Araminta "Minty" Ross
1822 -- 1913
Escape from slavery
In 1849, Tubman became ill again, which diminished her value as a slave. Edward Brodess tried to sell her, but could not find a buyer.[36]Angry at him for trying to sell her and for continuing to enslave her relatives, Tubman began to pray for her owner, asking God to make him change his ways.[37]
She said later: "I prayed all night long for my master till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me."
When it appeared as though a sale was being concluded, "I changed my prayer", she said.
"First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way.'"[38]
A week later, Brodess died, and Tubman expressed regret for her earlier sentiments.[39]
As in many estate settlements, Brodess's death increased the likelihood that Tubman would be sold and her family broken apart.[40] His widow, Eliza, began working to sell the family's slaves.[41]
Tubman refused to wait for the Brodess family to decide her fate, despite her husband's efforts to dissuade her.[42]
"[T]here was one of two things I had a right to", she explained later, "liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other".[43]
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