gentleman's office. 
 
 " What do you want, Harriet ? " was the first 
 greeting. 
 
 " I want some money, sir." 
 
 " You do ? How much do you want ? " 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 " I want twenty dollars, sir." 
 
 " Twenty dollars f Who told you to come here 
 for twenty dollars ? " 
 
 " De Lord tole me, sir." 
 
 " Well, I guess the Lord's mistaken this time." 
 
 "I guess he isn't, sir. Anyhow I'm gwine to 
 sit here till I git it." 
 
 So she sat down and went to sleep. All the 
 morning and all the afternoon she sat there still, 
 sleeping and rousing up sometimes finding the 
 office full of gentlemen sometimes finding herself 
 alone. Many fugitives were passing through New 
 York at that time, and those who came in sup- 
 posed that she was one of them, tired out and 
 resting. Sometimes she would be roused up with 
 the words, " Come, Harriet, you had better go. 
 There's no money for you here." " No, sir. I'm 
 not gwine till I git my twenty dollars." 
 
 She does not know all that happened, for deep 
 sleep fell upon her; but probably her story was 
 whispered about, and she roused at last to find 
 herself the happy possessor of sixty dollars, which 
 had been raised among those who came into the 
 office. She went on her way rejoicing, to bring her 
 old parents from the land of bondage. She found 
 that her father was to be tried the next Monday, 
 
APPENDTX. Ill 
 
 for helping off slaves ; so, as she says, she " re- 
 moved his trial to a higher court," and hurried 
 him off to Canada. One more little incident, 
 which, it is hoped, may not be offensive to the 
 young lady to whom it alludes, may be mentioned 
 here, showing Harriet's extreme delicacy in asking 
 anything for herself. Last winter ('6*7 and '68), 
 as we all know, the snow was very deep for 
 months, and Harriet and the old people were com- 
 pletely snowed-in in their little home. The old 
 man was laid up with rheumatism, and Harriet 
 could not leave home for a long time to procure 
 supplies of corn, if t she could have made her way 
 into the city. At length, stern necessity com- 
 pelled her to plunge through the drifts to the 
 city, and she appeared at the house of one of her 
 firm and fast friends, and was directed to the room 
 of one of the young ladies. She began to walk up 
 and down, as she always does whe'n in trouble. 
 At length she said, "Miss Annie?" "What, 
 Harriet ? " A long pause ; then again, " Miss 
 Annie?" "Well, what is it, Harriet?" This 
 was repeated four times, when the young lady, 
 looking up, saw her eyes filled with tears. She 
 then insisted on knowing what she wanted. And 
 with a great effort, she said, " Miss Annie, could 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 you lend me a quarter till Monday? I never 
 asked it before." Kind friends immediately sup- 
 plied all the wants of the family, but on Monday 
 Harriet appeared with the quarter she had bor- 
 rowed. 
 
 But though so timid for herself, she is bold 
 enough when the wants of her race are concerned. 
 Even now, while friends are trying to raise the 
 means to publish this little book for her, she is 
 going around with the greatest zeal and interest 
 to raise a subscription for her Freed men's Fair. 
 She called on Hon. Wm. H. Seward, the other 
 day, for a subscription to this object. He said, 
 " Harriet, you have worked for others long enough. 
 It is time you should think of yourself. If you 
 ask for a donation for yourself, I will give it to 
 you ; but I will not help you to rob yourself for 
 others." 
 
 Harriet's charity for all the human race is un- 
 bounded. It embraces even the slaveholder it 
 sympathizes even with Jeff. Davis, and rejoices nt 
 his departure to other lands, with some prospect 
 of peace for the future. She says, " I tink dar's 
 many a slaveholder '11 git to Heaven. Dey don't 
 know no better. Dey acts up to de light dey hab. 
 Yon take dat sweet little child (pointing to a 
 
APPENDIX. 113 
 
 lonely baby) 'pears more like an angel dan any- 
 ting else take her down dere, let her nebber 
 know nothing 'bout niggers but they was made 
 to be whipped, an' she '11 grow up to use the whip 
 on 'em jus' like de rest. No, Missus, its because 
 dey don't know no better." May God give the 
 people to whom the story of this woman shall 
 come, a like charity, so that through their kind- 
 ness the last days of her stormy and troubled life 
 may be calm and peaceful. 
 
ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 
 
 THE subject of the preceding memoir appears to 
 have retained all her life a feeling recollection of 
 the effects of the whip in the hands of her youth- 
 ful mistress. Considering the vigor and frequency 
 of the application, this is not strange. Infinite 
 cuffs and thwacks, more or less, pass into oblivion ; 
 but a flogging with a raw-hide is not easily forgot- 
 ten. A slave's experience of the whip, however, 
 was not confined to his or to her early days. A 
 slave race must be controlled by fear and pain ; 
 and the discipline, it was naturally thought, could 
 not begin too early. From childhood to old age 
 they were liable to stripes, for any reason or for no 
 reason. If the slave was guilty of no fault, he might 
 be whipped, as appears from the preceding narra- 
 tive, merely to impress him with a salutary sense 
 of the master's right and disposition to whip. 
 
 A Northern man, born and bred under the influ- 
 ences of freedom and the protection of law, and 
 
118 ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 
 
 made acquainted with slaver) 7 in its old palmy days, 
 can never forget his sensations at his first sight of 
 a slave-whipping. The utmost he has ever seen 
 in the way of corporal punishment has been the 
 switching of. some obstreperous child by competent 
 authority ; a discipline administered with prudence 
 and moderation ; drawing no blood and leaving no 
 scar. He now sees an adult person stripped to the 
 skin, his arms tied at their utmost stretch above 
 his head, or across some object which binds him in- 
 to a posture the best adapted to feel the full force 
 of each blow. The instrument of suffering is not a 
 birch twig or a ferule, but a twisted raw-hide, or 
 heavy " black snake ; " either of them highly ef- 
 fective weapons in the hands of a stout executioner. 
 Our Northern novice stands horror-stricken and 
 paralyzed for a moment ; but at the second or third 
 blow, and the piteous scream of Oh Lord ! Massa ! 
 which follows, he digs his fingers into his ears, and 
 rushes to the furthest corner of his tent or dwelling, 
 to escape the scene. Even if he could have en- 
 dured the sight and sound a while longer, he dared 
 not. The horror in his face, and perhaps the irre- 
 pressible word or act of interference was too sure 
 to bring upon himself the vengeance due to a 
 Abolitionist." The little knot of Southern 
 
ESSAY OX WOMAN- WHIPPING. 119 
 
 habitues look on with critical inspection, squirting 
 tobacco-juice, with their hands in their pockets. 
 
 If the subject is a woman, the interest rises 
 higher, and the crowd would be greater. There is 
 a refinement of cruelty in the whipping of a woman 
 which used to stimulate agreeably the dull sensi- 
 bilities of a Southern mob. A dish of torture had 
 to be peppered very high to please the palates of 
 those epicures in brutality. The helplessness and 
 terror of the victim, the exposure of her person, the 
 opportunity for coarse jests at her expense, all com- 
 bined to make it a scene of rare enjoyment. How 
 the " chivalric" mind can endure the loss of such 
 gratifications it is difficult to conceive. The Ro- 
 mans were weaned from crucifixions and gladiato- 
 rial combats very gradually. The process of ame- 
 liorating criminal law and humanizing public senti- 
 ment went on for more than two centuries. It was 
 full four hundred years after the epoch of our re- 
 demption when the monk Telemachus threw him- 
 self between the hired swordsmen, whom a Christian 
 audience was applauding, and laid down his own 
 life to wind up the spectacle. But the bloody 
 morsel has been snatched from the mouths of the 
 " chivalry" at one clutch. No wonder their mor- 
 tification vents itself in weeping and wailing, and 
 
120 ESSAY ON WOMAN- WHIPPING. 
 
 knashing of teeth, and in such miscellaneous atroci- 
 ties as their " Ku-Klux-Klans" can venture to in- 
 flict on helpless freedmen and radicals.* 
 
