and enslaved women, women who hoped to gain certain advantages for themselves, their families, and, more importantly, for their children. Pregnancy, whether due to rape, marriage, or consensual union had the same result for the children in most of the United States. Laws were passed that made the child of an enslaved mother a slave no matter if the father was a free black or a white person. Some children born of these circumstances would be sent north to live as free people or to Europe to be highly educated as other children of the same white father. However, it was more common for the owner’s children to become house servants in his own home, or willed to a close family member.
Due to the way that enslaved African women were forcibly taken, the children the women bore could not just be their child, but could also be their sibling, their grandchild, or their cousin. It was about violence against the body, control, and incest. As long as the child was at least one sixteenth black, the child was considered to be black, and therefore subject to enslavement.
Since early African arrivals were initially considered indentured servants, they were allowed to serve their terms of indenture and then petition to be free just like the English, Scottish, and Germans were allowed. Should there be any children, they could be free as well. The laws quickly changed so that indenture did not end and enslavement was formally established.
Following a notable case in Virginia, a woman born of a free white father and an African mother claimed her freedom through her status as the daughter of a wealthy white man, and did not serve her term. By 1662, the concept of Partus sequitur ventrum, a legal doctrine, was applied so that any child born of an enslaved woman would be a slave. This set the tone for this type of relationship and made it possible for white men to avoid having any responsibility for the children they sired with African women. Not only was this a financial savings for the owners, it reduced the potential for scandal and relegated their promiscuity to the plantation, not “refined” society.
Because enslaved African women were subject to the confinement and control of their enslavers and their sexuality was fantasized and “available,” black women were seen as being more willing to be sexual in relation to white women, who were seen to be “pure.” Many wealthy slave owners alienated their white wives in their pursuit of and involvement with enslaved African women. The children born of these unions were sometimes treated with special care by the male owner who might not be able to bear selling them. However, should the wife remain in the picture, her treatment of the “other woman,” the enslaved African and her “mulatto” child, was not so charitable.
Having the lighter skinned slaves in the house to do the lighter work and the darker skinned slaves in the fields was due to the fact that the lighter ones were the owner’s children. It also had the effect of further colourizing class. In trying to find ways to further care for one’s own children, white plantation owners supported the establishment of the “black” universities where their offspring could be educated.
Having children bound the enslaved woman to the place where her children were. It made it more difficult for her to contemplate escape since her children might not be easy to spirit away from the home of the owner, the care of the older slave women, or the glare of the mistress of the plantation. Similarly, having the enslaved male marry was seen as means of tying him to the plantation, although it made it difficult for him to attempt to protect his wife from violent threats to her — both physically and sexually — as he could not betray his master. What did this do to his sense of self as a protector when he could not intervene in the treatment of his wife?
Part of slave resistance included enslaved people’s finding ways to worship, celebrate, or socialize with each other. Using remote locations, invited through secret communications, they could have services or “parties” that would serve as an opportunity to either practice traditional spirituality or to have some fun, dance, and sing. These brief times away allowed for some courting and friendships to be extended. It provided fleeting moments of freedom. It informed those who would be able to choose a partner.
Harriet chose free black man John Tubman to be her partner. She may have become acquainted with him as he travelled or through one of the secret meetings in the woods. After their union, it would appear that no children were born to them. It is possible that a head injury may well have affected Harriet Tubman’s ability to adequately produce the hormones necessary for reproduction. Without having children to worry about leaving behind, and with her small frame built up through hard work as well as her knowledge of how to determine directions and survive outdoors, Harriet was as well positioned to run away as any man.
3
Unearthing the Truth
During fall evenings, field slaves would work in a group to clean up the wheat and husk the corn. One fall evening in 1835, Harriet saw a slave named Jim, from the neighbouring Barret plantation, make a run for his freedom. Curious, Harriet as well as his overseer, McCracken, chased him. Jim went into the Bucktown general store and was cornered by McCracken, who demanded that Harriet tie Jim up. While Harriet refused, Jim bounded out the door and Harriet blocked the doorway. McCracken responded to this act of defiance by picking up a two pound weight and throwing it, perhaps intending to get Jim, but it got Harriet, hitting her in the forehead and nearly killing her.
For months, Rit did everything she could to help Harriet as she fell in and out of consciousness. Brodess wanted to sell her, but no one wanted the slave who had recurring bouts of sleeping attacks, sometimes as many as four per day. After she “recovered,” Harriet went back to work in the fields for her temporary master John Stewart, and continued to be hired out to Dr. Thompson. Harriet commanded fifty to sixty dollars a week, while a male slave could expect one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars a week for the same type of work.
Harriet Tubman U.S. postage stamp, thirteen cents. First issued in 1978. Photo courtesy Milton S. Sernett, Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press), 2007.
Because Edward Brodess was not yet old enough or experienced enough to assume the responsibilities of plantation administration, John Stewart, a builder, had been brought in to take over for a time. Dr. Thompson’s father owned Benjamin Ross, Harriet’s father, and was Edward’s guardian. Harriet drove oxen, carted, and plowed when working at home, and she sometimes worked with her father, who also worked for Stewart. Stewart liked to brag about Harriet’s strength because he claimed that she could lift a barrel filled with produce, or pull a plow just like an ox could.
Benjamin Ross, though still a slave, was now a timber inspector and supervised the cutting and hauling of timber for the Baltimore shipyards. If she was working with her father, Harriet would cut wood, split rails, and haul logs, producing half a cord of wood a day. Brodess permitted Harriet to keep a small portion of her earnings, and she used the money left over after giving Brodess his share to buy a pair of oxen, worth forty dollars, to help her in her work. It was unusual for an enslaved woman to be doing a man’s strenuous job and even more unusual for a slave to buy and own anything. The Bucktown community would have been aware of this unique slave.
Harriet’s narcolepsy, or sleeping seizures, as a result of her near fatal head injury, prevented her sale to southern plantation owners who might not have been tolerant of her sleep attacks. It also kept her from being paired off to breed while an adolescent, as did her plain appearance on her five foot tall frame. Harriet is reported to have looked like she could not understand anything at all at times, and this was very helpful to her since she could assume this “dull” stance around her master or overseers, while taking in everything that was going on around her. Sometimes she even pretended to be having a sleep attack to learn more about her master’s plans. In fact, many slaves came to know the
