Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Throughout Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad, family bonds impact Harriet Tubman’s upbringing, health, skills, and activism. The author presents Harriet’s parents, Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, or “Old Rit,” as loving, protective, and involved parents who managed to provide consistent care and advice to Harriet even though their work required them to be separated for long periods. Indeed, Tubman may not have survived childhood without her mother. When she fell ill as a six-year-old while working at a local household, her mother insisted to Brodas, the plantation and slave owner, that Tubman should return to her care until she was better. Petry describes how Ben and Old Rit’s knowledge of traditional medicines and love for Tubman helped her survive six weeks of illness: “Rit nursed Harriet back to health. […] Rit kept giving her a hot and bitter brew, made from the root of a plant that Ben brought back from the woods” (34). Ben and Old Rit also fervently hoped that Tubman could receive higher training in cooking or weaving and avoid a life of brutal toil in the fields. Petry includes several scenes in which the parents discuss her chances of having an easier life than they have had.