 A recent Southern paper (the Virginia Adver- 
 tiser) finds a providential provision for the enslave- 
 ment of the negro race in the thickness of their 
 skulls, enabling them to bear without injury the 
 blows inflicted in sudden rage by their masters ; 
 a suggestive confession, by the way, of the influence 
 of slavery on the tempers of the slaveholders. 
 The whole race must be prepared, it seems, for 
 blows on the head with Avhatever weapon came to 
 hand ! But admitting the thickness of the skulls, 
 it appears from an incident in the preceding pages, 
 as well as from other known instances, that the 
 inventive genius of the slave-whipping chivalry 
 contrived to baffle the humane designs of Provi- 
 dence a negro skull well padded with wool might 
 bear without injury the blow of a boot-jack or a 
 hammer, and yet prove insufficient to resist the 
 impact of a musket-ball or a ten-pound weight. 
 
 * It is curiously illustrative of the mixed childishness and ferocity 
 which characterizes the Southern civilization, that this secret associa- 
 tion of ruffians, organized to terrorize the loyal South, styles itself by 
 an absurd, mis-spelled name, and goes about on its nightly work of 
 murder in harlequin costume, with one of its leaders acting the part of 
 ghost, to frighten the superstitious blacks. Some more courageous 
 freedman occasionally makes a bonaflde ghost of this masquerade. 
 
ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 121 
 
 It is of no avail to plate a vessel with six inches of 
 iron, if she is to be pounded with bolts that can 
 mash an eight-inch armor. Apparently, Divine 
 Providence stopped short of the necessary security 
 for the predestined slave race. It should have ar- 
 ranged for a progressive thickening of the negro 
 cranium to meet the increase of violence on the 
 part of the master ; until at length slavery might 
 be encountered with a difficulty like that which 
 besets naval gunnery, viz., what would be the result 
 if an infrangible African skull should be beaten by 
 an irresistable Caucasian club ? 
 
 But even this Virginia laudator temporis acti, 
 this melancholy mourner at the tomb of defunct 
 slavery, does not allege any such Providential thick- 
 ening of the negro cuticle as to amount to a satis- 
 factory anaesthesia against whipping. It has never 
 been proven that a Virginia paddle or a Georgia 
 raw-hide well applied did not make the blood spirt 
 as freely through a black skin as through a white 
 one ; nor has any Southern savant of the Nott and 
 Gliddon school shown that there was not the same 
 relative delicacy of organization in the slave woman 
 as in the free. A black woman was, relatively to 
 the black man, the more delicate subject for the 
 whip ; something more sensitive to the shame of 
 
122 ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 
 
 stripping, more liable to terror, and of rather softer 
 fiber ; so that the lash went deeper both into soul 
 and sense than in the case of her sable brother. 
 
 And this fact made the black woman a very 
 suitable subject for the whip in the hands of the 
 Southern lady. To succeed in slave-whipping as 
 in any other fine art, the Horatian canon must be 
 regarded, which requires us to take a subject 
 suited to our strength. It would have been unrea- 
 sonable, in ordinary cases, to expect a " dark-eyed 
 daughter of the South " to flog handsomely a stal- 
 wart negro man ; she sometimes did it, after he had 
 been well tied up. But the slave girl was exactly 
 suited to her flagellating capacities. A good many 
 women, North as well as South, manifest a tendency 
 to become tyrants in their own households, and 
 love to bully their servants. But this is an evil of a 
 mitigated nature in Northern society. The stupid- 
 est " help " in the kitchen knows she is safe from 
 any other lash than her mistress' tongue, and is 
 commonly an adept at the business of answering 
 back again. 
 
