Dangerous Missions

This is the final episode of a three part series dealing with Harriet Tubman.  This episode begins with Tubman working for the Union forces, tending to newly liberated people, scouting into Confederate territory, and nursing wounded soldiers in Virginia.  This episode ends with a comparison of the achievements of Tubman and Frederick Douglass, as well as a comparison of (surprise, surprise!) Tubman and Edgar Allan Poe.

Transcript

Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 223 - Dangerous Missions - This is the final episode of a three part series dealing with Harriett Tubman.

Now Tubman had actually received very little pay for her Union military service. She was not a regular soldier and was only occasionally compensated for her work as a spy and scout; her work as a nurse was entirely unpaid. For over three years of service, she received a total of $200 (equivalent to approximately 4,000 dollars in today’s money.) Her unofficial status caused great difficulty in documenting her service, and the U.S. government was slow to recognize any debt to her. Meanwhile, her humanitarian work for her family and the formerly enslaved - she could be incredibly generous -  kept her in a state of constant poverty.

When a promised appointment to an official military nursing position fell through in July 1865, Tubman decided to return to her home in New York. During a train ride to New York in October 1865, Tubman traveled on a half-fare ticket provided to her because of her service. A conductor told her to move from a regular passenger car into the less-desirable smoking car. When she refused, he cursed at her and grabbed her. She resisted, and he summoned additional men for help. They muscled her into the smoking car, injuring her in the process. As these events transpired, white passengers cursed Tubman and told the conductor to kick her off the train.

Tubman spent her remaining years in Auburn, tending to her family and other people in need. In addition to managing her farm, she took in boarders and worked various jobs to pay the bills and support her elderly parents. One of the people Tubman took in was a farmer named Nelson Davis. Born enslaved in North Carolina, he had served as a private in the 8th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. He began working in Auburn as a bricklayer, and they soon fell in love. Though he was 22 years younger than she was, on March 18, 1869, they were married at the Central Presbyterian Church.They adopted a baby girl named Gertie in 1874.

Meanwhile, Tubman’s friends and supporters from the days of abolition, began to raise funds to support her. One admirer, Sarah Hopkins Bradford, wrote an authorized biography entitled Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. The 132-page volume was published in 1869 and brought Tubman some $1,200 in income (equivalent to approximately $31,000 dollars today.  Even with this assistance, paying off the mortgage on her farm in May 1873 exhausted Tubman's savings. That October, she fell prey to swindlers. Two black men claimed to know a former slave who had a trunk of gold coins smuggled out of South Carolina, which they would sell for cash at less than half the coins' value. She knew white people in the South had buried valuables when Union forces threatened the region, and black men were frequently assigned to digging duties, so the claim seemed plausible to her.She borrowed money from a wealthy friend and arranged to receive the gold late one night. Once the men had lured her into the woods, they knocked her out with chloroform and stole her purse. Tubman was found dazed and injured; the trunk was filled with rocks.

The crime brought new attention from local leaders to Tubman's precarious financial state and spurred renewed efforts to get compensation for her Civil War service.  In 1874, Representatives Clinton D. MacDougall of New York and Gerry W. Hazelton of Wisconsin introduced a bill to pay Tubman a $2,000 (equivalent to $52,000 dollars today) lump sum "for services rendered by her to the Union Army as scout, nurse, and spy",but it was defeated in the Senate.  In February 1880, Tubman's wood-framed house burned down, but with the help of her supporters it was quickly replaced with a new brick home.

Nelson Davis died of tuberculosis on October 14, 1888, and The Dependent and Disability Pension Act of 1890 made Tubman eligible for a pension as his widow. After she documented her marriage and her husband's service record to the satisfaction of the Bureau of Pensions, in 1895 Tubman was granted a monthly widow's pension of $8 (equivalent to $300 today), plus a lump sum of $500 to cover the five-year delay in approval. In December 1897, New York Congressman Sereno E. Payne introduced a bill to grant Tubman a soldier's monthly pension of $25 (equivalent to approximately $880 today). Although Congress received documents and letters to support Tubman's claims, some members objected to a woman being paid a full soldier's pension. In February 1899, Congress approved a compromise amount of $20 (equivalent to $800 in today) per month (the $8 from her widow's pension plus $12 for her service as a nurse), but did not acknowledge her as a scout and spy.

In her later years, Tubman worked to promote the cause of women's suffrage. She traveled to New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., to speak in favor of women's voting rights. She described her actions during and after the Civil War, and used the sacrifices of countless women throughout modern history as evidence of women's equality to men.] When the National Federation of Afro-American Women was founded in 1896, Tubman was the keynote speaker at its first meeting.

This wave of activism kindled a new wave of admiration for Tubman among the press in the United States. A publication called The Woman's Era launched a series of articles on "Eminent Women" with a profile of Tubman. An 1897 suffragist newspaper reported a series of receptions in Boston honoring Tubman and her lifetime of service to the nation. However, her endless contributions to others had left her in poverty, and she had to sell a cow to buy a train ticket to these celebrations.

In the 1870s, Harriet Tubman became active in the Thompson Memorial African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church in Auburn. Ever the activist, she began discussions with AME Zion leaders and others to create a Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged that would care for "indigent colored people”. Despite her financial limitations, in 1896 Tubman bid $1215 (equivalent to almost 50,000 dollars today) at auction for a 25-acre farm adjacent to the one she already owned, to use for the new facility.

