Page:A history concerning the pension claim of Harriet Tubman.djvu/6

 who still survive at a very advanced age entirely dependent on her.

During the service of more than three years. Harriet states that she received from the Gov’t only two hundred dollars ($200) of pay. This was paid her at or near Beaufort, and with characteristic indifference to self—she immediately devoted that sum to the erection of a wash-house, in which she spent a portion of her time in teaching the freed women to do washing—to aid in supporting themselves instead of depending wholly on Gov’t aid. During her absence with an important expedition in Florida this washhouse was destroyed or appropriated by a Reg’t of troops fresh from the north to make shelter for themselves but without any compensation whatever to Harriet. When she first went to Beaufort she was allowed to draw rations as an officer or soldier, but the freed people becoming jealous of this privilege accorded her—she voluntarily relinquished this right and thereafter supplied her