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Best Books About Harriet Tubman

Although there have been scores of children’s books published on Harriet Tubman , there are few full scale biographies for adults.

The first book about Tubman was published in 1869 with the assistance of Tubman herself who was nearly destitute and hoped sales from the book would provide some much needed financial assistance for her and her family.

The next Tubman biography wasn’t published until 1942. That book, titled Harriet Tubman: Negro Soldier and Abolitionist, was written by a journalist named Earl Conrad who had great difficulty finding a printer due to widespread racial bias at the time against African-American history. The book quickly went out of print after publication and has remained out of print ever since.

Over 60 years passed until another Tubman biography was published, starting with Jean Humez book in 2003 and Larson and Clinton’s books in 2004.

Despite the lack of books to choose from, I’ve compiled a list of what are considered the best books about Harriet Tubman.

These books have great reviews on sites like Amazon and Goodreads, they are best-sellers on the topic and they have great reviews from critics. I’ve also used many of these books in my research for this website so I can personally say they are some of the best on the topic.

The following is a list of the best books about Harriet Tubman:

(Disclaimer: This article contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Originally published in 1869, under its original title of Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, and later updated in 1886, this biography was dictated by Harriet Tubman herself. It is a firsthand account of Tubman’s life from her childhood up to the post-War era.

Since Tubman lived until 1913, it only covers part of her life but what it does cover is fascinating. The book discusses Tubman’s childhood as a slave, her time as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, her work as a Civil War nurse and her efforts to educate former slaves after the war.

The book was written to raise badly needed funds for Tubman, who was living in poverty and often spent whatever money she had helping the less fortunate.

According to an article written by fellow Tubman biographer Earl Conrad, the publishing costs of the book were paid for by abolitionists Wendell Phillips and Gerrit Smith and by William H. Seward, Jr, the son of Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William H. Seward, Sr.

The book was intended to have a section about Tubman’s time in the war, that was to be written by Charles P. Wood, a banker who had worked as a recruiter during the war, but it was never included in the book because it was instead used as testimony by Seward to Congress in his quest to secure a military pension for Tubman.

Fellow Tubman biographer Jean Humez referred to this book as “the most detailed biography of Tubman written during her lifetime.”

According to Humez, the book came about due to Tubman’s storytelling skills:

“Harriet Tubman told stories, sang songs, and performed dramatic re-enactments of many of the life experiences she considered most significant (and most entertaining as well) on public platforms, in private gatherings, in formal interviews, and in conversations with close associates, family members, and visiting strangers over a span of more than sixty years in the North. Her early storytelling performances were memorable events for her listeners, as many of them testified afterward. These sessions helped create a market for the collaborative biography she produced with Sarah Hopkins Bradford three years after the war, a narrative of nearly a hundred pages called Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869.) This was actually a patchwork collection of interview-based stories and documentary materials, prepared in haste. Later Bradford revised and expanded it twice, in 1886 and 1901, and renamed it Harriet, the Moses of Her People. Taken together, the three versions of the Bradford biography contains almost all the important stories of her Underground Railroad career and war service that have survived. All later biographers, even if they also interviewed Tubman, relied at least in part on information (and misinformation) from Bradford.”

Another fellow Tubman biographer, Milton C. Sernett, also agrees that Bradford’s biography has influenced all the Tubman biographies that came after hers:

“First issued in 1869, then revised and enlarged in an 1886 edition, Bradford’s rendition of the Tubman story has infected, for good or for ill, almost all subsequent biographical portraits.”

Sarah Bradford, who died in 1912, was a writer who was mostly known for writing children’s books. Bradford was one of the first Caucasian writers to write about African-American topics and one of the first American women writers to write children’s literature.

Published in 2004, this book discusses the more well-known events of Tubman’s life as well as the lesser known events such as her role in liberating hundreds of slaves during a raid in the Civil War , as well as the heartbreak of her first marriage and her time as a Civil War nurse.

Clinton explained in the book’s preface that the lack of historical biographies on Tubman are due to a failure on the part of the academic world and is a form of “disremembering” where Tubman is frequently mentioned and referenced but few sources bother to set the record straight about her role and contributions. Clinton explains that she wrote the book in the hopes of humanizing Tubman by letting people see her as a real person in addition to a historic icon.

Clinton’s book received positive reviews when it was published, although some critics have noted that it reads more like an adventure story than a historical work.

Drew Gilpin Faust reviewed the book for the New York Times and said it was not as well researched as other Tubman biographies:

“Catherine Clinton’s ‘Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom’ is much less richly researched and less detailed, but draws on the extensive historical writing of recent years about slavery and Civil War to place Tubman’s life within its times — through descriptions of the black Philadelphia in which she found herself after her escape in 1849, of the history of the Underground Railroad, of the impact and aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, of the experiences of war in the coastal South. Clinton, whose books include ‘Fanny Kemble’s Civil Wars,’ frequently speculates about what she cannot know, with such interjections as ‘one can imagine’ or ‘there is every reason to believe.'”

