Harriet
Tubman
"I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight
years, and I can say what most conductors can't say; I never
ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
Meet the great Harriet Tubman
In the course of her life Harriet Tubman led hundreds of slaves to
freedom. She will forever be known as a hero, a human rights activist, and
a symbol of hope and strength. Harriet Tubman was one of the heroic
people who helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad to
freedom: Canada. She worked on the Underground Railroad, which had
nothing to do with trains and in fact it wasn’t a railroad at all - it was a
group of people who helped slaves to the North in the 1800s.
Before Harriet saved hundreds of slaves
from freedom, she was a slave herself.
Harriet was born into slavery in March 1820
in Maryland. Throughout her life she was
mistreated and beaten by many masters
whom she was hired out to. However, in 1849
Harriet Tubman escaped alone to Philadelphia,
where slavery was illegal. There she met a
group of people who were conducting the
Underground Railroad and helped them
devise plans to set slaves free. Harriet’s
determination and willingness to put her life
on the line for the freedom of others made
her one of the Railroad’s best-known conductors.
For a long time, Harriet was “wanted” and was the
subject of a search by her angry master and slave
catchers. Harriet made nineteen trips back into the
dangerous South and rescued 300 slaves. It would be
years before slavery was abolished in the United States.
When the American Civil War began, Harriet worked for
the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as
an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an
armed expedition in the war, she guided the Combahee
River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. After the
war, she retired to the family home in Auburn, New York. Later in life
Harriet became active in the women’s suffrage movement in New York until
illness overtook her. Near the end of her life, she lived in a home for elderly
African-Americans, which she had helped found years earlier.
The Underground Railroad and Freedom Quilts
The Underground Railroad was a hidden network of safe houses, trails and
people who helped slaves pass from slave states in the United States to the
free states or to Canada. Although most fugitive slaves remained in the free
states of the American North, approximately 30,000 reached Canada. The
"railroad" was in operation roughly between 1840-60, and was most effective
after the passage of the US Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which empowered
slave hunters to pursue fugitives onto free soil. The Underground Railroad had
a series of symbols that would help the slaves to freedom. One was the North
Star and the constellations that would forever be their beacons of hope and
their guides to a new life. There were also the lanterns that were placed on
the windowsills of homes deemed safe for tired slaves to rest and continue on
the railroad. Then there were the hidden clues found in music and on quilts.
Just like the songs, the freedom quilts hid secret messages that only those
who knew where to find them and how to read
them could decipher. The quilt patterns used in
a certain order relayed messages to slaves
preparing to escape. Each pattern represented
a different meaning. Some of the most
common were “Monkey Wrench”, “Star”,
“Crossroads”, and “Wagon Wheel”. Quilts slung
over a fence or windowsill, seemingly to air,
passed on the necessary information to
knowing slaves. As quilts hung out to air were
a common sight on a plantation, neither the
plantation owner nor the overseer would notice anything suspicious. There is no
written evidence that the codes in the quilts truly existed. The only evidence
known about the codes is through oral storytelling. The code of the quilts was
only discovered in 1999, informing the world how something so beautifully
crafted could also be the eternal story of freedom.
The Freedom Quilt patterns and THEIR
meanings
The Monkey Wrench
•The quilt made of the monkey wrench symbol was
the first quilt to be displayed. It was the signal for
the slaves to get ready for their escape. It was a
symbol that told them to gather their "tools". Tools
could be anything that they needed to take with
them to survive, for example compasses, weapons,
shelter, food and possibly a few coins. A monkey
wrench is used by blacksmiths to change metal. This symbol meant that it was
time for the slaves to make a change. Getting their tools ready was also a
reminder that they needed to have "mental" tools, such as being alert.
The Wagon Wheel
•The wagon wheel pattern was the second quilt to be
displayed on the fence as a signal that alerted
slaves to pack up the supplies they would need to
survive on their journey—as if they were packing up
a wagon.
Bear’s Paw
•Slaves on their journey to freedom were told to
follow the bear's trails over the Appalachian
mountain range. Bears knew routes through the
mountains and bears knew where to find water and
fish for food.
The Crossroads
•In this code, the crossroads was Cleveland, in the free
state of Ohio. Cleveland was the place where many
overland trails began, and from here travelers could
choose from 4 or 5 different paths to Canada. Travelers
may have needed to make special preparations before the
next part of the journey to Canada began.
The Log Cabin
•This part of the code may be telling the traveler to
draw a picture in the dirt for a 'Conductor' to see, or
to look for a cabin displaying a quilt with this pattern.
Shoofly
•This part of the code was telling people to look for free
blacks who knew about the Underground Railroad. Shoofly
may have been a special person who would help the
travelers to get rid of their dirty, torn and tattered old
clothes.
The Bow Ties
•Runaway slaves needed to wear new clean clothes so they
would look like the free blacks that lived in the north.
They may have been hidden in a church until it was time
for the next part of their journey.
Flying Geese
•Geese fly north in the springtime and their flight path
could tell the travelers which direction they were heading.
Drunkard’s Path
•Slave catchers from the south hunted for runaways with
tracking dogs. Drunkards walk in a crooked line, back and
forth, never in a straight line. This pattern told the
runaway slaves to zigzag on their journey to confuse the
dogs.
The Star
•The North Star was used as a navigation tool by the
fugitives and sung about in Follow the Drinking Gourd. This
pattern and "Flying Geese" are directional patterns and the
runway slaves looked to the sky for guidance.
Literacy Connections
The power of literacy can be an influential way to begin or supplement a
student’s learning experience. To help introduce Harriet Tubman and the
freedom quits to your students or even to end the lesson, here are some
engaging elementary books for your class to enjoy.
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
By: Deborah Hopkinson
Grade level: Pre-Kindergarten - 5
A young African-American girl slave stitches a quilt with a
map pattern which guides her to freedom in the North.
The Secret to Freedom
By: Marcia Vaughan
Grade level: Pre-Kindergarten - 5
Great Aunt Lucy tells a story of her days as a slave, when she
and her brother Albert, learned the quilt code to help direct
other slaves, and eventually, Albert himself, to freedom in
the north.
Under the Quilt of Night
By: Deborah Hopkinson
Grade level: Pre-Kindergarten - 5
A young girl flees from the farm where she has worked as a
slave and uses the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom
in the north.
Escape North! The Story of Harriet Tubman
By: Monica Kulling
Grade level: Pre-Kindergarten - 3
Surveys the life of Harriet Tubman, including her childhood in
slavery and her later work in helping other slaves escape north
to freedom through the Underground Railroad.