In 1819 I was born; my birth name was Araminta Ross I was born into slavery in 1819/1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. I was born from my two parents Harriet Green and Ben Moss, they were both held in slavery, I was of purely African ancestry. I was raised under harsh conditions, and I got whippings even as a small child. I slept as close to the fire as possible on cold nights and sometimes I stuck my toes into the warm ashes to avoid frostbite. Cornmeal was my main source of nutrition and sometimes meat of some kind when my family had the privilege to hunt and fish. Most of the time as I grew up I spent it with my grandmother who was too old for any type of slave labor.
When I turned six that age you can start to work. I did not work in the fields though. Edward Brodas, my master, gave me to a couple who first put me to work weaving and I was also beaten quite often. When I started slacking on the job the couple gave me the working job of checking muskrat traps. I caught the measles while doing this job and that is a disease and you get all these bumps on you. The couple thought I was incompetent and took me back to my master Brodas. When I got well, I was taken in and this time by a woman as a housekeeper and also a baby-sitter. I was also whipped during this work here and was sent back to Brodas again after eating one of this woman's sugar cubes but I was a housekeeper so I thought it was okay.
In 1844 when I was the age of 25, I married this man named John Tubman I really liked him, and he was a free African American who did not share my dream or you can say didn’t like the dream I wanted to come to reality. Since I was a slave, I knew there could be a chance that I could be sold far away and my marriage would be split apart or even fall apart. One of my dreams I dreamed was traveling north and I knew God gave me this dream. There, I would be free and would not have to worry about having my marriage split up by the slave trade or by anyone who was...