It was dangerous work – so Tubman carried a gun
Tubman’s work was very dangerous indeed. All along the route of the Underground Railroad, slave-catchers and their dogs looked for runaways. They were armed and ruthless in their methods. While they preferred to capture slaves alive, they would not face prosecution for shooting them. Tubman knew full well the risks. But she carried on with her work anyway. She did, however, carry a gun with her at all times.
Interestingly, however, Tubman revealed that she carried a firearm not just to defend herself from slave-catchers. Rather, her primary reason for being armed was to ensure the slaves she was escorting maintained their discipline, followed her rules and, above all, didn’t quit. As she openly explained, she was prepared to shoot any escaping slave who threatened to give up. She argued: “If he was weak enough to give out, he’d be weak enough to betray us all, and all who had helped us; and do you think I’d let so many die just for one coward man.”
In the end, Tubman never needed to fire her weapon at a ‘cowardly’ slave. Just by carrying it, she earned a reputation as someone not to be messed with. Anyone joining her ‘train’ knew that quitting was simply not an option. There was only one occasion where her patience was truly tested in this way. Tubman told of how one time, a male slave informed the rest of the group that he intended to go back to the plantation. She simply took her gun, pointed it at his head and stated: “You go on or die.” He decided to go on – and within a few days, he and the rest of his party had made it safely into the United Province of Canada.