Christian History Institute February 1, 1978 • US Stamp Honored Ex-Slave Harriet Tubman ©2007

ad Harriet Tubman been kindly treated as a slave, she might not have become a conductor on the underground railroad. As it was, she lived in the power of vicious masters and mistresses.

One mistress made her cook and clean by day and rock the white baby at night. Should Harriet fall asleep and the baby cry, a lash was at hand. Scars on Harriet's neck proved that the whip was often used. Her health broke. She was returned to her owner, exhausted and starving. When she recovered, her master rented her to a brute who made her to lift and haul heavy burdens, flogging her if she failed. She became muscular. Later, brawny men marveled at her feats of strength.

Harriet would not have become a Moses to her people had not God been with her. Raised to fear him, she learned to call for help at any hour. Her need for divine assistance was great. When she was thirteen, an overseer cracked her skull, flinging a two pound weight at another slave. She fell into a stupor and wasted away almost to nothing. Her mother nursed her.

When she recovered, she prayed for her master. "Oh, dear Lord, change that man's heart and make him a Christian." But when she heard that she was to be sent south on a chain gang, she changed her prayer. "Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord...so he won't do no more mischief." The master died suddenly, as bad as he had lived. "Oh, then it 'peared like I would give the world full of silver and gold, if I had it, to bring that poor soul back, I would give myself; I would give everything! But he was gone, I couldn't pray for him no more."

Harriet and her brothers fled north but the frightened men turned back. Harriet went on alone. She vowed not to be taken alive. Alone, she made a solemn resolution: she would make a home for her family in the North and, by the Lord's help, bring them there.

When she had earned a little money, she slipped off to pilot slaves north. If the escaping slaves wanted to turn back, she pulled out a revolver and fiercely warned them, "Dead niggers tell no tales; you go on or die!" They went on. Nineteen times she ventured South, delivering over three hundred slaves, drugging their babies so they could not cry. A $40,000 reward was offered for her, dead or alive.

That is the Christian woman whom the post office honored on this day, February 1, 1978, with a 13¢ stamp. Harriet Tubman was the first black woman honored on American postage.

Bibliography:

1. Bradford, Sarah. Harriet Tubman, Moses of her people. New York: Corinth, 1961.
2. Brawley, Benjamin. Negro Builders and Heroes. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1937.
3. Conrad, Earl. Harriet Tubman. Washington, D. C.: The Associated Publishers, 1943.
4. "Tubman, Harriet." Dictionary of American Biography. New York : Scribner, 1958 - 1964.
5. Various internet and encyclopedia articles.

Last updated May, 2007.