Saint of the Week: Araminta Ross (Harriet Tubman)
3/12/2025
Araminta Ross (Harriet Tubman)
The Bible narrative of God delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt deeply impressed Harriet Ross Tubman, born Araminta Ross. It was the basis of her belief that it was God's will to deliver slaves in America from their bonds, and that it was her duty to help accomplish this. Born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten and whipped by various masters as a child. Early in life, she suffered a traumatic head injury when one irate slave owner threw a heavy metal weight at another slave but hit her instead. The injury caused dizziness, pain, and spells of hypersomnia, which recurred throughout her life. A devout Christian, she experienced strange visions and vivid dreams, which she felt were premonitions from God. By 1840, her father, Ben, was manumitted at age 45, as stipulated in a former owner's will. Years later, Ben paid a white attorney $5.00 to investigate Araminta’s mother's legal status. The lawyer found that she, like her husband, was to be freed at age 45. Similar provisions applied to their children, but the current slave owners ignored those stipulations when they inherited them. Challenging them in court was virtually impossible for the Tubman parents. Harriet married a John Tubman in 1844, but his status as a freed man did not change hers. In 1849, therefore, she fled to Philadelphia, but surreptitiously returned to help others escape. Working with other Abolitionists, chiefly white Quakers (North and South), she made at least 19 forays into Maryland in the 1850's, leading 300+ slaves to freedom. During the American Civil War, she served the Union Army as a cook, a nurse, a spy, and on one occasion led a raid that freed over 750 slaves. After the war, she retired to Auburn, NY, to a home she bought for her aging parents. There, she worked to shelter orphans and the elderly, to advance black citizens’ status, and advocate for women's suffrage until illness forced her to move to a home for elderly African-Americans she had helped establish years earlier. After her death, she became an icon of courage and freedom, often being referred to as the Moses of her People.