Publisher’s Weekly deemed the book a “revelation” and praised Clinton’s skill at distinguishing speculation from fact:

“Clinton has an extraordinary knack of compressing complex history into an informing brief paragraph or a single sentence, making this ‘first full-scale biography’ of Tubman (1825–1913) a revelation….Clinton is meticulous (without being annoying) in distinguishing the speculative from the known in Tubman’s private life…In her hands, a familiar legend acquires human dimension with no diminution of its majesty and power.”

Catherine Clinton is the Denman Professor of American History at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Clinton is the author and editor of nearly thirty books on American history including Mrs. Lincoln: A Life; The Plantation Mistress: Women’s World in the Old South; The Devil’s Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South; When Harriet Met Sojourner.

Clinton has served on the executive council of the Society of American Historians, on the Advisory Committee of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Bicentennial Commission, and is currently on advisory boards for Civil War History, Civil War Times, The President’s Cottage and Soldier’s Home, and Ford’s Theatre. In November 2016, Clinton served as President of the Southern Historical Association.

Published in 2004, this book discusses Tubman’s accomplishments, personal life and her influences. The book dispels the myths and misconceptions about Tubman and provides a complete profile of the American hero.

In the book’s introduction, Larson argues that Tubman’s impressive accomplishments have turned her into a mythical figure who seems to be more legend than truth.

Larson explains that she wanted to correct this by writing a detailed, historically accurate biography about Tubman to help shed light on who she really was:

“The reality of Harriet Tubman’s life is far more compelling than the partly fictionalized biography so familiar to schoolchildren. Why have we been satisfied with the mythical Tubman and why has her biography remained within the province of children’s literature? Although the myths are rooted in actual achievements and serve to enhance the legend of Harriet Tubman, they do so at the expense of her real life story. The true facts of Tubman’s long life, including her years under slavery, her family life, her profound spirituality, her accomplishments as a freedom fighter from her Underground Railroad days to her Civil War exploits and then later her suffrage and community activism, reveal a remarkably powerful and influential life endured during some of the darkest days in American history. Motivated by a deep love of family, Tubman struggled against great odds to bring scores of relatives and friends to freedom in the North. Necessarily shrouded in secrecy at the time, the details of her escape missions have been buried in the historical record for generations. There is, therefore, a need to rediscover Harriet Tubman, to separate reality from myth and to reconstruct a richer and far more accurate historical account of her life.”

To shed new light on Harriet Tubman, the book relies on newly discovered documents, court records, wills, letters, newspaper accounts and genealogical records.

Drew Gilpin Faust reviewed the book for the New York Times, along with several other recent Tubman biographies, and said the book is meticulously researched and provides a lot of details, even though some of the details are not always useful:

“Larson and Humez tend to conjecture less and instead to supply the reader with the considerable information they have collected — sometimes, it seems, more because they have found it than because it adds significantly to our understanding of Tubman’s life.”

Kate Clifford Larson is an author who has written a number of books about women in history such as Rosemary: A Hidden Kennedy Daughter and the Assassin’s Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln.

Larson also wrote an article titled Racing for Freedom: Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad Network Through New York for Afro-Americans In New York Life and History, Vol. 36 No. 1, January 2012.

Larson is the consultant for the Harriet Tubman Special Resource Study of the National Park Service and is a member of the advisory board of the Historic Context on the Underground Railroad in Delaware, Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware.

Published in 2004, this book discusses new biographical information as well as old stories and legends about Harriet Tubman.

The book aims to expose the lesser known aspects of Tubman and her life that have been overshadowed by her larger-than-life public image as an American hero.

In the introduction to the book, Humez explains that she wanted to provide a thorough overview of the complex person that Tubman was and hoped to inspire readers to continue the hunt for more lost documents and information about Tubman:

“In providing my own biographical overview in this book (part 1, “The Life), I invite readers to contemplate some of the complexities of the life of the historical woman within the setting of nineteenth-century social and political conflict over the institution of slavery. I build on the work of her former biographers, but with the great advantage of a much larger number of primary sources to work from than were available to any of them. I am very much aware that my retelling of her life story cannot be definitive. Where the “facts” are still not fully known, I hope students of African American history and literature and American culture will be inspired to continue the research. My own experience during the more than ten years in which I did research for this book suggests that many other fascinating lost documents will turn up in libraries and archives in the future, to reward the persistent, imaginative, and lucky explorer.”

