Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

She was just five feet tall. There was once a $40,000 bounty on her head. She suffered seizures throughout her life.

She never gave up. She never gave in. She defied men. She defied governments. She defied slavery and slave catchers. Her name was Harriet Tubman. And she was. She is a legendary figure in history. She once said, quote, I had reasoned this out in my mind. Here was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If I could not

have one, I would have the other. Tubman's birth name was Armenta Ross. She was born into slavery

sometime between 1819 and 1823 on the eastern shore of Maryland. Later on, when she married, she changed her first

name to Harriet, her mother's name, and took her husband's last name. When she was about 13,

she refused to help a slave overseer capture a runaway. The overseer threw a two-pound lead

weight at the runaway. The weight hit Tubman in the head, splitting her skull.

Tubman was unconscious two or three days and would continue to suffer chronic seizures the rest of her life.

The injury caused sleeping spells or narcolepsy, which would cause her to drop into a deep sleep anywhere and at any time of the day. The slave owner tried to sell her as damaged property

but failed. Imagine that. Damaged property. The slave owner tried to sell her again when she was

26. She prayed that God would kill him. A week later, he was dead. Don't mess with Harriet Tubman.

In 1844, she married a free black man.

It was not a typical marriage by any current standard

because she spent so much of the time worried she'd be sold to another plantation.

That was a common occurrence in those days,

and one that would separate her from her husband.

Tubman figures she had only one option, run.

She couldn't convince her husband to leave with her, so she escaped with two of her brothers.

Her brothers, though, ultimately became frightened and turned back.

But Harriet continued her journey, traveling 90 miles by foot, crossing Delaware and arriving in Pennsylvania.

She was free.

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