Harriet Tubman
... strength. At the age of 12 she was seriously injured by a blow to the head, given by her owners because she refused to help in tying up a man who had attempted escape? Harriet, who had a severe concussion, was ill for a long time from this injury, and never fully recovered. She had periodic "sleeping fits" after her injury, made her less attractive as a slave to others who wanted her services. When Harriet's old master died, the masters son had inherited the slaves and was able to hire Harriet out to a lumber merchant, where her work was appreciated and where she was allowed to keep some money she earned from extra work. In 1844, Harriet married John Tubman, a free African American. The marriage was apparently not a good match, from the beginning. It was shortly after her marriage that Harriet hired a lawyer to investigate her own legal history, and discovered that her mother had been freed on a technicality on the death of a former owner. Harriet's lawyer advised her that a court wouldn’t hear the case, so she had it dropped. But knowing that she should have been born free, not a slave caused her to think about freedom and resent her situation. In 1849, several things came together to motivate Harriet Tubman to act. She heard that two of her brothers were about to be sold in the Deep South and her husband threatened to sell her South, too. She tried to persuade her brothers to escape with her, but ended up leaving alone, making her way to Philadelphia, and making it to freedom. When Tubman had first arrived in Philadelphia she was under the law at that time, a free woman. But the next year when the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act took place, her status changed. She became a fugitive slave and all citizens were told to follow the law to help get her recapture and return. So she had to work alone and as quietly as possible, but neverth...