her people into freedom, and also perhaps with God’s presence to guide her.
The Underground Railroad was critical for the freedom seekers. It heightened the debate between slave-holding interests and those who promoted abolition. Had Canada not been willing to grant the same rights and privileges to blacks as to members of other groups, and had it not been in such close proximity to the Americans, the chance of any Underground Railroad survivors being in Canada would be scant. Freedom seekers would have had to find their way to other areas, most bounded by broad expanses of ocean and more difficult to navigate.
In the pioneer society of English speaking southern Ontario in particular, conditions supported the entry and security of freedom seekers. The first Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario was an abolitionist. John Graves Simcoe had addressed the issue of Chole Cooley, an enslaved African woman who was forcibly bound and rowed across the Niagara River onto the American side for sale. This produced the first anti-slavery legislation in Ontario to be passed in 1783. While it was a compromise, and only ended the indenture of European workers, it did provide a number of conditions for the eventual abolition of slavery within the British Empire. People in the Niagara region were aware of this precedent and it informed later treatment and acceptance of Africans. However, freedom does not always mean full equality, so it was for this reason that some people chose to return to the U.S. after the end of the Civil War. They also hoped to reunite with family that had not been able to flee.
Many black people were able to express the positive experiences of their freedom in Canada through their writing or speaking engagements. Among them were Mary Ann Shadd, Frederick Douglass, Reverend Samuel Ringgold Ward, William Still, Henry Bibb, and Josiah Henson. They were concerned about highlighting their successes because pro-slavery interests promoted the notion that black peoples could not manage on their own without paternal whites to direct their every move. It was felt that black people would be unable to lead wholesome lives and needed slavery to protect them from themselves. These black abolitionists portrayed the free black community in a positive way, showing that black people were not only competent and capable but also interested in taking care of themselves. Abolitionists travelled throughout the north and the south, speaking wherever they could find an audience, sharing information about how well the black people in Canada were managing, were thriving, were excelling. They told of the success of the black population in Ontario and these people as a group, but Harriet Tubman in particular, were a beacon of hope to the entire free and enslaved population. If they could do so well in Canada, then surely they could manage in other countries once slavery had ended.
Although there were laws protecting the right of black people under the law in Canada, there were fully entrenched views of black people that were not easily changed. In Canada, black people had to keep fighting for the full expression of their rights and where numbers warranted also opted to create or maintain their own institutions.
While Harriet Tubman is known globally for her efforts to lead people from enslavement to freedom, her role as a commander for the Union Forces is equally significant. Being the first woman to do the reconnaissance, to command a team of eight to ten men, to plan and lead a successful military action may well have given the Union side even more exposure and credibility in the minds of potential recruits, and may have given the Union side the “boots on the ground” that they needed to ensure their victory.
The onset of the Civil War prevented Harriet Tubman from using her skills and contacts for the freeing of enslaved Africans using the Underground Railroad. It did allow her to focus her energies on nursing and cooking for the sick and injured, but she also more than realized that the success of the Union Forces, no matter how President Lincoln interpreted events, would be the vehicle through which all enslaved black people could be freed.
Her role with John Brown, the fact that she supported him but in the end was unable to join him, is a turn of events that ultimately worked to enhance Harriet Tubman’s legacy. Instead of being one of the persons executed following his failed bid to take Harpers Ferry, she became the person who succeeded with her own military expedition. Perhaps having his example and failure to learn from, Harriet Tubman was meticulous about working with people who she knew well and felt she could trust. She planned every possible detail in the event that something went a bit off course. She had clear goals and communicated them to the people she was in charge of. She also seemed to have been as involved in the action as anyone else. She was an organized, detail-oriented, responsible leader.
Additionally, the abolitionists, the women who supported anti-slavery initiatives, and those who fought for equality and justice, who reasoned out the nature of oppression of the enslaved black people, also determined that some of the same issues framed slightly differently applied to them. Harriet Tubman did not bring about women’s rights and suffrage in the United States, but her success and example combined with their ability to add to their organizing, and contributed to freedoms for women in the United States and Canada.
Harriet Tubman’s example of dedication, courage, and commitment, her ability to persevere no matter what the obstacle, her ability to develop and work her relationships, and her genuine concern for others show her to be a woman who made a difference to Africans in the Diaspora, to women, to abolitionists, to history. Her example compelled others to forge their own freedom train or to assert themselves in dynamic ways and she was an inspiration to others: if this woman could succeed, many felt that they too could succeed.
Chronology of Harriet Tubman
(Circa 1820–1913)
Tubman and Her Times
1785–1790
Benjamin Ross (owned by Anthony Thompson) and Harriet “Rit” Green (owned by Athon Pattison), the parents of Harriet Tubman, likely were born in Eastern Shore, Maryland.
1808
Ben Ross and Rit Green were married.
Circa 1820
Araminta, or “Minty,” (later Harriet) Ross was born in Eastern Shore, Maryland, likely Dorchester County, to parents Rit and Benjamin Ross.
1820s
During her early childhood years, Harriet was hired out to tend to muskrat traps, babysit, and weave.
1834
Harriet received a major head wound in the Bucktown General Store as she blocked a doorway to prevent another slave from being captured.
1840
Benjamin may have been freed through the will of his owner, Anthony Thompson, who had died about 1836.
1844
Harriet probably married John Tubman, a free black man. This is also about that time that she became known as Harriet.
1847
Harriet began working for Dr. Anthony Thompson.
1849
On September 17, Harriet Tubman escaped with her brothers Ben and Henry to Philadelphia.
Edward Brodess died and Harriet learned she and her brothers were to be sold to recover some of the Brodess family debts. A runaway slave notice was published a month later in October offering a reward for their return.
1850
The second Fugitive Slave Act was passed on September 18 (effective 1851).
Harriet conducted her niece to freedom in Canada.
1851
