Casey+G.

 Harriet Tubman  By: Casey Gittelman “Move or Die!” I yelled as I held up my gun. My name is Harriet Tubman. I was born in 1820 or 1821. I can’t exactly remember because my parents couldn’t read or write, so they couldn’t record my birth date. Back then, slaves had no education. My grandparents were brought here from West Africa, so my parents, ten siblings, and I were born on the Brodess Plantation, in Buckland, Maryland. I was born with the name Araminta Ross, with a nickname “Minty,” but at 13 years old, I changed my name to Harriet, after my mother. We lived in a rundown cabin, with dirt floors and no windows. We had very little food to eat and we had to start work at a very young age. I started work at the age of 5. Not long afterwards, I was sold to a plantation owned by a family called the Cooks. There I cared for their baby and my job was to rock the baby’s cradle. It was exhausting work. If I stopped, the baby cried, and I was whipped. I eventually figured out if you wore several layers of clothes, the whipping didn’t hurt as much. At the age of 7, I tried to escape. I hid in a pig pen for many days. I had to share food and water with the pigs to survive. I eventually got hungry and tired, so I returned home. Later, I was sick with the measles, so I was sent back to the Brodess Plantation. When I grew older, I worked in the fields because I wasn’t a good house worker. One day I saw a slave escaping to a nearby store. Because of curiosity, I followed him. Unfortunately, Edward Brodess, the owner of the plantation, caught up with us. I refused to help catch the escaping slave, so I was hit in the head with a heavy metal weight. My skull was crushed and the rest of my life I suffered from blackouts. In 1844, I married John Tubman. John was born free so he didn’t grow up as a slave. I first learned about the Underground Railroad when I overheard I was going to be sold again. But John told me it would be too dangerous. Not listening to what he said, I went anyways. I also took my two brothers with me. We headed north to Pennsylvania, a freedom state. We followed the North Star, or if it was hidden, moss on trees always pointed north. We hid in houses on the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad, was a network of people, who helped slaves escape to freedom. My brothers turned back when we were about halfway to Pennsylvania, so I continued my journey alone. After several days, I finally reached Pennsylvania. I was free, but I knew my family was back on the plantation so I didn’t feel free. In 1850, I returned to the Brodess Plantation to help my family escape. In my lifetime, I helped over 300 slaves escape. We sometimes hid to get around, but we mostly walked places. When plantation owners found missing slaves, they hunted them down with dogs to sniff our trails. Sometimes we would play tricks on them by walking through water or pouring pepper in a different direction so the dogs would go off track. There was a $40,000 reward to catch me, but luckily I was never caught and I never lost a single passenger. After I helped runaways on the Underground Railroad, I did many other things. I made speeches against slavery and for women’s rights. I worked for the Union during the Civil War. I was a nurse, cook, spy, and scout. In my later years, I turned my house into a refuge and a home for the sick. Here I cared for my parents. On March 10th, 1913, at the age of 93, I passed away. I am still remembered by many people today. Thank you for listening to my speech, I hoped you learned a lot about Harriet Tubman.