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Harriet Tubman Qualities

Decent Essays

“I grew up like a neglected weed,” were Harriet Tubman’s words about being a slave from the beginning of her life. She was born in Maryland in the year of 1822, and she had to start working at the age of 5. In adulthood, she decided to make an extremely risky decision that could have cost her her life - she fled slavery. Tubman was tired of the harsh conditions she had to endure in slavery, and she wanted her freedom just like she had deserved from the beginning. A couple of her sisters were sold away from her family, and after her master had died in 1849, she did not want to be sold into slavery again. When she successfully escaped, she wanted to assist other slaves into freedom by taking them to Canada, including her family members, and …show more content…

Along with bravery, another powerful character trait was cleverness about the routes and techniques for the escape plans. She planned every journey carefully which is why she was successfully for almost 10 years. Some of the measures she took to avoid capture were planning her journeys mostly in December where the nights were long, and there were less people outside. The slaves were mostly taken on Saturday nights so that the reward posters couldn’t be printed until Monday. She had to be a great leader each time she helped escape a group of slaves so that they wouldn’t give up. She had to motivate them to keep going and reaching for freedom, but in other times she had to place fear in them again so that they could stay awake during the night. If one person wanted to go back, she couldn’t allow them because it would ruin the whole plan. Also, her cleverness was shown especially in the beginning of being a conductor when she wasn’t familiar with all the routes to Canada, so she had to be careful throughout the way, and know when and where to avoid any possible dangers. The route was longer because the fugitives had to settle in Canada instead of the Northern States because of the Fugitive Slave Law. Harriet Tubman was a kind, passionate, and humane woman who gladly escorted the slaves to Canada, and she had the will to care for them until they were

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