The home did not open for another five years, and Tubman was dismayed when the church ordered residents to pay a $100 entrance fee (equivalent to almost 4,000 dollars today. She said: "[T]hey make a rule that nobody should come in without they have a hundred dollars. Now I wanted to make a rule that nobody should come in unless they didn't have no money at all.” She was frustrated by the new rule but was the guest of honor nonetheless when the home celebrated its opening on June 23, 1908.

As Tubman aged, her childhood head trauma continued to trouble her. Unable to sleep because of pain and "buzzing" in her head, in the late 1890s she asked a doctor at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital to operate. In her words, he "sawed open my skull, and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable”. She reportedly received no anesthesia and instead bit down on a bullet, as she had seen Civil War soldiers do when their limbs were amputated.

By 1911, Tubman's body was so frail that she was admitted into the rest home named in her honor. A New York newspaper described her as "ill and penniless", prompting supporters to offer a new round of donations. Surrounded by friends and family members, she died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913. Just before she died, she quoted the Gospel of John to those in the room: "I go away to prepare a place for you.” Tubman was buried with semi-military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.

To end this section of episodes dealing with Black History month, I would like to compare Harriett Tubman and Frederick Douglass - a comparison that I think really helps to understand these two great Americans in perspective.

As you may remember from earlier episodes this month, Douglass was also born a slave.  He escaped bondage at the age of 21. Douglas fled from Maryland to Massachusetts where he began to teach himself how to read and write. He went on to become a renowned orator and writer. Douglass used his powerful words to reach many prominent people on the issues with slavery. When he could, he spoke out against slavery at several events and became the spokesperson for the anti-slavery movement.

Tubman could not afford to be as outspoken as Douglass, yet her mission was just as important and dangerous. Tubman operated secretly and in the shadows, since her missions could be compromised at any time. Douglass was impressed with the work of Harriet Tubman, a fugitive slave who could not read nor write, and took great risks to rescue hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad. Tubman made as many as 19 trips to the south and led over 300 slaves to freedom.

When a biography of Tubman, referred to as the “Moses of Her People,” was written in 1868, Tubman asked Douglass for an endorsement. One very important aspect she pointed out to Douglass was that “she never lost a single passenger” on her trips. Douglass replied with the following

Rochester,  August  29,  1868. 

Dear  Harriet  :  I  am  glad  to  know  that  the  story of  your  eventful  life  has  been  written  by  a  kind  lady,  and that  the  same  is  soon  to  be  published.  You  ask  for  what you  do  not  need  when  you  call  upon  me  for  a  word  of commendation.  I  need  such  words  from  you  far  more than  you  can  need  them  from  me,  especially  where  your 

superior  labors  and  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  lately enslaved  of  our  land  are  known  as  I  know  them.  The difference  between  us  is  very  marked.  

Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day – you in the night. ... The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.

Your friend,
Frederick Douglass
In other words, both Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman dedicated their lives to ending slavery and achieving racial justice. Both Frederick Douglas and Harriet Tubman faced immense hardships due to slavery, including separation from family, physical abuse, and constant fear.  And both individuals left a lasting impact on American history, inspiring generations with their courage, resilience, and commitment to freedom.
Harriet Tubman’s approach was to use direct action as a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom on dangerous missions, while Frederick Douglass, as a public intellectual and abolitionist leader, used powerful speeches, writings, and political organizing to fight slavery.

Harriet Tubman was enslaved from birth, escaped in her 20s, and was illiterate.  Frederick Douglass ecaped slavery in his teens, was self-educated, and became a prominent voice in the public abolitionist movement.

Even though Tubman and Douglass basically had the same aim, perhaps their biggest difference was that Tubman worked largely in secret, and was known mainly in the Underground Railroad network.  

Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, was a well-known figure through speeches, publications, and even international tours.   He would tend to influence public opinion and policy change.

And for those of you who know me, I couldn’t end this episode series without a brief comparison of Harriett Tubman and Edgar Allan Poe -

You could start by saying that there was a Baltimore connection, because both lived in Baltimore during a pivotal period in the city's history, marked by social tension and significant events like the Civil War.
And though Harriet Tubman and Edgar Poe had vastly different approaches, both grappled with the social issues of their time. Poe's works often explored themes of death, decay, and societal anxieties, while Tubman directly confronted the realities of slavery and fought for freedom.

Both continue to be influential figures, inspiring generations with their unique contributions to American history and culture.

Their backgrounds and experiences were vastly different. Poe, a white male from a prominent family, navigated the literary world, while Tubman, an enslaved woman who later became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, fought for survival and freedom.

Not surprisingly, their forms of expression and impact differed greatly. Poe used his writing to explore philosophical and psychological themes, while Tubman's actions directly impacted countless lives through her work on the Underground Railroad and during the Civil War.

Both figures showed a unique relationship to power.  It could be argued that 
Poe's works often reflected on anxieties and societal power structures, but he did not actively challenge them. In contrast, Tubman directly defied the power structure of slavery through her actions and leadership.

But perhaps most importantly, both have established influential legacies that have been interpreted and reinterpreted over time, reflecting changing  understandings of race, gender, and American culture,

Well, it looks like the episodes for Black History Month episodes are drawing to a close.  Join Celebrate Poe for an episode originally planned for earlier this year  - Revisited Encounter - an episode that harks back to the very first episodes of this podcast and introduces the character of the Ghost of Edgar Poe - Revisited Encounter is an episode that I am really proud of and sets the stage for what this podcast is all about.

Sources include: Harriet: The Moses of Her People by Sarah H. Bradford and Chat GPT.

Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.