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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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Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad Essay
A slave was a property recognized by law in the United States. The enslaved were deprived of the rights that free citizens were enjoying. Harriet Tubman was born to a slave family between 1820 and 1825; she was the daughter of Benjamin Ross and Harriet Green (“Early Life: Harriet Tubman”). Harriet and her siblings lived in Dorchester County, Maryland. Anthony Thompson owned Benjamin Ross, who was skilled in wood. Benjamin’s responsibility was to manage other slaves’ cut and log timber for the growing shipbuilding industry in Maryland. Harriet Green was a slave to the Borders family; her job was to cook (“Early Life: Harriet Tubman”). Harriet Tubman had eight siblings, but due to the financial struggles in 1825, they were separated and sold in the slavery market.
Araminta Ross, Harriet Tubman’s actual name, had a rough childhood. When she was five years, she was hired by Miss Susan as a housemaid (“Early Life: Harriet Tubman”). Her responsibility was to care for a baby and ensure it never cried. Harriet Tubman was brutally punished if it cried; scary scars around her neck region were evidence of her master’s brutality her entire life. Harriet was unfit for the job and was sent back home. She was then hired to gather muskrat traps from swampy areas (“Early Life: Harriet Tubman”). She contracted the disease and was extremely weak; she could not work. After recovering from her sickness, Harriet started working on Bordess plantation since she could no longer be hired elsewhere.
Harriet’s zeal to fight against slavery started at a tender age. In her errands at the grocery, she encountered a slave running for freedom. She stood in the way of the slave’s oppressor to give the escaping slave time to flee. As a result, she got hit on the head with a metal aimed at the slave and broke her skull (“Harriet Tubman.”). This injury had an immense effect on her health that the Bordess family wanted to sell her, but they could not find a buyer. Harriet was married to John Tubman; her marriage was stressful. Besides, she could not bear to see her brothers sold to other slave masters; these events triggered her motive to escape (Kettler).
The truths of slavery were brutal; nonetheless, the decision to flee had severe consequences if caught. In 1849, Harriet and her brothers were set to escape, but her brothers, cowardly, did not proceed as planned (“Harriet Tubman.”). She found her way to Pennsylvania with the help of the Underground Railroad. Her freedom alone was not satisfying; Tubman yearned for her family and friends’ freedom (“Harriet Tubman.”). At this time, Tubman had become very religious, and she believed God could guide her way to saving her people from slavery.
The Underground Railroad was dynamic with loose network personnel. It took courage to pursue such a mission to the South. Harriet was a conductor of her kind; in her trips, she maneuvered through all obstacles to give her people freedom. A strategy was significant in any escape, and Harriet found the means to make her plans work (“Harriet Tubman.”). Harriet planned her escape mission during the winter and Saturday evenings. She relied on help from a network of personnel and knew the Maryland landscape well (“Harriet Tubman.”). She used secret codes and pathways to keep her routes and plans unidentifiable.
Slaves were fleeing into Free states; hence opposition crept in. The fugitive slave act of 1850 imposed strict measures on any runaway slave and those who helped slaves escape (Kettler). Harriet, now famous to the slaves as ‘Moses,’ was wanted. She helped slaves to Canada while disguising herself as a man (“Harriet Tubman.”). In Canada, she learned of abolitionist John Brown’s efforts to fight slavery in the United States and joined the fight. The civil war of 1861 gave her new avenues to fight for her people (Kettler). Harriet was recruited as a fugitive slave and served as a nurse, cook, and laundress (“Harriet Tubman.”). She used her skills in herbal medicine to treat injured soldiers and fellow slaves.
Harriet Tubman became a crucial asset to the Union army; she used her network to source crucial information from the confederate army (“Harriet Tubman.”). In July 1865, she asked Seward to help her receive payment for her work during the war (Kettler). Her request for pay proved futile due to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. After the civil war, Harriet resettled in New York and was remarried to a former slave veteran Nelson Davis (“Harriet Tubman.”). Harriet Tubman’s philosophy of life was helping those in need. She supported humanitarian efforts by selling her farm by-products and joined groups that fought for women’s rights.
