In December of 1864, Harriet Tubman was with General David Hunter, Commander of the Union Forces occupying the islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida - the "Department of the South". She worked in the hospitals in and around Beaufort and Hilton Head, South Carolina. She described her duties to her biographer, Sarah Bradford:

I'd go to de hospital, I would, early eb'ry mornin'. I'd get a big chunk of ice, I would, and put it in a basin, and fill it with water; den I'd take a sponge and begin. Fust man I'd come to, I'd thrash away de flies, an' dey'd rise, dey would, like bees roun' a hive. Den I'd begin to bathe der wounds, an' by de time I'd bathed off three or four, de fire an' heat would have melted de ice and made de water warm, an' it would be as red as clar blood. Den I'd go an' git more ice, I would, an' by de time I got to de nex' ones, de flies would be roun' de fust ones black and thick as eber."1

“In this way she worked day after day, 'till late at night,” said Bradford.

. . .then she went home to her little cabin and made about fifty pies, a great quantity of ginger-bread, and two casks of root beer. These she would hire some contraband to sell for her through the camps, and thus she would provide her support for another day.

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 a reputation for her skill in curing this disease, by a medicine 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 or another. "De Lord would take keer of her 'till her time came, an' den she was ready to go."2

Early in January of 1865, Harriet took a leave of absence in order to visit her aged parents in Auburn, New York. New York City at that time was a port of embarkation for the Union Troops heading into the South. So Harriet was let off there and from there made her way to Auburn. However, while in Auburn, Harriet became sick and so, according to Charles P. Wood, an Auburn banker who, in 1868, interviewed Harriet and wrote an account of her war service, "....she failed to return to New York City within the time specified in her leave, and for that reason was refused return transportation to Hilton Head."3 To remedy this difficulty, Harriet went to Washington and presented her case at the War Department. H. Wilson sent the following note to Colonel James A. Hardie, Secretary of War:

War Department
Washington City, D.C.
January 14, 1865 Col. Hardie

Mrs. Harriet Tubman is presented to me by Gentlemen and Ladies of the highest standing to be a person of excellent character and she has letters from [General] Saxton and other officers showing that she has rendered good service to our soldiers. I recommend that she have a free pass to Hilton Head.
H. Wilson.

The Secretary of War approved and Harriet received a free pass to Hilton Head. Harriet then set out back to New York where she would be transported to the South. However, Woods reported that she was intercepted in Philadelphia by "....some members of the Sanitary Commission who persuaded her to go instead to the James River Hospitals where there was a pressing need of such service as she could give..." And so, instead of going to Hilton Head, Harriet went to the James River hospitals in Virginia where she worked with the sick and infirm at Fortress Monroe and Hamilton. According to Woods, this decision by Harriet resulted in an "unfortunate pecuniary happening". But Woods does not explain what that "unfortunate pecuniary happening" was. Can we assume that because Harriet did not show up at the Government site in Hilton Head, she in some way affected her connection with the Government, and therefor became ineligible for any Government benefits?4

Whatever the case, Sarah Bradford reported that "Harriet's home had been mortgaged when she went to work for the Union cause...the mortgage was to be foreclosed, and the old parents were to be turned out to die in a poor house...."5

Harriet must have become quite anxious upon hearing this news. The Freedman’s Record reported; “She had had no regular support from [the] Government; and she feels that she must have some certain income, which she wishes to apply to her parents' support. This society considers her labors too valuable to the Freedmen to be turned elsewhere, and have therefore taken her in to their service, paying her the small salary of ten dollars per month that she asks for. She is not adopted by any branch [of the newspaper] as she could not fulfill the condition of correspondence with them.6

That year, W.S. Williams & Company published Nurse And Spy in the Union Army: The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle Fields, the true-life story of S. Emma E. Edmonds, a white woman. Edmonds' "adventures and experiences" were similar to Harriet's and, although there is no evidence that Harriet ever heard of Edmond's book, there is the possibility that it was brought to her attention, which may have prompted the following statement by the Freedman's Record:

She [Harriet] says: when the war is over, she will learn to read and write and then will write her own life. The trouble in her head prevents her from applying closely to a book. It is the strong desire of all her friends that she should tell her story in her own way at some future time. We think it affords a very cogent answer to the query, "Can the Negro take care of himself?"7

Meanwhile, the war was indeed almost over. By April, General Lee surrendered the Army of the Confederacy to General Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. Abolitionists, anti-slavery advocates and Underground Railroad workers had seen their dream come true. But on Saturday, July 22nd of that year, Sarah Bradford's oldest son Charles Cooper Bradford, then serving with the Quartermaster in the New York State Volunteers, died in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The cause of death was listed as consumption.8

That month found Harriet once again in Washington, D.C. She had gone there to advise the government of some abuses she had witnessed in the hospitals along the James River. "And so great was the confidence of some of the officers of the Government in her," said Woods, "that Surgeon General Barnes directed that she be appointed Nurse or Matron [at the Colored Hospital, Fort Monroe, Virginia.]9

This was all well and good, but Harriet needed money. Sarah Bradford reported that Harriet "never received pay or pension, and never drew for herself but twenty days' ration during the four years of her labors."10 However, Woods tells a slightly different story. He said: “[Harriet] received from the Government only two hundred ($200) of pay. This was paid her at or near Beaufort and, with characteristic indifference to [her] self, she immediately devoted that sum to the erection of a wash house in which she spent a portion of her time in teaching the freed women to do washing; to aid in supporting themselves instead of depending wholly on Government aid.”11

Harriet's friend, Secretary of State William H. Seward, was in Washington at that time. So Harriet applied to Seward to present a claim allowed by her against the United States Government for a pension for her services as a Nurse, Spy, and a Scout for the Union Army.

