“When I found out I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such glory over everything; the sun shone like gold through the trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.” Harriet Tubman was an important African American in the history of slavery. Harriet Tubman still captures the interest of modern Americans because of all she did to help others gain freedom. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery around 1820 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. His mother, Harriet Green, worked as a cook on the plantation and his father, Benjamin, was a lumber worker. Harriet had eight siblings, but slavery eventually forced many of them apart, even after her mother tried to keep them together. When Harriet was five, she was hired out as a nanny where she would be shouted at if the baby started to cry, leaving her with permanent emotional scars. Around the age of seven Harriet was hired out as a labourer. “He later said he preferred physical work on plantations to indoor domestic coasts.” At the age of 12 Harriet became aware of the need for justice when she saw an overseer about to throw a weight at a runaway slave, when she stepped between the two, she was struck in the head. “The weight broke my skull. They brought me home bleeding and unconscious. I had no bed, no place to lie down, and they laid me on the frame seat, and I remained there all day and the next. She fell into a deep sleep randomly and endured vivid dreams, which she said were religious experiences. Harriet also had seizures and narcolepsy for the rest of her life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Around 1844, Harriet married a free black man, John Tubman, and changed her last name to hers. The marriage was not good and John threatened to sell Harriet to the South. Threats from her husband and the thought that her brothers, Ben and Henry, were about to be sold, caused Harriet to plan an escape. On September 17, 1849, Harriet, Ben, and Henry fled Maryland, but along the way Ben and Henry turned back. With the help of the Underground Railroad, Harriet traveled 90 miles north to Pennsylvania and freedom. With a feeling of relief he recalled: “When I found out I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such glory over everything; the sun shone like gold through the trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.” After working as a housekeeper in security, she did not like living free alone and wanted freedom for her family and others who lived in slavery. He soon returned to the South to save his granddaughter, Kessiah, because she was about to be sold, along with her two young children. Kessiah's husband placed a winning bid for his wife at an auction, and Harriet helped the entire family escape to Philadelphia. This was the first trip of many. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Harriet's job as a conductor for the Underground Railroad became more difficult. “Which required the return of fugitive slaves. Any black, even free blacks, could be sent south solely on the affidavit of anyone claiming to be its owner. The law deprived fugitive slaves of basic legal rights such as the right to a trial by jury and the right to testify in their own defense. This law forced Harriet to lead slaves to Canada, traveling at night and in spring or autumn, when the days were clear”.”.