harriet tubman body biography

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Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman has been known by many names—Araminta, Moses, conductor, daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt. All encompass the intersecting identities and experiences that Harriet Tubman encompassed over her lifespan. In March 2022, on the bicentennial of her birth, we look beyond these names to capture not only Harriet Tubman the icon, but Harriet the woman, and Harriet’s legacy of care, activism and bravery that influenced Black women across time.

Objects related to Harriet’s life highlight her impact on her contemporaries—such as the shawl gifted to her by Queen Victoria to acknowledge her international impact. Personal objects like her hymnal reveal her domestic life as a wife and mother, and the devout religious beliefs that inspired her to “conduct” hundreds of African Americans to freedom from bondage.

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In the years after her death in 1913, Harriet became a feminist icon for Black women’s organizations, and Black women artists including Betye Sarr, Alison Saar, Bisa Butler, Faith Ringgold and Elizabeth Catlett saw in Harriet the inspiration for the courage and creativity to document the struggle for equality as Black and as women. A pioneer in what it means to be regarded as an icon, Harriet Tubman served as a physical manifestation of liberation for many. On the bicentennial of her birth, this dynamic woman of many trades continues to be revered as an American hero and a symbol of freedom.

Carte-de-visite portrait of Harriet Tubman, 1868–69. Photograph by Benjamin F. Powelson.

Best known as the enslaved woman who brought emancipation to anyone who crossed her path, the legacy of Harriet Tubman’s lifework has inspired countless people across generations and geographic locations. Tubman was born into chattel slavery as Araminta “Minty” Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822. Tubman was put into labor at an early age, and by the age of ten, she was hired out as a woodcutter, pest trapper and field worker. She preferred these jobs over domestic tasks in the “big house” under the scrutiny of her white mistress. Tubman’s strength of character was visible at this early stage. At age twelve, her intervention in a violent exchange between an overseer and a fugitive slave left her with substantial injuries.

After being struck on the head with a large iron weight, Tubman began suffering from severe headaches and a chronic sleep disorder called narcolepsy. In addition to her sudden attacks of sleep, she also experienced vivid religious dreams and hallucinations throughout her life. This injury left her anything but impaired. 

In her final years on the plantation before escaping, Tubman became a familiar figure in the fields. A primed field hand, she was described as a “small, muscular woman” standing at 4’11”, yet carrying half cords of wood like any other man in the fields. She was often seen with her skirt looped around her waist and a vividly colored bandanna tied around her head.

In Harriet Tubman I Helped Hundreds to Freedom , 1946–47; printed 1989. Created by Elizabeth Catlett. 2017.21.7

In Harriet Tubman I Helped Hundreds to Freedom

This 1946–47 linocut expresses the major themes that connect the large body of work Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) produced during her lifetime: race and feminism.  Her medium of choice changed from sculpture to printmaking after moving to Mexico to join the leftist art collective, the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP). Catlett’s artistry and politics inspired her linocuts featuring prominent Black people and themes. Much of the work she produced during her time in Mexico reflected the radical, worker-centered activism of the TGP and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

This linocut of Harriet Tubman from the series " The Black Woman (formerly the Negro Woman) " reveals Catlett’s desire to explore these major issues through the lens of Black women. We see Tubman in the simple attire that reflects the homespun clothing of enslaved women and the Black women sharecroppers of the 1940s, which collapses the historical narrative to show how long Black women have struggled against oppression. Tubman’s sinewy arm points towards freedom for the hundreds of Black people who come behind her, pointing to her strength and the weariness of the labor of this long journey.

God’s time [Emancipation] is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free. Harriet Tubman to Ednah Dow Cheney New York City, ca. 1859

During this period, the dream of freedom had spread across antebellum plantations and Tubman’s visions were no different. First, her father was set free when she was about eighteen, and then she also learned that the last will of her previous owner manumitted Tubman’s family. However, her new owner refused to acknowledge this and Tubman’s mother, Tubman herself and her siblings remained in bondage.

Her desire for freedom only grew over the years, particularly after marrying John Tubman, a freedman. The threat of her family’s separation and her difficult marriage forced Tubman to take action. On September 17, 1849, Tubman and her two brothers set out to escape the plantation, heading north. Her brothers soon turned back, and Tubman completed her journey alone with the help of the Underground Railroad on the nearly hundred-mile journey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But her dreams of flying over corn and cotton, the North Star beckoning, did not end with her finding liberty.

Between 1850 and 1860, Tubman made over a dozen journeys across the Mason-Dixon line, guiding family and friends from slavery to freedom. During this time, her captaincy earned her the nickname “Moses," after the religious leader. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress created a more dangerous journey for any enslaved person traveling northbound. With the government compelling northern law enforcement to now capture free Black Americans, Tubman’s strategies as a conductor became more militant and she began carrying a firearm for protection.

I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger. Harriet Tubman Suffrage Convention, New York, 1896

Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine: The Saga of Harriet Tubman, "The Moses of Her People," Vol. 2, 1967. Published by Fitzgerald Publishing Co. 2019.22.12

The Saga of Harriet Tubman, "The Moses of Her People"

The Golden Legacy Illustrated History Magazine is a graphic novel series published by Bertram A. Fitzgerald. These graphic novels were produced between 1966 and 1976 to “ implant pride and self-esteem in black youth while dispelling myths in others. ” “We believe this can be accomplished through our visual presentation of worldwide achievements in an effortless and enjoyable manner with a magazine which can be widely distributed.”

This issue about Harriet Tubman was written by Joan Bacchus Maynard , an artist, community organizer and preservationist who was a member of the grassroots organization to save Weeksville, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, founded by free African Americans. Tubman is depicted on the cover as a fierce and courageous figure, and the danger of her work as conductor is palpable in the rifle she carries to protect herself and those she leads to freedom.

Through her friendship with fellow abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Tubman created her own network within the Underground Railroad. After a decade as a conductor, Tubman was called to action when the American Civil War began in 1861. She proved herself resourceful as a nurse, and she treated Union soldiers and fugitive African Americans alike using the medicinal value of native plants, a skill she learned as a young, enslaved woman working in the woods. After just two years of service, Harriet was tasked with moving behind enemy lines to gather intelligence from a web of informants. First a nurse, laundress and cook, now a spy and scout, Harriet Tubman also became the first woman in US history to lead a military expedition when she led Black troops in the Combahee River Raid in South Carolina in 1863.

I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me. Harriet Tubman to Sarah Bradford Harriet, The Moses of Her People (1886)

Despite her renown and her heroism, Tubman was only paid $200 for the entirety of her service—less than half of what her white male counterparts received monthly. Additional compensation from the government came several decades later in the form of a pension as the widow of Nelson Davis, a Black union soldier she married after the war rather than for her own service. After the introduction of a bill by a Republican congressmember to grant Tubman a pension, President William McKinley later signed a bill granting Tubman a pension for her role as an Army nurse. Financial issues throughout the remainder of her life did not stop Tubman from lending her service to anyone in need. In 1896, on the land adjacent to her home, Harriet’s open-door policy flowered into the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged and Indigent Colored People, where she spent her remaining years until her death in 1913. This home, located in Auburn, New York, a city about an hour outside of Syracuse and near Seneca Falls—the recognized birthplace of American feminism and women’s rights—became a site of pilgrimage for African Americans.

Angela Tate, Curator at the National Museum of African American History and Culture gives a deeper look into objects related to Harriet Tubman's life.

Postcard for the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged

Pinback button for the Harriet Tubman Home

Brick from the Harriet Tubman Home

The NMAAHC bridges the connection between emancipation and modern-day freedom struggles in the collection of Harriet Tubman’s personal effects. In 2009, Charles L. Blockson, a historian and expert on the Underground Railroad, donated to the Museum a collection of items relating to Harriet Tubman’s life and legacy that were collected and given to him by Tubman’s descendants. Items such as a fork and knife from the Tubman household demystify and ground Tubman, giving her a sense of personhood.

Knife and fork from the Tubman household, 1870s.

Apron owned by Harriet Tubman, 1870–1913.

Handkerchief owned by Harriet Tubman, 1870s–1913.

The legacy of Harriet Tubman holds multitudes. Myths and legends about her acts of valor on the Underground Railroad have inspired artists to retrace her courage and skill in works of art. Tubman’s name readily evokes the image of strength (as seen in the christening of a cargo ship named after her in World War II ) and the complexities of being a Black woman—a pillar of courage to the public and a place of refuge for one’s family, friends and community.

Gospel Hymns No. 2 , 1876. Personal hymnal of Harriet Tubman. 2009.50.25

Harriet Tubman was a hero and icon during her lifetime and afterwards. Objects in the Museum's collection tell the story of her life at home with family and the accolades she received from the public. Her personal piety formed the basis of her pursuit of freedom and to go back and conduct others to freedom. Tubman’s small 8 x 5 inch hymnal is inscribed with the names of its two owners: Harriet Tubman and her great-niece Eva Northup. Though Tubman never learned to read, her spiritual beliefs were strengthened by the hymns and spirituals associated with African American uplift and freedom. Tubman’s favorite hymn was “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” a hymn associated with the hidden messages between conductors on the Underground Railroad and the bondspeople traveling through it. The importance of this hymn to Tubman’s legacy is present in Alison Saar’s sculpture titled after the song.

Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial, 2007. Created by Alison Saar. 2011.63

Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial

Alison Saar (b. 1956), is a Los Angeles-based sculptor and mixed media artist who focuses on women and the African diaspora. This sculpture is titled after a Negro spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” which expresses a longing for a return to heaven. But it could also be a song of liberation, where the lyrics held coded messages that told of when Underground Railroad conductors like Harriet Tubman would arrive to assist in stealing away to freedom. This is a small-scale version of Saar’s 13 feet tall monument to Harriet Tubman that stands in Harriet Tubman Memorial Plaza, in south Harlem at St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard at West 122nd Street. Saar depicts Tubman "not as the conductor of the Underground Railroad, but as the train itself, an unstoppable locomotive.” Tubman’s forward motion tears up the roots of slavery. The skirt of her dress holds chains, knives, glass bottles and the faces of those she led to freedom.

