Other editions of book Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman

"Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman" is a biography of Harriet Tubman, written by Sarah Hopkins Bradford in 1869, four years after the end of the Civil War. The book describes life and adventures of Tubman, an escaped slave, who had helped many escaped slaves travel to the northern States and Canada before the Civil War, using the Underground Railroad. Bradford wrote this book, using extensive interviews with Tubman, to raise funds for Tubman's support. Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross, (c. 1822 – 1913) was an American abolitionist, humanitarian, and an armed scout and spy for the United States Army during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.Sarah Hopkins Bradford (1818 – 1912) was an American writer and historian, best known today for her two pioneering biographical books on Harriet Tubman. Bradford was one of the first Caucasian writers to deal with African-American topics, and her work attracted worldwide fame, selling very well. Contents:Scenes in the Life of Harriet TubmanSome Scenes in the Life of Harriet TubmanExtracts From a Letter Written by Mr. Sanborn, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of State CharitiesStatements Made by Martin I. Townsend, Esq., of Troy, Who Was Counsel for the Fugitive, Charles NalleEssay on Woman-whippingHarriet, The Moses of Her People

Araminta "Harriet" Ross Tubman Davis (1822-1913), best known as Harriet Tubman, was a fugitive slave whose work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad made her a legend. Born in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849 and supported herself by working in Philadelphia hotels before relocating in Canada and, later, New York. Tubman first returned to Maryland in 1850, when she helped a niece escape from Baltimore, and over the next ten years, she frequently risked her life to liberate family members and other slaves in the area. During the Civil War, Tubman worked as a nurse and a spy for the Union army in South Carolina, where she was known as General Tubman. After the war, Tubman established a retirement home for indigent African Americans and spoke at women's suffrage meetings. Sarah Hopkins Bradford (1818-1912) met Tubman's parents in a Sunday School class while visiting her brother in Auburn, New York, during the Civil War. When Tubman and her friends decided to publish Tubman's life story, Bradford was a logical choice to author the volume: she lived in nearby Geneva, New York and had already written biographies of Peter the Great and Columbus. But Bradford moved to Germany in 1868—before she had finished writing the book—leaving her printer, William J. Moses, to compile and edit Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869). As a result, Scenes is disjointed, skipping from anecdote to anecdote with little regard for chronology. Moreover, fewer than half of Scenes' pages were written by Bradford; the book republishes a variety of newspaper articles, letters and documents related to Tubman's life, including the earliest substantive biographical sketch of Tubman by Boston abolitionist Franklin Sanborn. Bradford later revised Scenes and published a more cohesive version of the biography as Harriet, the Moses of Her People (1886).Bradford presents Tubman's biography as a "plain and unvarnished account of some scenes in the life of a woman," but her narrative makes Tubman into a mythic figure, a woman with the courage of Joan of Arc, the compassion of Florence Nightingale and the spiritual insight of Moses. Tubman repeatedly risks torture by returning to slave states, volunteers as a nurse during the Civil War, and also receives spiritual guidance in dreams and visions, when "her 'spirit' leaves her body, and visits other scenes and places, not only in this world, but in the world of spirits".

In this volume the author gives us a glimpse into the remarkable life of Harriet Tubman. Born a slave, Harriet chose to seek freedom despite the risks. Not satisfied with her own freedom she decides to go back down South and free more of her people. For this she is nicknamed "Moses" and receives the accolade of a high bounty placed on her head by southern whites. In her desire to see people treated humanly, she joins the Union cause in the civil war and becomes a spy for the Union Army. The author, Sarah H. Bradford, gathered information for this book from those who knew Mrs. Tubman, as well as interviews with Mrs. Tubman herself. Originally published in 1869, it has been republished and reformatted here for its historical significance and to remind the reader of one who fought for the freedoms we have today.

Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman by Sarah H. Bradford - She drew her up to the table, saying, "What do you mean by doing my work this way, you--!" and passing her finger on the table and piano, she showed her the mark it made through the dust. "Miss Susan, I done sweep and dust jus' as you tole me." But the whip was already taken down, and the strokes were falling on head and face and neck. Four times this scene was repeated before breakfast, when, during the fifth whipping, the door opened, and "Miss Emily" came in. She was a married sister of "Miss Susan," and was making her a visit, and though brought up with the same associations as her sister, seems to have been a person of more gentle and reasonable nature. Not being able to endure the screams of the child any longer, she came in, took her sister by the arm, and said, "If you do not stop whipping that child, I will leave your house, and never come back!" Miss Susan declared that "she would not mind, and she slighted her work on purpose." Miss Emily said, "Leave her to me a few moments;" and Miss Susan left the room, indignant. As soon as they were alone, Miss Emily said: "Now, Minty, show me how you do your work." For the sixth time Harriet removed all the furniture into the middle of the room; then she swept; and the moment she had done sweeping, she took the dusting cloth to wipe off the furniture. "Now stop there," said Miss Emily; "go away now, and do some of your other work, and when it is time to dust, I will call you." When the time came she called her, and explained to her how the dust had now settled, and that if she wiped it off now, the furniture would remain bright and clean. These few words an hour or two before, would have saved Harriet her whippings for that day, as they probably did for many a day after. While with this woman, after working from early morning till late at night, she was obliged to sit up all night to rock a cross, sick child. Her mistress laid upon her bed with a whip under her pillow, and slept; but if the tired nurse forgot herself for a moment, if her weary head dropped, and her hand ceased to rock the cradle, the child would cry out, and then down would come the whip upon the neck and face of the poor weary creature. The scars are still plainly visible where the whip cut into the flesh. Perhaps her mistress was preparing her, though she did not know it then, by this enforced habit of wakefulness, for the many long nights of travel, when she was the leader and guide of the weary and hunted ones who were escaping from bondage.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Few historical figures can be more admired than Harriet Tubman. She is mythologised, idolised and made superhuman, and whilst the temptation is clear, she was really a human being, reflected in these pages. A slave, a woman, a runaway, black and poor, she fought all the odds to become a shining point in the history of emancipation. Not only was Harriet Tubman an abolitionist but she was active as an advocate for the deprived and spoke out in favour of women's suffrage. After a childhood full of violence and fear at the hands of her masters, the woman born as Araminta Ross escaped slavery. She had feared her brothers and sisters being sold away, never to be seen again, she had feared her children becoming slaves and she hoped for better. In the climate of the Southern states, decades before emancipation came for the slaves, Harriet Tubman showed unprecedented courage by not only remaining in the United States, against her best interest, but by journeying again and again into the slave states to rescue friends, family and even slaves on plantations who she had no relationship to at all. She worked as a cook, a nurse, a scout and a spy. She was even described as a general by her contemporaries in the Union army. Tubman was the very first woman to lead an armed military expedition but astounding as that is, her fight was always bigger than the war. She fought to make lives better for the downtrodden. Sarah Bradford, our author, hoped by the publication of Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman to give Harriet Tubman a modicum of comfort in her old age. Whilst Harriet is long gone, her memory is palpable in Bradford's account and is only made more so when turning the pages.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.