Harriet Tubman was born in 1820, she was born in a small cabin on a plantation in the state of Maryland. She and her parents, Ben and old Rit, were owned by a man named Edward Brodas. When a baby was born to a family living on the plantation they adimaticly became another slave to Edward it no long was the families baby.
Her real name was Araminta. The people on the plantation called her Minty when she was young. They called her Harriet when she was older. When she was older she became knows as Moses all throughout the plantation. It was said that she was like Moses of the bible. Moses led slaves in Egypt to freedom, and Harriet led black slave to freedom.
When she was seven she was sold to a woman named miss Susan, she used Harriet to clean and take care of her baby. Miss Susan whipped Harriet because she didn't know how to dust because she had never needed to know, there was no fine furniture in her cabin or on the plantation. She was whipped so much that she had scares on her neck that would stay there for the rest of her life. By the time she was eleven she was a strong willed girl. She worked as hard as any man on the plantation, but she was happier than she had ever been.
One time in her life she saw a man, a slave, he wasn't doing much work. All of a sudden he ran, he ran to the village store. The overseer ( the man who stood in the fields to make sure the slaves were doing work) ran after him he caught him in the village store. The overseer wanted to whip the man right there but he saw Harriet standing at the door. He told her to tie the man so he could whip him, she shook her head no. The slave ran out the door, the overseer picked up a weight and threw it at the man it missed and hit Harriet in the head. She fell to the ground. For months her parent did not know if she would live or die. While she was sick her master tried to sell her, but no one wanted a sick slave, or a girl who would disobey an overseer. She never completely recovered, there was a deep scar where the iron hit her. She had strange sleeping spells, she never knew when or where she would fall asleep.
When she was well enough to work her master dies. Her new master sold her to John Stewart, a builder. For a few years she worked in the house, then she worked in the fields. She was shorted than most women and stronger than most men. She lifted heavy barrels like they were paper and cut more wood in a day than any other slave. Stewart showed her off and made her show his friends her strength, Harriet hated it. there she met John Tubman, he was free, but a Negro.
