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Benjamin Ross was Harriet Tubman's father. By 1840, Ben, was manumitted, freed from slavery at the age of 45, as stipulated in a former owner's will, though his real age was closer to 55. He continued working as a timber estimator and foreman for the Thompson family, who had held him as a slave.
...As the only woman working in the forests on a timber gang, Harriet Tubman became part of an exclusively male world. Here, beyond the watchful eye of white masters, Tubman's father and others passed along the map of communication networks that were the provenance of black men.... These men communicated with the black mariners whose ships carried the timber to the Baltimore shipyards.... They were part of a larger world, a world beyond the plantation, beyond the woods, to towns and cities up and down the Chesapeake Bay, to Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. They knew the safe places, they knew the sympathetic whites, and, more importantly, they knew the danger. They created an invisible world, a world parallel to the white master's world. A world necessarily unknown, veiled, and secret. - - from Bound for the Promised Land - Copyright © Kate Clifford Larson (1)
Notes
Sources
Ben was "owned" by Anthony Thompson (who eventually married Mary Brodess). Mary Brodess was the "owner" of Harriet "Rit" Green, whom Ben married. Ben was freed from slavery at age 45, as stipulated in the will of his previous owner. He continued to work as a timber estimator and foreman for his former owners, having no other options.
Ben and Rit had nine children, including Harriet (born Araminta) Ross Tubman, famous for her work on the Underground Railroad to help fleeing slaves to safety
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ross-24
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1785
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1808 |
1808
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1811 |
1811
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1813 |
1813
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1816 |
1816
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1822 |
March 1822
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Cambridge, Dorchester, Maryland, United States
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1823 |
1823
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Virginia, United States
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1825 |
1825
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1830 |
1830
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1832 |
1832
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