Harriet
Tubman on Amelia Island
By
Gray Edenfield
It’s hard to separate fact from fiction
when it comes to many historical figures. Great people often make for great
stories. As time goes on, small facts and details often become the casualties of
a person’s mythic status. Harriet
Tubman’s mission to Fernandina is a perfect example. Known as, “the Moses of
her people,” Tubman is an icon of American history, well remembered for her
work with the Underground Railroad. But many people are not aware that leading
slaves to freedom was only one of the ways that Harriet contributed to
emancipation. She believed in the cause of freedom with total conviction, and
was willing to do whatever was necessary to see the end of slavery during her
lifetime, which led her to serve the Union Army in a variety of roles during
the Civil War.
Sometimes during the transition from
living, breathing human-being to folk hero, a person’s actual deeds can get
lost in the translation. But if you push
aside all the tall-tales and embellishments that have been tacked on to the
story over the course of a century, in this case you will find a truly
remarkable woman who was able to accomplish amazing feats in her lifetime, some
of which are more famous than others.
In
her authorized biography, Harriet mentions that during the Civil War, the Union
commander of Amelia Island asked her to come to Fernandina to nurse Union
soldiers through an outbreak of dysentery. The details of her time here elude
us. We’re not certain if she attended to soldiers at Fort Clinch, or if she moved
among the several batteries on the Island that were manned by African American
soldiers, like Fort Naglee. Either or both is possible. But to put the
significance of her journey here into context, it would help to have some
understanding of the incredible life that she led.
Araminta Harriet Tubman was born to
enslaved parents in Bucktown, Maryland, sometime in the early 1820s. As a
child, she was often hired out by her master to work for other families. Early
in her teen years, Harriet suffered a head injury that would plague her for the
rest of her life, causing seizures and sudden episodes of narcolepsy.
Around
1844, Harriet married a free black man named John Tubman. In 1849, Harriet
escaped alone to Philadelphia (her husband refused to join her), and began to
plan trips back to Maryland to free members of her family and friends. Over the
next eleven years she made more than a dozen trips back into Maryland, leading
around 70 slaves to freedom, including her three brothers and much of their
families. Tubman was also a friend and collaborator of abolitionist John Brown.
During
the Civil War, Tubman served the Union Army as a nurse, cook, spy and scout.
She used her experience traveling in secret with the Underground Railroad to
help the Union Army map unfamiliar terrain and gather reconnaissance. Tubman
provided key intelligence that aided in the capture of Jacksonville, by Union
forces in 1862. The
war also brought Harriet Tubman to Amelia Island. Harriet’s obituary, printed in the Auburn Citizen (the local newspaper in
her adopted hometown of Auburn, NY) mentions that her success in curing
dysentery with native herbs became so well known by army surgeons, the War
Department sent her to Fernandina. Unfortunately, this single statement
recorded by Harriet’s friend and first biographer, Sarah H. Bradford, is all
that we have to go on. Harriet didn’t elaborate any further on her time in
Fernandina, but her presence here would make perfect sense given her activities
from 1862-1864.
We know that she was
actively scouting in the area because of a letter written on her behalf by
General David Hunter, which mentions her being in Beaufort, and Hilton Head,
South Carolina. The letter named Harriet Tubman herself as its bearer, and guaranteed
her passage on any government transport to go wherever she wished to go, and to
take whatever goods she needed from the Dept. of the South commissary. The note
also describes her as “a valuable woman.”
Harriet’s skills as a healer are
corroborated by Henry R. Durrant, an Assistant Surgeon in the US Army, who said:
“I certify that I have been
acquainted with Harriet Tubman for nearly two years, and my position as Medical
officer in charge of ‘contrabands’ in this town, and in hospitals, has given me
frequent and ample opportunity to observe her general deportment, particularly
her kindness and attention to the sick and suffering of her own race. I take
much pleasure in testifying hereby to the esteem in which she is generally
held.”
It is well documented that Tubman spent
time attached to the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first
African American unit to be mustered into the Union Army (later re-designated
the 33rd United States Colored Troops). On January 26, 1863, the 1st
South Carolina became the first African American troops to land on Amelia
Island. We do not know if Harriet came to Fernandina with the 1st
South Carolina Volunteers or if she travelled here on her own – though it is
believed she came here in 1863. There
are diaries written by Union soldiers posted on the island at that time that
give a passing mention of her arrival here. None of these contain any specifics
about the time she spent here.
One of the most frustrating parts of
studying history is that we’re often left pining for more details. In the modern
technological age, where people have become so accustomed to documenting every
aspect of their day, we forget that people living in the times we study had
wars to fight, families to protect, and lives to lead. Many things which seem
so desperately important to us now would have been minutiae to them. We
want to know everything we possibly can on a given subject, however sometimes the
sources simply aren’t there to be found.
Unfortunately, this is the case when it
comes to Harriet Tubman’s time on Amelia Island. Do we know exactly where she
ate, slept, and worked? No. What we do know is that she was a woman of intense courage and dedication to the
cause of freedom, and that she willingly took on whatever role was necessary to
achieve emancipation. We also know that her work brought her here, and that
small role in the nascence of freedom in this country is something that
Fernandina can be proud of.
Gray Edenfield
Education Director
Amelia Island Museum of History
