Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins) Bradford · Public domain edition · 82 cards · 22 chapters
Sarah Bradford’s 1869 memoir presents Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad rescues and Civil War service as evidence of extraordinary courage and faith. This deck covers the book’s preface, Tubman’s enslaved early life, her escape, and the practical methods behind her rescue missions.
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Chapter 1 · Question
Why was this memoir of Harriet Tubman written and published?
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Chapter 1 · Answer
The introduction states the story was written to furnish help to Tubman, since her wartime services and sufferings were thought by many to justify a government pension. When procuring such relief proved difficult, this book was suggested instead. Its hope was that purchasers would secure a small fund for her relief, and subscriptions covered the entire cost of publication.
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Section 14 cards
Why was this memoir of Harriet Tubman written and published?
The introduction states the story was written to furnish help to Tubman, since her wartime services and sufferings were thought by many to justify a government pension. When procuring such relief proved difficult, this book was suggested instead. Its hope was that purchasers would secure a small fund for her relief, and subscriptions covered the entire cost of publication.
Chapter 1
How does the preface describe Tubman's achievements and compare her to other women?
The preface says her name deserves to be handed down beside Joan of Arc, Grace Darling, and Florence Nightingale, arguing none of them showed more courage and endurance in facing danger and death to relieve suffering than she did in leading her oppressed race from bondage to liberty. It notes she was called "Moses" as a leader and deliverer unto hundreds.
Chapter 1
What does the preface say about Tubman's later labors and the purpose of the funds?
Worn down by sufferings and fatigues, with her health permanently affected by cruelties she endured, she was still laboring to support her aged parents and her afflicted people, herself supporting two schools for Freedmen at the South and supplying clothes and books. The book aimed to aid her parents and secure the little home they risked losing from inability to pay the full amount due.
Chapter 1
How does the preface address skeptics and the reliability of Harriet's statements?
The author acknowledges some will sneer at the "quixotic attempt" to make a heroine of a black woman and a slave, suggesting such critics lack capacity to comprehend self-sacrificing devotion. She says much was left out because it could not be corroborated by others' testimony, but whenever witnesses could be found, Harriet's statements were corroborated in every particular.
Chapter 1
Section 24 cards
What names was Harriet Tubman known by, and why?
The chapter says she was known as "Moses," alluding to her leading her people out of bondage; "the Conductor of the Underground Railroad"; and "Moll Pitcher," for the energy and daring by which she delivered a fugitive slave about to be dragged back South. Her name at the South was Araminta, shortened to "Minty."
Chapter 2
How does the chapter describe Harriet's first master and her hiring out?
The chapter says her own master was represented as never unnecessarily cruel, but, as was common among slaveholders, he often hired out his slaves to others, some of whom proved tyrannical and brutal to the utmost limit of their power. The first person she was hired to was "Miss Susan," who provided liberally for food and clothing but believed slaves worked only under the whip.
Chapter 2
Why was Harriet whipped repeatedly while doing housework for Miss Susan?
Taken from field work and untrained in housework, Harriet moved furniture, swept, then dusted immediately, so dust settled back on the furniture. Miss Susan whipped her four times before breakfast and a fifth time, until her visiting sister Miss Emily intervened, threatening to leave. Miss Emily then explained that dust must settle before it is wiped off.
Chapter 2
How does Frederick Douglass contrast his public work with Harriet's?
Douglass writes that most of his service was public and encouraged at every step, while Harriet labored privately: "I have wrought in the day—you in the night." He says her reward was the "God bless you" of trembling, foot-sore bondmen she led out of bondage, and that excepting John Brown he knows no one who willingly encountered more perils for enslaved people.
Chapter 2
Section 32 cards
How did Harriet's prayer for her master change, and why?
From Christmas until March she prayed all night that God would convert her master and change his heart. When she learned she and her siblings were to be sold with the chain-gang to the cotton and rice fields, she changed her prayer on the first of March, asking God to kill him if he would never change. He died soon after, and she said she would have given all the world's gold to bring him back, but could not pray for him longer.
Chapter 3
Why was Harriet dissatisfied with the master's will, and how did her husband respond to her fears?