On July 25th Seward sent the following note to General Hunter:

Washington, July 25, 1865
Maj. Gen. Hunter--

MY DEAR SIR: Harriet Tubman, a colored woman, has been nursing our soldiers during nearly all the War. She believes she has a claim for faithful services to the command in South Carolina with which you are connected, and she thinks that you would be disposed to see her claim justly settled.
I have known her long, and a nobler, higher spirit, or truer, seldom dwells in the human form. I commend her, therefore, to your kind and best attentions.
Faithfully your friend,
William H. Seward12

"But no pension was obtained," said Woods, "and another attempt has been made since - I believe with the same results." So Harriet started back home to Auburn, no doubt deeply disappointed in not being able to get a pension. But on her way home, as if to add insult to injury, she had an altercation with a conductor of the Camden and Amboy Railroad:

....she bought a half-fare ticket, as she was told she must do; and missing the other train, she got unto an emigrant train on the Amboy Railroad. When the conductor looked at her ticket, he said, "Come, hustle out of here! We don't carry niggers for half-fare." Harriet explained to him that she was in the employ of Government, and was entitled to transportation as the soldiers were. But the conductor took her forcibly by the arm and said, "I'll make you tired of trying to stay here." She resisted and, being very strong, she probably could have got the better of the conductor had he not called three men to his assistance.13

“The car was filled with emigrants, writes Sarah Bradford, “and no one seemed to take her part. The only word she heard, accompanied with fearful oaths, were, "Pitch the nagur out!" They nearly wrenched her arm off, and at length threw her with all their might into a baggage car. She supposed her arm was broken, and in intense suffering she came on to New York. As she left the car, a delicate-looking young man came up to her and, handing her a card, said, "You ought to sue that conductor, and if you want a witness, call on me." Harriet remained all winter under the care of a physician in New York; he advised her to sue the Railroad company, and said that he would willingly testify as to her injuries. But the card the young man had given her was only a visiting card, and she did not know where to find him, and so she let the matter go.14

In a letter dated November 7, 1865, Martha C. Wright wrote to her daughter, Marianne, revealing more of the incident:

Harriet Tubman was here yesterday. It was quite dark and wet when she left, but she didn't kear for that. She'd as (lief) go in de dark as de light. How awful it was for that wicked conductor to drag her out into the smoking car and hurt her so seriously, disabling her left arm, perhaps for the Winter. She still has the misery in her shoulder and side and carries her hand in a sling. In took three of them to drag her out after first trying to wrench her finger and then her arm. She told the man he was a copperhead scoundrel, for which he choked her. She was on the 11 o'clock pm train between Camden and South Amboy. She told him she didn't thank anybody to call her cullud pusson. She would be black or Negro. She was as proud of being a black woman as he was of being white. It was not tho't best to publish the circumstances 'till they found something could be got from the company. D. told her that she could sue the company here, at her home, and he would write to Mr. Phillip's son-in-law at the A.L. Office, and inquire whether the witness advertised for had been found, but if not, [then] her own testimony and her doctor's would be sufficient (he has written "________Sonally Esq"). She showed me her documents and told me what sister L. and Thomas gave her. She said there was to be a letter sent to me for her this week from Mr. Phillips or his son-in-law. So she is coming again.15

On November 10th, three days after the writing of the above letter, Nelson Charles, a twenty-four-year-old private with Company G, 8th United States Colored Infantry, was discharged at Brownsville, Texas. Nelson was born a slave near Elizabeth, North Carolina. His master's name was Fred Charles and, when he enlisted in the Army (on September 25, 1863), he used his master's surname – Charles. However, Nelson's father's name was Milford Davis and, perhaps to establish his own identity, to get away from his slave name, or perhaps due to the influence of his army buddies, Nelson began to use his father's surname. Thereafter he was known as Nelson Davis.

After his discharge, Nelson Davis went from Brownsville to Philadelphia with one of his Army buddies, Albert Thompson. Thompson reported that in January or February of 1866 he went home to his wife, Anna, in Auburn, while Davis stayed in Philadelphia visiting with friends. Shortly after, Davis joined Albert and Anna Thompson in Auburn. . .to work as a brickmake.16

In an affadavit signed May 28, 1892, Harriet reported that she met Davis in about 1866, when he came to her Boarding House in the town of Fleming, a small town adjoining the city of Auburn, in Cayuga County, N.Y.17

Nelson's Army records describe him as 5'11" tall. However, he was a sick man, reported to have had "consumption" - tuberculosis.

Meanwhile, Harriet herself was still recovering from the injuries she received during her altercation with the conductor of the Camden & Amboy Railroad.

On April 2, 1866, Martha Wright wrote to her husband, David:

William called on Harriet Tubman yesterday, and was much interested in her Southern experiences and in her account of the outrage on the cars. I wish, in returning, you could stop in New York long enough to see Smalley and Parker Pillsbury at the Anti-Slavery Office and find whether anything can be done about the Camden & Amboy. If not, there should at least be an account of the outrage published in the Independent.

William said she told him they would have suffered for food, the past winter, as she was disabled, if it had not been for the work of a woman in the house. They had to burn their fences for firewood. I wish something could be done, for her faithful services during the war certainly deserve some recompense.18

The following Tuesday, Martha wrote to her daughter, Ellen:

Auburn, April 9th, 1866
My dear Ellen,
....Your father went to Lynchburg after all, so it will be some days yet before he returns. I wrote to him at Willard's. He wanted me to find out from Harriet Tubman what I could as to the time of her injuries on the Camden & Amboy Road, but she had gone to Canada.19

The next Tuesday, Martha Wright penned the following letter to her son, Frank:

Auburn, April 16th, 1866
.....I shall look for your father on Saturday. I asked him to stop in N.Y. long enough to see if anything could be got from the Camden & Amboy for the injury done to Harriet Tubman, by one of their conductors on a freight train.20

Money was apparently raised for Harriet and, on the 23rd of that month, Ellen Garrison wrote to her mother:

We are rather sorry to hear you gave the Tubman money to anyone except Harriet. There's no knowing when she will turn up. Poor thing. It's a pity she can't have a pension or whatever from that Railroad Company. Father says that the Conductor should be made to support her all her life - which would be poetical justice, indeed, I think.21

In September, her mother replied:

Auburn, September 1st,1866
I've been looking over 2 or 3 of thy letters to see how short I have been in making decent replies and comments. Poor Harriet Tubman's dreadful treatment. Such a fool of a man to risk such a sum if that was really so. Glad this last date reports her nearly recovered. As to the money "twas [thine?] tis his." There's no other way. Poor North Pacific! A body's heart might ache forever.22

By October, Harriet was back from Canada. Perhaps as a means of making money, but certainly as a means of providing shelter for the homeless and friendless Negroes of Auburn, she turned her home in Fleming into a boarding house.23 She was receiving $10 a month from the Freedman's Bureau along with what little money she made from her Boarding House. But there were other resources. She could hold Fairs. These were mostly sponsored by the Freedman’s Bureau. At the Fairs she could sell various foods and old household items, as well as collect clothing for the needy Negroes who came to her for help.

