HARRIET TUBMAN NARRATIVE

Who ever knew you could experience so much in your lifetime? When I was young I really didn’t expect or know that I was going to have to escape from slavery. My name is Harriet Tubman, and I am sixty one years old. Back when I was twenty nine, I had made my mind up that I wasn't tolerating being a slave anymore, and, as scared as I was, I managed to break away. I wasn’t alone. Oh no. I could never escape alone. My two brothers, Ben and Henry, accompanied me along my first escape. I thought I had made it. I thought I really had succeeded in my lifetime dream, but, of no surprise, my slave master, Edward Brodess, had posted a runaway notice for us shortly after we'd left, and anyone who found us would get a reward of 100 dollars. It was 1849 at this time, and $100 was an extremely scarce, remarkable amount of money, which intrigued anyone to find us. As you could easily guess, we were found. I vaguely remember the details, but we were found hiding in boxes along an alley. I remember being woken up with the abrupt kicks from the side of the box. BOOM, and back to the camp we went. However, not long after we'd arrived back was it that I escaped again, this time alone. When I was younger I saw a slave escape the fields without permission from his slave owner, and I was demanded to restrain the young fellow, but I refused. I wouldn’t stop someone from doing exactly what I dreamt to do. To take his anger out, the slave master picked up a two-pound weight and threw it at the slave. I remember the aggravation when he threw that weight, but he missed and hit me instead. I was sure it broke my skull. My slave owners tried to sell me after I began to have numerous seizures. I would also often fall deep asleep, and I’d be unconscious, preventing anyone from being able to wake me up. As I grew older, which you may be able to tell, I began slurring my words more and more, due to the accident. Throughout my entire life I had these conditions. That was partially why I escaped: I couldn't stand any more abuse, and I was also convinced I could take on the challenge because of what I had gone through in my early years. I walked all the way from where I was in Maryland, all along the Underground Railroad to Pennsylvania. 90 miles, on foot, but it was my only option. The Underground Railroad was highly used for free blacks, white abolitionists, and Christian activists, and it wasn't at all a railroad. It was a network of houses, along with other buildings, which were used to help slaves escape from any northern states or Canada. I knew it wasn't going to be an easy journey; I had to hide from slave catchers by doing household chores for the families I was staying with so it looked as if I was working for them. I was hidden in carts, which is always where I spent my freezing nights. One night, after I'd been traveling for about 4 days, I was almost found. I was deep asleep, lying in my miniscule cart, and I was awoken by the sound of numerous men yelling. I stopped breathing, I didn't move, I tried as hard as I could to make my presence unknown. The only words I heard were, "they've got to be around here somewhere" and, even though, I was ignorant to who they were referring to, if I was found it wouldn't have mattered if they were referring to me or not, because i'd still be captured. The night passed on safely, meaning I had gone one more day without being caught. I traveled northeast from Maryland to the Choptank River, through Delaware, and then north into Pennsylvania, which took me exactly two weeks and six days. Through hunger, through fear, through blisters, through horrible weather. However, it didn't matter, slaves would do anything, and I truly mean ANYTHING to get away from the life that we lived. At only 29 years old, I managed to complete and survive such a treacherous experience; however, I knew I could handle it after everything I had been through and tolerated in my entire life. After traveling for two weeks through the most exhausting period of my life, I finally arrived in Pennsylvania. I knew I had it in me. I stated to many people that when I crossed into Pennsylvania I had a feeling of awe and relief, and when I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven. I was a freed slave. I, Harriet Tubman, had escaped from slavery.