Southerners saw slaves as property. Northerners viewed slaves as human beings. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery and never had any rights. She was treated like property and might have, to some extent, viewed herself that way because of circumstances. Freedom gave her many rights she had never known and many possibilities. However, even Northerners did not see African Americans as equals to whites in society. Though Abe Lincoln believed they deserved life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he and other northerners still saw African Americans as inferior, as demonstrated by laws in the North that gave African Americans fewer rights than whites. Still, the northern view that African Americans were entitled to at least certain rights was sure to make people like Harriet Tubman feel freer and more privileged than she ever could have dreamed of being in the South.