In May, Harriet, with the aid of Martha Wright, held a Fair:

Auburn, May 19th, 1867
My Dear Ellen,
....I have to see Harriet Tubman tomorrow. Mrs. Talman wrote me that Harriet had been there for help tomorrow getting up a Fair here in aid of the Freedmen, and she had bought a piece of cotton to make up, but moving and etc. had prevented, and would it be too late, and had she better send it unmade. Harriet thought her Fair would be on the last of May, but I don't know whether she will be ready by that time. Perhaps Carrie Dennis could help her if she were here.
Martha C. Wright24

Harriet's relations with her friends continue:

Auburn, September 6th, 1867
My Dear Ellen,
....Harriet Tubman came on Wednesday to see you and the baby. She didn't hear of your call till the evening before, and was so disappointed that her eyes filled with tears. She near shed a tear in telling of all her troubles. I comforted her with Wm’s. donation, and she seemed grateful, and sent her love to you and all enquiring friends. She said she would see you yet. I wish I had thought to send for her while you were here.
Martha C. Wright25

The following month, the Baltimore Sun carried the shocking news that Harriet's husband, John Tubman, was murdered:

Cambridge Maryland, October 1
Baltimore Sun, October 4, 1867, p.4
A colored man named John Tubman was shot and instantly killed yesterday evening by Robert Vincent, a white man. The shooting took place on the country road about six miles from Cambridge. A difficulty had occured in the morning relative to the removal of a tenant-house on Vincent's farm, and the parties met again about sundown on the public road when the shooting took place. Justice Winterbottom of Cambridge held an inquest, and a verdict in accordance with the facts was rendered. Vincent is still at large, but a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Plebian

Earl Conrad gave the details of this incident, quoting from the local newspapers - the Baltimore American and the Cambridge Intelligencer. The gist of the story is that about 10:00 o'clock that morning in the home of a black woman named Rebecca Camper, John Tubman and a white man named Robert Vincent got into an argument "about the ownership of some ashes." Later on that day, Vincent met John Tubman, Tubman's son, and Rebecca Camper on the country road between Cambridge and Airy. They resumed the argument, and Vincent is reported to have deliberately shot John Tubman in the head, throat and breast, killing him instantly. "Vincent never stopped to see whether his shot had proved fatal," said the newspaper account, "but continued on his way home."26 later seen leaving the next morning.

What Harriet felt about John Tubman's murder, we do not know. However, at this time, we find her once again actively pursuing her claim for a pension. This time she appealed to the men and women who served with her in the anti-slavery cause. On Saturday, November 2, 1867, she visited her friend, the abolitionist and philanthropist, Gerrit Smith. Smith gave her the following letter of recommendation:

Nov. 4, 1867
I have known Mrs. Harriet Tubman for many years. Seldom, if ever, have I met with a person more philanthropic, more self-denying, and of more bravery. Nor must I omit to say that she combines with her sublime spirit, remarkable discernment and judgment.
During the late war, Mrs. Tubman was eminently faithful and useful to the cause of our country. She is poor and has poor parents. Such a servant of the country should be well paid by the country. I hope that the Government will look into her case.27

Abolitionist, Sallie Holley, was at Smith's home at the time of Harriet's visit, and she wrote in her diary:

November, 1867:
I am in the home of Gerrit Smith....Harriet Tubman came Saturday. She wants Mr. Smith to help her get her claim allowed against the government. She has a letter from William H. Seward to Major General Hunter, dated 1865 in which Mr. Seward says, "I have known her long, and a nobler, higher spirit, or truer, seldom dwells in human form."28

"Sallie decided to do something more about the matter," wrote Earl Conrad. "She wrote to Editor Aaron M. Powell of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, which was published in New York.29

November, 1867
Dear Mr. Powell:
How many mean ways there are of showing prejudice against those "guilty of a skin not colored like our own" - a color under which the richest virtues of humanity and the rarest qualities of character are manifested. Among American women, who has shown a courage and self-devotion to the welfare of others equal to Harriet Tubman? Hear her story of going down again and again into the very jaws of slavery to rescue her suffering people, bringing them off through perils and dangers enough to appall the stoutest heart till she was known among them as "Moses". Forty thousand dollars was not too great a reward for the Maryland slave-holders to offer for her. Think of her brave spirit as strong as Daniel's of old, in its fearless purpose to serve God, even though the fiery furnace should be her portion. I have looked into her dark face and wondered and admired as I listened to the thrilling deeds her lion heart had prompted her to dare: "I have heard their groans and sighs and seen their tears, and I would give every drop of blood in my veins to free them." While I was amazed at the power of her heroism, slumbering like internal fire till its opportunity came to blaze and break out for the deliverance of some poor captive, I could not help asking myself why such unselfish daring, such love was so uncommon, and why this black woman should be gifted with it. The world felt the grandeur of such force of spirit when it blazed forth at Harper's Ferry in brave old John Brown.

The other day at Gerrit Smith's, I saw this heroic woman, whom the pen of genius will yet make famous as one of the noblest Christian hearts ever inspired to lift the burdens of the wronged and the oppressed, and what do you think she had to tell me? She had been tending and caring for our Union black soldiers in hospitals during the war, and at the end of her labors was on her way home coming in a car in New Jersey. A white man, the conductor, thrust her out of the car with such violence that she has not been able to work scarcely any since; and as she told me of the pain she had and still suffered, she said she did not know what she should have done for herself and old father and mother she takes care of if Mr. Wendell Phillips hadn't sent her $60 that kept them warm through the Winter. She has a letter from W. H. Seward to Maj. Gen. Hunter written two years ago in which he says: "I have known her long, and a nobler, higher spirit, or truer seldom dwells in the human form." Gerrit Smith, in his tireless, unceasing benevolence, has just given her money. His great heart, as Lowell chanted of L. Maria Child, "At high floods swamps his brain now and then," yet what a wonder and delight it is. And as Mr. Emerson asks, "What the one is, why may not the million be!"30

By December, Robert Vincent, the man who murdered John Tubman, was apprehended and stood trial. The trial ran for two days. Finally on Sunday, December 15th, a "Democratic" pro-slavery jury whom Conrad says "dallied over the facts for ten minutes," found Vincent not guilty.31 However, this verdict was quickly attacked by a writer from the Cambridge Intelligencer who pointed out that in spite of the fact that the South had lost the war, the injustice of this verdict was a clear indication that the South had not truly granted the black man his rights:

ACQUITTAL OF A MURDER
(From the Cambridge Intelligencer)

The trial of Robert Vincent for the murder of the colored man John Tubman was brought to a close early on Sunday morning last, by the jury rendering a verdict of "not guilty". That Vincent murdered the deceased we presume no one doubts; but as no one but a colored boy saw him commit the deed, it was universally conceded that he would be acquitted, the moment it was ascertained that the jury was composed exclusively of Democrats. The Republicans have taught Democrats much since 1860. They thrashed them into at least a seeming respect for the Union - they educated them up to a tolerance of public schools. They forced them to recognize Negro testimony in their courts. But they haven't got them up to a point of convicting a fellow Democrat for killing a Negro. But even that will follow when the Negro is armed with the ballot.32

In January and February, Harriet decided to put on another Fair and, once again, called upon her friends, the Wrights, to help.

