Harriet (Rit ) Green and Benjamin Ross gave birth to Araminta Ross but nicknamed her Minty. She was born enslaved to Edward Brodess on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Aramintas exact day of birth was undocumented and is unknown but is estimated to be in 1820
When Araminta was 12, she noticed an overseer preparing to throw a heavy weight at another enslaved person. She stepped in and the weight had hit her in the head instead. This was when others noticed her passion for justice.
This left her to live the rest of her life suffering from narcolepsy and severe migraines. The injury to her head also caused her to have, what she calls religious visions, very realistic and graphic dreams and hallucinations.
While enslaved Araminta worked as a nursemaid. She later worked as a field hand, woodcutter, and cook.
Araminta Ross became Harriet Tubman after marrying John Tubman, a free Black man, even though enslaved Black people could not legally marry at the time.
Edward Brodess died leaving his wife to pay off any remaining debt he had. This led to her having to sell slaves which included Harriet. After Harriet heard the news she knew she had to run away to prevent being sold away from her family and to escape being sold further South where conditions were more brutal and dangerous for Black enslaved people.
That day, she ran away to freedom alone leaving her husband, who refused to leave and her family behind to Pennsylvania with the help of the Underground Railroad and the usage of its connections of Black and White abolitionists, safe houses, and escape routes. The journey was 90 miles long.
Harriet was finally free and got a job in a hotel in Philadelphia where she cooked and cleaned.
Harriett grew uneasy being free without her family and knowing that they were all still enslaved. She also was notified that her niece, Kessiah Jolley, and her great niece and nephew, James Alfred and Araminta were to be sold off in an auction at a courthouse in Maryland.
With the help of members of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society and William Still who worked within the Underground Railroad as a station master. Harriet arrived in Maryland, she got help from Kessiahs husband, John who was a free man. He reduced Kessiah and their children from the auction and sailed them across the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore where Harriet waited for them to begin the journey. Harriet guided her niece and her nieces children to escape to freedom in Philadelphia. This was Harriet's first trip.
Later this year, Harriet was admitted into the Underground Railroad as a conductor. With this position, she would know all the routes leading to free land.