Harriet offered her land to The African Methodist Episcopal church that founded the Harriet Tubman Home (Kettler). Although she had a good reputation among her people, she struggled financially. As Tubman aged, the pain from her head injury during her teenage years became more unbearable (“Harriet Tubman.”). Harriet had brain surgery that helped to relieve the pain. Harriet Tubman succumbed to pneumonia in 1913 in the presence of her family and friends.
Works Cited
“Early Life: Harriet Tubman.” Harriet Tubman , 2021. Web.
“ Harriet Tubman. ” History . 2021. Web.
Kettler, Sara. “Harriet Tubman: Timeline of Her Life, Underground Rail Service and Activism.” Biography . 2020. Web.
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IvyPanda. (2022, July 3). Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. https://ivypanda.com/essays/harriet-tubman-and-the-underground-railroad/
"Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad." IvyPanda , 3 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/harriet-tubman-and-the-underground-railroad/.
IvyPanda . (2022) 'Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad'. 3 July.
IvyPanda . 2022. "Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad." July 3, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/harriet-tubman-and-the-underground-railroad/.
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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.
Subtitle here for the credits modal.
- HISTORY & CULTURE
Why Harriet Tubman risked it all for enslaved Americans
Known as "Moses of Her People" on the Underground Railroad, Tubman’s life was marked by stunning cruelty and supreme courage.
Harriet Tubman's courageous work along the Underground Railroad and her activism afterwards has made her one of America's most well-known historical figures.
She is among history’s most famous Americans—a woman so courageous, she sought her own freedom from slavery twice and so determined, she inspired scores of other enslaved people to flee, too. Revered by some of her era’s most influential minds and given nicknames like “Moses” and “General,” she brought hope to generations of Americans, enslaved and free. She was Harriet Tubman, and her life contained both astonishing cruelty and unlikely success.
Born Araminta “Minty” Ross in Maryland around 1820, she was the daughter of enslaved parents. As a child, her labor was rented out by slaveholder Edward Brodess. When she was 13, an overseer threw a metal weight at an enslaved man in an attempt to make him return to work; it hit her instead, causing a traumatic brain injury . She began to have vivid dreams and symptoms similar to temporal lobe epilepsy; she interpreted her visions as divine symbols and became deeply religious.
As a young woman, she married John Tubman and changed her name. John was free, but his status was not enough to protect his new wife, now named Harriet, from being arbitrarily sold. In 1849, Brodess attempted to sell her but could not find a buyer due to her health. After he died, it looked certain that her other family members would be separated. So Harriet tried escape for the first time, along with her brothers. The attempt failed when her brothers returned to the Brodess household. Soon after, she decided to go it alone. ( Explore the Underground Railroad's "great central depot" in New York .)
A painting of Harriet Tubman, armed with her revolver, guiding formerly enslaved people into Canada.
Tubman made her way from Maryland to Pennsylvania with the help of the Underground Railroad. Once there, she attempted to guide other family members out of slavery. She would return to Maryland 13 times to rescue them. Along the way, she gave other enslaved people information to help their own flight. Armed with a revolver and her faith, she led at least 70 slaves to freedom.
Illiterate and without formal schooling, she nonetheless used her experiences with enslavement to aid the abolitionist cause. She befriended prominent abolitionists and intellectuals, white and black, and leveraged those sympathetic bonds into financial support for her cause. As the Underground Railroad’s most famous “conductor,” she earned the nickname Moses, a reference to the biblical figure who led his people from slavery. During the Civil War, she assisted escaped slaves in Union camps, acted as a nurse, and worked for the Union Army as a scout and spy . In 1863, she led an armed expedition into Confederate territory.
