Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

These chapters touch on a major cornerstone of slavery: the brutal treatment of slaves, even children, by slaveowners and the other people who rented slaves’ labor. Physical abuse is part of the slave’s life, no matter their age. Although Harriet is herself a young child, she is expected to provide constant care for an infant, even at night, and is regularly whipped by her new boss Miss Susan when she doesn’t meet expectations. In her next job, she labors outside, where she did work “that would have taxed the strength of a full-grown, able-bodied man. If she had failed in any of these back-breaking jobs, she was beaten” (49). Another aspect of this brutality is the constant anxiety and emotional torment of being separated from one’s family. While Old Rit and Ben advocate for and take care of their children, Brodas often separates them by renting Harriet’s labor to another household, where she has to live apart from her parents. Even worse, Ben and Old Rit are never sure if Brodas intends to sell them or their children to the slave trader, which would effectively separate them forever.

This physical and psychological violence is key to understanding the resistance to slavery that Petry discusses in these chapters. Tice David’s bold escape from his plantation was often discussed by Harriet and her friends, as was the mysterious way in which he seemingly disappeared from his master. They also told and retold stories about the violent insurrection led by Turner, a man born into slavery who felt that he should “lead his people of out slavery as Moses had led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt” (54). Turner’s violent insurrection captured the attention of people across America, including the enslaved people on the Brodas plantation. Tubman “knew the story as accurately and completely as though she had been an eyewitness to the event” (54). Harriet “brooded” (55) over Turner’s actions, feeling strongly that all slaves deserved freedom yet uncomfortable with his violent methods. Other slaves, however, were more sympathetic to Turner. One enslaved woman phrased her need for justice as an “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (55). The drive for freedom among slaves grows stronger as the cumulative effect of cruelty and violence takes its toll. Here, we see the impact of these incidents on Harriet, who thinks about freedom and begins to wonder about an “underground road” to get there.

Like the other happenings throughout the South, these acts of resistance are remembered and discussed by the slaves on the Brodas plantation. These conversations are themselves a kind of resistance since slaves are not allowed to “talk freely to each other” (56) or gather in groups at any time. Petry shows how discussion and storytelling helped Tubman and her community stay aware of the current events of the outer world and how these happenings may affect their own welfare and chance at freedom. Such exchanges unite the enslaved people, sometimes in hope, sometimes in fear, but this oral tradition is a key aspect of their lives. In time, the stories of slave life—the horrors, the inhumanity, the fears, the cry for freedom—will be revealed to others, especially as slaves escape and make their way northward. As a child, Harriet is the listener of these stories told quietly in the dark, but after her escape, she will be a storyteller herself, sharing the truth of her journey with sympathetic audiences in the North.