Life, Slavery, and Life Accomplishments: Harriet Tubman

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Life, Slavery, and Life Accomplishments: Harriet Tubman America has faced many hardships since its beginning in the early 1600’s. Slavery is deeply rooted in the history of America, as it is with many other countries. Slavery has been utilized since pre-historic times and continued by the colonies in America in 1619. There are many individuals that aided the fight against slavery and worked to free the enslaved workers. Harriet Tubman made it her mission and risked her life often to aid enslaved African Americans. There are limitless factors that led up to Harriet Tubman’s heroic events. Three hundred thousand African slaves were brought on the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean to America between 1619 and 1780. The number of slaves imported to the colonies was relatively small at first, and then grew as the population in the new country ballooned. In the end, there were roughly 10 million Africans shipped as cargo to the United States. The ships carried enslaved young adults, which were predominantly males outnumbering females two to one (Roark, Johnson, Cohen, Stage, Lawson, & Hartman). Younger adults ensured long years of slavery ahead of them, with more men than women for strenuous labor. During the voyage over the Atlantic it was common for 15% or more of the individuals on the slave ships died due to diseases and lack of food and drink. Smallpox and dysentery ran rampant through the ships and such close quarters made it nearly impossible to avoid contracting the diseases. The voyage itself across the Atlantic was estimated to take nearly six to eight weeks (Encyclopedia). Southern farmers heavily utilized slaves to tend to their farmland and expected them to work grueling hours from sunrise to sunset (Roark et al.). Many slaves brought overseas and new to this country were not immune to the disease and parasites in this
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