Interview with Alison Saar, the artist who created "Swing Low: A Memorial to Harriet Tubman" at West 122nd Street, St. Nicholas Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Photograph album owned by Emily Howland showing the last page featuring a photograph of Harriet Tubman.

In 2017, the common image of Harriet Tubman—that of an elderly woman in a white shawl—was forever changed with the discovery of a never-before-seen photograph of Tubman from the late 1860s at the back of a photo album owned by Emily Howland. Howland was a philanthropist, suffragist and educator who was also active in abolitionist circles. In 2017, her photo album was acquired jointly by the NMAAHC and the Library of Congress. Of the nearly fifty photographs of abolitionists, educators and statesmen included in the albums pages, there was the newly discovered photograph of Harriet Tubman. The carte-de-visite portrait of Harriet Tubman was taken in Auburn, New York, when Tubman was in her mid-forties. This image of Tubman at the height of her powers is especially interesting when noting how stylish she appears to be. She drapes her ruffled arm gracefully across a chair and the other rests on her checked skirt and she appears solemn yet assured.

I Go To Prepare A Place For You , 2021. Created by Bisa Butler. 2021.38

I Go To Prepare A Place For You

Bisa Butler, an artist who uses textiles and quilting to share stories of African American history and culture, used Benjamin Powelson's portrait of Tubman from the Howland Album to recreate her vibrancy and strength. The quilt’s symbolism displays Tubman's need to conceal herself, her personality, and to express her religious beliefs. According to Butler , the sunflower motif is intended to “acknowledge Harriet Tubman’s reliance (and that of many people escaping slavery) on the North Star to help point the way towards freedom. The sun is also a star, and the sunflower symbolizes that guiding light. The sunflower is known as a spiritual and devotional flower because they follow the sun as it moves from East to West in the sky. The sunflowers appear to worship the sun and I use that to indicate Tubman’s devout faith.”

Portraits of Harriet Tubman in the NMAAHC collection document her as a woman, as a wife and mother, and as a caretaker. Observing these images of Tubman at different stages of her life provides further context for her story and legacy. These images give the famed Underground Railroad conductor a more tangible connection to the significant role of Black women’s activism and highlights the way images shape how we remember important Black women.

Harriet Tubman, 1871–76; printed later. Photograph by Harvey B. Lindsley.

Postcard of Harriet Tubman, Nelson Davis, and daughter Gertie, ca. 1887; printed later. Photograph by William Haight Cheney.

Albumen print of Harriet Tubman, ca. 1908; printed ca. 1920. Photograph by Tarby Studios.

Photographic postcard of Harriet Tubman, 1911–12; printed 1917–30.

The NMAAHC shares the story of Harriet Tubman through its collections relating to her life, her activism, her strength and her community. The materials here provide a second glance at what we think we know and celebrate about Tubman on the 200th anniversary of her birth.

Browse Objects in the NMAAHC Collection Relating to Harriet Tubman

Written by Angela Tate, Curator of Women’s History, and Romya-Jenevieve Jerry, Annie Bell Shepherd Curatorial Intern in African American Women’s History Published on March 4, 2022

https://www.militarytimes.com/military-honor/black-military-history/2018/02/07/general-tubman-female-abolitionist-was-also-a-secret-military-weapon/

http://www.harriet-tubman.org/

https://nmaahc.si.edu/about/news/album-previously-unknown-photo-young-harriet-tubman-go-public-view-first-time

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/combahee-ferry-raid

Share Your Story 

Because of Harriet, we understand there is always a path forward. Because of Harriet, we are empowered to be bold and confident against all odds. As you reflect on Tubman’s life and legacy, share who you are because of Harriet on social media using #HiddenHerstory.

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Harriet Tubman

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 20, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, leading enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War, all while carrying a bounty on her head. But she was also a nurse, a Union spy and a women’s suffrage supporter. Tubman is one of the most recognized icons in American history and her legacy has inspired countless people from every race and background.

When Was Harriet Tubman Born?

Harriet Tubman was born around 1820 on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents, Harriet (“Rit”) Green and Benjamin Ross, named her Araminta Ross and called her “Minty.”

Rit worked as a cook in the plantation’s “big house,” and Benjamin was a timber worker. Araminta later changed her first name to Harriet in honor of her mother.

Harriet had eight brothers and sisters, but the realities of slavery eventually forced many of them apart, despite Rit’s attempts to keep the family together. When Harriet was five years old, she was rented out as a nursemaid where she was whipped when the baby cried, leaving her with permanent emotional and physical scars.

Around age seven Harriet was rented out to a planter to set muskrat traps and was later rented out as a field hand. She later said she preferred physical plantation work to indoor domestic chores.

A Good Deed Gone Bad

Harriet’s desire for justice became apparent at age 12 when she spotted an overseer about to throw a heavy weight at a fugitive. Harriet stepped between the enslaved person and the overseer—the weight struck her head.

She later said about the incident, “The weight broke my skull … They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they laid me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all day and the next.”

Harriet’s good deed left her with headaches and narcolepsy the rest of her life, causing her to fall into a deep sleep at random. She also started having vivid dreams and hallucinations which she often claimed were religious visions (she was a staunch Christian). Her infirmity made her unattractive to potential slave buyers and renters.

Escape from Slavery

In 1840, Harriet’s father was set free and Harriet learned that Rit’s owner’s last will had set Rit and her children, including Harriet, free. But Rit’s new owner refused to recognize the will and kept Rit, Harriet and the rest of her children in bondage.

Around 1844, Harriet married John Tubman, a free Black man, and changed her last name from Ross to Tubman. The marriage was not good, and the knowledge that two of her brothers—Ben and Henry—were about to be sold provoked Harriet to plan an escape.

Harriet Tubman: Underground Railroad

On September 17, 1849, Harriet, Ben and Henry escaped their Maryland plantation. The brothers, however, changed their minds and went back. With the help of the Underground Railroad , Harriet persevered and traveled 90 miles north to Pennsylvania and freedom.

Tubman found work as a housekeeper in Philadelphia, but she wasn’t satisfied living free on her own—she wanted freedom for her loved ones and friends, too.

She soon returned to the south to lead her niece and her niece’s children to Philadelphia via the Underground Railroad. At one point, she tried to bring her husband John north, but he’d remarried and chose to stay in Maryland with his new wife.

Fugitive Slave Act

The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed fugitive and freed workers in the north to be captured and enslaved. This made Harriet’s role as an Underground Railroad conductor much harder and forced her to lead enslaved people further north to Canada, traveling at night, usually in the spring or fall when the days were shorter.

She carried a gun for both her own protection and to “encourage” her charges who might be having second thoughts. She often drugged babies and young children to prevent slave catchers from hearing their cries.

Over the next 10 years, Harriet befriended other abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass , Thomas Garrett and Martha Coffin Wright, and established her own Underground Railroad network. It’s widely reported she emancipated 300 enslaved people; however, those numbers may have been estimated and exaggerated by her biographer Sarah Bradford, since Harriet herself claimed the numbers were much lower.

Nevertheless, it’s believed Harriet personally led at least 70 enslaved people to freedom, including her elderly parents, and instructed dozens of others on how to escape on their own. She claimed, “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

Harriet Tubman's Civil War Service

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Harriet found new ways to fight slavery. She was recruited to assist fugitive enslaved people at Fort Monroe and worked as a nurse, cook and laundress. Harriet used her knowledge of herbal medicines to help treat sick soldiers and fugitive enslaved people.

In 1863, Harriet became head of an espionage and scout network for the Union Army. She provided crucial intelligence to Union commanders about Confederate Army supply routes and troops and helped liberate enslaved people to form Black Union regiments.

Though just over five feet tall, she was a force to be reckoned with, although it took over three decades for the government to recognize her military contributions and award her financially.

Harriet Tubman’s Later Years

After the Civil War, Harriet settled with family and friends on land she owned in Auburn, New York . She married former enslaved man and Civil War veteran Nelson Davis in 1869 (her husband John had died 1867) and they adopted a little girl named Gertie a few years later.

Harriet had an open-door policy for anyone in need. She supported her philanthropy efforts by selling her home-grown produce, raising pigs and accepting donations and loans from friends. She remained illiterate yet toured parts of the northeast speaking on behalf of the women’s suffrage movement and worked with noted suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony .

In 1896, Harriet purchased land adjacent to her home and opened the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. The head injury she suffered in her youth continued to plague her and she endured brain surgery to help relieve her symptoms. But her health continued to deteriorate and eventually forced her to move into her namesake rest home in 1911.

Pneumonia took Harriet Tubman’s life on March 10, 1913, but her legacy lives on. Schools and museums bear her name and her story has been revisited in books, movies and documentaries.

Harriet Tubman: $20 Bill

Tubman even had a World War II Liberty ship named after her, the SS Harriet Tubman.

In 2016, the United States Treasury announced that Harriet’s image will replace that of former President and slaveowner Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (who served under President Trump) later announced the new bill would be delayed until at least 2026. In January 2021, President Biden's administration announced it would speed up the design process to mint the bills honoring Tubman's legacy.

HISTORY Vault: Black History

Watch acclaimed Black History documentaries on HISTORY Vault.

Early Life. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

General Tubman: Female Abolitionist was Also a Secret Military Weapon. Military Times.

Harriet Tubman Biography. Biography.

Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, Residence, and Thompson AME Zion Church. National Park Service.