 But the Southern mistress was a domestic devil 
 with horns and claws ; selfish, insolent, accustomed 
 to be waited on for everything. She grew up with 
 the instinct of tyranny to punish violently the 
 
ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 123 
 
 least neglect or disobedience in her servants. The 
 variable temper of girlhood, not ugly unless 
 thwarted, became in the "Southern matron" a 
 chronic fury. She was her own " overseer," and, 
 like that out-door functionary, had her own scepter, 
 which she did not bear in vain. The raw-hide lay 
 upon the shelf within easy reach, and her arm was 
 vigorous with exercise. The breaking of a plate, 
 the spilling of a cup, the misplacing of a pin in her 
 dress, or any other misadventure in the chapter of 
 accidents, was promptly illustrated with numerous 
 cuts. The lash well laid on the shoulders of a 
 black femme-de-chambre, or screaming child, was an 
 agreeable titillation of the nervous sensibilities of 
 the languid Creole ; a headache, or a heartache, 
 transferred itself through the medium of the raw- 
 hide to the back of Phillis or Araminta. They no 
 doubt whipped sometimes, like Mr. Squeers, for the 
 mere fun of the thing. It is an exquisite pleasure 
 to a cowardly nature to have some creature to tor- 
 ment ; and there is this nemesis about cruelty that 
 it engenders an appetite which, like that for alcoholic 
 stimulents, for ever demands increased indulgence. 
 It was the vindictive woman's nature in the 
 South that protracted and gave added ferocity to 
 the rebellion. These woman-whipping wives and 
 
124 ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 
 
 mothers it was who hounded on the masculine 
 chivalry to the work of exterminating the " accursed 
 Yankees," and thus made their own punishment so 
 much sorer than it need have been. 
 
 The mention of these amiable Southern charac- 
 teristics cannot fail to recall that highly suggestive 
 scene of the Malebolge, with the illustration of Gus- 
 tave Dore, in which the tempters and destroyers of 
 women are seen scourged with whips, in the hands 
 of demons ; especially when we remember that the 
 whipping of slave women to make them consent to 
 their own dishonor, was one of the usages of the pa- 
 triarchal chivalry. There is not a scene in which 
 the imaginings of Dante have been better seconded 
 by the pencil of the great French artist : the flying 
 wretches hurrying in opposite directions, as the 
 crowds in the Jubilee year trampled each other, go- 
 ing and returning across the St. Angelo Bridge ; 
 among them the bat-winged fiends with whips, 
 lashing right and left ! In the throng are female 
 figures : women who in life tortured and corrupted 
 other women. What terror in face an attitude ! 
 How desperately they grapple with the rocks to lift 
 themselves out of reach of the scourge ! And these 
 two demons in the foreground ! What an absolute 
 idealization of muscular ferocity! Every pirn 1 wy 
 
ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 125 
 
 line in their cantour displays the force of a fallen 
 demi-god ; their very tails curl with delight in 
 their ministry of vengeance. 
 
 AM ; come facen Iftvar le berze, 
 Alle prime percosse, e gia nessuno, 
 Le second aspettava ne le terze ! 
 
 Ah ! how they make them skip ! There is Le- 
 gree and Tom Gordon, and Madame de Schlangen- 
 bad, from Louisiana, and Mrs. Crawley (ne'e Sharp) 
 from South Carolina, squirming under the torture ! 
 A very instructive, if not agreeable exhibition ! 
 
 But this fury in celestial Southern bosoms was 
 merely institutional. Dip the gentlest nature into 
 the element of irresponsible power, and it becomes 
 in time covered over with a foul incrustation of 
 cruelty. Those beastly Roman ladies of Juvenal's 
 time, who could order a slave woman to be whipped 
 to death without condescending to give any other 
 reason than their sic volo, sic jubeo, were not natu- 
 rally worse than others. Take any Roman or 
 Southern girl of ten years of age, put a whip in her 
 hands, and a helpless slave child at her mercy ; let 
 her see nothing but brutality to inferiors all around 
 her, and by the time she is ready to be married, 
 she can hold up her thumb to the standing gladia- 
 tor in the arena, or beg her lover to bring her back 
 
126 ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 
 
 from Bull Run a ring from the bones of some Yan 
 kee soldier. It is a publicly known private fact, 
 illustrative of the influence of slavery on the fe- 
 male character, that when a certain Northern cler- 
 gyman applied to her father for the hand of a cele- 
 brated Maryland heiress, the reply was, " You are 
 quite welcome to her ! but I think it only fair to 
 tell you that if I were going to storm hell, I should 
 put her in the advance." 
 