After the Civil War, Tubman continued her activism, agitating for women’s suffrage and advocating for newly free black Americans. Though she was impoverished and in poor health during her later years, she never stopped that advocacy. In 1896, she bought a 25-acre property in upstate New York that later became the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes . She died there in 1913.
At age 74, Tubman purchased property in Auburn, New York with hopes of turning it into a home for the poor and elderly. With help from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes opened in 1908.
Much of Tubman’s story is shrouded in myth , but she is still revered for the courage that helped her not just escape, but evade potential capture while helping others. For a while, she was even destined for U.S. currency through a planned redesign that would replace Andrew Jackson’s face on the $20 bill with hers. Those plans are now on hold , stymied by an administration change and purported technical challenges. Harriet Tubman may never receive that symbolic nod, but she remains one of American history’s most well-known figures.
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Alerts in effect, "i never ran my train off the track and i never lost a passenger.".
Harriet Tubman was a deeply spiritual woman who lived her ideals and dedicated her life to freedom. She is the Underground Railroad’s best known conductor and before the Civil War repeatedly risked her life to guide 70 enslaved people north to new lives of freedom. This new national historical park preserves the same landscapes that Tubman used to carry herself and others away from slavery.
A Note from park Superintendent Deanna Mitchell.
Join Ranger Tim Van Cleave as he interviews authors regarding the books they have written about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
From Spirituals to Blues and Gospels highlights the history of these three musical genres.
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Learn more about the Underground Railroad and the network of people and sites who aided freedom seekers.
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Harriet Tubman
86 pages • 2 hours read
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
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Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad is a 1955 biography by American author Ann Petry . This book takes the reader on a journey through Harriet Tubman’s life, from her birth to enslaved parents on a Maryland plantation to her death as a free woman in New York in 1913. Tubman is a well-known figure in American history and is best known for her heroic actions as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. After escaping from slavery, she helped over 300 Black Americans flee southern plantations by guiding them through the Underground Railroad network. Petry’s book remains a valuable resource about Tubman’s life and the experiences of enslaved Black Americans in the 19th century. Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad received the ALA Notable Book Award from the American Library Association and was named Outstanding Book by the New York Times. This SuperSummary will reference the Kindle edition of this book.
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On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Harriet Tubman’s parents, Harriet Greene (“Old Rit”) and Benjamin Ross, are enslaved on Edward Brodas’s plantation. The slaves live in windowless, unfurnished log cabins in a separate “quarter” from the Brodas’s Big House. Old Rit and Benjamin already have several children—some of whom Brodas rents out to nearby plantations—and are increasingly fearful of having their children sold to another plantation. Brodas makes financial ends meet by selling slaves to traders, who permanently separate them from their families and take them to the deep South.
Growing up, Harriet endures the same deprived circumstances as her parents, receiving few clothes and little food to eat. Harriet’s family teaches her to be subservient to white people and fear the overseer who supervises the slaves during the day and the local patrollers who chase and capture runaway slaves. The plantation slaves meet secretly at night and discuss running away to the North and the failed insurrection led by free Black man Denmark Vesey. Old Rit is frightened by these conversations; her great hope for freedom is that Brodas will free her, Benjamin, and their children when he dies.
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At age 6, Harriet is considered old enough to begin working, and she is hired out to a local white couple, Mr. and Mrs. Cook. Harriet struggles to keep up with weaving, so she is assigned to help Mr. Cook with his trapline for catching animals, which she prefers because it allows her to work outside (33). Harriet falls ill and is brought back to the Brodas plantation. When she recovers, Brodas rents her out to a different family, where she is required to care for a baby and stop him from crying during the night. Her boss Miss Susan insults her and whips her when the baby cries. Harriet runs away, hiding in a pig pen for days. Starving, she returns to Miss Susan, who eventually brings her back to the Brodas plantation, complaining that Harriet is rebellious and unintelligent.