Harriet Tubman Myths and Facts. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman Portrait of An American Hero by Kate Clifford Larson, Ph.D.

Harriet Tubman. National Park Service .

Harriet Tubman. National Women’s History Museum.

Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People. Harriet Tubman Historical Society.

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad. National Park Service.

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Home / A Nation Divided, 1832-1877 / Civil War / Life Story: Harriet Tubman

Life Story: Harriet Tubman (ca. 1820–1913)

Freedom fighter.

The story of the Underground Railroad’s most famous conductor and Civil War soldier.

Maquette for “Swing Low, a Harriet Tubman memorial”

Alison Saar, Maquette for “Swing Low: A Harriet Tubman memorial,” 2007. New-York Historical Society, Purchase.

Harriet Tubman was born around the year 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents named her Araminta Ross. Her mother, Harriet Green, was an enslaved woman owned by Mary Pattinson Brodess. Her father, Ben Ross, was an enslaved man owned by Anthony Thompson. They were brought together when Mary and Anthony got married. Ben and Harriet had nine children.

Araminta inherited the status of enslaved person from her mother. She was put to work around the age of five. When she was young, her enslaver’s son sold three of Araminta’s sisters to distant plantations, breaking up her family. Araminta’s mother fought successfully to keep the rest of her children with her, but Araminta learned as a child that her life would never be secure so long as she was enslaved.

Araminta suffered violence at the hands of her enslavers and other white people in her community. Her body was scarred from beatings. When she was a teenager, an overseer in town hit her in the head with a two-pound weight. Because of this attack, Araminta suffered from seizures, severe headaches, and narcolepsy for the rest of her life.  

Araminta married John Tubman, a local free Black man, in 1844. The marriage did not change her legal status and she remained enslaved. Around the time of her marriage, she took the name Harriet, probably in honor of her mother. In 1849, she learned that her enslaver was planning to sell her. She decided to take her own freedom rather than submit. John did not join her and eventually remarried. Her brothers set off with her but grew frightened and returned to the plantation. Harriet continued on her own. She was aided by abolitionists who belonged to the Underground Railroad network. When she reached Philadelphia, in the free state of Pennsylvania, she found a job and started a new life.

Harriet’s fame spread throughout the country, and she began to speak at abolitionist events. At the height of her fame, governments in the South offered rewards totaling $40,000 for her capture.

In 1850, Harriet learned that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold. She traveled back to Maryland and helped Kessiah and her family escape to Philadelphia. This was the first of 19 trips Harriet made to guide her family, friends, and anyone else who wanted to use the Underground Railroad to take their own freedom. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made it impossible for escaped slaves to live safely in Northern states, Harriet changed her route and brought people all the way to Canada. 

Harriet was militant in her approach to guiding people on the Underground Railroad. She carried a gun and threatened to kill any person who wanted to turn back and endanger the group. She used a tonic to put babies into a deep sleep, so their cries would not draw attention during nighttime travels. She is estimated to have saved about 70 to 80 people, including her elderly parents. Her fame spread throughout the country, and she began to speak at abolitionist events. At the height of her fame, governments in the South offered rewards totaling $40,000 for her capture. Militant abolitionist John Brown admired her greatly. He called her “General Tubman” and consulted with her before conducting his raid on Harper’s Ferry. Harriet and John both believed that extreme acts were necessary to end slavery in the United States.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Harriet focused her efforts on supporting the Union Army. She was assigned to the 2 nd South Carolina Colored Troops under Colonel James Montgomery. She was given the jobs of cook and nurse because of her race and sex, but Harriet was soon performing more militaristic duties. Her knowledge of the local terrain and her Underground Railroad contacts made her an ideal spy. Her race and sex made it easy for her to slip behind Confederate lines to gather information. She did not abandon her efforts to help enslaved people—she helped the enslaved people who escaped during the war find shelter and safety. But despite all of her work, Harriet was paid very little. She supplemented her income by selling baked goods to Union soldiers.

On June 2, 1863, Harriet became the first woman to lead Union troops into battle. Based on information she had gathered, she led a group of Colonel Montgomery’s troops in a raid down the Combahee River. They destroyed Confederate Army ammunition depots and storage houses and burned several large plantations. They liberated 750 people from slavery in a single night. 

When the war ended, Harriet settled in Auburn, New York, on land she had purchased before the war. Her parents and family were already living there. In 1868, she applied for a military pension but was denied, although Black male spies and soldiers received them. In 1869, she married a Black Civil War veteran named Nelson Davis, and in 1874, they adopted a baby girl named Gertie. It was only after Nelson’s death in 1888 that Harriet began to receive a widow’s pension from the government. 

Harriet remained politically active after the war. She joined Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in their campaign for women’s rights. She attended the founding meeting of the National Association of Colored Women in 1896, where she met and supported Ida B. Wells . Yet Harriet never had enough money to live comfortably. In 1898, she petitioned the government for her military pension and back pay, but instead they increased her widow’s pension from $8 to $20 a month. 

Harriet never stopped working to improve her community and country. In 1908, she opened the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes, a charity home that she hoped would carry on her work after her death. She died there in 1913 surrounded by friends and family.

• abolitionist: A person who fought to end slavery in the United States. 
• ammunition: Explosive items used by the military.
• Confederate: Relating to the group of states that seceded from the United States before the Civil War in order to preserve slavery.   
• contraband: The name the Union Army gave to all enslaved people who were liberated or escaped to Union lines during the American Civil War. 
• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850: A law that required Northern states to return runaway enslaved people to their enslavers.
• narcolepsy: A condition that causes a person to fall into a deep sleep without warning.
• overseer: A person who was in charge of supervising the work of enslaved people.
• pension: A sum of money regularly paid to a former soldier for life in recognition of their service.
• Underground Railroad: A network of safe houses that helped enslaved people travel to freedom. 
• Union: The name for the states that remained a part of the United State during the Civil War.   

Discussion Questions

• How did Harriet Tubman’s childhood affect her choices as an adult?
• What extreme actions did Harriet Tubman take to dismantle slavery in the United States?
• How did Harriet support the Union war effort? What recognition did she receive for her actions?
• How did Harriet Tubman’s race and sex affect her opportunities in life?

Suggested Activities

• APUSH Connection: 5.8 Military Conflict in the Civil War
• Harriet Tubman existed at an intersection of a variety of oppressed identities: Black, woman, poor, and dis/abled. Be sure to highlight each of these aspects of her identity when teaching her story.
• After reading this life story, invite students to read the record of Harriet Tubman’s recollections  of her early work guiding people to freedom. Why are all the sources we have on her life second hand? How does this complicate learning her story?
• Most biographies of Harriet Tubman minimize her role in the American Civil War. Ask students to consider why this might be the case, and why it is important to include this part of her story. Use this life story to move students beyond the typical narrative of Harriet Tubman’s life and legacy.
• Invite students to watch the film Harriet and consider how filmmakers adapted Harriet Tubman’s life for the big screen. What changes did they make? What do these choices reveal?
• Invite students to research the story of John Brown and write an essay considering why he and Harriet Tubman admired each other’s approach to abolition.
• To learn more about Black women’s role in the post-Civil War fight for women’s rights, visit “All Bound Up Together.”
• Harriet Tubman dedicated her final years to provide a safe home for her family and vulnerable members of her community. To learn more about Black women’s role in post-war community-building, read Life Story: Louisa Smith , Information Wanted , Life Story: Matilda Hughes , and Life Story: Elizabeth Keckley .
• Harriet Tubman was one of many Black women abolitionists operating in the antebellum period. After reading this story, invite students to learn more about the experience of Black women anti-slavery activists in the antebellum period, and compare the challenges and experiences of each: Elizabeth Jennings , Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society , Resistance , Harriet Robinson Scott , and Sojourner Truth .
• Harriet Tubman’s story illustrates one way women could take an active role in the American Civil War. For a larger lesson on this topic, teach this life story together with any of the following: Nursing , Women’s War Production , Sanitary Fairs , Smuggling , and Women Soldiers .

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New-York Historical Society Curriculum Library Connections

• For more about the effects of the Fugitive Slave Law, see New York Divided .
• For more about Black Americans’ experiences after the Civil War, explore  Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow .

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Harriet Tubman: Timeline of Her Life, Underground Rail Service and Activism

In addition to freeing slaves, Tubman was also a Civil War spy, nurse and supporter of women's suffrage.

Wanting to bring an end to slavery, Tubman also coordinated with abolitionists. During the Civil War , she became a nurse and a spy for the Union. And despite her ongoing financial struggles, she continued to fight for equality and justice by speaking out against prejudice and advocating women's suffrage. It's clear Tubman led a momentous life that made the world a better place.

c. 1822: Tubman is born as Araminta "Minty" Ross in Maryland's Dorchester County

Her parents, Ben Ross and Harriet "Rit" Green, are both enslaved, meaning Ross had the same status at birth.

Though her birthdate has often been listed as around 1820, a record from March 1822 lists that a midwife had been paid for tending to Green, which suggests the birth may have taken place in February or March of that year.

c. 1828: Tubman is about five or six years old when her enslavers hire her out to tend to an infant. She is whipped for any perceived mistakes.

c. 1829: Around the age of seven, Tubman is again hired out. Her duties include walking into wet marshes to check muskrat traps. She becomes ill with measles and returns to her mother to recover.

c. 1834-36: An overseer throws a two-pound weight at another slave but hits Tubman's head. She barely survives the devastating injury and experiences headaches for the remainder of her life. It's possible this injury led to her suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy , which could explain her visions and sleeping spells.

c. 1835: Tubman works as a field hand, which she prefers to inside tasks.

c. 1830s: Two of Tubman's older sisters are sold and transported out of Maryland.

1840: Tubman's father is freed from slavery.

