Harriet Tubman photograph and advertisement

Harriet Tubman photograph and advertisement

Underground Railroad

Advertisement announces the launch of the S.S. Harriet Tubman, a liberty ship, on June 3, 1944.

MSS116AV BOX66 F03 012

Nick Kelly

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Columbus (Ohio)

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Page 1:

NEW ENGLAND SHIPBUILDING CORPORATION
South Portland, Maine
and the
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NEGRO WOMEN, INC.
1318 Vermont Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C.
Announce the Launching of the
SS. "Harriet Tubman"
At South Portland, Maine
June 3, 1944, at 9 A. M.
'Named for the organizer of the Underground Railroad, through
which thousands of slaves escaped to freedom.
Harriet E. Tubman, "The Moses of Her People"
December, 1820—March 10, 1913

Page 2:

AN AMERICAN HEROINE
TODAY, as we read of the efforts and sacrifices being made by Negro women in the
present world crisis, we are reminded of the great services rendered by Harriet
Tubman, a heroine of an earlier war. The story of her life and experiences are interest¬
ingly told in a book written by Earl Conrad.
Harriet Tubman is the patron saint of millions of Negro people. She was born a
slave, probably in the year 1820 in Bucktown, Dorchester County, Maryland, and never
had a day of schooling. At an early age she knew what it was to have a mistress, and
to labor day and night. Overcoming physical weaknesses caused by malnutrition and a
serious injury received early in life, she became one of the great engineers of the
Underground Railroad.
Her marriage to John Tubman, a free Negro, gave her some contact with the
privilege of freedom, and aroused her curiosity about legal questions. She investigated
her own status and to her dismay found that her own mother had been freed but never
informed of her freedom. This slaveholder's deliberate trick deepened her urge "to find
a way out of this whole military and legal system."
Her flight to freedom occurred in the year 1849. The following year she returned to
Baltimore and in the face of many dangers, returned with her sister and two children.
This was the beginning of a series of abductions, in which she outwitted forces of the
law, the slave agents, the bloodhounds and the Press. Once Harriet Tubman thrilled to
the new-found emotion of freedom, there developed in her an urge toward champion¬
ship of others, which became the unceasing work of her life.
The thrilling episodes in the life story of Harriet Tubman are many. She was "pos¬
sibly the first American woman to visit or work on the battlefields of the Civil War.
Her earliest war work was nursing the sick Negro men and women who poured into the
Union encampment. The medicine she prepared from certain roots saved the lives of
many men. She nursed hundreds who were seized with smallpox and malignant fevers."
Through the influence of Governor Andrews of Massachusetts, Harriet Tubman
became a spy assigned to the Department of the South. The intelligence service was
under her direction.
In this work, an organized group of scouts and river pilots learned the whereabouts,
movements, strength and weaknesses of the enemy. The celebrated raid on the Combahee
has been attributed to the leadership of Harriet Tubman. Thus as a spy and as a nurse
she had her share in the successful outcome for the Northern forces in the Civil War.
Returning to Auburn, N. Y., where her aged parents resided and where she had
decided to make her home, she continued to aid the sick, homeless and hungry. She
raised funds for the maintenance of schools for freedmen of the South, and eventually
established a Home for the Aged and Indigent in Auburn. In this same home she spent
her remaining days until her death on March 10, 1913.
The citizens of Auburn erected a public monument to the memory of Harriet Tub¬
man, as a tribute to her faithful services to the Nation, during the Civil War, and to
her own people in the cause of freedom. Harriet Tubman will be remembered as one of
the greatest heroines in American history.

Page 3:

PURPOSE
United States Maritime Commission has named a Liberty Ship
in the honor of Harriet Tubman. This Liberty ship which
will be used in the war service of the Nation, will be launched
at Smith Portland, Maine, on or about May 30.
The National Council of Negro Women, Inc.
"United We Build a Tree World"
THE National Council of Negro Women, Incorporated, was organized in December,
193 5, as a non-partisan organization by Mary McLeod Bethune and a group of
women who realized the need for united and cooperative action among Negro women.
The Council, through its member organizations representing church, fraternal, indus¬
trial, professional, educational and civic groups, embraces thousands of Negro women.
It is affiliated with the National Council of Women of the U. S. and through this, with
the International Council of Women of the World.
Recently the members of the Council purchased a building in Washington to house
the national headquarters. This building is being dedicated as a shrine to Negro
Womanhood.
The Council's program, is directed to those vital issues affecting its members in their
roles as women, as Negroes and as citizens. The Council is a force for action. It educates
Negro women in their rights and responsibilities; and stimulates intelligent, unified
activity. It interprets the problems and aspirations of Negro women. It co-ordinates and
builds programs of action for better intra-racial, inter-racial and international relation¬
ships. It disseminates information on the joint activities of women in communities in all
parts of the country through its national affiliates and their local branches organized
into Metropolitan Councils.
Its general program covers employment, public affairs, youth, family life, religion,
consumer education and citizenship. It directs its whole strength to gain full citizenship
and to eliminate every restriction to a complete participation in American life.
Its primary objectives are: To draw together all American women in a spirit of better
understanding so that through common action they can solve their mutual problems;
and to keep up its fight for democracy for all peoples of the world.
Membership is open to any woman who joins in the purpose and subscribes to the
pledge:
"To make a lasting contribution to all that is finest and best in America
so that her heritage of freedom and progress will be infinitely enriched by
the integration of twelve million Negroes into the economic, social, cul¬
tural, civic, and political life of this country and thus achieve the glorious
destiny of a true and unfettered democracy."

Page 4:

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
May 17, 1944.
I am happy to learn that the United States Maritime
Commission has named a Liberty s.hip in honor of Mrs.
Harriet Tubman. This is a fitting honor to a distinguished
woman. This liberty ship will carry war materials to our
fighting men in all parts of the world where they will be
used in defense of those principles that Mrs. Tubman
sought to establish and which American women now, re¬
gardless of race, color, or creed are determined to see
through to victory. I wish for the National Council of
Negro Women and the members of Mrs. Tubman's family
success in this important undertaking.