Harriet matures into a young woman, and Brodas rents out her labor to other neighboring plantations, where she works outside cutting wood and in the fields. Even though this work is physically challenging and her employers beat her if she does not work fast enough, Harriet prefers this outside work to being indoors since she feels freer in nature. At this time, Harriet hears rumors of an “underground road” that other enslaved people are using to escape slavery. Harriet also learns of Nat Turner’s violent insurrection against slave holders and his capture and execution.
Harriet intervenes to help a fellow slave avoid punishment from an overseer. The overseer hits her in the head, causing a catastrophic injury that leaves Harriet unconscious for weeks. Many doubt Harriet will survive, but Old Rit nurses her back to health. Brodas tries to sell Harriet but struggles to find a buyer due to her poor condition. Eventually, Harriet learns that she and her brothers will be sold, and she prays for God to kill Brodas. When Brodas falls sick and dies just days later, Harriet is frightened that her prayers may have killed him.
The plantation is inherited by Doctor Thompson, who claims that he will not sell any of the slaves outside of Maryland. However, Harriet knows her actions have compromised her reputation as a trustworthy slave, and she considers running away. However, she worries that her continued brain injury would make her journey unsuccessful since she often has headaches or falls asleep spontaneously. Doctor Thompson hires out Harriet and her father to another plantation owner named John Stewart; Harriet is relieved to work outside again and learn from her father’s deep knowledge of the land.
Harriet becomes engaged to John Tubman, whom she loves deeply. She sews a quilt for them by hand, which she brings to John’s cabin once they are married. John is a free Black man, renewing Harriet’s desire to be free herself. When she confides in John that she wants to run away north with him, he argues that it is a dangerous and stupid idea and threatens to report her if she tries to run away. Harriet becomes frightened and distrustful of John but continues to carefully consider her plan. Harriet tries to run away with two of her brothers, but their plan is foiled when the men are scared of being caught and insist Harriet returns to the plantation with them. One day a local white woman tells Harriet where she lives and offers to help Harriet if she is ever in need. When Harriet learns that Doctor Thompson plans to sell her, she runs away, stopping at the white neighbor’s house and gifting her the quilt to thank her. The woman instructs Harriet to travel to the next safe location, where another family will help her. After many days of traveling at night along the “Underground Railroad” of safe houses, Harriet reaches freedom in Pennsylvania.
Harriet adjusts to her new life as a free woman in Philadelphia, where she networks with the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, a group of anti-slavery activists whose office serves as the final stop on the Underground Railroad. Through this group, Harriet learns that her sister Mary and her children will soon be sold and separated from Mary’s husband, a free man. With help from the Committee, Harriet and her brother-in-law execute a daring but ultimately successful rescue of Mary and her children.
Harriet learns about the new Fugitive Slave Act , which allows slave owners to hire slave catchers to pursue and capture runaway slaves, even in free states. Although they had not parted well, Harriet misses her husband John and returns to Maryland to bring him back with her. Unfortunately, when she arrives, she discovers that he has remarried, and the couple laughs at the idea of John and Harriet running away together. A saddened Harriet rescues several other slaves instead and leads them to Philadelphia. By this time, Harriet has a reputation for her daring missions and is known as “Moses” to the enslaved people of Maryland. Harriet makes frequent trips to Maryland to rescue slaves and lead them from house to house on the now-familiar Underground Railroad route. In 1851 she leads 11 slaves out of Maryland and, despite a stressful trip, they make it to Canada, where they can live without fear of being recaptured. Along the way, the group is aided by famous abolitionists such as the Quaker shoemaker Thomas Garrett and the former slave Frederick Douglass. In St. Catharines, Ontario, Harriet discovers that not only are Black residents free from the Fugitive Slave Act, but Black men can vote, run for office, and even serve on juries. Despite the cold conditions, Harriet grows to love the town and helps her group build a home there. For the next several years, Harriet winters in St. Catharines, working to save money for her spring and autumn trips to Maryland to rescue slaves.