1844: She weds John Tubman, a free Black man, though her status as a slave means the union is not legally recognized. Upon marriage, Tubman adopts her mother's name of Harriet.

March 7, 1849: Tubman's owner dies, which makes her fear being sold.

September 17, 1849: Tubman heads north with two of her brothers to escape slavery. However, the men become nervous and convince their sister to return.

October 1849: Tubman runs away

She follows the North Star and makes it to Philadelphia. As Pennsylvania is a free state, she has escaped enslavement.

September 18, 1850: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 passes. It requires all parts of the United States, even states that had outlawed slavery, to participate in the return of runaway slaves.

December 1850: Tubman helps rescue a niece and her niece's children after learning they are supposed to be sold at auction.

1851: Tubman tries to bring her husband north, but he decides to remain with his second wife, a free Black woman. Tubman instead guides another group to Canada, where they will be outside the reach of the Fugitive Slave Act.

December 1854: Tubman helps a group that includes three of her brothers travel to Canada.

READ MORE: How Harriet Tubman and William Still Helped the Underground Railroad

June 1857: Tubman brings her parents from Maryland to Canada

Her father is in danger because he has been helping the Underground Railroad.

April 1858: In Canada, Tubman meets abolitionist John Brown . She learns of his plans to spark a slave rebellion in the United States and agrees to gather recruits for the cause.

October 16, 1859: Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry in Virginia (now West Virginia) takes place. Tubman does not participate, perhaps due to illness.

1859: Tubman purchases a property in Auburn, New York, from antislavery politician William H. Seward . Having been unhappy in Canada, her parents join Tubman there.

April 27, 1860: In Troy, New York, Tubman helps former slave Charles Nalle elude the U.S. marshals who intend to return him to his enslaver.

December 1860: Tubman makes her last trip on the Underground Railroad

1862: Following the start of the Civil War, Tubman joins Union troops in South Carolina. She becomes a nurse, while also running a wash house and working as a cook to earn money.

c. 1863: Tubman serves as a spy for the Union

She coordinates with former slaves from the area to gather information about the opposing Confederate forces.

READ MORE: Harriet Tubman's Service as a Union Spy

June 1-2, 1863: Tubman leads an armed raid up the Combahee River raid in South Carolina. The mission destroys Confederate supplies and frees more than 700 enslaved people. Tubman is the first woman to head a military expedition in the United States.

July 1863: After the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, whose soldiers were African American volunteers, suffers devastating losses during a bloody battle at Fort Wagner, Tubman helps bury the dead and aids survivors.

June 1864: Tubman is granted a furlough and goes to Auburn to visit her parents.

1865: Tubman nurses Black soldiers at Fort Monroe in Virginia. After the Civil War ends, she visits Washington, D.C., and informs the surgeon general that Black soldiers are experiencing harsh conditions in military hospitals.

READ MORE: Inside Harriet Tubman's Life of Service After the Underground Railroad

July 1865: Tubman asks Seward, who is secretary of state, to help her receive payment for her work during the war. She is not successful, due in part to the turmoil of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination and Seward's ongoing recovery from stab wounds suffering during an assassination attempt.

October 1865: Tubman is traveling home by train when a conductor orders her, using a racial slur , to go to a different car. She defends her rights but is forcibly removed.

December 1868: Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman , a biography by Sarah Bradford is published (though the official publication date is listed as 1869). The book has multiple inaccuracies but sales raise approximately $1,200 for a financially struggling Tubman.

March 18, 1869: Tubman weds Nelson Davis, a 25-year-old former slave and Civil War veteran.

1873: Tubman is robbed by men who trick her into believing they could provide her with Confederate gold.

1874: Tubman and her husband adopt a daughter, whom they name Gertie Davis.

June 1886: Tubman buys 25 acres of land next to her home in Auburn to create a nursing home for Black Americans.

October 1886: A revised Tubman biography, Harriet, the Moses of Her People , is published.

October 18, 1888: Tubman's husband dies after suffering from tuberculosis.

1890s: Tubman becomes more involved in the movement for women's suffrage.

June 1890: Tubman applies for a pension as a Civil War widow.

October 16, 1895 : Tubman is approved for a war widow pension of $8 a month .

July 1896: Tubman speaks at the founding conference of the National Association of Colored Women.

November 1896: Tubman is introduced by Susan B. Anthony at a suffrage convention in Rochester, New York.

1897: Queen Victoria sends Tubman a shawl and a medal in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. The queen also invites Tubman to visit England to celebrate her birthday, but Tubman's straitened finances make this an impossibility.

Late 1890s: Tubman undergoes brain surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in an attempt to alleviate her painful headaches.

1899: Congress raises Tubman's pension to $20 per month, but the increase is for her services as a nurse instead of her military work.

June 23, 1908: Tubman attends the opening ceremony for the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged. It will be operated by AME Zion Church, which has taken over the deed to the property.

May 19, 1911: An ailing Tubman becomes a resident of the Harriet Tubman Home. Supporters raise funds to finance her care.

March 10, 1913: Tubman dies following a battle with pneumonia

March 13, 1913: Tubman is buried with military honors.

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Secrets of Harriet Tubman’s life are being revealed 100 years later

Courageous work on the Underground Railroad—and activism afterward—made Tubman one of America’s best-known historic figures. Here’s how to mark her 200th birthday.

We all think we know the Harriet Tubman story. The “Moses of her people,” Tubman née Araminta “Minty” Ross was born enslaved on Maryland ’s Eastern Shore around 1822. From a young age her enslavers rented her out to neighbors as a domestic servant. She later escaped to Philadelphia and then returned to her birthplace at least 13 times to lead 70 of her family and friends along the Underground Railroad to freedom.

That’s usually where the story of one of America’s most inspirational heroes ends, and all I knew—until I took a road trip to honor the 200th anniversary of her birth, celebrated this month. But in her nine decades (she died in 1913), Tubman did so much more.  

She was the first U.S. woman to lead an armed military raid and was a spy and nurse for the Union during the U.S. Civil War. She joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in their quest for women’s voting rights. She was an outdoorswoman, cared for battered women and children, raised money to build schools for newly freed people, and established the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes , a first-of-its-kind nursing home for African Americans who had nowhere else to go.

“She doesn’t get enough credit for being a humanitarian,” says Ellen Mousin, a volunteer at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, Maryland. “People, especially in the North, often don’t realize that African Americans were not usually able to go to nursing homes or healthcare facilities. She made it possible.”

More than a century after her death, historians are still unraveling the secrets of her life. This month the nation celebrates Harriet Tubman’s bicentennial and the fifth anniversary of the two national parks named after her: one in Auburn, New York , and another in Dorchester County, Maryland. Tubman is the only African American and woman to have two named national parks. From film screenings and historical lectures to art exhibits and monument installations, here’s how travelers can uncover the mystery that shrouds Tubman’s life and honor the legacy of a woman who inspired generations.

Nevertheless, she persisted

Stepping onto the vast, open fields of Dorchester County, it’s hard to imagine what gave young Tubman the courage to escape—alone. It is harder to comprehend the ingenuity and resolve it took for her to achieve what others thought impossible, all the while helping heal a world that would rather have seen her broken.

In 1849, her enslaver, Edward Brodess, attempted to sell her, but there were no buyers due to a brain injury she suffered after helping an enslaved man run away. The overseer aimed a two-pound metal weight at the man in an attempt to make him return to work, but it fell short, striking Tubman, only 13 at the time. She would later endure frequent migraines, narcolepsy, and vivid dreams she would interpret as divine visions.

After her enslaver died later that year, Tubman knew her family would be separated, so she and her brothers took a leap of faith and fled. The attempt failed, but she tried again soon after, using the Underground Railroad—a network of safe houses and routes established by Black and white abolitionists that guided enslaved people in the South to freedom in the North—to Philadelphia, and then later Ontario, Canada , after the Fugitive Slave Act became U.S. law in 1850. The act threatened imprisonment for anyone caught assisting a fugitive and allowed headhunters to drag escaped slaves back into bondage. Her husband John Tubman, a free Black man, refused to flee with her and remarried the following year.

Tubman, of course, would go on to be a lauded leader. Yet, more than a century after her death, historians are still searching for answers about who she was.  

“There’s just so much we don’t know about Tubman’s life. In a way she became an American folk hero,” says Meghan Martinez, a professor of history at Florida State University. She believes Tubman’s legendary status may be one of the reasons why we don’t know more about her. “Americans don’t like when a story doesn’t have a happy ending. It’s easier to end her story at the Underground Railroad because it ruins our image of her being the hero when we find out she died sick and nearly destitute,” she says.

( Why Harriet Tubman risked it all for enslaved Americans .)

Marisa J. Fuentes, a professor of African American history at Rutgers University, adds that until almost two decades ago, there wasn’t much scholarly work on Harriet Tubman. “Much of what was written about Harriet until about early 2000s was for school children, leaning more into her extraordinary feats as conductor and less on the accuracy of her history,” she says. “It wasn’t until Black women opened the field of Black women’s history in the 1980s, that historians started asking the right questions.”

Last year historians uncovered the location of Harriet Tubman’s childhood home, adding another piece to the puzzle. Buried artifacts, including broken pottery, glass, and an 1808 Lady Liberty coin, helped pinpoint the site owned by her father Ben Ross. Here Tubman learned to navigate and survive in the wetlands and woods she would later use to escape to freedom. Archeologists plan to do another dig this spring, says Cierra Maszkiewicz, a park ranger at the 17-acre Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Maryland.

“Most of everything that Tubman grew up with is still here today. What was farmland back then is still farmland today,” Maszkiewicz says. “I’ve done a couple of kayak tours right on the Black Water River. That’s where Tubman was out trapping muskrats. We’ve led guided hikes as well. You can walk through the forest just as Tubman would have done.”

