Harriet Ross was born into slavery in 1819 or 1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. Considering the names of his two parents, both held in slavery, he was of purely African origins. She was raised in harsh conditions and was subjected to whippings from an early age. He slept by the fire and lived mainly on cornmeal. At the age of 12 she was seriously injured by a blow to the head, inflicted by a white overseer for refusing to help tie up a man who attempted to escape. At age 25 she married John Tubman, a free African American. Five years later, fearing she would be sold to the South, she ran away. Tubman received a piece of paper from a white neighbor with two names and told her how to find the first house on her path to freedom. At the first house she was put on a wagon, covered with a sack and taken to her next destination. Following the road to Pennsylvania, he first settled in Philadelphia, where he met William Still, the Philadelphia stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. With the assistance of Still and other members of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, he learned about the workings of the UGRR. Tubman received a piece of paper from a white neighbor with two names and told her how to find the first house on her path to freedom. At the first house she was put on a wagon, covered with a sack and taken to her next destination. Following the road to Pennsylvania, he first settled in Philadelphia, where he met William Still, the Philadelphia stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. With the assistance of Still and other members of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, he learned about the workings of the UGRR. In 1850, Harriet helped her first slaves escape to the North. He sent a message to his family inviting them to get on a fishing boat. This boat would sail up the Chesapeake Bay where they would meet Harriet at Bodkin's Point. When they arrived at Bodkin's Point, Harriet drove them from shelter to shelter in Pennsylvania until they arrived in Philadelphia. Harriet then made her second trip to Maryland to pick up her brother and two other slaves. In 1850, the same year Harriet became the official conductor of the Under Ground Rail Road. This meant that he knew all the routes to the free territory and had to take an oath of silence so that the secret of the Underground Railroad would remain secret..