The Breaktaking Courage of Araminta Ross aka Harriet Tubman

March 1822^[1] – March 10, 1913

 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]