She had escaped from hell. The hell of bondage, racism, terror, degradation, back-breaking work, beatings and whippings that marked the life of a slave in the United States. Harriet Tubman ran away from her Maryland plantation and trekked, alone, nearly 90 miles to reach the free state of Pennsylvania. The treacherous journey meant travelling at night through woods and across streams, with little food, and fearing anyone who would happily send her back to her owners to collect a reward.
CHAINS THAT BIND US The Civil War saw many slaves attempt escape to fight for the Union – those who were caught suffered grave consequences
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If not for a clandestine network of routes and safe houses, organised to aid ‘fugitive slaves’ heading north, Tubman may have never made it to Philadelphia. “When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person,” she recalled of her 1849 escape. “ffere was such a glory over everything. The Sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.”