Auburn, Jan. 19th, 1868
My Dear Willy,
....I called at Mr. Wise's not long ago, and Anne was here last Monday. She is trying to help Harriet Tubman get up her Fair. I am making some things for it.
Martha C. Wright

Auburn, Feb. 5th, 1868
My Dear Willy,
I fear you will be disappointed on Sunday to find no letter from me, but I have been hurrying, and Fanny helping, to finish some things for Harriet Tubman's Fair.
Martha C. Wright

Auburn, Feb. 16th 1868
My Dear Willy,
I have been so busy all the week finishing things to send to Anne Wise's for Harriet Tubman's Fair that I cannot take the time to write, glad as I was to receive your letters.33

The Fair took place on the 18th of February and was described by Martha Wright:

Auburn, February 24, 1868
My Dear Willy,
We all went to the Freedman's Fair on Tuesday and the results were quite (encouraging?) - over $400. Fanny and Annie Wise and young Osborne (Emery O's son) got up an Art Gallery which was quite successful. They had printed lists of the pictures and artists - Water fall and Mill beyond, by A. Barber, Fishes in Oil by L. Ardine - Mites home by D. Airy Waideic or. A table was spread with the gems of art numbered to match the catalogue. The Water fall (by A. Barber) was in a box by an old coffee mill. Fishes in oil, a sardine box. Miles home, a piece of cheese, by D'airymaia. It was quite ingenius and elicited shouts of laughter. - 10¢ admission to the gallery and art. Almost everybody went there to lunch and supper. Quantities of biscuits and provisions were contributed and sold at auction and Mrs. Merriman brought several things, ham, cakes to be presented to Harriet Tubman.34

Another way for Harriet to make money was to have her life story published. In the Freedman's Record, Harriet mentioned that, after the war, she would learn to read and write and then tell her own story. Her motives at that time were perhaps to just preserve a record of her experiences. But now her pressing need for money probably caused her to consider the material aspects of having her life story published. And there were good reasons that she should feel that way. For one thing, before the Civil War (and even after), a large number of Black men and women published the stories of their lives in slavery; and many of them reaped lucrative benefits in both money and personal appearances from the sales. "Some like Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, James W.C. Pennington, Samuel Ringgold Ward and Jermain Loguen were written by themselves. Some were ghosted, some were dictated to whites by the former slave....and still others....were set down in the third person by whites. All slave narratives were popular," says Philip Foner. "Brown's account went through four editions the first year it was in print. That of Solomon Northrup sold 27,000 copies in its first two years; and that of Josiah Henson sold more than 1,000,000 copies. Many of the narratives were translated into French, Dutch, German, and Russian."35

After the war, Civil War biographies became quite popular. We have already mentioned Sarah Emma E. Edmonds book and the two biographies of Pauline Cushman (out in 1864 and 1865). But that year (1867) two other significant books appeared. One was Women's Work in the Civil War by L.P. Brockett, MD, published by McCurdy & Co. The other, Women of the War, by Frank Moore, and published by S.S. Scranton focused entirely on the heroism, self-sacrifice, accomplishments and deeds of more than forty-five women who served as soldiers (many disguised as men), scouts, nurses and sanitary workers in both the Union and Confederate armies. So there was a need for a book about a black woman, one whose deeds and accomplishments could equal those of any others – Harriet Tubman.

To undertake this task, Harriet's Auburn friends once again came to her aid. Foremost was William G. Wise, an official of the Auburn Woolen Company who had business dealings with the Seward family.36 According to Earl Conrad, "Wise was the organizing force in back of the book." He tried to get Ticknor and Fields, publishers of the popular Atlantic Monthly Magazine to publish the book.37 However, he ended up with William John Moses, a young printer who had settled in Auburn in 1845. "Moses was active in various aspects of printing, publishing, and newspaper editing and publishing in Auburn for half a century." The book he issued during the 1850s as a publisher were mainly religious in nature. However, the works he issued as a job printer varied from an Area Directory....to the rules of temperance organization.... to the practical memoirs of a veterinarian."38

By what means we do not know, but Sarah Bradford was chosen to write Harriet's story. One guess is that she may have been recommended by Moses, who printed work for A. Delancey Brigham, for whom Sarah Bradford had written the History of Geneva.

In preparation for the book, Sarah Bradford began writing to Harriet's friends for their reminiscences about Harriet. Meanwhile, Wise "went about raising a subscription list to make possible the publication of the story. Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips contributed twenty-five dollars apiece; and others of New York, San Francisco, and Auburn donated to the fund."39

So with her biography being prepared by Sarah Bradford, and with some money earned from the Fair she'd given in February, Harriet turned once again to the matter of getting a pension from the Government for her service during the war. She called again on her friend, William H. Seward to help her. Seward presented a petition to Congress in her behalf. "A Mrs. Mary Derby, an Auburn admirer of Harriet, wrote to General Rufus Saxton soliciting his help"40 Saxton responded:

Atlanta Ga., March 21, 1868
My Dear Madam:
I have just received your letter informing me that Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, would present a petition to Congress for a pension to Harriet Tubman for services rendered in the Union Army during the late war. I can bear witness to the value of her services in South Carolina and Florida. She was employed in the hospitals and as a spy. She made many a raid inside the enemy's lines, displaying remarkable courage, and zeal, and fidelity. She was employed by General Hunter, and I think by Generals Stevens and Sherman, and is deserving of a pension from the Government for her services as any other of its faithful servants.
I am very truly yours,
Rufus Saxton, Bvt. General
U.S.A.41

But Seward's efforts were in vain. Harriet did not receive a pension. So she turned back to the book that Sarah Bradford was writing. Earl Conrad said, "It was either in May or June of 1868 when it was evident that Harriet was not yet to be recognized by the Government, that Sarah Bradford began the actual writing of Harriet's story."42 Conrad probably deduced this from the fact that the first correspondence - testimonies and letters - from Harriet's associates in the abolitionist movement are dated June 1868.

In July, Franklin B. Sanborn wrote to Unitarian Minister, abolitionist, supporter of John Brown, friend of Harriet Tubman, and Colonel of the all Black Regiment, the First Carolina Volunteers, Thomas Wentworth Higginson:

July 7, 1868
Can you send to Mrs. Bradford of Geneva, N.Y. a copy of the [Commonwealth] (about August 1863) containing my sketch of Harriet Tubman, and any other papers that speak of her. There were several. The Liberator of 1859-60 or 61 - contains an account of an incident in Troy, New York, Troy riot in which Harriet Tubman took part. If you could look that up and send it also, so much the better. I have no file here on either paper.43

In a letter dated August 18. 1868, Sarah Bradford wrote to Seward saying she and her daughter were sailing for Europe on September 2nd of that year and wished a letter of introduction from him to a gentleman in London.44

On August 29th, Frederick Douglass wrote his letter to Harriet, which Sarah Bradford included in the book.45

Four days later, Sarah Bradford sailed for Europe.

