Category: Timeline Stories

Harriet Tubman attempts escape from slavery twice when Brodess dies, and his widow threatens to sell her to settle debts. She and two brothers, Ben and Henry, who set off on September 17, are featured in a runaway ad seeking $300 for their recapture. They eventually return when they lose their way, but Tubman later runs off by herself, this time successfully reaching freedom in Philadelphia. She meets and becomes allies with William Still (1821-1902), a “station master” on the Underground Railroad.

– On April 27, France abolishes slavery in its colonies. – After two years of the Mexican-American War, the United States expands its territories in the southwest. – The first women’s rights convention in the United States is held from July 19-20 at Seneca Falls, New York. Stanton and Mott are among the organizers for the event, as they had both resolved to address women’s rights when they were excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention.

– Tubman discovers that her mother should have been set free in 1830 as part of the terms of an old will. She hires a lawyer to investigate, sparking a ten-year lawsuit amongst the heirs named in the will. These legal documents detail the history of the Ross family. Also this year: – On July 26, the American colony Liberia becomes an independent nation. – In December, Douglass starts his abolitionist newspaper The North Star in Rochester, New York, which runs until 1851.

The United States declares war on Mexico over disputed territories.

Frederick Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which details his life under slavery before he escapes to freedom.

Minty marries a free man, John Tubman (1818-1867), and changes her name after marriage to her mother’s name, Harriet. She has already negotiated a contract with her enslaver, giving him money to hire herself out to other slaveholders for wages so that she can earn enough money to pay him and buy her freedom. Also this year: Physician J. Marion Sims (1813-1883), inventor of the speculum, begins his medical experiments on the enslaved women Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy in Alabama, which last approximately four or five years.

During this time (1841-1843), Minty’s sisters, Linah (ca. 1808-unk.) and Soph (ca. 1813-unk.), are sold by Brodess to the Deep South. He keeps their small children, whom he tries to later sell. Minty and her family are devasted. Brodess tries to sell Minty’s youngest brother Moses (ca. 1832-unk.), but Rit threatens to kill Brodess, so he backs down, and Moses is saved.

– Tubman’s father Ben is manumitted and given ten acres of land around his house. – In June, the World Anti-Slavery Convention takes place in London. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) attend, but as women, they are forbidden to speak publicly.

Joseph Cinque, or Sengbe Pieh (ca.1814-1879) of the Mende people, leads an insurrection on the Spanish slave ship Amistad en route to Cuba. The ship is later brought into custody by the United States, and Cinque and his fellow surviving Africans are tried for mutiny and murder of the ship’s crew. They are eventually acquitted for defending themselves against slavery on board an illegal slave ship in The United States v. Amistad Supreme Court decision. Americans raise funds to help them return to Sierra Leone.

– Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), born Frederick Bailey, escapes from slavery in Baltimore with help from his free wife, Anna Murray (1813-1882). They settle in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a haven for freedom seekers and a hotbed of anti-slavery activism. He changes his name in freedom and becomes friends with William Lloyd Garrison. – Anti-slavery societies flourish across cities in the North. – On June 28, the coronation of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) ushers in the Victorian Era. She will rule the United Kingdom and its empire for 64 years.