Social Studies Spark #44: The Breathtaking Courage of Harriet Tubman

Image from biography.com

February is Black History Month. I can think of almost no one more heroic in Black history than Harriet Tubman.  The more you discover about Tubman, the more you realize she had to be a superhero to pull off exploits it would be an understatement to say were daring.

This tiny woman who could neither read nor write now has not one, but two national parks dedicated to her story, plus the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center on the eastern shore of Maryland, where she was born Araminta Ross – Minty for short – around 1822.

Her parents were enslaved on different plantations, hours apart. She and her mother were owned by Edward Brodess, who made $60 a year renting her out, starting when she was six.

In 1849, she escaped from a place called Poplar Neck, in Caroline County, Maryland, when word reached her that she was going to be sold South.

Look at a map, and imagine Harriet, in her 20s, running away, alone, on foot. She managed, with the help of the Underground Railroad, to make it a hundred miles to the Pennsylvania border, and freedom.

But then Tubman went back – 13 times over 10 years – leading more than 70 people to freedom.

Click on the link below to watch this TEDED on the life of Harriet Tubman.

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-courage-of-harriet-tubman-janell-hobson

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