Christmas & Abolitionism With Professor Sinha on Black History University, powered by The Gist Of Freedom. 

The story of “The Christmas Escape 1854" begins on Christmas Eve, when Tubman arrived on Poplar Neck to lead her brothers Ben, Robert, and Henry Ross to freedom. They were scheduled to be sold on the auction block the day after Christmas. ~ Artist Mark Priest 

Gerrit Smith, who spoke before the Vigilance Association of New York, relayed this advice, "When you are escaping take all along your route, in the free as well as the enslaved states, so long as it is absolutely essential to your escape; the horse, the boat, the food, the clothing you require, and feel no compunction for the justifiable appropriation than does the drowning man for possessing himself a plank that floats his way."  Henrietta Buckmaster "Let My People Go"

---------

According to William Still, this was Harriet Tubman’s last trip south.

WILMINGTON, 12th mo., 1st, 1860.

RESPECTED FRIEND, WILLIAM STILL:— I write to let thee know that Harriet Tubman is again in these parts. She arrived last evening from one of her trips of mercy to God’s poor, bringing two men with her as far as New Castle [Delaware]. I agreed to pay a man last evening, to pilot them on their way to Chester county; the wife of one of the men, with two or three children, was left some thirty miles below, and

 I gave Harriet ten dollars, to hire a man with carriage, to take them to Chester county. She said a man had offered [his services] for that sum......

Thy Friend,

THOMAS GARRETT.

N.B. We hope all will be in Chester county to-morrow.