Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Nonfiction | Biography | Middle Grade | Published in 1955

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapters 9-10

Chapters 11-12

Chapters 13-14

Chapters 15-16

Chapters 17-18

Chapters 19-20

Chapters 21-22

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “The Quarter”

In the early 1800s, the Eastern Shore of Maryland has many creeks, lakes, and wetlands. This region has abundant animal life, and hunting and fishing are commonplace among European settlers. Edward Brodas is a plantation owner and slave owner in Dorchester country; his property is close to a small town called “Bucktown” (1). The slaves on Brodas’s plantation refer to him as “Master” and call his large home the “Big House” (2). Brodas’s home is spacious and has extra rooms to rent to passing travelers. It also has a detached kitchen and stables, barns, gardens, and an orchard nearby. Brodas’s slaves live in the “slave quarters”—a group of simple cabins built away from the Big House. These cabins are made primarily of logs with dirt floors and no windows, chairs, or beds; the fireplace is used for cooking and is the only light source.

Harriet Greene, whose nickname is “Old Rit,” and her husband Benjamin Ross live in such a cabin with several of their children. Their older children do not live with them since Brodas rents their labor to other local farmers who cannot afford their own slaves. Old Rit and Benjamin have another child in 1820, and they name her Araminta or “Minty” for short. The other slaves come to see the newborn child and suggest she could be trained as a seamstress or cook to avoid the hard labor required of a field slave. Old Rit, Benjamin, and their friends discuss their shared dream of freedom and how some slaves have successfully run away from local plantations. They talk about the possibility of freedom through “manumission,” which occurs when slave owners allow their slaves to go free after their owner’s death (6). The friends ponder the chances of some slaves successfully reaching freedom in the North, with some hoping that young, able-bodied men could make it, while others are doubtful of their safe passage.

The discussion then turns to Brodas’s recent habit of selling his slaves since it “seemed as though he were raising slaves just to sell them” (8). When plantation owners find themselves in financial trouble due to crop failures or gambling problems, selling their slaves is a quick way to earn money. When slaves discover they will be sold, they often run away since they are afraid of the “living death” (8) they would encounter on the cotton, rice, and sugar plantations in the deep South. However, if they are caught, they will be punished and sold. There is strong word-of-mouth communication among the slaves on the plantations, which helps them stay informed about events in big cities, the increasing number of runaways, and the whereabouts of slave traders from Georgia.

This chapter concludes with a historical note about Quakers Thomas and Sarah Garrett and John Brown, and his wife, the “Widow Lusk,” who the author writes would later “know and admire” (11) Harriet Ross.

Chapter 2 Summary: “The First Years”

As a baby, Harriet (known as “Minty”) uses a pork rind for her teething and does not have clothes. As she grows older, she plays with the other young slave children in the slave quarter. Since Harriet’s mother works at the Big House during the day, Harriet is left with the other slave children in the care of an elderly woman who is too old to work. The children do not have set mealtimes; they eat food such as corn bread, milk, and pork when it is available. Throughout Harriet’s childhood, there is a continued “fear and uneasiness” throughout the region since plantation owners worry about uprisings and runaways, and slaves live in fear of violent punishments or being sold: “The masters were afraid of the slaves. The slaves were afraid of the masters” (14).

In secret, Harriet’s neighbors visit her father’s cabin at night, walking and speaking so quietly “so that it was almost no sound at all” (14). They share information about local and national current events, including the story of Denmark Vesey, a Black man who had bought his freedom from slavery. Along with his friends Peter Poyas and Mingo Harth, Vesey planned an uprising against the white townspeople in Charleston, South Carolina. However, the plan was discovered in advance, and he and 131 slaves were executed. Benjamin and his neighbors lament that Vesey’s scheme has prompted white southerners to pass harsh laws further restricting slaves’ mobility. Now any white man can whip a slave who walks down the road without a “pass,” and slaves are also not allowed to converse, hold church meetings, learn to read or write, or sing certain songs (16-17).

Old Rit is uncomfortable when the slaves talk about running away or share stories about rebels like Vesey. She is hopeful that she, Benjamin, and their children will be freed by manumission when Brodas dies; however, she is worried that he will not keep his promise. While she feels that the master trusts her and Benjamin, she feels “uneasy, insecure” (19) due to the tension in the region and is anxious about possibly being separated from her children.

Chapters 1-2 Analysis

In these first chapters, Petry provides context about Harriet Tubman’s family background and this era of American history and explores the initial setting of Maryland during slavery. She invites the reader into the everyday life of slaves on the Brodas plantation by describing their worldview and material circumstances. Most slaves could not read and did not have had access to a “clock nor calendar” (4). As a result, they remembered years by associating them with events, such as “the year of the big storm” or “the year the old master died” (4). Petry explains,

Like most people who live close to the land, and who have neither clock nor calendar, they measured time by the sun, dividing it roughly into sunup, sunhigh, sundown. The year was not divided by months, but by the seasons. It was separated into seedtime, Cotton Blossomtime, Harvest, Christmas (4).

These details demonstrate how slaves’ lack of access to traditional education and resources prompted them to create their own ways of interpreting and remembering the passage of time and important events.

Petry’s vivid details present the difficult realities of everyday life for enslaved children and parents on the Brodas plantation. The author's descriptions of the unfurnished, windowless, dark cabins where the slaves live contrast with the large, comfortable home of the white plantation owner. While some slaves, such as Harriet's parents, did form nuclear families, their work often prevented them from being able to supervise their children. The author writes that the children ate in a “haphazard fashion” and “were always a little hungry” (13-14). Children’s food, such as cornmeal mush, was often served in a feeding trough or even directly on the ground, and the “children came running from all directions, with oyster shells or pieces of shingle, to scoop up the mush” (14). These images connect with the theme of family bonds as Petry examines baby Harriet’s family circumstances. Harriet’s mother knows that her children “would never really be hers until they were free” (19) since she, her husband, and children could be sold to different owners at any time and “scattered over the countryside” (18). Today, these stark realities are more familiar since Alex Haley’s Roots raised greater awareness of the horrors of slavery on a widespread level. In 1955, however, when this book was published, it, too, was likely eye-opening in its level of historical details that do not gloss over the truth, especially as it was written for middle-grade readers. Even today, it still may be their first detailed look at slavery for many young readers.

A major theme emerging in these chapters is the importance of communication and news sharing within the slave population. Sharing news and stories in person strengthened relationships between enslaved people and empowered them to consider running away or taking other action. Visits to Ben’s cabin were a regular occurrence on the Brodas plantation, despite being against the rules. The fact that slaves were risking punishment to visit another cabin for conversation shows how important it was to them to speak with other slaves, especially about the possibilities of seeking freedom. Interestingly, Petry claims that due to regular communication between slaves on different plantations, slaves could hear some news before their masters did. For example, if a slave trader came into town and stayed at a particular inn, slaves would spread the message before an official advertisement was posted. Such communication gave slaves the chance to run away before they could be sold. This effective communication network upset slave owners, as it challenged their authority and ability to maintain control:

This whispering about freedom, about runaways, about manumission went on every night […]. The close communication, the rapid exchange of information among the slaves, troubled and disturbed the masters. They said, half in joke, half seriously, that news seemed to travel down the wind […]. (9).

Petry illustrates how slaves’ communication was an act of resistance that enabled them to make more informed decisions about how to behave and whether to try running away.