twochildren out of slavery in Maryland. In 1851 she rescued her brother, and in 1857Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland and brought her parents to freedom. Over a time period of ten years Harriet Tubman made an estimated 19 tripsinto the South and brought about 300 slaves to the North. The Fugitive SlaveLaw of 1850 had created federal commissioners in every county to support thereturn of runaways. It gave harsh punishments for those convicted of helpingslaves to escape. The law wanted Harriet Tubman, so in 1851 she moved to St.Catharines, a city in Ontario, Canada. That was the destination of manyescaped slaves. By the late 1850s a number of Northern states passedpersonal liberty laws that protected the rights of fugitive slaves. Harriet Tubmanwas able to buy land and move with her parents to Auburn, New York. Harriet Tubman faced great danger guiding slaves to freedom. Southernersoffered big rewards for her to be caught. Harriet Tubman used disguises(sometimes posing as a deranged old man and, at other times, as an oldwoman) to stay away from touch when traveling in slave states. She carriedsleeping powder to stop babies from crying and always had a pistol toprevent the people from backing out once they started going to freedom. Harriet Tubman always changed her route and her methods of working.Though she almost always began her journeys on Saturday night for tworeasons. First, many masters did not make their slaves work on Sundays and notrealize they were gone until Monday, when the slaves had already traveled afull day and a half. Second, newspapers advertising the escape wouldn’t bepublished until the beginning of the week, so by the time copies reachedreaders, Harriet Tubman and the fugitive slaves were likely to be near theirdestination in the North. Harriet Tubman never lost any of her control and had a weird ability to findfood and shelter during these hard missions. Among other African Americansshe came to be known as Mos...