The will provided that none of the slaves should be sold out of the State, which satisfied most of them. Harriet was not satisfied; she imagined horsemen coming and heard screams of women and children dragged away. Her husband, a free negro, did not trouble himself about her fears, did his best to betray her and bring her back after she escaped, called her a fool, and compared her to old Cudjo, who laughed half an hour late.
Chapter 3
Section 44 cards
How did Harriet Tubman describe her feelings upon crossing the line into freedom?
She said she looked at her hands to see if she was the same person, that such a glory was over everything, the sun came like gold through the trees and fields, and she felt like she was in Heaven. But she also felt like a man freed after twenty-five years in State Prison who finds his old home gone and no one to welcome him.
Chapter 4
Why did Tubman's rescue parties always start on Saturday night?
Because advertisements could not be sent out on Sunday, which gave the party one day in advance of the pursuers. After they started, advertisements would be posted everywhere, including one reward of $12,000 offered for the head of the woman who was constantly enticing away parties of slaves.
Chapter 4
Why did Tubman refuse to see the stage play of Uncle Tom's Cabin?
She said she had no heart to see the sufferings of her people played on the stage. She had heard the book read and told the person that Mrs. Stowe's pen had not begun to paint what slavery was as she had seen it in the far South. She had seen the real thing and did not want to see it on any stage or in any theater.
Chapter 4
What creed did Tubman state about death or liberty?
She said there were two things she had a right to, Death or Liberty, and she meant to have one or the other. No one would take her back alive; she would fight for her liberty, and when the time came for her to go, the Lord would let them kill her. Acting on this creed, she went back and forth nineteen times according to her friends' reckoning.
Chapter 4
Section 53 cards
How did Harriet Tubman signal her concealed party that it was safe to come out?
She sang a hymn, and the party listened for the words to learn whether there was danger or safety. The first time she sang it they did not come out until she checked that the coast was clear; when she sang it again, they emerged. A different song, beginning "Moses go down in Egypt," warned of danger in the way.
Chapter 5
What did Tubman do when exhausted or frightened fugitives refused to keep going?
Some declared they must stop and die, and others insisted on returning to slavery rather than be caught. Harriet carried a revolver and pointed it at their heads, saying "Dead niggers tell no tales" and "Go on or die," compelling them to continue the northward journey. The chapter presents this as her only remedy in such cases.
Chapter 5
Why was Joe whipped by his new master, and what did he do afterward?
Joe had worked faithfully for six years and was bought for a thousand dollars down plus another thousand promised. His new master ordered him whipped so he would learn the master's authority, saying he would go on until he killed them if they resisted. Joe submitted, said "Dis is de last!" and that night went to Harriet's father's cabin, asking to be told when Moses came.
Chapter 5
Section 64 cards
How did Thomas Garrett smuggle the fugitives past the guards at Wilmington Bridge?
Garrett hired two wagons and filled them with paid bricklayers, who crossed the bridge singing and shouting as if on a frolic. After nightfall the wagons returned with the fugitives hidden on the bottom and the bricklayers still on the seats, singing. The guards, expecting the wagons to re-cross, were unsuspicious, and the party reached New York.
Chapter 6
What rewards were posted for the fugitives, and how did Joe react to hearing his own price in New York?
Rewards began at five hundred dollars for Joe, rising to a thousand and then fifteen hundred with expenses for his body in Easton Jail; eight hundred for William, four hundred for Peter, and twelve thousand for the woman who enticed them away. When Mr. Johnson joked about Joe's fifteen-hundred-dollar head, Joe's heart sank, fearing danger still, and he fell silent.
Chapter 6
How did Harriet Tubman know the party had crossed into freedom, and how did Joe respond?
Harriet recognized the rise at the center of the Suspension Bridge and the descent on the other side, meaning they had crossed the line. She shook Joe and shouted that he was free. Joe raised his hands, wept, and sang "Glory to God and Jesus too, One more soul got safe," ignoring Harriet's invitation to see the Falls.
Chapter 6
How does the chapter describe Thomas Garrett and his role in aiding fugitives?
Thomas Garrett of Wilmington is described as a Quaker and a man of a wonderfully large and generous heart, through whose hands Harriet says two thousand self-emancipated slaves passed on their way to freedom. He was always ready with heart, hand, and means to aid fugitives, and rendered efficient help to Harriet on many of her journeys.
Chapter 6
Section 74 cards
How did Harriet Tubman explain her fearlessness in returning South with a price on her head?
Harriet answers that it was not her but "de Lord": she told him she trusted him, did not know where to go or what to do, but expected him to lead her, and he always did. The author presents this as Harriet's own explanation of her confidence despite the added reward and threats of torture and death.
Chapter 7
What argument did Harriet use from John's vision of the twelve gates to justify going South?
When friends begged her not to go directly into danger, Harriet reasoned that John saw twelve gates: three on the north, three on the east, three on the west, but three on the South too. So if they killed her down there, she reckoned she would get into one of those gates. The author says we need not doubt the deduction her faith drew.
Chapter 7
How did Harriet Tubman support herself while nursing soldiers and contrabands?
She worked in the hospital from early morning until late at night, bathing wounds and driving off flies with ice water that turned red as blood. Then she went home to her cabin and made about fifty pies, ginger-bread, and two casks of root beer, hiring a contraband to sell them through the camps. She never received pay or pension and drew only twenty days' rations in four years.
Chapter 7
What was Harriet Tubman's role on the Combahee River expedition under Col. Montgomery?
Gen. Hunter asked her to accompany gun-boats up the Combahee to take up torpedoes, destroy railroads and bridges, and cut off rebel supplies. She agreed on condition that Col. Montgomery, one of John Brown's men, command it. She went with several men under her, chiefly J. Plowden. Her value was that frightened negroes would tell her anything, so she could control and get information from guides.
Chapter 7
Section 84 cards
How did Harriet Tubman use a song during the Combahee expedition evacuation?
When freed people crowded the small boats and would not let go, Col. Montgomery called from the upper deck, "Moses, you'll have to give 'em a song." Harriet sang a verse praising the Yankee nation and promising Uncle Sam would give them farms. At each verse's end the people threw up their hands and shouted "Glory," and the rowboats used that moment to push off.
Chapter 8
What roles did the chapter say Harriet Tubman performed for the Union cause?
The chapter states she was often sent into the rebel lines as a spy, bringing back valuable information about the position of armies and batteries. It also says she was in battle when shot fell like hail and dead and wounded men dropped around her like leaves in autumn. The author says fear never had a place in her mind; she had her duty and expected to be taken care of until it was done.
Chapter 8
Why did the slaves hold night funerals, and what did Harriet describe at one?
The chapter says slaves were never allowed to bury their dead in the daytime and continued the custom of night funerals from habit. Harriet described a midnight funeral lit by pine torches: the corpse in a rude box on the ground, an old preacher's sermon repeating "Ded-a-de-dah" and warning that Death would find everyone, then a "spiritual shuffle" dance, handshaking, and a procession singing to the burial place.
Chapter 8
How did the old man at Hilton Head describe the Union shelling and his freedom?
He said he had worked seventy-three years for his master without a dime of wages, whipped and starved, always praying for deliverance. He described seeing a big cloud overhead with thunder and lightning, then a big house in the water sending out great eggs: good eggs flew into the fort, bad eggs burst before reaching it. The Sesh Buckra ran and died in the swamp, and he praised the Lord that he was free.
Chapter 8
Section 93 cards
Why did the conductor and men throw Harriet into the baggage-car?
On the Amboy Railroad, Harriet bought a half-fare ticket and rode an emigrant train. The conductor said the railroad did not carry Black passengers for half-fare and, with three men, forcibly removed her. Harriet explained she was in Government employ and entitled to transportation like soldiers, but no one in the crowded car took her part.
Chapter 9
Why did Harriet not sue the railroad company over her injuries?
Harriet remained in New York all winter under a physician's care, and he advised her to sue and offered to testify about her injuries. A young man had also offered to serve as a witness, but he gave her only a visiting card, and she did not know where to find him. So she let the matter go.
Chapter 9
What happened after Old Ben was betrayed and arrested?
