Page "Harriet Tubman" Paragraph 10

One day, the adolescent Tubman was sent to a dry-goods store for supplies.

There, she encountered a slave owned by another family, who had left the fields without permission.

His overseer, furious, demanded that Tubman help restrain the young man.

She refused, and as the slave ran away, the overseer threw a two-pound weight at him.

He struck Tubman instead, which she said " broke my skull ".

She later explained her belief that her hair – which " had never been combed and ... stood out like a bushel basket " – might have saved her life.

Bleeding and unconscious, Tubman was returned to her owner's house and laid on the seat of a loom, where she remained without medical care for two days.

She was sent back into the fields, " with blood and sweat rolling down my face until I couldn't see.

" Her boss said she was " not worth a sixpence " and returned her to Brodess, who tried unsuccessfully to sell her.

She began having seizures and would seemingly fall unconscious, although she claimed to be aware of her surroundings while appearing to be asleep.

These episodes were alarming to her family, who were unable to wake her when she fell asleep suddenly and without warning.

This condition remained with Tubman for the rest of her life ; Larson suggests she may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy as a result of the injury.