[RummyChick]

She is estimated to be in her 40s here pictured with other former slaves. If this was today you would think 70s or 80s.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That is a fascinating photograph, isn’t it? I’d love to hear the stories from each of those people.

[mass55th]

She was kicked in the head by a horse or mule while she was still a slave. The last house she lived in is in Auburn, New York...same city that William H. Seward's house is in. Went to both of them when I was living there. I met a great niece of hers when I'd gone back to the historical society in Auburn to do research. According to her great-niece, Harriet was instrumental in founding the A.M.E. Zion Church in Auburn. Harriet is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery as is the Seward family. So is Myles Walter Keogh, who was killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn, and Civil War Brigadier General Emory Upton.

Harriet was in South Carolina during the Civil War working with Colonel James Montgomery who commanded the 2nd South Carolina Regiment (USCT). George Thompson Garrison, son of abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, was an officer in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry, the 2nd black regiment from that state. I found excerpts of his diary at Cornell University while researching the 55th. They were in a collection of Burt Greene Wilder, who had been the Assistant Surgeon of the unit. In early February 1864, Garrison made a notation of having run into Harriet while on Folly Island, S.C.: "She took me greatly by surprise when I entered by giving me a hearty embrace, flinging both her arms about me. Till this morning, I was not aware she was upon the island. She says she has been here three months."