Harriet has vivid dreams about her brothers being sold and prepares to rescue them on yet another journey to Maryland. She meets her brothers and another local couple in Bucktown, where they hide together in the food storage hut for all of Christmas day. Harriet sees her parents and notices how much they have aged, causing her to feel especially sad that she cannot take them with her on the journey north. Harriet retraces her usual route to safely accompany her brothers and the couple out of Maryland and up to Canada.
Harriet continues to take great risks on her regular trips to rescue slaves, acting as a conductor for runaways. Between 1851 and 1857, Harriet guides 11 different missions, all successful. After having bad dreams about her parents, Harriet resolves to bring them to Canada. Harriet arrives in Bucktown by train, disguises herself as an elderly woman, and carries live chickens to blend in with the locals. At night she surprises her parents and steals a horse and wagon from Doctor Thompson to transport them away. Harriet travels with her parents on the roads at night and hides with them in the woods during the day until they cross the state border into Pennsylvania. Harriet manages to get her parents to Canada, but they find the cold intolerable, so she arranges for them to live in a house in Auburn, New York, which she has purchased for them.
Harriet has a strange nightmare about abolitionist John Brown being killed and recognizes him from this dream when she is later introduced to him. He asks for her help in planning a large-scale freeing of slaves, confiding in her that he wants to train and arm runaway slaves so they can effectively revolt against slave owners. Although she is ambivalent about his methods, Harriet agrees. She travels to Boston, where she meets with activist Franklin Sanborn, who encourages her to become a public speaker and share her life stories. Harriet lectures at abolitionist meetings and amazes her audiences with her first-hand account of escaping slavery and helping others do the same. She meets with John again but finds his plan of insurrection very ambitious; she loses contact with him. One day Harriet has a premonition that John is in trouble, and her fears are confirmed when she learns that the authorities have captured him and killed his sons.
Harriet’s desire to free as many people as possible has not diminished, and she continues to give talks and lectures to earn money for this work. While she appreciates her audiences’ interest, she does not listen to their advice to stay out of the South; she continues to travel to Maryland once or twice a year to help enslaved people escape. She can feel the tension rising between the southern and northern states and worries about how and when the question of slavery will be resolved. In one incident, Harriet helps captured fugitive slave Charles Nalle escape from police in Troy, New York.
The Civil War begins, and John Andrew, the governor of Massachusetts, recommends Harriet to the Union Army, which employs her as a scout, nurse, and spy. Harriet cares for the runaway slaves who are wounded or ill, often with dysentery. In one of her most notable accomplishments, she and Colonel James Montgomery travel up the Combahee River to rescue 750 enslaved women, men, and children from their plantations.
After her war service, Harriet feels somewhat lost at sea. With slavery now abolished, she is unsure how to direct her energies. Harriet becomes involved with the suffrage movement for women and raises funds for educating freed slaves. She also marries a Union veteran named Nelson Davis, who suffers from tuberculosis. She struggles financially, and she is denied any salary or pension from the government for her contributions to the war effort.
Hoping to help, her friend Sarah Hopkins Bradford produces two books that summarize Harriet’s life story, Scenes In the Life of Harriet Tubman and Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People , with Harriet receiving the royalties from the sales of the book. (These books became a valuable historical resource about Tubman’s life since Tubman could not read or write herself.) Harriet fills her time growing vegetables on her acreage and selling them door to door, always taking advantage of the opportunity to tell her neighbors stories from her time as an activist and her service in the Union forces. She earns a reputation as a vivid, skilled storyteller who takes great pride in her legendary accomplishments. Now elderly, Harriet donates her house to a local church so it can become a home for older people, including herself. In 1913, Harriet passes away; in 1914, the city of Auburn commemorates her for her “rare courage” (241) and her role as the rescuer of over 300 enslaved people.