( Here’s how Tubman’s birthplace is being threatened by climate change .)

The 480-acre Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park —carved out of the larger Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and shares a border with the state park—follows Tubman’s early life. It features an expansive visitor center with informative exhibits that don’t shy away from the struggles Tubman had to endure, says Maszkiewicz. It is also the site of the Brodess Farm , where Tubman was enslaved as a girl, and the Bucktown General Store where she suffered her traumatic head injury.

In Harriet’s steps

For travelers, there is no better way to experience Tubman’s history than along the 125-mile Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway . Spanning three states and more than 30 sites, the self-guided driving route immerses people in the places where Tubman worked, lived, and later found freedom.

“I think it really puts you into her shoes a little bit to see how far she traveled,” says Maszkiewicz. “It took me three days to drive it, so you can only imagine how long it took her to walk it.”

Linda Harris, the director of events and planning at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, did more than just imagine Tubman’s journey. She retraced it herself on foot, walking for eight days from Dorchester County to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

“We had COVID, the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, and I felt like my freedom had been taken away. I realized the only way to earn my freedom was to walk in Harriet Tubman’s footsteps,” says Harris, who leads several Harriet Tubman walking tours each year. “I walked on the ground where the blood of my ancestors lay. I could feel as if I were being lifted by the ancestors.”

Soon after her journey, Harris started working at the community-led museum. Throughout the year the center offers guided tours of sites associated with Tubman, educational programming for children, and jazz concerts. In 2019, a powerful mural of Harriet reaching out her hand was added to the exterior of the museum.

( Explore the Underground Railroad’s great central depot .)

Just a few blocks from the Tubman Museum sits the Dorchester County Courthouse , a former slave auction site and the place where Tubman engineered her first escape. In September 2022, it will become the permanent home of a new 12,000-pound, bronze sculpture of Tubman.

Life after the Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman’s story may have started in Maryland, but it didn’t end there. She dedicated her life to helping Black Americans not only survive but thrive.

“She couldn’t read or write, but she had an emotional intelligence that made people trust her,” says Millicent Sparks , a historical interpreter who portrays Tubman around the country.

Harriet’s achievements are astonishing. During the Civil War, she led an armed expedition into Confederate territory—freeing more than 700 enslaved people—and served in the Union Army as a nurse, scout, and spy. It would take her another 34 years to be recognized for her service and be paid a pension from the U.S. government. After the war, she remained an active abolitionist, befriending intellectuals such as Frederick Douglass and politicians like Secretary of State William Henry Seward. She also campaigned for women’s rights with Lucretia Coffin Mott, Martha Coffin Wright, and Susan B. Anthony.

In 2017, her New York estate, including the nursing home and the Thompson Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church where she worshipped—and raised money to build—became the 32-acre Harriet Tubman National Historical Park . It tells the story of her life as a free woman and preserves her humanitarian legacy.

“When you step onto the property you know instantly that you are in a hallowed space,” says Karen Hill, president and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, New York. The home is an independent nonprofit established by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church to co-manage Harriet’s homestead with the National Park Service (NPS).

The visitor center, which features dozens of artifacts found on various archeological digs, is closed due to COVID-19 until summer. However, travelers can explore the landscape on guided and self-guided tours to see where Tubman farmed, created bricks in her kiln, and spent the last 54 years of her life, says Hill. She adds that the NPS is spearheading the restoration of Tubman’s church, with work set to begin in April. Visitors can see her grave at the nearby Fort Hill Cemetery , which is unaffiliated with the historical park.

“People learning about Tubman should feel encouraged about their own lives,” says Hill. “She took freedom and [weaved] into every aspect of life in America, and America is better for it.”

Celebrate Tubman’s Bicentennial

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Harriet Tubman

"I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." - Harriet Tubman

Perhaps one of the best known personalities of the Civil War, Harriet Tubman was born into slavery as Araminta Ross, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, sometime in 1820 or 1821. As a child, Tubman was “hired out” to various masters who proved to be particularly cruel and abusive to her. As a result of a head injury caused by one of these men, she suffered from seizures and “visions” for the rest of her life, which she believed were sent from God.

In 1840, Tubman’s father was freed as a result of a stipulation in his master’s will, but continued to work for his former owner’s family. Although Tubman, her mother, and her siblings were also supposed to be freed, the law was ignored and they remained enslaved. Tubman married a free black in 1844, and changed her first name from Araminta to Harriet.

In 1849, Tubman became seriously ill with complications from her head injury, and her owner decided to sell her, but could not find a buyer. After her owner’s sudden death, the family began selling off all of the slaves. Not wanting to have her family separated, Tubman was determined to escape. A first attempt, in which Tubman was accompanied by her brothers, was aborted when they had second thoughts. Tubman decided to try again on her own, and she escaped via the Underground Railroad into Pennsylvania.

Tubman settled in Philadelphia and was able to support herself doing odd jobs. But in 1850, word came that her niece and her two children were to be sold. Tubman was determined to help, and went back to Maryland. With the assistance of her brother-in-law, Tubman was able to bring her niece and the two children back safely to Philadelphia. This was the first of many trips that Tubman would make to lead family members and others to freedom. On one expedition, Tubman contacted her husband in the hopes that he would follow her to Pennsylvania, but he had remarried and preferred to remain in Maryland.

Over the course of 11 years, Tubman rescued over 70 slaves from Maryland, and assisted 50 or 60 others in making their way to Canada. During this time, her reputation in the abolitionist community grew, and she became acquainted with Frederick Douglass and John Brown . She also moved her base of operations to Auburn, New York, closer to the Canadian border. Tubman conducted her last rescue mission in November 1861, as the Civil War enveloped the nation.

Tubman offered her services to the Union Army, and in early 1862, she went to South Carolina to provide badly needed nursing care for black soldiers and newly liberated slaves. Working with General David Hunter, Tubman also began spying and scouting missions behind Confederate lines. In June of 1863, she accompanied Colonel James Montgomery in an assault on several plantations along the Combahee River, rescuing more than 700 slaves. Her deed was celebrated in the press and she became even more famous.

With the end of the war, Tubman returned to Auburn, NY and married a Civil War veteran. Although her service in the Union Army was much publicized, she had great difficulty in getting a pension from the government, but was eventually awarded a nurse’s pension in the 1880s. She did not stay idle in her later years, taking on the cause of women’s suffrage with the same determination she had shown for abolition.

Tubman established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged on a property adjacent to her own. After undergoing brain surgery to try to alleviate the symptoms from the head injury that had plagued her since childhood, and being essentially penniless, Tubman was forced to move into the home herself in 1911. She died there on March 10, 1913, surrounded by family and friends. She was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."  ~Harriet  Tubman

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Jane Franklin Mecom

Sarah Moore Grimké

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Biography Online

Harriet Tubman biography

Tubman was born Araminta Ross, to slave parents who lived on plantations in Maryland. Little is known about her family background and ancestry, but her maternal grandmother came to the US on a slave ship from Africa (possibly from modern-day Ghana).

Her parents Rit and Ben Ross had nine children together, but three of Harriet’s sisters were sold at an early age by their owners and she never saw them again.

Even as a young child Harriet was responsible for looking after her younger siblings because her mother was too busy working as a cook. Harriet was also hired as a nursemaid to a “Miss Susan”. She was frequently whipped by her overseers – leading to scars which would last all her life. For periods of time, she was also sent out to work for a planter – checking muskrat traps – and later farming tasks, such as ploughing and moving logs.

On one occasion, Tubman was hit in the head by a stone thrown by a slave owner. The slave owner was aiming at another slave, but the stone hit Tubman in the back of her head – cracking her skull and leading to lifelong headaches, epileptic seizures and dreams or visions. Tubman later attributed her bushy unkempt hair for reducing the impact of the stone and saving her life.

Around 1844, Harriet married John Tubman. Around this time, she adopted her mother’s maiden name, Harriet, in place of her childhood name Araminta.

In 1849, Tubman’s slave owner, Edward Brodress, died. This raised the likelihood Tubman would be sold, and the family split up. With her two brothers, Ben and Henry, she decided to escape from the large plantation in Caroline County where they lived and worked. The escape was successful, but after a few weeks, her brothers had misgivings because they wanted to return to their children; Tubman was forced to return with them.

Harriet Tubman far left, at her home in Auburn, NY. Source: Bettman/Corbis, New York Times photo archive.

However, soon after, Tubman escaped for the second time. With the help of the Underground Railroad, she took a 90-mile route northeast along the Choptank River towards Pennsylvania. The journey on foot could have taken a couple of weeks, with great care being needed to avoid slave catchers, who could gain a bounty for catching any escaped slaves. After reaching Pennsylvania, she expressed her tremendous joy.

“When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

In Philadelphia, Tubman took on odd jobs to earn some money, but she wanted to return to Maryland to rescue the rest of her family. In her own words:

“I had crossed de line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but dere was no one to welcome me to de land of freedom, I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in de old cabin quarter, wid de ole folks, and my brudders and sisters. But to dis solemn resolution I came; I was free, and dey should be free also; I would make a home for dem in de North, and de Lord helping me, I would bring dem all dere.”

This task of retrieving slaves was made more complicated by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which heavily punished anyone helping slaves to escape – even in states which outlawed slavery.

Map of key places in Tubman’s life

However, with the aid of other abolitionist activists, such as Thomas Garrett, she made repeated trips to Maryland to rescue different members of her family. Because of her exploits, she earned the nickname “Moses” referring to the Biblical character who escaped slavery.

