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Join us Every weekday morning live on our new show starting regular shows in January. Find us here and subscribe to know when we go live. We would love to have you join the conversation. https://castbox.fm/channel/id2456947 (https://castbox.fm/channel/id2456947) (https://www.deadamerica.website) Birth And Family Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross to enslaved parents, Harriet ("Rit") Green and Ben Ross. Rit was owned by Mary Pattison Brodess (and later her son Edward). Ben was held by Anthony Thompson, who became Mary Brodess's second husband, and who ran a large plantation near the Blackwater River in the Madison area of Dorchester County, Maryland. As with many slaves in the United States, neither the exact year nor place of Tubman's birth is known, and historians differ as to the best estimate. Kate Larson records the year as 1822, based on a midwife payment and several other historical documents, including her runaway advertisement,[1] while Jean Humez says "the best current evidence suggests that Tubman was born in 1820, but it might have been a year or two later".[4] Catherine Clinton notes that Tubman reported the year of her birth as 1825, while her death certificate lists 1815 and her gravestone lists 1820.[5] Map of locations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario Map showing key locations in Tubman's life Modesty, Tubman's maternal grandmother, arrived in the United States on a slave ship from Africa; no information is available about her other ancestors.[6] As a child, Tubman was told that she seemed like an Ashanti person because of her character traits, though no evidence exists to confirm or deny this lineage.[7] Her mother Rit (who may have had a white father)[7][8] was a cook for the Brodess family.[4] Her father Ben was a skilled woodsman who managed the timber work on Thompson's plantation.[7] They married around 1808 and, according to court records, had nine children together: Linah, Mariah Ritty, Soph, Robert, Minty (Harriet), Ben, Rachel, Henry, and Moses.[9] Rit struggled to keep her family together as slavery threatened to tear it apart. Edward Brodess sold three of her daughters (Linah, Mariah Ritty, and Soph), separating them from the family forever.[10] When a trader from Georgia approached Brodess about buying Rit's youngest son, Moses, she hid him for a month, aided by other slaves and free blacks in the community.[11] At one point she confronted her owner about the sale.[12] Finally, Brodess and "the Georgia man" came toward the slave quarters to seize the child, where Rit told them, "You are after my son; but the first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open."[12] Brodess backed away and abandoned the sale.[13] Tubman's biographers agree that stories told about this event within the family influenced her belief in the possibilities of resistance.[13][14] Childhood Part of a series on SlaveryIJzeren voetring voor gevangenen transparent background.pngContemporary [show] Historical [show] By country or region [show] Religion [show] Opposition and resistance [show] Related [show] vte Tubman's mother was assigned to "the big house"[15][16] and had scarce time for her family; consequently, as a child Tubman took care of a younger brother and baby, as was typical in large families.[17] When she was five or six years old, Brodess hired her out as a nursemaid to a woman named "Miss Susan". Tubman was ordered to care for the baby and rock its cradle as it slept; when it woke up and cried, she was whipped. She later recounted a particular day when she was lashed five times before breakfast. She carried the scars for the rest of her life.[18] She found ways to resist, such as running away for five days,[19] wearing layers of clothing as protection against beatings, and fighting back.[20] As a child, Tubman also worked at the home of a planter named James Cook. She had to check the muskrat traps in nearby marshes, even after contracting measles. She... Support this podcast