Combahee River

She worked for Union forces as a nurse, scout, and spy.

And in 1863, she participated with Colonel James Montgomery and Union forces in the Columbia River, in the Columbia River Raid in South Carolina.

Tubman helped gather intelligence about the area, and the raid liberated more than 700 enslaved people.

And there it is again.

A lady reached over her fine cambric handkerchief to him.

joe wiped his face and then he spoke oh if i'd felt like this down south it would have taken nine men to take me only one more journey for me now and that is to heaven well you old fool you said harriet with whom there seems but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous you might have looked at the falls first and gone to heaven afterwards she has seen joe several times since a happy and industrious freeman in canada and of section two section three of scenes in the life of harriet tubman by sarah h bradford this librivox recording is in the public domain when asked as she often is how it was possible that she was not afraid to go back with that tremendous price upon her head harriet always answers why don't i tell you missus twasn't me twas de lord i always told him i trust to you i don't know where to go or what to do but i expect you to lead me and he always did at one time she was going down watched for everywhere after there had been a meeting of slaveholders in the court-house of one of the large cities of maryland and an added reward had been put upon her head with various threats of the different cruel devices by which she should be tortured and put to death friends gathered round her imploring her not to go on directly in the face of danger and death and this was harriet's answer to them now look here john saw the city didn't he yes john saw the city well what did he see he saw twelve gates three of those gates was on the north three of them was on the east and three of them was on the west but there was three of them on the south too and i reckon if they kill me down there i'll get into one of them gates don't you whether harriet's ideas of the geographical bearings of the gates of the celestial city as seen in the apocalyptic vision were correct or not we cannot doubt that she was right in the deduction her faith drew from them and that somewhere whether north south east or west to our dim vision there is a gate to be opened for harriet where the welcome will be given come in thou blessed of my father many of the stories told me by harriet in answer to questions have been corroborated by letters some of which will appear in this book of others i have not been able to procure confirmation owing to ignorance of the addresses of those conversant with the facts i find among her papers many of which are defaced by being carried about with her for years portions of letters addressed to myself by persons at the south and speaking of the valuable assistance harriet was rendering our soldiers in the hospital and our armies in the field at this time her manner of life as related by herself was this well missus i'd go to de hospital i would early every morning i'd get a big chunk of ice i would and put it in a basin and fill it with water then i'd take a sponge and begin first man i'd come to i'd thrash away de flies and they'd rise they would like bees round a hive then i'd begin to bathe their wounds and by the time i'd bathed off three or four the fire and heat would have melted the ice and made the water warm and it would be as red as clear blood then i'd go and get more ice i would and by the time i got to the next ones de flies would be round de first ones black and thick as ever in this way she worked day after day till late at night then she went home to her little cabin and made about fifty pies a great quantity of gingerbread and two casks of root these she would hire some contraband to sell for her through the camps and thus she would provide her support for another day for this woman never received pay or pension and never drew for herself but twenty days rations during the four years of her labors at one time she was called away from hilton head by one of our officers to come to fernandina where the men were dying off like sheep from dysentery harriet had acquired quite a reputation for her skill in curing this disease by a medicine which she prepared from roots which grew near the waters which gave the disease here she found thousands of sick soldiers and contrabands and immediately gave up her time and attention to them at another time we find her nursing those who were down by hundreds with small-pox and malignant fevers she had never had these diseases but she seems to have no more fear of death in one form than another the lord would take care of her till her time came and then she was ready to go when our armies and gunboats first appeared in any part of the south many of the poor negroes were as much afraid of de yankee buckra as of their own masters it was almost impossible to win their confidence or to get information from them but to harriet they would tell anything and so it became quite important that she should accompany expeditions going up the rivers or into unexplored parts of the country to control and get information from those whom they took with them as guides general hunter asked her at one time if she would go with several gunboats up the combahee river the object of the expedition being to take up the torpedoes placed by the rebels in the river to destroy railroads and bridges and to cut off supplies from the rebel troops She said she would go if Colonel Montgomery was to be appointed commander of the expedition.

Colonel Montgomery was one of John Brown's men and was well known to Harriet.

Accordingly, Colonel Montgomery was appointed to the command, and Harriet, with several men under her, the principal of whom was J. Plowden, whose pass I have, accompanied the expedition.

Last fall, when the people here became very much alarmed for fear of an invasion from the rebels, all my clothes were packed and sent with others to Hilton Head and lost, and I have never been able to get any trace of them since.

I was sick at the time and unable to look after them myself.

Want among the rest a bloomer dress made of some coarse strong material to wear on Expeditions in our late expedition up the Combahee River in coming on board the boat I was carrying two pigs for a poor sick woman who had a child to carry and the order double-quick was given and I started to run stepped on my dress it being rather long and and fell and tore it almost off so that when i got on board the boat there was hardly anything left of it but shreds i made up my mind that i would never wear a long dress on another expedition of the kind but would have a bloomer as soon as i could get it so please make this known to the ladies if you will for i expect to have use for it very soon probably before they can get it to me you have without doubt seen a full account of the expedition i refer to don't you think we colored people are entitled to some credit for that exploit under the lead of the brave colonel montgomery we weakened the rebels somewhat on the combahee river by taking and bringing away seven hundred and fifty-six head of their most valuable live stock known up in your region as contrabands and this too without the loss of a single life on our part though we had good reason to believe that a number of rebels bit the dust.

Of these 756 contrabands, nearly or quite all the able-bodied men have joined the colored regiments here.

Yeah, we have seen it in history.

Speaking of Harriet Tubman and the Combee River Collective, the Combee River Collective is named to honor the Combee River Raid when Harriet Tubman, who was a spy for the Union Army, freed the most people that she did at once on the Combahee River under the cover of night when they showed up on this raid and all of the folks that were on these plantations were able to get out.

They were able to board these boats and to leave and they burned up a lot of the plantations.

But if we think about the perspective of the enslaved people on the Combahee River, they didn't have to wait for emancipation.

to be given to them.

No.