Reward for Harriet Tubman (using birth name – Minty)

However, her husband chose not to escape with Tubman, because in her absence he had married another woman, named Caroline. Over the next decade, Tubman helped rescue over 70 slaves, in about 13 expeditions (and offering advice to many more). She often travelled in the darker winter months, making it easier to travel incognito by night. Because of the dangers on the road, she always took a revolver with her. She was also willing to use it to threaten any escaped slave who wished to go back because she knew returning would endanger all the escapees. She was proud never to lose an escaping slave on her expeditions.

“I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.” – Harriet Tubman

Given the growing racial tension and the stricter laws regarding escaped slaves, many sought to escape the US altogether, moving to Southern Ontario in Canada. Tubman took part in such travels, helping guide parties of former slaves north.

Frederick Douglass , who was a noted activist against slavery, praised Tubman for her role in helping slaves. In particular, he praised her courage and willingness to work without recognition. He said of Tubman:

“Excepting John Brown — of sacred memory — I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.”

Information from Library of Congress

A significant element of Tubman’s life was her strong religious faith. From her childhood, she had learnt aural biblical stories, and although she couldn’t read, she felt a strong faith in the presence and guidance of God. She related receiving intense visions and clear messages coming from God, and on the dangerous missions, she trusted in the direction and protection of God to succeed in her mission.

In 1858, she met the radical abolitionist John Brown, who advocated violence to promote the ending of slavery. Although Tubman never promoted violence herself, she was sympathetic to the aims of John Brown and assisted him in finding willing volunteers. Brown’s raid on Harper Ferry, Virginia failed and he was executed, but Tubman praised his courage in death for trying to fight the institution of slavery.

At the outbreak of the civil war, Tubman saw a Union victory as a way to advance the cause of abolition. She served as a nurse in Port Royal, treating soldiers suffering dysentery and small pox.

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation , and Tubman became more involved in the efforts of the northern forces. She offered her services as a guide for scouting trips in South Carolina – using her skills to travel undetected. She also became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War, when she guided three steamboats to an assault on plantations on the Combahee River. The raid was a great success with around 750 slaves escaping onto steamboats; later, encouraged by Tubman, many of the liberated men went on to join the Union army – forming the first all-black corps. For her courageous efforts, she received favourable press coverage, though as a black woman she received no regular pay or pension (until 1899). During the war, she had to supplement her income by selling pies and root beer.

After the civil war, Tubman returned to Auburn where she continued to look after her family and other ex-slaves. She also remarried (Nelson Davis, 20 years her junior). They adopted a child Gertie.

Denied a pension, her financial situation was poor, but friends in the abolitionist movement helped raise funds.  An authorised biography Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman  was written by Sarah Hopkins Bradford. Over the next few years, Tubman often gave speeches on both slavery and women’s rights. She was an excellent storyteller who could capture the imagination of the audience. Kate Clifford Larson writes on Tubman:

“A great storyteller she was… She moved her audiences deeply. Plainly dressed, very short and petite, quite black-skinned, and missing front teeth… Tubman shocked her audiences with stories of slavery and the injustices of life as a black woman. Black men dominated the antislavery lecture circuit. Tubman and Sojourner Truth stood for millions of slave women whose lives were marred by emotional and physical abuse at the hands of white men.”

– Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero

Tubman also began supporting the women’s suffrage movement, supporting the work of Susan B. Anthony and others. Tubman spoke of her experiences and suffering in the war and railroad movement as proof that women were the equal of men. This brought her wider national recognition.

She donated her property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn to be converted into a home for aged and coloured people.

After becoming increasingly frail, in 1913, she died of pneumonia, surrounded by friends and family. Her last words were:

“I go to prepare a place for you.”

She was buried with semi-military honours at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.

Harriet Tubman has become an iconic symbol of courage and resistance to injustice, inspiring many generations of civil rights activists.

In April 2016, it was announced she would figure on the US $20 bill.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan.  “ Biography Harriet Tubman” , Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net – 12th Dec. 2016, Updated 26 June 2017

Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom

Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom at Amazon

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Including Harriet Beacher Stowe, Frederick Douglass and William Wilberforce.

Biography of Harriet Tubman: Freed Enslaved People, Fought for the Union

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Harriet Tubman (c. 1820–March 10, 1913) was an enslaved woman, freedom seeker, Underground Railroad conductor, North American 19th-century Black activist , spy, soldier, and nurse known for her service during the Civil War and her advocacy of civil rights and women's suffrage.

Tubman remains one of history's most inspiring African Americans and there are many children's stories about her, but those usually stress her early life, escape from enslavement, and work with the Underground Railroad. Less known are her Civil War service and her other activities in the nearly 50 years she lived after the war.

Fast Facts: Harriet Tubman

• Known For : Participation in the North American 19-century Black activist movement, Civil War work, civil rights
• Also Known As : Araminta Ross, Araminta Green, Harriet Ross, Harriet Ross Tubman, Moses
• Born : c. 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland
• Parents : Benjamin Ross, Harriet Green
• Died : March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York
• Spouses : John Tubman, Nelson Davis
• Children : Gertie
• Notable Quote : "I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive."

Tubman was enslaved from birth in Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1820 or 1821, on the plantation of Edward Brodas or Brodess. Her birth name was Araminta, and she was called Minty until she changed her name to Harriet—after her mother—as an early teen. Her parents, Benjamin Ross and Harriet Green were enslaved Africans who saw many of their 11 children sold into the Deep South.

At age 5, Araminta was "rented" to neighbors to do housework. She was never good at household chores and was beaten by her enslavers and "renters." She wasn't educated to read or write. She eventually was assigned to work as a field hand, which she preferred to housework. At age 15, she suffered a head injury when she blocked the path of the overseer pursuing an uncooperative enslaved person. The overseer flung a weight at the other enslaved people, hitting Tubman, who probably sustained a severe concussion. She was ill for a long time and never fully recovered.

In 1844 or 1845, Tubman married John Tubman, a free Black man. Shortly after her marriage, she hired a lawyer to investigate her legal history and discovered that her mother had been freed on a technicality upon the death of a former enslaver The lawyer advised her that a court wouldn't likely hear the case, so she dropped it. But knowing that she should have been born free led her to contemplate freedom and resent her situation.

In 1849, Tubman heard that two of her brothers were about to be sold to the Deep South, and her husband threatened to sell her, too. She tried to persuade her brothers to escape with her but left alone, making her way to Philadelphia and freedom. The next year, Tubman decided to return to Maryland to free her sister and her sister's family. Over the next 12 years, she returned 18 or 19 times, bringing more than 300 people out of enslavement.

Underground Railroad

Tubman's organizing ability was crucial to her work with the Underground Railroad, a network of opponents of enslavement that helped freedom seekers escape. Tubman was only 5 feet tall, but she was smart and strong and carried a rifle. She used it not only to intimidate pro-enslavement people but also to keep enslaved people from backing out. She told any who seemed ready to leave that "dead Negroes tell no tales" about the railroad.

When Tubman first reached Philadelphia, she was, under the law of the time, a free woman, but the passage of the  Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 made her a freedom seeker again. All citizens were obligated to aid in her recapture, so she had to operate quietly. But she soon became known throughout the North American 19th-century Black activist circles and freedmen's communities.

After the Fugitive Slave Act passed, Tubman began guiding her Underground Railroad passengers to Canada, where they could be truly free. From 1851 through 1857, she lived parts of the year in St. Catherines, Canada, and Auburn, New York, where many North American 19th-century Black activists lived.

Other Activities

In addition to her twice-yearly trips to Maryland to help freedom seekers escape, Tubman developed her oratorical skills and began speaking publicly at anti-enslavement meetings and, by the end of the decade, women's rights meetings. A price had been placed on her head—at one time it was as high as $40,000—but she was never betrayed.

Tubman freed three of her brothers in 1854, bringing them to St. Catherines. In 1857, Tubman brought her parents to freedom. They couldn't take Canada's climate, so she settled them on land she bought in Auburn with the aid of North American 19th-century Black activists. Earlier, she had returned to rescue her husband John Tubman, only to find he'd remarried and wasn't interested in leaving.

Tubman earned money as a cook and laundress, but she also received support from public figures in New England, including key North American 19th-century Black activists. She was supported by  Susan B Anthony , William H. Seward, Ralph Waldo Emerson , Horace Mann, the Alcotts, including educator Bronson Alcott and writer  Louisa May Alcott , William Still  of Philadelphia, and Thomas Garratt of Wilmington, Delaware. Some supporters used their homes as Underground Railroad stations.

In 1859, when John Brown was organizing a rebellion he believed would end enslavement, he consulted Tubman. She supported his plans at Harper's Ferry , raised funds in Canada, and recruited soldiers. She intended to help him take the armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia to supply guns to enslaved people they believed would rebel against their captivity. But she became ill and wasn't there.

Brown's raid failed and his supporters were killed or arrested. She mourned her friends' deaths and continued to hold Brown as a hero.

Tubman's trips to the South as "Moses," as she'd become known for leading her people to freedom, ended as the Southern states began to secede and the U.S. government prepared for war. Once war started, Tubman went South to assist with "contrabands," freedom seekers attached to the Union Army. The next year, the Union Army asked Tubman to organize a network of scouts and spies among Black men. She led forays to gather information and persuade enslaved people to leave their enslavers. Many joined regiments of Black soldiers.

In July 1863, Tubman led troops commanded by Col. James Montgomery in the Combahee River expedition, disrupting Southern supply lines by destroying bridges and railroads and freeing more than 750 enslaved people. Gen. Rufus Saxton, who reported the raid to Secretary of War  Edwin Stanton , said: "This is the only military command in American history wherein a woman, Black or White, led the raid and under whose inspiration it was originated and conducted." Some believe Tubman was allowed to go beyond women's traditional boundaries because of her race.

Tubman, believing she was employed by the U.S. Army, spent her first paycheck on building a place where freed Black women could earn a living doing laundry for soldiers. But she wasn't paid regularly or given rations she believed she deserved. She received only $200 in three years of service, supporting herself by selling baked goods and root beer, which she made after she completed her regular duties.