 There is every reason to hope, therefore, that the 
 Southern character, both male and female, will be- 
 come gradually ameliorated by the changed condi- 
 tion under which it will hereafter be formed. It is 
 a common error, one in which the Southern people 
 themselves share, that there is something in their 
 climate to nurse and to justify their "high spirit," 
 anglic'e their quarrelsomeness and brutality of tem- 
 per. It is very pleasant to lay off upon Nature or 
 Providence what belongs only to will or institu- 
 tions. A man indulges in violent passions with 
 little restraint or remorse, so long as he can per- 
 suade himself he is merely what certain positive 
 natural laws make him. What an opiate for a con- 
 science defiled with lust and blood, to think that 
 this is only natural to the " sunny South." But in 
 fact, the people of warm, temperate, and tropical 
 
ESSAY ON WOMAN- WHIPPING. 127 
 
 regions are most commonly gentle of mood ; the 
 climate acts as an anodyne, and soothes them into 
 a peaceful equilibrium of the passions. The ne- 
 groes of the Southern States are not passionate or 
 vindictive well for their late masters and present 
 persecutors that they are not ! What they may be- 
 come from the treatment they are experiencing 
 from those preternatural and predestinated fools, is 
 another question. 
 
 The only reason the " chivalry " are bad-tem- 
 pered and quarrelsome, is found in that despotism 
 in which they have been nursed, and which associ- 
 ates the idea of personal dignity with an instant re- 
 sort to violence at any contradiction. But for sla- 
 very, the people of Mississippi would have been no 
 more addicted to street fights, dueling, midnight 
 assassinations, etc., than the people of Massachu- 
 setts. That the former have any advantage in re- 
 spect to courage, has been sufficiently disproved by 
 the rebellion. Whether the ex-Confederate ladies 
 may or may not be able to " fire the Southern 
 heart" for another attempt to overthrow the Gov- 
 ernment, it will at least never be done under 
 the persuasion that one Southerner is equal to 
 five or any other number above unity, of Yankees. 
 
 The traditions of slavery, indeed, will remain to 
 
128 ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 
 
 keep alive among the late slaveholding caste, the 
 insolent and unchristian temper on which they have 
 prided themselves. But having no more helpless 
 dependants to storm at and abuse, their valor will 
 needs submit to gradual modifications. Some de- 
 gree of self-government will become a necessity. 
 It may require several generations ; but institutions 
 ceasing to corrupt them, the loss of wealth, the ne- 
 cessity of work and a new Gospel of peace, better 
 than their old slaveholding Christianity, will grad- 
 ually educate them into a law-abiding, orderly, and 
 virtuous people. 
 
 The Southern woman will of course share early 
 in this beneficent change no longer perverted into 
 a she-devil by the possession of unrestrained power, 
 and paying just wages to servants, who, if not 
 suited with their work, can leave without having 
 to run oif ; her gentler virtues will have a chance 
 to assert themselves. Her striking qualities will 
 subside into a charming vivacity of temper. She 
 will become a gracious and pious mater-familias ; 
 she will perhaps in time learn to apply to her own 
 children a portion of that discipline of which her 
 slaves enjoyed a monopoly. In short, there neither 
 is nor ever was any reason, slavery excepted, why 
 the Southern whites should not possess a character 
 
ESSAY ON WOMAN-WHIPPING. 129 
 
 for industry, peacefulnwss, and religion, equal to 
 that of the rural districts of New York and New 
 England. 
 
 Thank God that we have lived to see such awful 
 barbarisms extinct ! In fifty years the last woman- 
 whipper at the South will be as dead as Cleopa- 
 tra ; as dead as the pre-Adamite brute organiza- 
 tions. History will be ashamed to record their do- 
 ings. The fictions in which thev are enbalmed 
 
 o * 
 
 will be lost in the better coming era of morals and 
 letters. By the time the South has been overflow- 
 ed and regenerated by a beneficent inundation of 
 Northern "carpet-baggers," with Yankee capital 
 and enterprise, it will be forgotten that a race ca- 
 pable of the crimes referred to in the preceding 
 story, ever existed. 
 
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