A slave Old Ben had assisted turned back and told his wife of the intended escape and Old Ben's aid. She revealed it to her master to curry favor, and Old Ben was arrested, to be tried the next week. Harriet appeared, said she 'saved dem de expense ob de trial,' and removed her father to Canada.
Chapter 9
Section 104 cards
According to Thomas Garrett, how many people did Harriet Tubman bring from Maryland, and over what years?
Garrett states he cannot give the exact date her labors began, but thinks it was about 1845. From that time until 1860, he believes she brought from 60 to 80 persons from the neighborhood where she had been held as a slave, from Maryland, some 80 miles from his location. He also notes that no slave placed under her care was ever arrested that he had heard of.
Chapter 10
How did Tubman get her aged parents north, and what did Garrett do afterward?
She used an old horse and a rude vehicle: a straw collar, a pair of old chaise wheels with a board on the axle to sit on, and another board swung with ropes for their feet. She got her parents, slaves of different masters, onto this vehicle, reached the railroad, put them in the cars, and drove to town. Garrett then furnished money to take them to Canada, later sold the horse, and sent the proceeds.
Chapter 10
What did Mr. Sanborn say about the truthfulness and abilities of Harriet Tubman?
Sanborn writes that he never had reason to doubt what Harriet said about her own career, finding her singularly truthful, though her imagination was warm and rich with a region of the marvelous. He notes she could neither read nor write and was of pure or almost pure negro blood, yet accomplished what can scarcely be credited, with coolness, foresight, patience, and wisdom that in a white man would have raised him to the highest reputation.
Chapter 10
What did Garrett find remarkable about Tubman's claims that God told her he had money for her?
Garrett recounts that she said God told her he had money for her, and the amount she named matched money he had received for her from Europe. He calls it remarkable, saying whether it was clairvoyance or divine impression he cannot tell, but certain she had a guide within herself other than the written word, since she never had any education.
Chapter 10
Section 113 cards
How did Harriet disguise the true meaning of her letter to Jacob Jackson?
Harriet signed the letter with the name of Jacob's free adopted son, William Henry Jackson, who had gone South. Knowing Jacob would grasp her peculiar phraseology, she spoke of indifferent matters, then urged him to tell her brothers to be always watching unto prayer and to be ready to step aboard the good old ship of Zion. The white inspectors could not decipher it, but Jacob understood at once.
Chapter 11
Why did John initially fail to leave with the others?
John was almost ready to start when his wife was taken ill and gave birth. He went for a Granny and would not leave his wife in her circumstances. He tried repeatedly to steal out, but a watchful eye kept asking where he was going. Hearing her sob, he returned, then finally fled at full speed and overtook the others at daybreak in the fodder house.
Chapter 11
Why did Harriet and her brothers hide from their mother near the cabin?
They did not dare let the old woman know they were nearby, because she would have raised such an uproar trying to detain them that the whole plantation would be alarmed. She had prepared a Christmas feast and kept watching the road for her children, while they lay hidden among the ears of corn in the fodder house, where their father secretly brought provisions without looking at them.
Chapter 11
Section 124 cards
How did Old Ben avoid revealing the fugitives' route to pursuers?
Before parting, the old man was blindfolded with a handkerchief, and two of his sons led him by each arm some miles along the road. After the farewells, he was left standing blindfolded in the middle of the road; once he could no longer hear their footsteps, he removed the handkerchief and turned back, so he could not disclose the direction they took.
Chapter 12
How did Catherine escape, and what became of her and William Henry?
William Henry, attached to Catherine but refused permission to marry her by her master, bought a suit of men's clothes and left them over her master's garden fence. Catherine dressed as a man at the foot of the garden, walked past the searching girls unrecognized, and left by the gate. Within a fortnight the whole party was safe in Canada. William Henry died there; the writer later met Catherine.
Chapter 12
What services does Gen. Saxton say Harriet Tubman performed for the Union Army?
In his 1868 letter, Gen. Rufus Saxton writes that he can bear witness to the value of her services in South Carolina and Florida. She was employed in the hospitals and as a spy, made many raids inside enemy lines, and displayed remarkable courage, zeal, and fidelity. He states she was employed by General Hunter, and he thinks by Generals Stevens and Sherman, and deserves a pension.