After the war, Tubman never got her back military pay. When she applied for a pension—with the support of Secretary of State William Seward, Colonel T. W. Higginson, and Rufus—her application was denied. Despite her service and fame, she had no official documents to prove she had served in the war.

Freedmen Schools

After the war, Tubman established schools for freedmen in South Carolina. She never learned to read and write, but she appreciated the value of education and supported efforts to educate formerly enslaved people.

She later returned to her home in Auburn, New York, which was her base for the rest of her life. She financially supported her parents, and her brothers and their families moved to Auburn. Her first husband died in 1867 in a fight with a White man. In 1869 she married Nelson Davis, who had been enslaved in North Carolina but served as a Union Army soldier. He was often ill, probably with tuberculosis, and frequently couldn't work.

Tubman welcomed several children into her home, raising them as her own, and supported some impoverished formerly enslaved people, financing her efforts through donations and loans. In 1874, she and Davis adopted a baby girl named Gertie.

Publishing and Speaking

To finance her life and her support of others, she worked with historian Sarah Hopkins Bradford to publish "Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman" in 1869. The book was initially financed by North American 19th-century Black activists, including Wendell Phillips and Gerrit Smith, the latter a supporter of John Brown and first cousin of suffragist  Elizabeth Cady Stanton . Tubman toured to speak about her experiences as "Moses."

In 1886, Bradford, with Tubman's help, wrote a full-scale biography of Tubman titled "Harriet Tubman: Moses of Her People." In the 1890s, she finally was able to collect a pension as Davis' widow: $8 a month.

Tubman also worked with Susan B. Anthony on women's suffrage. She attended women's rights conventions and spoke for the women's movement, advocating for the rights of Black women. In 1896, Tubman spoke at the first meeting of the National Association of Colored Women .

Continuing to support aged and poor African Americans, Tubman established a home on 25 acres next to her home in Auburn, raising money with help from the AME Church and a local bank. The home, which opened in 1908, initially was called the John Brown Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People but later was named for her.

She donated the home to the AME Zion Church with the proviso that it would be kept as a home for the elderly. She moved into the home in 1911 and died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913.

Tubman became an icon after her death. A World War II Liberty ship was named for her, and in 1978 she was featured on a commemorative stamp. Her home has been named a national historic landmark.

The four phases of Tubman's life—an enslaved person; a North American 19th-century Black activist and conductor on the Underground Railroad; a Civil War soldier, nurse, spy, and scout; and a social reformer—are important aspects of her dedication to service. Schools and museums bear her name and her history has been told in books, movies, and documentaries.

In April 2016, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced that Tubman would replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill by 2020, but the plans were delayed.

• " Timeline of the Life of Harriet Tubman ." Harriet Tubman Historical Society.
• " Harriet Tubman Biography ." Harriettubmanbiography.com.
• " Harriet Tubman: American Abolitionist ." Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• " Harriet Tubman Biography ." Biography.com.
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Harriet Tubman

Character, Courage and Commitment

As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman made several trips into slave-holding states, leading dozens of individuals to freedom in the North. During the Civil War, she further risked her life and safety to work first as a nurse and then as a spy for the Union Army. Afterwards, she became an outspoken advocate for African American and women's rights, insisting that all be afforded dignity, treated with respect and granted equality.

Araminta Ross was born in Dorchester County, Maryland in or around 1822 on Anthony Thompson's plantation. Araminta grew up to be known as Harriet Tubman. By 1840, Harriet, her mother and several siblings had been relocated from a plantation in Bucktown back to Thompson's farm.

The young girl would grow up to become one of the most celebrated figures of her time. Her legacy of steadfast courage and commitment to justice would endure more than 100 years after her death.

Today, no trace of Tubman's birthplace remains. Though, a historical marker notes the location.

Cambridge, Maryland. Dorchester County. Site of Harriet Tubman's birth

Tubman worked as a field hand for many years -following the oxen loading and unloading wood and carrying heavy burdens -all along developing great strength and determination.Later, she was hired out to perform housework and child care where the plantation mistress proved capricious and cruel, employing frequent beatings for the most minor of offenses.

The Bucktown Village store still stands in Bucktown, Maryland. It was here that 12-year-old slave Araminta Ross was shopping with the plantation cook when an overseer entered, pursuing an escaped slave. The overseer ordered Araminta to assist with tying the man up, which she refused to do. As the escaping slave bolted for the door, the overseer swept up a two-pound scale weight up from the counter and threw it after him. The weight missed its mark, hitting Araminta instead. The blow knocked her unconscious.

It was not her first experience with the violence of slavery, but it would have the most lasting effect as she suffered from severe headaches for the rest of her life.

Bucktown Village Store historic site, Cambridge, Maryland.

Araminta married a free black named John Tubman in 1844, taking his last name. She changed her first name, adopting her mother's name, becoming Harriet. In 1849, worried that she and the other slaves on the plantation where she lived were going to be sold, Tubman decided to run away. Her husband refused to go with her, so she set out with her two brothers. Her brothers turned back, but Tubman persevered to freedom, settling in Philadelphia.

Tubman could not be happy in freedom knowing that her relatives and friends remained enslaved. She made the dangerous decision to return to Maryland to secure their freedom as well.

Linchester Mill was the hub of Underground Railroad activity in the area. Whites and blacks, free and enslaved, had regular contact here at the general store or the post office. Free and enslaved African Americans worked side-by-side, providing a constant flow of information and support to freedom seekers. Quakers and free blacks who lived near the mill secretly helped fleeing slaves pass through the area.

The mill dam created a spot to cross Hunting Creek. Such crossing points helped freedom seekers avoid unwanted attention.

Linchester Mill historic site, Preston, Maryland.

Harriet Tubman’s parents were active in the Underground Railroad, and she most likely made her first escape from their home near Choptank Landing.

On Christmas Day 1854, Tubman led her three brothers to freedom from nearby Poplar Neck. Robert, Ben and Henry, as well as several others, hid in a corn crib until dark, when they could begin their journey north.

At nightfall, Harriet safely led them on their journey towards freedom, traveling through Delaware, Pennsylvania, and across upstate New York to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Choptank River, Preston, Maryland, near site of Tubman's parents' home.

The forests, marshes, and waterways that characterized Tubman's home territory are largely unchanged from the time that she made her home in Dorchester County.

Knowledge of the terrain was vital to survival while hiding and trying to flee. Tubman and others had to successfully navigate the land and waterways, trap and forage for food, and hide from their pursuers. Understanding the tides, knowing how to find food and fresh water, and following the North Star were all skills that later proved vital as she guided her charges north along the Underground Railroad to freedom.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Cambridge, Maryland

As part of the Underground Railroad network, Tubman successfully employed a variety of escape and evasion methods to help aid fleeing slaves. Disguise was a favorite. If it was announced that a group of male slaves had bolted from a plantation, she dressed the fugitives as women for the trip north.

On another occasion, Tubman came dangerously close to being identified during a stopover at a train depot. To confuse her pursuers, she quickly purchased a ticket for the southbound train, correctly believing, that as it turned out, few would expect an “outlaw” of her notoriety to venture further into Dixie in such a public manner. For one of her more brazen missions, she convinced a light-skinned fugitive to pose as a white master transporting a group of slaves to a town further up the road.

For all the recriminations directed at her by displeased plantation owners throughout the South, Tubman was never caught and never lost a “passenger.”

Moving “passengers” along the Underground Railroad, Tubman became very familiar with the different towns and transportation routes characterizing the South. This information proved extremely valuable to Federal military commanders after the Civil War began in 1861.

Poorly drawn and outdated maps, coupled with soldiers who had little knowledge of the United States beyond their own village, made individuals like Tubman vitally important to the Union war effort. Utilizing the extensive knowledge of the South she had obtained while working for the Underground Railroad, Tubman was able to provide accurate intelligence data to Northern troops.

Tubman also served as a spy, seeking and delivering intelligence from behind enemy lines. At the war's conclusion, she was granted a military pension of $20 per month, the first African American woman to receive one.

After the war, Tubman retired to a piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn, New York where she lived surrounded by family. She cared for her parents and other relatives, becoming a stalwart of the community. She was famous in her own lifetime for her accomplishments, was sought after as a speaker, and collaborated on a biography of her life story.

Tubman died in 1913 and was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.

Tubman's legacy lives on in the hearts and spirit of every American. She has been honored with monuments and statues, schools bear her name, and thousands of Americans daily travel along Harriet Tubman roads, streets, and avenues.

Harriet Tubman Elementary School, Washington, DC.

Tubman has been honored on a United States postage stamp.

She has been celebrated as an enduring Civil Rights icon by contemporary artists and activists.

In April 2016, the US Treasury announced that she would become the first American woman pictured on currency in over 100 years.

Soon, Tubman will take her place in history on the new twenty dollar bill.

Harriet Tubman

Known as the “Moses of her people,” Harriet Tubman was enslaved, escaped, and helped others gain their freedom as a “conductor" of the Underground Railroad. Tubman also served as a scout, spy, guerrilla soldier, and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War. She is considered the first African American woman to serve in the military. 

Tubman’s exact birth date is unknown, but estimates place it between 1820 and 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. Born Araminta Ross, the daughter of Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross, Tubman had eight siblings. By age five, Tubman’s owners rented her out to neighbors as a domestic servant. Early signs of her resistance to slavery and its abuses came at age twelve when she intervened to keep her master from beating an enslaved man who tried to escape. She was hit in the head with a two-pound weight, leaving her with a lifetime of severe headaches and narcolepsy.

Although slaves were not legally allowed to marry, Tubman entered a marital union with John Tubman, a free black man, in 1844. She took his name and dubbed herself Harriet.