On September 11th, Martha Wright wrote to Anna and Patti Lord saying that Harriet had paid a visit and informed Mrs. Wright she had letters from Thomas Garrett and Gerrit Smith for the book. She now wished Mrs. Wright to ask her sister, Lucretia Mott, to also write a letter for the book. Harriet explained that Mr. and Mrs. Mott came to see her in Philadelphia and had assisted her.

In a letter dated October 8, 1868, Martha Wright indicated that she had received a letter from the Motts, saying, "[Harriet] wanted me to read [the Mott's] letter to her and said that it should be in the book, for the Mott's stood by them when there was no one else." However, the Mott's letter never appeared in the book. Sarah Bradford was, by this time, already in Europe.

Although the publishing date of the book is 1869, there apparently was a copy, or copies, available in December of 1868, as indicated by the following letter from Ellen Wright Garrison to Martha Wright:

Boston, December 26, 1868
My Dear Mother,
....Mr. Wise called at the store a few days ago with Tub's book. I should have been glad to see him. I don't think much of Mrs. Thingumbob's [Sarah Bradford's] effort. She is continually apologizing for haste, and going off to Europe. If she hadn't time to do the subject justice, why undertake it? Why?
Still it is an interesting account of marvelous things, and I only wished it could have been better worked up. We shall call Mr. Bush's attention to it.
Ellen Wright Garrison46

There were no photographs in the book, only a reproduction of a woodcut of Harriet carrying a rifle and wearing the scout costume she wore while serving in the Union Army. In the introduction, Sarah Bradford's brother, Reverend Samuel Miles Hopkins makes note that this woodcut was furnished by a Mr. J.C. Darby of Auburn. He also mentions William G. Wise's "generous exertions" in getting the book published. On the last page of the book is published the names of the subscribers (34 of them) and their donations (from $5 to $25). Frederick Douglass' name is not listed among them.

On January 25, 1869, The Springfield Republican, in a 2-column article, announced the publication of the book and printed extracts of it. Significantly, they started with Thomas Garrett's letter to Sarah Bradford which they printed in its entirety. Also included was the Boston Commonwealth’s account of Harriet's raid up the Combahee River with Colonel James Montgomery. Included, too, was the Troy Whig's account of Harriet's rescue of Charles Nalle. The article closed with the following appeal:

This woman of whom you have been reading is poor and partially disabled from her injuries; yet she supports cheerfully and uncomplainingly herself and her aged parents and always has several poor children in her house, who are dependent entirely upon her exertions. At present, she has three of these children for whom she is providing, while their parents are working to pay back money borrowed to bring them on. She also maintains, by her exertions among the good people of Auburn, two schools of Freedmen at the South, providing them teachers and sending them clothes and books. She never asks for anything for herself, but she does ask the charity of the public for "her people. . ."47

Martha Wright, wrote to her husband from Roadside (her sister, Lucretia Mott's house, located on the outskirts of Philadelphia):

Roadside, Jan. 27, 1869
I wish you would hand Mr. Wise $6 and get him to send six copies of Harriet Tubman's life, directed [to] E.M. Davis, 333 Walnut St., for me. Sister L[ucretia] thinks that number will at the [anti- Slavery] Meeting. I sold the copy I bought to Mr. Purvis.

Two months later on the 18th of March as if to celebrate the publication of the book, Harriet Tubman and Nelson Davis got married at the Central Presbyterian Church of Auburn. Reverend Henry Fowler performed the marriage service. Present were the "first families" of Auburn: the Sewards, Osborns, Woods, Chedells, Willards, Seymours, and Steels. The next day a local newspaper carried an extensive account of the affair:

....before a large and very select audience, Harriet Tubman.....took unto herself a husband and made one William Nelson (Nelson Davis) a happy man. Both born slaves, as they grew in years and knowledge recognized the glory of freedom, still later in the eventual struggle they fled from bondage, until finally, by the blessing of Divine Providence, they stood there last evening free, and were joined as man and wife. The audience was large, consisting of the friends of the parties and a large number of the first families of the city. Ladies and gentlemen who were interested in Harriet and who for years had advised and assisted her came to see her married. After the ceremony, Rev. Mr. Fowler made some very touching and happy allusions to their past trials, and the apparently plain sailing the parties now had, when the ceremony ended amid the congratulations of the assembly, and the happy couple were duly embarked on the journey of life. We tender our congratulations to the bride and groom, and may they never see a less happy monment than, when Shimer, that prince of good fellows, spurred on by a prominent Democratic politician of the Third Ward, rushed frantically forward and, in an excited manner, congratulated them on the happy event.48

However, as Earl Conrad was quick to point out, that "prince of good fellows," Anthony Shimer, whom the paper says "rushed frantically forward to congratulate Harriet and Nelson," would be involved with Harriet a few years later in one of the most tragic moments of her life.49 But in the meantime, after their marriage, Harriet and Nelson lived at Harriet's boarding house in Fleming.

Eighteen seventy was apparently a quiet year for Harriet Tubman, a year in which she probably spent just enjoying her new marriage and the publication of her biography. At the end of the book, Sarah Bradford listed the names of thirty-four subscribers and the amount each donated to fund the publication of the book. Among them were William H. Seward, Jr., Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips. The total amount contributed by all of the subscribers listed was $430. Presumably this money, supplemented perhaps by a portion of Nelson's salary as a brick-maker and whatever money she earned from her boarding house and the Fairs, carried Harriet through some of her financial troubles and kept alive her dream of opening a John Brown Home for the needy.