Chapter 12
How do Seward, Montgomery, Baird, and Smith describe Tubman in their letters?
Seward calls her a nobler, higher spirit seldom dwelling in human form and commends her to Gen. Hunter. Col. Montgomery calls her a most remarkable woman, invaluable as a scout. Mrs. Gen. Baird commends her faithful hospital and other services and cites the Gerrit Smith family's esteem. Gerrit Smith praises her philanthropy, self-denial, bravery, discernment, and judgment, and argues the country should pay such a servant well.
Chapter 12
Section 134 cards
Who certified Harriet Tubman's kindness to the sick in 1864?
Henry K. Durrant, Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A., in charge of the "Contraband" Hospital at Beaufort, S. C., certified on May 3, 1864, that after nearly two years' acquaintance he had ample opportunity to observe her deportment, particularly her kindness and attention to the sick and suffering of her own race. Brig.-Gen. R. Saxton concurred fully in the above.
Chapter 13
What did Gen. Hunter's February 1863 pass grant Harriet Tubman?
Maj.-Gen. D. Hunter's pass, dated Hilton Head, Feb. 19, 1863, allowed Harriet to go to Beaufort and back and wherever she wished, with free passage at all times on all Government transports. It noted she was sent from Boston by Gov. Andrew of Massachusetts, called her a valuable woman, and permitted her, as a servant of the Government, to purchase provisions from the Commissary. Gen. Gillman later signed it, continued in force July 1, 1863.
Chapter 13
What injury did Harriet suffer as a field hand, and with what lasting effect?
According to the Boston Commonwealth account, while hired out as a field hand in her teens, Harriet blocked a doorway to stop an overseer pursuing a fugitive slave. The overseer threw a two-pound weight from a store counter; it fell short and struck her a stunning blow on the head. She was long recovering, and afterward was subject to a stupor or lethargy, falling into deep slumber even mid-conversation, then rousing and continuing.
Chapter 13
What did Surgeon-General Barnes write regarding Harriet's appointment?
V. K. Barnes, Surgeon-General, wrote to Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, informing him that the Medical Director of the Department of Virginia had been instructed to appoint Harriet Tubman nurse or matron at the Colored Hospital, Fort Monroe, Va. The chapter presents this under the heading "Appointment as Nurse," among other wartime passes and documents.
Chapter 13
Section 144 cards
How did Harriet Tubman earn money while 'hiring her time' from John Stewart?
She performed the rudest labors—driving oxen, carting, plowing, and doing all the work of a man. Sometimes she earned enough beyond what she paid her master to buy a pair of steers worth forty dollars. The amount exacted for a woman's time was fifty or sixty dollars, versus one hundred to one hundred fifty for a man.
Chapter 14
Why did Tubman flee slavery in 1849, and where did she go?
In 1849 the young man (her master) died, and the slaves were to be sold, though previously set free by an old will. Harriet resolved not to be sold. With no knowledge of the North beyond hearing of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, she walked away one night alone, found help from a white lady, and after many adventures reached Philadelphia.
Chapter 14
What happened when Tubman returned to Maryland for her husband?
About two years after her escape, she traveled back with money earned in Philadelphia, but found John Tubman married to another woman and no longer caring to live with her. She did not give way to rage or grief; instead she collected a party of fugitives and brought them safely to Philadelphia.
Chapter 14
Why did Tubman take fugitives to Canada in December 1851?
This was after the enforcement of Mason's Fugitive Slave Bill in Philadelphia and Boston, so there was no safety except 'under the paw of the British Lion,' as she said. The first winter was terribly severe: they earned bread by chopping wood in Canadian snows, were frost-bitten, hungry, and naked, and Harriet kept house and cared for them.
Chapter 14
Section 154 cards
What did Captain Brown reportedly say about 'General Tubman' as an officer?
The chapter states Brown always spoke of her with the greatest respect, declaring that 'General Tubman,' as he styled her, was a better officer than most he had seen and could command an army as successfully as she had led her small parties of fugitives. It also says he is supposed to have communicated his plans to her and been aided by her in obtaining recruits and money among her people.