Contrary to legend, Tubman did not create the Underground Railroad; it was established in the late eighteenth century by black and white abolitionists. Tubman likely benefitted from this network of escape routes and safe houses in 1849, when she and two brothers escaped north. Her husband refused to join her, and by 1851 he had married a free black woman. Tubman returned to the South several times and helped dozens of people escape. Her success led slaveowners to post a $40,000 reward for her capture or death.

Tubman was never caught and never lost a “passenger.” She participated in other antislavery efforts, including supporting John Brown in his failed 1859 raid on the Harpers Ferry, Virginia arsenal.

Through the Underground Railroad, Tubman learned the towns and transportation routes characterizing the South – information that made her important to Union military commanders during the Civil War. As a Union spy and scout, Tubman often transformed herself into an aging woman. The she would wander the streets under Confederate control and learning from the enslaved population about Confederate troop placements and supply lines. Tubman helped many of these individuals find food, shelter, and even jobs in the North. She also became a respected guerrilla operative. As a nurse, Tubman dispensed herbal remedies to black and white soldiers dying from infection and disease.

After the war, Tubman raised funds to aid freedmen, joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in their quest for women’s suffrage, cared for her aging parents, and worked with white writer Sarah Bradford on her autobiography as a potential source of income. She married a Union soldier Nelson Davis, also born into slavery, who was more than twenty years her junior. Residing in Auburn, New York, she cared for the elderly in her home and in 1874, the Davises adopted a daughter. After an extensive campaign for a military pension, she was finally awarded $8 per month in 1895 as Davis’s widow (he died in 1888) and $20 in 1899 for her service. In 1896, she established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged on land near her home. Tubman died in 1913 and was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.

Edited by Debra Michals, Ph.D.

• The original version of this article was excerpted from “Clandestine Women: The Untold Stories of Women in Espionage” Exhibition, Annandale, Virginia: NWHM, 2002.
• Clinton, Catherine. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom . New York: Time Warner Book Company, 2004.
• Horton, Lois E. Harriet Tubman and the Fight for Freedom: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.
• Maxwell, Louise P. "Tubman, Harriet." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History . Ed. Colin A. Palmer. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. 2210-2212. U.S. History in Context . Accessed April 2, 2015.
• "Tubman, Harriet." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences . Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 8. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 464-465. U.S. History in Context . Accessed April 22, 2015.
• PHOTO: Library of Congress

MLA - Michals, Debra.  "Harriet Tubman."  National Women's History Museum.  National Women's History Museum, 2015.  Date accessed.

Chicago - Michals, Debra.  "Harriet Tubman."  National Women's History Museum.  2015.  www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-tubman. 

Harriet Tubman, National Women’s History Museum

National Geographic

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/harriet-tubman.html

http://www.nps.gov/hatu/index.htm

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/tubman/

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/harriet/support1.html

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ny1.htm

Bradford, Sarah, H. Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman . Auburn: W.J. Moses, Printer, 1869. (Available online: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bradford/bradford.html )

McGovern, Ann. Wanted Dead or Alive: The True Story of Harriet Tubman . Scholastic Paperbacks, 1991. [for ages 4-8]

McMullan, Kate. The Story of Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad . New York: Parachute Press, 1991. [for ages 9-12]

Petry, Ann. Harriet Tubman: Conductor of the Underground Railroad . Harper, 1996. [for ages 9-12]

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African American Heroes

Harriet tubman, spy.

You might know her as a conductor for the Underground Railroad. She was also a spy.

Harriet Tubman cautiously watched the shore from one of three gunboats on the Combahee River. She and several hundred Union soldiers were preparing a raid to free hundreds of enslaved people from plantations in South Carolina , part of the Confederate states that were fighting against the Union during the Civil War of 1861 to 1865. Enemy soldiers were hiding nearby—success was far from guaranteed.

Harriet Tubman is well known for risking her life as a “conductor” in the Underground Railroad , which led escaped enslaved people to freedom in the North. But the former enslaved woman also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War. Tubman decided to help the Union Army because she wanted freedom for all of the people who were forced into slavery, not just the few she could help on the Underground Railroad. And she convinced many other brave African Americans to join her as spies—even at the risk of being hanged if they were caught.

A SECRET MISSION

The Civil War was a time when women were usually restricted to traditional roles like cooking and nursing. Tubman did jobs like that, but as a spy she worked side-by-side with men, says Tom Allen, author of the Nat Geo book Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent .

In one of her most dramatic and dangerous roles, Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free enslaved people from plantations along the Combahee (pronounced “KUM-bee”) River in South Carolina. Early on the morning of June 1, 1863, three gunboats carrying several hundred male soldiers along with Tubman set out on their mission.

Tubman had gathered key information from her scouts about the Confederate positions. She knew where they were hiding along the shore. She also found out where they had placed torpedoes, or barrels filled with gunpowder, in the water.

As the early morning fog lifted on some of the South’s most important rice plantations, the Union expedition hit hard. The raiders set fire to buildings and destroyed bridges so they couldn’t be used by the Confederate Army. They also freed about 750 enslaved people—men, women, children, and babies—and did not lose one soldier in the attack.

A WRITER'S QUEST

To gather the facts, Allen searched libraries and the internet, and even walked in Tubman’s footsteps. “I went on the river just south of the area where the raid took place,” he says. “You're in that kind of country she would have known, with plenty of mosquitoes and snakes, and dirt roads are still there today—so you get a feeling of what it was like.”

Allen says his most exciting moment came when a librarian led him to written accounts by people who actually saw Tubman and the raiders in action.

“She was five feet two inches (157 centimeters) tall, born a slave, had a debilitating illness, and was unable to read or write. Yet here was this tough woman who could take charge and lead men," Allen says. "I got to like her pretty quickly because of her strength and her spirit.”

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Photographic Life of Harriet: Tubman's Life in Pictures

For Harriet Tubman’s 1868 carte-de-visit she sits in a full gingham-patterned skirt with her textured coifs parted down the middle. Tubman’s image appears in the album of Emily Howland, a white abolitionist and teacher, whose photograph collection included respectable-looking African American teachers, veterans and politicians. The photograph taken by Benjamin Powelson, in his Auburn, New York studio, features Tubman as we have never seen her—as a muse and not just a military genius. This Story+ project explored the visual life of Harriet Tubman in diverse illustrations of the abolitionist. Students working on this project organized the visual archive of Tubman’s representation from photographs she took during her lifetime, but to also her image in public memory, including statues, memorials, museums, murals and fine art by canonic artists to include Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Alison Saar as well as Glen Ligon.

Harriet Tubman, Women’s History, Abolitionist, Body Biography Project

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This Harriet Tubman, Body Biography Project is filled with all you need to teach and promote the abolitionist, suffragist, and political activist. Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad. This biography study is a collaborative research activity. This is truly unique, has high-quality vector graphics, and is the most inclusive group project for bringing together a growth mindset and a biography study. Learn all there is to know about one of the most influential civil rights leaders in the world.

I adapted the body biography concept to align with informational texts, biography research, nonfiction, and history. Harriet Tubman is a remarkable person to learn about any time of the year. A biography study would be great during February (Black History Month) or March (Women's History Month)

★ Features an original realistic image- all in line art for your students to add color and design.

★ The poster is 32 inches high by 10 inches wide. It requires 4 pages.

★ Group Project Rubric

★ Content Response Rubric (NEW!)

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★ Answer key (but remember, answers will vary with your students)

★ Student handout and planning sheet explains each part of the body biography project

★ The teacher set up directions, background, tips, and CCSS

★ The DIGITAL VERSION / Google Slide was added on 1/27/21. You will find the link on page 6.

★Classroom Décor

★Bulletin Board

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Directions are clear and explicit. Danielle Knight Copyright 2020

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Gladys Muhammad, the woman who has played Harriet Tubman several times to keep her legacy alive

G ladys Muhammad, an Indiana native, is working hard to preserve Harriet Tubman’s legacy. Following her early observations of the differences between her community and others, Muhammad commenced her 34-year career with the South Bend Heritage Foundation (SBHF), where she joined as a community organizer in 1987 and began helping in its mission to stabilize and enhance neighborhoods.

She told Essence , “I decided early that the area where my family and friends lived should have the same resources as other areas in the city.” 

Muhammad, despite being retired, continues to volunteer with SBHF regularly. She recently helped to raise “funds for a commemorative Harriet Tubman statue and bench,” which was unveiled in 2022.

After consulting with the team, they chose Howard Park, “a well-known and well-attended park in the city,” as the site for the life-sized interactive statue. The trailblazer stated that she wants people to know that “Black and White citizens did work together to help Black families escape the horrors of slavery,” even though there is no proof that Tubman stopped there herself.

During the ribbon-cutting event, a brief history lesson was given regarding Tubman’s courageous commitment to the Underground Railroad and guiding runaway slaves to freedom. Not only that, but Muhammad herself performed a concert and reenactment for the audience.

“I portray Harriet Tubman to honor her legacy and the Underground Railroad’s ties to Indiana,” she said.

Nevertheless, this was not Muhammad’s first time in Tubman’s shoes. She routinely portrays the abolitionist and Sojourner Truth , an activist and women’s rights pioneer, at school and other events in South Bend.

In the 1840s and 1850s, South Bend “often served as a last stop for the enslaved looking to escape in the Hoosier State,” according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources . Runaway slaves used South Bend to go northward to freedom with the assistance of local abolitionists like Thomas Bulla and Solomon Palmer.

Community leader Muhammad believes it is crucial for South Bend residents to have a place to go and “contemplate the courage it took to lead people to freedom.”

For her dedication and commitment to upholding Tubman’s legacy, the trailblazer was given NeighborWorks America’s 2023 Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership.