Directions: Read the story. Unscramble the words below and enter them in the boxes. Click the button to check your work.
Harriet Tubman was born around 1820 in Maryland. Her parents were slaves, so
she also was a slave when she was born. She had to work even when she was a
little child. When she was 25, she married John Tubman who was not a slave,
but a free African American. Harriet was afraid she was going to be sold and
sent to the South, so she decided to run away.She escaped through the
Underground Railroad. The slaves knew they had to go north to find freedom.
They used the North Star, Polaris, as their guide. During a forty year period
about 100,000 slaves escaped from the South through the Underground Railroad.
Harriet contacted a person her friend had recommended, and through a series of
safe houses made her way to Canada where she became a free woman. She made a
trip to free her husband, John, only to find that he had married another
woman! She decided to devote herself to helping others gain freedom. She later
married Nelson David, a former slave who was a Union soldier. Harriet made
nineteen trips as a "conductor", risking her life every time, and successfully
freed about 300 slaves. Harriet became known as "Moses" because she was
freeing her people just as Moses freed the children of Israel from Egyptian
slavery. She was able to buy the home and stayed there when she was not on the
road helping slaves escape. During the Civil War Harriet worked for the Union
Army. Sometimes she worked as a cook, sometimes she served as a nurse, and
even worked as a spy! Harriet Tubman died at the age of 93. After her death
she received many honors. A ship was named for her; the Liberty Ship Harriet
Tubman, and in 1995 the federal government issued a commemorative postage
stamp in her honor.
