The Escape of Eliza Harris

Maansi's research about examples of escaping slaves, combined with our research on the story behind Beloved, made me wonder about other well-known novels about slavery that might have been based on real people.  I found out that Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous Uncle Tom's Cabin, which we already talked about in class a couple of weeks ago, was actually based on a real Eliza Harris, who is a character in the novel.  Like Maansi told us, Eliza's story is also one of relationships between mother and children.
Eliza's master was going to sell her only living child, and so Eliza fled with the infant—like Sethe, to the Ohio River.  The river was partially frozen, with blocks of ice floating on the surface.  Eliza waited until nightfall when she heard what she presumed to be slave hunters outside the house she was hiding in.  She then escaped the house.  She got across the river by moving her baby from one piece of ice to the next and pulling herself onto it as well.  Sometimes the block sank under their weight.  Eventually, Eliza thankfully made it across the river, and someone sent her to a rest house and then to a station of the Underground Railroad.
I think it's quite amazing what so many people like Eliza did.  Obviously the fact that they were forced to escape in treacherous conditions was completely awful, but the feat that she was able to accomplish—bringing herself and her child to safety across a frozen river in the dead of night, successfully escaping from slave hunters who had infinitely more resources at their disposal—is just incredible.  It required so much bravery and strength not just of body but also of mind.