Chapter 15
How did Tubman's recurring dream of three heads relate to Harper's Ferry?
She dreamed of a serpent whose head became an old man with a long white beard, joined by two younger heads, all struck down by a crowd. She later recognized Captain Brown as the old man's image, but only after the Harper's Ferry tragedy did she understand the two other heads were his two sons. On the day of the affair in New York she felt her usual warning and predicted bad news from Brown.
Chapter 15
What difficulty met Tubman in New York after bringing seven fugitives in December 1860?
It was the period the chapter calls the mad winter of compromises, when states and politicians begged the South not to secede and the hunting of fugitive slaves resumed. Mr. Seward went over to the side of compromise; though the chapter calls the suspicion unworthy, so little confidence was felt in him that men hurried Harriet off to Canada, sorely against her will.
Chapter 15
Why did Tubman want a bloomer dress, and what did she report about the Combahee expedition?
In her dictated letter she asks for a coarse, strong bloomer to wear on expeditions, because on the Combahee River she carried two pigs for a sick woman, ran at 'double quick,' stepped on her long dress, fell and tore it to shreds. She reports the expedition brought away 756 head of valuable live stock, 'contrabands,' with no loss of life on their part, and that nearly all able-bodied men among them joined the colored regiments.
Chapter 15
Section 164 cards
What work kept Harriet Tubman from returning to her aging parents?
In her letter, Tubman says she has been absent almost two years and that her father and mother in Auburn are old and in feeble health. Yet she cannot leave the important work before her, including looking after the hospital for contrabands. Many arrivals from the mainland are destitute, almost naked, and she seeks places for those able to work so they earn their own living and lighten the Government's burden.
Chapter 16
How did Harriet Tubman help rescue Charles Nalle at Troy in 1860?
Hearing Nalle was captured, Tubman forced through the crowd to the Commissioner's office and held her place on the stairs. She sent boys to cry fire, swelling the crowd. When Nalle was brought out, she seized officers, kept hold of him, tied her sun-bonnet on his head so the master looked like the slave, and helped drag him to the river and into a boat.
Chapter 16
What happened to Charles Nalle after he was ferried across the river?
The telegraph was ahead of them, and on landing Nalle was seized and hurried from Tubman's sight. School children told her he was in a house's third story. Men were trying to climb the stairs while officers fired down, and two men lay shot on the stairs. Tubman rushed over their bodies, helped burst open the door, carried the fugitive downstairs, and he was driven rapidly to Schenectady.
Chapter 16
How was Harriet Tubman's account of the Troy rescue verified?
The chapter says this is the story Harriet told the writer. Some people found it too wonderful for belief, so an attempt was made to corroborate it. Rev. Henry Fowler volunteered to go from Saratoga to Troy and ascertain the facts. He had a long interview with Mr. Townsend, counsel for the slave, who gave a rich narration. But Fowler was stricken by the heat of the sun before writing it out.
Chapter 16
Section 174 cards
Who was Charles Nalle and how was he arrested in Troy?
Nalle was a fugitive from B. W. Hansborough's plantation in Culpepper County, Virginia, escaping October 19, 1858. While employed as coachman by Uri Gilbert in Troy, he was arrested by Deputy U.S. Marshal J. W. Holmes while fetching bread and taken before Commissioner Miles Beach, who remanded him to Virginia.
Chapter 17
How did H. F. Averill contribute to Nalle's capture?
Averill, formerly connected with a Troy paper, had often seen Nalle at Sandlake. He wrote letters for Nalle, learned his history, and communicated with the reputed owner in Virginia, giving information that revealed the fugitive's whereabouts. Hansborough then sent agent Henry J. Wall to obtain the papers for arrest.
Chapter 17
What legal step did Martin I. Townsend take for Nalle?
Arriving after Commissioner Beach had already decided to remand Nalle, Townsend went before Judge Gould of the Supreme Court and procured a writ of habeas corpus, returnable immediately. Deputy Sheriff Nathaniel Upham served it on Holmes, and the officers then moved to take Nalle before Judge Gould.
Chapter 17
How did the crowd react as officers moved Nalle to Judge Gould?
