Harriet Tubman (c. 1822 - 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist who escaped slavery and became the best-known conductor on the Underground Railroad. [1] After reaching freedom, she made repeated journeys back into slaveholding territory to rescue enslaved family members and others, guiding them north along a secret network of safe houses. [1] During the American Civil War she worked for the Union Army as a cook, nurse, scout, and armed spy, and in later life she became active in the movement for women's suffrage. [2]
Early life and slavery
Tubman was born into slavery around 1822 in Dorchester County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, and was given the name Araminta Ross. [1] As a child she was hired out to other households and subjected to harsh treatment. In her early teens she suffered a severe head injury when an overseer threw an iron weight that struck her, an event that caused lifelong headaches, seizures, and vivid visions she later interpreted as religious experiences. [1]
Escape and the Underground Railroad
In 1849 Tubman fled slavery, traveling roughly ninety miles by night to reach Pennsylvania, where slavery had been abolished. [1] Rather than remain safely in the North, she returned to Maryland again and again over the following decade to lead relatives and other enslaved people to freedom. Working through the Underground Railroad, a clandestine web of routes and sympathetic households, she is credited with guiding dozens of people out of bondage. [2] Her determination and secrecy earned her the biblical nickname Moses, and she reportedly never lost a person she was leading. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 forced her to extend many journeys all the way to Canada. [1]
Civil War service
When the Civil War broke out, Tubman offered her skills to the Union cause. She served as a nurse and cook and, drawing on her knowledge of covert travel, became a scout and spy. [2] In 1863 she helped guide the Combahee River raid in South Carolina, an operation that liberated hundreds of enslaved people, making her among the first women to help lead an armed military expedition in the war. [1]
Later life and legacy
After the war Tubman settled in Auburn, New York, where she cared for family members and supported the poor and elderly, eventually establishing a home for the aged. [3] She also joined the campaign for women's suffrage, speaking alongside prominent activists. She died in 1913 and was buried with military honors. [1] Tubman is remembered as an enduring symbol of resistance to slavery and of the pursuit of freedom and equality, and she has been honored through halls of fame, monuments, and a planned redesign of United States currency. [3]