On Wednesday, January 25, 1871, Thomas Garrett died, Harriet's trustworthy benefactor at the last gate before freedom, Wilmington, Delaware. Certainly, the news must have been a blow for Harriet. When all others were referring to themselves with such self-important titles as "President" or "Superintendent" of the Underground Railroad, few could surpass in courage and defiance the deeds of this portly Quaker in behalf of the runaway slave. His home at 227 Shipley Street was an almost holy place of refuge for an estimated 2700 desperate runaway slaves - including Harriet's father and mother.50 Although Garrett never referred to himself as anything more than someone who was doing his duty," he was truly a Station Master on the Underground Railroad. We have no record whether Harriet Tubman ever attended Thomas Garrett's funeral. However, two of Harriet Tubman biographers, Jean M. Humez and Kate Clifford Larson, each state that Harriet’s father, Benjamin Ross, also died “sometime that year,” which may account for her absence.51

Whatever the case, Harriet’s honeymoon with Nelson Davis was over and Harriet was once again pursuing money. As Earl Conrad so aptly pointed out: “Whatever surplus of funds had been left for Harriet from the sale of her biography, after she liquidated her debt to Seward, she was soon bankrupt. Harriet did not know how to administer money;” writes Earl Conrad. “she knew no reason for saving it in a world where her people starved and wanted; and she could not have had her bit of wealth, the most she had ever had, for more than a few months. She sent much of it to her Freedman’s Schools in the South, but mainly the brood that now hung upon her skirts consumed the little treasury. Occasional Negroes still came North, arriving at her door; old abolition friends of color came to her for loans. Latterly, when funds any larger than driblets came to her, friends, Negro and white, insisted on handling them for Harriet’s heart was so large, and her feelings were so easily wrought upon, that it was never wise to give her more than enough for immediate needs.”52 It was because of this perhaps that William H. Seward, in a rare moment, would reproach her saying, “Harriet, you have worked for others long enough. It is time you should think of yourself, I will give it [money] to you, but I will not help you to rob yourself for others.”53

October of 1873 brought forth the "tragedy" in Harriet's life already alluded to. "She allowed herself....to be victimized in a swindle that became a national whisper."54

The following is Martha C. Wright's version of the incident:

Auburn, October 2, 1873
You remember the story about Harriet Tubman's brother asking John Osborne to take $2,000 in gold that a former slave had dug up and give him greenbacks, and for father's advice to John to have nothing to do with it. Various people were applied to - among the rest, Mr. Wood at the Bank. They wished him to go for the gold, but he declined. Someone asked your father's advice again about it, and he said, "better leave such dealings to Shimer." So to Shimer they went, and he and a bank man went to Harriet Tubman's and she went with them some distance further out of town. They waited at a tavern while Harriet took the greenbacks to meet the man at another place, a little farther. They waited a long time and then became uneasy and found Harriet on the ground crawling along, gagged and badly beaten and the money gone. Her hands and feet were tied, but she had got her hands free. They took her to the tavern, but she became insensible and all remains a mystery. It is thought the plan was for Harriet's brother to get the money and then rob him. Everybody was talking about it when your father left.
Martha C. Wright55

Letter from Martha C. Wright to her daughter, Fanny
October 15, 1873
Harriet has nearly recovered from her injuries. Her shoulder and side still lame. It may be an old story but I will try to condense it: Harriet's brother went to John Osborne to tell him that a former slave was here with $2,000 of buried gold which his master had left, and he wanted to exchange it for currency. John consulted your father, or told him about it, and he advised against having anything to do with it. Will Seward, Mr. Wood, and several others were applied to and at last Shimer was induced by the large percentage offered to make the exchange. The man gave the name of Harriet's nephew at the South, and she and her brother had full faith. There was a great deal of mystery. The slave was very timid - wouldn't come into town and could be seen only at night. So Shimer and another man, Harriet and her husband drove off one moonlight evening, stopped at a tavern 6 or 8 miles off, and Harriet was dispatched 1/2 a mile, alone, with the $2,000 greenbacks. Failing to return, they went after her and found her crawling on the ground, gagged and nearly insensible - money gone. She says she walked along with the man till they found the pretended owner of the gold, and they left her by the box while they went for the key. She was alone in the woods till she became alarmed, and knew nothing further. She says she sank down and became insensible. Probably they returned and chloroformed her. She was taken to the tavern and made comfortable as possible, her husband remaining with her. Now she is at home. Of course, the money was all gone and no gold - only a box of stones. She seemed quite moved on meeting Mrs. (Warden?) and me after passing through so much.56

In 1874, Harriet again applied for a pension. On March 30th, Congressman Clinton MacDougall, a Scottish-born Republican from Auburn, introduced HR Bill 2711 "for the relief of Harriet Tubman". The bill passed the House but did not pass the Senate and so was sent to the Committee on War Claims and ordered to be printed.

On June 22nd of that year, New Jersey Congressman John Wright Hazleton of the Committee on War Claims introduced Bill HR 3786 "For the Relief of Harriet Tubman."57 This Bill also did not pass. The message seemed clear: the United States Government was not particularly appreciative of Harriet Tubman's services for the Union Army. No doubt Harriet must have felt badly about this. Not only that, she desired to open a home for the "friendless colored people of Auburn, the John Brown Home." She needed the money. So she had little choice but to go back to Sarah Bradford to see if Mrs. Bradford would put together another edition of her life story. Bradford agreed and wrote the following letter to Frederick Douglass, dated Syracuse, March 21st:

My Dear Sir,
Our wonderful friend, "Harriet Tubman", is engaged in an effort to build a "Home for Friendless Colored People" in Auburn. I saw last week and found that her own home is indeed a home for the friendless as there are at least eight persons for whom she provides entirely, and has done so for years.
You may remember that I wrote her life - or rather a few incidents in her life - a few years ago and left the book to be printed when I went to Europe....She is very anxious to get out another edition of the book so as to aid in building the home, and I am trying to help her.
She asked me last week if I would write to you and ask if you could and would give a lecture for the benefit of this subject so dear to her heart. She says it is her last work, and when this is done she will leave it in the hands of the committee, and then she will be ready to go.
Will you kindly let me know if you can give Harriet any help in her enterprise and ( ) this?
Very truly your friend,
Sarah H. Bradford,
Vanderbuilt House
Syracuse, N.Y.58

We have no record whether Douglass ever replied to this letter or complied with Harriet's wish for him to come to Auburn to give a lecture. However, the second edition was published in 1886, and New York abolitionist Oliver Johnson sent the following letter to Sarah Bradford, which she placed in the preface:

My Dear Madam:
I am very happy to learn that you are about to publish a revised edition of your life of that heroic woman, Harriet Tubman, by whose assistance so many American slaves were enabled to break their bonds.
During the period of my official connection with the Anti-Slavery office in New York, I saw her frequently when she came there with the companies of slaves, whom she had successfully piloted away from the South; and often listened with wonder to the story of her adventures and hair-breadth escapes.
She always told her tale with a modesty which showed how unconscious she was of having done anything more than her simple duty. No one who listened to her could doubt her perfect truthfulness and integrity.
Her shrewdness in planning the escape of slaves, her skill in avoiding arrest, her courage in every emergency, and her willingness to endure hardship and face every danger for the sake of her poor followers was phenomenal.
I regret to hear that she is poor and ill, and hope the sale of your book will give her the relief she so much needs and so well deserves.
Yours truly,
Oliver Johnson59