An old negro at the stairs shouted "Here they come," and the crowd rushed the party. The two-block route became a battle: pulling, hauling, and fist fighting, with pistols drawn and chisels used. Officers including Upham were hurt, and some in the crowd were injured, though the Whig marveled none were badly hurt.
Chapter 17
Section 184 cards
How did Harriet Tubman help Charles Nalle during his rescue in Troy?
The chapter says Tubman rushed from the crowd, wrapped one arm around Nalle's manacled arm, and held on without loosening through the more than half-hour struggle to Judge Gould's office and then to the dock. She was repeatedly beaten over the head with policemen's clubs but never released her hold, cheering Nalle and his friends until the officers were worn out.
Chapter 18
How was Nalle finally freed from the West Troy office?
After Nalle was locked in Justice Stewart's office guarded by Officers Becker, Brown and Morrison, a crowd crossed on the steam ferry. Men went upstairs, stones were thrown, and officers fired pistols aimed high. A large Black man pulled the door open and was felled by Deputy-Sheriff Morrison's hatchet, but his body kept the door from closing. Harriet Tubman and other colored women rushed over the fallen men, brought Nalle out, and started him west.
Chapter 18
Why were Nalle and his brother-in-law separated from their wives under Virginia law?
Nalle's wife was the daughter of her master and was manumitted with her children by his will, but the estate could not purchase the husbands' freedom. The manumitted family members were then forced to leave the State while the enslaved husbands remained. Nalle and his brother-in-law were eventually ordered to take new wives and forbidden to visit their former ones, after which they fled north.
Chapter 18
What does the chapter say about Tubman's circumstances and charity at the time of writing?
The author states that Tubman is poor and partially disabled from her injuries, yet cheerfully supports herself and her old parents and houses several poor children dependent on her exertions. The chapter says she then provided for three such children and maintained two schools of freedmen at the South by her exertions among the people of Auburn, sending teachers, clothes and books. She asks charity only for 'her people.'
Chapter 18
Section 194 cards
What did the lawyer find when searching for the will of Harriet's mother's first master?
Harriet paid a lawyer $5 to search in Maryland. He looked back sixty-five years and found the will giving the girl Ritty to his granddaughter Mary Patterson, to serve her and her offspring until age forty-five. The granddaughter died unmarried with no provision for Ritty, so Ritty was actually emancipated then, but no one told her and she remained in bondage.
Chapter 19
What fasting practices does Harriet describe for her father and the old folks?
Harriet says the old folks never eat anything on Sunday and fast on Fridays. From Good Friday and five Fridays after, her father neither eats nor drinks all day, fasting for the five bleeding wounds of Jesus. Other Fridays he eats nothing until sunset, then takes tea and bread. Harriet says he does it for conscience, not as a Roman Catholic.
Chapter 19
How did Harriet get the twenty dollars she sought at the New York office?
Directed by the Lord, Harriet told a New York gentleman she wanted twenty dollars and refused to leave or eat until she had it. She sat and slept there all day while fugitives passed through. Roused repeatedly with 'no money for you here,' she stayed. She finally woke to find sixty dollars raised among those who came into the office.
Chapter 19
How does the author illustrate Harriet's delicacy in asking for herself versus for her race?
The author recounts that during the snowy winter of '67 and '68, Harriet, snowed-in with her rheumatic father, came to a friend's house and after long hesitation asked Miss Annie to lend her a quarter till Monday, saying she never asked it before. Friends supplied the family, and on Monday she repaid the quarter. Yet she boldly solicits subscriptions for her Freedmen's Fair, even from Seward.
Chapter 19
Section 204 cards
According to Harriet, why might many slaveholders reach Heaven?
Harriet says, "I tink dar's many a slaveholder'll git to Heaven. Dey don't know no better. Dey acts up to de light dey hab." She illustrates with a child raised knowing only that Black people were made to be whipped, who would grow up to use the whip like the rest. The author calls her charity unbounded, extending even to Jeff. Davis.
Chapter 20
How does Hopkins contrast a Northern man's first sight of a slave-whipping with his prior experience of punishment?