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Home — Essay Samples — History — Harriet Tubman — Harriet Tubman Character Traits
Harriet Tubman Character Traits
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Published: Mar 5, 2024
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The Early Life of Harriet Tubman: Insights into her Formative Years
This essay about Harriet Tubman focuses on her childhood and the early experiences that shaped her into a resilient and courageous leader. Born into slavery in Maryland around 1822, Tubman encountered numerous hardships from a young age, including physical abuse and severe injury. These challenges, however, did not break her spirit; instead, they forged her strong moral convictions and determination. The essay highlights how Tubman’s upbringing, knowledge of the natural world, and the values instilled by her family and community played crucial roles in her later successes on the Underground Railroad. It underscores the influence of her formative years in developing the qualities that would define her as one of America’s greatest heroes, demonstrating how her early life laid the groundwork for her legacy of bravery and justice.
How it works
The story of Harriet Tubman is often recounted with a focus on her remarkable achievements as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and an activist for abolition and women’s suffrage. Yet, the childhood experiences that shaped this formidable woman’s life are equally compelling and provide essential context to her fearless actions in later years.
Born Araminta Ross around 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, Harriet Tubman was born into slavery, a condition that imposed severe limitations but also shaped her into a resilient and determined individual.
From a young age, Tubman faced the harsh realities of slavery: exhaustive physical labor, constant threats of sale, and daily injustices. However, these challenges did not suppress her spirit; rather, they forged her into a person of profound strength and moral conviction.
Harriet’s early years were marked by hardship and abuse. As a child, she was hired out to different masters, some of whom were notoriously cruel. One particularly severe incident occurred when she was just twelve years old. Tubman intervened to protect another slave from an overseer’s wrath, which resulted in her suffering a severe head wound when the overseer struck her with a heavy metal weight. This injury caused dizziness, pain, and hypersomnia throughout her life, yet it also seemed to deepen her resolve and her visions, which she believed were divine premonitions guiding her actions.
Despite these formidable challenges, Harriet’s upbringing in Maryland’s landscapes equipped her with crucial skills that would later prove indispensable. She learned about the natural world around her, knowledge that was essential for her nocturnal travels north on the Underground Railroad. Tubman’s familiarity with the woods and marshes of Maryland enabled her to navigate these terrains with fugitive slaves, evading capture with cunning and stealth.
Family played a central role in Tubman’s life and instilled in her the values of loyalty and courage. Her parents, Harriet “Rit” Green and Ben Ross, endeavored to keep their family together despite the destabilizing threat of slave auctions. Tubman’s father taught her about the woods and rivers, while her mother passed down stories and songs that preserved their African heritage and instilled hope. These lessons in survival and cultural identity were vital in shaping Tubman’s character and her strategies for escape and resistance.
Moreover, the community of slaves and free blacks in Maryland also contributed to her early education in resistance. She listened to whispered tales of escape and observed the network of kinship and support that slaves formed under the oppressive system. These interactions undoubtedly influenced her later revolutionary activities, highlighting the importance of collective effort in the struggle for freedom.
Through her childhood, Tubman developed a steely determination that would characterize her legendary activities in adulthood. Each setback seemed only to strengthen her resolve. The values of resilience, courage, and justice were not just abstract ideals to her but were forged in the crucible of her early experiences.
Harriet Tubman’s childhood is a testament to the indomitable spirit of one woman who rose from the depths of slavery to alter the course of American history. Her early life reminds us that the qualities of heroism can be cultivated from a young age and that even the most humble beginnings can lead to extraordinary outcomes. Harriet Tubman as a child may have seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of America’s greatest heroes, but her formative years laid the foundation for a legacy of bravery, compassion, and unyielding determination that continues to inspire to this day.
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Home / Essay Samples / History / Harriet Tubman / Harriet Tubman And The Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman And The Underground Railroad
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