Sarah Bradford again called upon her brother, Samuel Miles Hopkins, and he wrote the following letter for the preface:

The remarkable person who is the subject of the following sketch has been residing mostly ever since the close of the war in the outskirts of the City of Auburn, during all which time I have been well acquainted with her. She has all the characteristics of the pure African race strongly marked upon her, though from which one of the various tribes that once fed the Barracoons on the Guinea coast she derived her indomitable courage and her passionate love of freedom I know not. Perhaps it was the Fellatas, in whom those traits were predominant.
Harriet lives upon a farm which the twelve hundred dollars given her by Mrs. Bradford from the proceeds of the first edition of this little book entitled her to redeem from a mortgage held by the late Secretary Seward.
Her household is very likely to consist of several old black people, "bad with the rheumatize," some forlorn wandering woman and a couple of small images of God cut in ebony. How she manages to feed and clothe herself and them, the Lord best knows. She has too much pride and too much faith to beg. She takes thankfully, but without any great effusiveness of gratitude, whatever God's messengers bring her.
I have never heard that she absolutely lacked. There are some good people in various [parts] of the country into whose hearts God sends the thought from time to time that Harriet may be at the bottom of the flour sack, or of the potatoes, and the "help in time of need" comes to her.
Harriet's simplicity and ignorance have, in some cases, been imposed upon, very signally in one instance in Auburn, a few years ago; but nobody who knows her has the slightest doubt of her integrity.
The following sketch taken by Mrs. Bradford, chiefly from Harriet's own recollections, which are wonderfully distinct and minute, but also from other corroborative sources, gives but a very imperfect account of what this woman has been.
Her color, and the servile condition in which she was born and reared, have doomed her to obscurity, but a more heroic soul did not breathe in the bosom of Judith or of Jeanne d'Arc.
No fear of the lash, the blood-hound, or the fiery snake could divert her from her self-imposed task of leading as many as possible of her people "from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage".
The book is good literature for the black race or the white race, and though no similar conditions may arise to test the possibilities that are in any of them, yet the example of this poor slave woman may well stand out before them, and before all people - black or white - to show what a lofty and martyr spirit may accomplish, struggling against overwhelming obstacles.60

Two years later, on October 14, 1888 at 6 pm, Harriet's second husband, Nelson Davis, died. The attending physician M.M. Frye, listed the cause of death as "consumption." Nelson was buried at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.

So, added to Harriet's financial troubles was now the loss of her husband. However, Nelson's death did eventually bring some financial remuneration from the government, even though it would be a long time coming. For less than two years after Nelson's death, on June 27, 1890, Congress passed an Act 'granting pensions to soldiers and sailors who are incapacitated for the performance of manual labor and providing for pensions to widows, minor children, and dependent parents." Section 3 of the Act stated, in part:

If any officer or enlisted man who served ninety days or more in the Army or Navy of the United States during the late war of the rebellion, and who was honorably discharged has died, or shall hereafter die, leaving a widow without other means of support than her daily labor, or minor children under the age of sixteen years, such a widow shall, upon due proof of her husband's death, without proving his death to be the result of his Army service, be placed on the pension-roll from the date of the application therefor under this act, at the rate of eight dollars per month during her widowhood.

With the exception of children (she had none), this Act fitted Harriet's circumstances perfectly. So a little more than two weeks later, on July 14th, she paid an Auburn Attorney Orrin McCarty ten dollars to file a declaration for widow's pension on the grounds that she was entitled to a pension as the widow of Nelson Davis. McCarty submitted the declaration along with Nelson Davis' death certificate and a notarized letter from Reverend Charles C. Hemenway of the Central Presbyterian Church of Auburn affirming that Harriet and Nelson were married. The following day (July 15th), two friends, Henry and Maggie Lucus, signed an Affidavit stating that "Harriet had not remarried since the death of her husband, Nelson Davis, and that she was without means of support other than her own manual labor."

The next earliest document we find is dated January 13, 1891. It is a memo sent to the officer in charge of the "Record and Pension Division" requesting the military record of Nelson Davis. Two days later, the office of the "Captain and Assistant Surgeon of the Army" sent back the following reply: "The name of Nelson Davis has not been found on [the] rolls of Co. G, 8th U.S. Colored Infantry."

At this point, Harriet must have realized her mistake. As mentioned previously, Nelson's military records listed him as Nelson Charles, not Nelson Davis.

We have no records of what transpired next, but we may safely assume that the "Department of the Interior" requested Harriet to supply proof of her relationship to Nelson as well as to other matters necessary for her to receive a pension. Harriet went about it. She gathered friends and neighbors of hers and Nelson's and asked them to file affidavits in her behalf. Between February 1891 and January 1895, Harriet and 13 friends filed affidavits giving testimony about Nelson Davis and Harriet. These people, referred to as "witnesses", were instructed in the following:

1st....to state their respective ages and occupation; the length of time they have known the soldier [in this case, Nelson], and in what year or years of the said period they have employed, worked with or for him, or lived in the same neighborhood with him, and how near to him.

2nd....if they knew him before his enlistment, what his physical condition was at that time, that he was then sound and free from disability, and especially free from the diseases for which he claims pension.

3rd....If they have employed or worked with him since his return from the Army, they should state where it was and at what business, or if they have known him as neighbors only, they should state about what distance from him they lived, how frequently, on an average each week, month, or year, they saw him and conversed with him, and how intimate they were with him during this time, and from what disease or disability he has suffered during all the time they employed him, worked with him, or lived near him, and how severely; whether at any time during this period he was obliged to stop work, was confined to his bed or house, or was wholly unable to do any manual labor because of his alleged disabilities, and give dates as near as recollected when such attacks occurred, how long they lasted, and how severe they were. In this connection, if the witnesses have been his employers, or have worked with or for him, they should state about what proportion of a sound able-bodied man's work he was able to do - whether ¼ _. ½. _ ¾, or as the case may have been; what his actual earnings were, and whether or not the wages paid him were less in amount, and how much less on account of his inability to labor, than were paid to others physically sound, and doing the same kind of work. They should also state how they are able to say what his disabilities have been and are now, and they should describe fully and clearly the symptoms as they appear to them in his case: in fact, describe his physical condition fully during each year of their acquaintance with him.

The testimony of these witnesses were signed and notarized by a Clerk of County Court. If the witnesses were unable to write, they marked the affidavit with an X and the affidavit was then witnessed by two persons who could write. From all of these testimonials is gleaned the following information:

1. that Harriet Tubman was born in Cambridge, Dorchester, Maryland
2. that Harriet's maiden name was Araminta Ross (Affidavit 1-1-98)
3. that Harriet previously married John Tubman, a colored man who died or was killed at or near Cambridge, Maryland, on or about September 30, 1867.
4 that John Tubman and Harriet never had any children.
5. that Harriet had known Nelson Davis a little over three years before marrying him (Affidavit 11-10-94).
6. that Harriet Tubman was not a slave at the time of her marriage to Nelson Davis, she having been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
7. that Nelson Davis was not a slave at the time he enrolled in the Army and therefore not a slave at the time of their marriage, he having been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
8. that the Nelson Davis who was married under the name of Charles Nelson Davis was the identical person who served in Company G 8th U.S. Colored Infantry as Nelson Charles
9. that Nelson Davis had no service in the Army after his discharge, November 10, 1865, Brownsville, Texas
10. that Nelson Davis never had any other wife but Harriet Tubman.
11. that Nelson and Harriet never had any children.
12. that Nelson and Harriet lived together until the date of Nelson's death and were never divorced.
13. that Harriet had a horse and lot in the town of Fleming worth about $1,000 upon which there was a mortgage of $200; one cow worth $20, for which she was still in debt; a horse and wagon worth about $27; in debt for groceries, flour, coal, and doctor bill for about $130; that she obtained her subsistence by her own manual daily labor in raising and selling chickens, eggs and pigs. (This financial statement by Harriet was given in her affidavit of 2-1-92. In subsequent affidavits the figures changed, reflecting no doubt a change in her financial situation. (Affidavit 11-10-94; see Horace Cook statement)
14. that there was no one legally bound for Harriet's support.

Harriet Tubman’s fight for a pension covered some 30 years during which she received support from friends and opposition from some politicians, one in particular, W. Jasper Talbert of South Carolina. But “Regardless, a compromise was finally achieved,” writes Catherine Clinton. “Tubman’s pension as a widow would be increased on account of special circumstances. The House authorized raising the amount to $25, while the senate amended to lower this to only $20 – which was finally passed by both houses and signed into law by president William McKinley in February 1899.”61

1. Sarah Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman: (Auburn NY: W. J. Moses, Printer, Introduction by Samuel Miles Hopkins 1869), p., 37
2. Ibid, p., 38
3. See, Earl Conrad, p., 260, Jean M. Humez, Harriet Tubman, the Life and the Life Stories (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003) p., 65, Kate Clifford Larson, Kate Clifford Larson, Bound for the Promised Land, Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero (NY: Random House, a Ballantine Book, 2004) p. 252, and Catherine Clinton, Harriet Tubman: the Road to Freedom, (New York, Boston: Little Brown and Company, 2004). p., 196-97.
4. Charles P. Wood, 1868 Manuscript narrative and copy of Harriet Tubman’s War Service.
5. Sarah Bradford, Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her People: (Gloucester MA: Corinth books, Inc., © 1961, reprint Peter Smith, 1981), p., 78.
6. The Freedman’s Record, Vol I. Boston, March, 1865, no. 3
7. Ibid
8. Geneva Gazette, July 28, 1865
9. Wood is referring to the letter by V.K. Barnes, Surgeon General, in Bradford’s book. Scenes. . .op cit, p., 70.
10. Sarah Bradford, Scenes, op cit, p., 38
11. Wood, op cit
12. Sarah Bradford, Scenes, op cit, p., 65
13. Ibid, p., 46-47
14. Ibid,
15. Sworn Affidavit, signed November 10, 1863, County Court, Cayuga County, New York.
16. Ibid. in this Affidavit, Harriet told C.G. Adams Clerk of County Court, Cayuga County, New York, “I have no knowledge where he [Nelson Davis] enlisted (or was drafted), but I have heard him say it was at Oneida, or Rome, Oneida County, N.Y.
17. Sworn Affidavit, signed May 28, 1892, County Court, Cayuga County, New York
18. Garrison Family Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
19. Ibid
20. Ibid
21. Ibid
22. Ibid
23. Ibid
24. Ibid
25. Ibid
26. Earl Conrad Harriet Tubman, a Biography: (New York: Paul S. Eriksson, Inc.; © 1943, 1969, by Earl Conrad; 2nd pr. 1974)
27. Bradford, Scenes op cit, p.66-67,
28. Cornell University libraries, Ithaca, NY, Dept. of Manuscripts, Hazzard Papers, # 2516.
29. Earl Conrad, op cit, 201-202.
30. National Anti-Slavery Standard, VOL. XXVIII, NO. 30, November 30, 1867; also partly printed in Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, op cit, p., 22-.24.
31. Earl Conrad, op cit, p., 196
32. Baltimore American & Commercial Advertiser, Dec. 23, 1867.
33. Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College., op cit
34. Ibid.
35. Philip Foner, History of Black Americans, p.279,280,457-458
36. (from personal correspondence from Karl Sanford Kabelac - PC #529)
37. Earl Conrad, op cit., p., 204.
38. Karl Sanford Kabelac, "Book Publishing in Auburn, New York 1851-1876, An Introduction to Imprints Bibliography," (Aurora, N.Y. 1969) p.15-16
39. Earl Conrad, op cit p., 204
40. Conrad, 202-203.
41. Sarah Bradford, Scenes, p.64-65
42. Earl Conrad. Op cit, p., 203
43. Boston Public Library, Rare Book Room, Manuscript Division.
44. Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, op cit.
45. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p., 6-8.
46. Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College., op cit
47. Sarah Bradford, op cit., Scenes, p., 103.
48. Conrad, op-cit, p., 206-207
49. Ibid, 207.
50. For a analysis of the number of slaves Thomas Garrett actually assisted see James A. McGowan’s Station Master on the Underground Railroad, the Life and Letters of Thomas Garrett: (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers, 2004, p. 115-128.
51. Jean M. Humez, op cit p.,88, and Kate Clifford Larson, op cit. p., 255.
52. Earl Conrad, op cit, p., 207
53. Bradford, Scenes, op cit., p. 112. For a more complete account of Harriet’s mismanagement of money see also Jean M. Humez, (op cit), “The Struggle over Money Management,” p., 168-172.
54. Ibid
55. For a more complete version of this incident, see Jean M. Humez, op cit, p. 88, and Kate Clifford Larson, p.,255-259
56. Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, op cit.
57. Earl Conrad says this was Congressman Gerry W. Hazelton from Wisconsin, and that it was the 55th Congress. The fact of the matter, however, is that it was the 43rd Congress, and the volume, Who Was Who in America states that Congressman John Wright Hazleton from New Jersey served in the 43rd Congress. Hence I chose John over Gerry.
58. Sophia Smith Collection, op cit.
59. Sarah Bradford, Moses, op cit, P.7-8
60. Ibid, p.,.9-11
61. For a complete account of the settlement see Catherine Clinton, op cit, p. 207-209