The Northern man has only seen a child switched with prudence and moderation, drawing no blood and leaving no scar. Now he sees an adult stripped to the skin, arms tied at full stretch or across an object, beaten with a twisted raw-hide or heavy "black snake." At the second or third blow and the victim's scream, he covers his ears and rushes away, fearing vengeance as a "d--d Abolitionist."
Chapter 20
Why did whipping a woman draw a larger crowd, according to Hopkins?
Hopkins argues there was "a refinement of cruelty" in whipping a woman that stimulated Southern mobs. Her helplessness and terror, the exposure of her person, and opportunities for coarse jests made it "a scene of rare enjoyment." He adds that a Black woman was relatively more delicate than a Black man, more sensitive to the shame of stripping and more liable to terror, so the lash went deeper into soul and sense.
Chapter 20
How does Hopkins use the Virginia Advertiser's claim about skull thickness against slavery's defenders?
The paper finds providential provision for enslaving Black people in the thickness of their skulls, letting them bear blows from masters' sudden rage—which Hopkins calls a confession of slavery's effect on slaveholder tempers. He counters that a wool-padded skull might survive a boot-jack or hammer but not a musket-ball or ten-pound weight, and that no one has shown Black skin bled less freely or Black women felt the lash less.
Chapter 20
Section 214 cards
According to the chapter, what did the Southern mistress use as her instrument of punishment?
The chapter says the Southern mistress acted as her own overseer and kept a raw-hide whip on the shelf within easy reach, using it for any misadventure such as a broken plate, spilled cup, or misplaced pin. The author argues her arm was vigorous with exercise and that the lash was well laid on the shoulders of a black servant or screaming child.
Chapter 21
What does the author argue is the true cause of the Southern temper, rather than climate?
The author argues the Southern people's bad temper and quarrelsomeness come from the despotism of slavery, not from climate. The chapter claims warm and tropical regions commonly produce gentle moods, and that but for slavery, Mississippi's people would be no more prone to street fights and dueling than Massachusetts' people.
Chapter 21
How does the chapter describe cruelty as self-reinforcing?
The author argues cruelty engenders an appetite that, like the craving for alcoholic stimulants, forever demands increased indulgence. The chapter says it is an exquisite pleasure for a cowardly nature to have a creature to torment, and that the vindictive woman's nature in the South protracted and added ferocity to the rebellion.
Chapter 21
What does the author claim would happen to any girl raised with a whip and a helpless slave child?
The author argues the fury was institutional, not innate: dip the gentlest nature into irresponsible power and it becomes encrusted with cruelty. Any Roman or Southern girl of ten given a whip and a helpless slave child, seeing brutality all around, could by marriage age condemn gladiators or request a ring from a Yankee soldier's bones.
Chapter 21
Section 223 cards
What does the author predict will gradually reform the former slaveholding class?
The author argues that with no more helpless dependents to abuse, the loss of wealth, the necessity of work, self-government, and a new Gospel of peace will gradually educate the former slaveholding caste into a law-abiding, orderly, and virtuous people. The author says this may require several generations, and that institutions ceasing to corrupt them is key.
Chapter 22
How does the author expect Southern women to change once slavery ends?
The author argues Southern women will share early in the change, no longer perverted into a 'she-devil' by unrestrained power. Paying just wages to servants who can leave without running off, their gentler virtues will assert themselves, and they will become gracious and pious mater-familias, perhaps learning to apply some discipline to their own children.
Chapter 22
What does the footnote say about the secret association terrorizing the loyal South?
The footnote calls it curiously illustrative of the mixed childishness and ferocity of Southern civilization: the association styles itself with an absurd, misspelled name, does nightly murder in harlequin costume, and has a leader act as a ghost to frighten superstitious blacks. Some more courageous freedman occasionally makes a bona fide ghost of this masquerade.
Chapter 22
Source and licence
Text used: Project Gutenberg eBook #57821 (Public domain in the United States). Generated from the full text; cards paraphrase the source.
Version: Public domain edition. Retrieved 2026-10-30. Cards reviewed 2026-10-30.
These cards paraphrase the text for study. They are not a substitute for reading the book, and they do not reproduce long passages.
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