Was harriet tubman ancestry full african?

Question

Was harriet tubman ancestry full african?

Answer 1

The answer is a qualified probably not--Harriet Tubman's mother may have been the daughter of a white man, but her maternal grandmother, Modesty, arrived on a slave ship from Africa.  Harriet, born Araminta ("Minty" Ross) was one of nine children born to Harriet ("Rit") Green and Ben Ross, who married around 1808.

Answer 2

Her parents (Ben and Henrietta "Rit" Ross) were listed as black in the 1850 Census (by which time they had both been given their freedom); had they been light-skinned they would have been listed as 'mulatto'.

Henrietta is known to have been the daughter of an African slave (i.e. from Africa) called Modesty who would have been Harriet's grandmother,  but the identity of Rit's father is unknown (there are unsubstantiated rumors he was white).  Nothing is known of Ben Ross's parents (Harriet's paternal grandparents).  Both of her parents were born in slavery and the census did not record the names of slaves so there is no mention of them before 1840, and even if either or both had white blood it would not have been recorded who the father was.

So the answer is, "who knows?"  All that is known for certain is that neither she nor her parents were particularly light-skinned and that her maternal grandmother was born in Africa.   Had one or even two of her grandfathers been white she may still have been dark skinned, or she could have been 100% African.  The majority of African-Americans DO have a European ancestor in the last 400 years, but she obviously did not know (or at least did not mention) any white ancestors if she had them.