![]() ![]() She continued her humanitarian efforts in St. Tubman lived in her North Street home with members of her family. Both churches provided spiritual and social support to the growing free community. Today, the AME church is a heritage site and is known as the Salem Chapel, British Two churches were located there: the Zion Baptist Church, later led by famed fugitive Anthony Burns, and the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church. Catharines was located only 100 metres away from Tubman’s home, at the intersection of North StreetĪnd Geneva Streets. The centre of the Black settlement in St. Tubman’s neighbours included men and women who were coopers, shoemakers, woodcutters, domestics, and farmers. Only six years later, the American abolitionist William Wells Brown reported that the community encompassed 800 people and that “about seven Catharines, which then had a total population of 7,060. To a local newspaper, 500 Black people were living in St. At the time, there was already a small Black community in the town, which was growing rapidly due to the arrival of freedom-seekers. Tubman arrived in December 1851, she quickly found employment and rented a house on North Street. Catharines was one of the Canadian “terminuses” of the Underground Railroad. "I wouldn't trust Uncle Sam with my people no longer, but I brought 'em clear off to Canada," she later said. Catharines,Ĭanada West (Ontario), where she moved in 1851. She then began and ended her rescues in St. Tubman therefore changed her escape route so that it ended in Canada. According to theĪct, all refugee slaves in free Northern states could be returned to enslavement in the South once captured. However, in 1850 the Fugitive Slave Actwas passed. These men operated stations of the Underground Railroad whereįugitives could receive food, clothing and financial assistance.Īt first, Tubman and her charges were safe upon their arrival in the Northern US. Tubman received assistance from abolitionists such as Jermaine Loguen, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett Jr., and William Still to help freedom-seekers reach safety along the secret network. She helped them escape and guided them back to Philadelphia. Tubman covertly returned to Maryland, where In December 1850, she heard that her niece Kessiah and her two daughters were to be auctioned off to another slaveholder. Tubman worked in Philadelphia for a year to raise money to fund her first rescue mission. She made her way to Philadelphia with the assistance of Quakers active in the Underground Railroad. Tubman feared that she would be sold to another owner and fled north on her own. To settle debts, owners or their families would often sell their slaves and reduce their holdings. The Underground RailroadĪfter her owner died in March 1849, Tubman was in a difficult position. She tried to convince him to run north with her, where they could both live in freedom, but he refused. In 1844, she married John Tubman, a free Black man, though the marriage was not recognized by law and her enslavement persisted. She suffered a serious head injury, which caused her to suffer from seizures, hallucinationsĪnd sleep attacks for the rest of her life. She was struck in the head by a heavy weight that had been thrown at the escaping man by his owner. In 1834, Tubman witnessed a young man attempting to escape. These survival skills became instrumental when Tubman realized that the only way she could gain her freedom was to run away. Geographical directions and to use therapeutic herbs from her family and other enslaved persons. Preferring work in the fields, she learned to follow Born into enslavement in Maryland, Harriet Tubman spent her childhood working without payment for the benefit of her owners. ![]()
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