Harriet Tubman was a poor slave girl who ran away from her plantation at the age of 28. Throughout the course of her life many people and many things challenged her. Each situation she was faced with tested either her mental or physical strength, usually both. She persevered through all of her trials stronger and wiser, and was willing to always help others through their own. Not one to instigate unless extremely necessary, Harriet was known for her quick thinking and her reactions to each ordeal she was faced with. She responded to them with a sharp mind, and strong faith in deliverance through the Lord.Harriet Tubman was born under the name of Araminta Ross in either 1820 or 1821 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Records were not kept of slave births so her birth date is a mystery. She was one of eleven children born to slaves Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross. Araminta was put to work at the age of five and served as a maid and children’s nurse before becoming a field hand when she was 11. Approximately one year after she began working in the fields she suffered a near-fatal blow to the head while protecting a fellow slave from a white Overseer. The Overseer, attempting to stop a would-be runaway, threw a 2-pound weight in his direction. Araminta tried to foil the Overseers attempts to stop the runaway, consequently suffering the blow to her forehead. A portion of her skull was pushed against her brain and she suffered blackouts for the rest of her life as a result. This incident also left a dent in the middle of her forehead and she was disabled for almost a year. As was customary of all plantations, when Araminta turned 12 she started wearing a bright bandana around her head indicating she was no longer a child. Araminta wore this bandanna like a badge – a sign of her courage and the spirit that had brought her through times of trouble. She was also no longer known by her “basket ...