Drew Gilpin Faust reviewed the book in the New York Times and praised it as one of the most comprehensive biographies of Tubman to date:

“But Humez spends less than half her book on a biographical treatment of Tubman. The final 200 pages consider the contemporary stories and texts through which we know Tubman, with most of this space devoted to excerpts from the documents themselves. Humez has compiled what she calls Tubman’s ‘core stories,’ accounts of her life Tubman told regularly in her public appearances, and descriptions written by those who interacted with her. Presented as a chronology of her life, these materials paint a far more vivid portrait than any biographer’s account. The reader gains not just glimpses of Tubman, but sees how she confounded even those admirers who still could not comprehend a black woman who behaved like the bravest of men.”

A review published in Black Issues Book Review also agreed that the book was the most comprehensive Tubman biography to date and is well written and well-researched:

“Humez’s book is extremely well researched, and her writing is both incisive and accessible, making it an excellent resource for students as well as for the general reader.”

Jean Humez is a professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Massachusetts. Humez has written numerous books about gender and race such as Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Critical Reader and Mother’s First Born Daughters: Early Shaker Writings on Women and Religion.

Published in 1942, the book chronicles the events of Harriet Tubman’s life.

Conrad wrote the book after meeting Tubman as a young boy in his hometown of Auburn, New York, where Tubman also lived. Conrad explained that meeting Tubman inspired his lifelong interest in social issues, particularly civil rights.

Fellow Tubman biographer Humez said, in the introduction to her book, that Conrad’s was the best Tubman biography to date:

“There have been many popular biographies of Tubman for adults and children produced since her death, but only one work based on careful research into the original sources has as yet appeared: General Harriet Tubman by the politically progressive white writer Earl Conrad, still the standard biography of Tubman. Conrad’s book is both carefully documented and passionately written, yet his Harriet Tubman is still very much a larger-than-life figure. Conrad, a journalist who became interested in black history through experiences as a labor organizer in the 1930s, minimized her spirituality and maximized her role as a militant, an African American woman warrior.”

Another fellow Tubman biographer, Milton C. Sernett, in the introduction to his own book, praised Conrad for using primary sources but ultimately dismissed him as “a journalist, not a trained historian” unfairly implying that only an academic with a PhD can truly understand or write about history.

A review on Goodreads by one of Conrad’s relatives explains how Conrad struggled to get the book published due to racist assumptions from publishers that readers wouldn’t be interested in a book about a black woman:

“This was the first book written by my great uncle, Earl Conrad. He was inspired to write the book by meeting Harriet in their home town of Auburn, NY. This book was published in 1942, after being rejected by over 30 publishers. He states in his book Jim Crow America that all of the publishers gave different reasons for not publishing the book, but they all centered on the racist assumption that a book about a black woman would not be of interest to the general public. It’s crazy to think about how late this book was published (Harriet died in 1913, and did most of the work she was famous for in the 1850s), but also how much our society has grown to accept (and distort) Harriet Tubman’s memory.”

The book is now out of print and existing copies are rare and hard to find.

Earl Conrad, who died in 1986, was a journalist for newspapers such as Auburn Advertiser-Journal, PM, and The Chicago Defender, where he wrote primarily about African-Americans in the South. Conrad later wrote a number of books about black history including Jim Crow America; and The Invention of the Negro.

Published in 2007, this book is not so much a biography as it is an analysis of how Harriet Tubman’s public image has changed over time.

The book compares the real life Harriet Tubman with the many biographies and descriptions of Tubman to see how accurate they are.

As Sernett explains in the introduction, his goal with this book is to examine why exactly Tubman has become the iconic American hero that she is:

“My intent in the chapters that follow is not to present a biographical portrait of Harriet Ross Tubman in the traditional manner of historical biographers. Instead, I focus on why it is that someone whose life story has been characterized by the distinguished African American historian Benjamin Quarles as a ’tissue of improbabilities verging on the impossible’ has captured the American imagination so strongly, especially in the recent past. Nevertheless, it is hoped that this attempt to sort out the ‘legend’ from the ‘lady’ will enable readers to learn about the woman who has become a cultural icon. This book undertook two tasks. It seeks to recover the ‘historical’ Tubman in the fashion, for example, of New Testament scholars searching for the historical Jesus behind the literary accretions of the Gospel writers. But it is primarily about the remembered Tubman – that is, about the myth that draws on the factual core but is often in tension with it.”

The Journal of African American History reviewed the book and praised it as an important contribution to the topic:

“However, in Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History, Milton C. Sernett adds to the Tubman scholarship in an original and engaging manner by using Tubman’s life to examine Tubman’s place in U.S. history and investigate how she ‘has captured the American imagination so strongly, especially in the recent past.’ In weaving together the ‘real Tubman,’ the sainted Tubman, and the symbolic Tubman, Sernett re-presents her as a ‘national icon’ who teaches us ‘about ourselves as the American people.’”

Milton C. Sernett is a professor of history and African American studies at Syracuse University. Sernett has written many books about African-American history such as North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom; African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness; Bound for the Promised Land: African American Religion and the Great Migration; Abolition’s Axe: Beriah Green, Oneida Institute, and the Black Freedom Struggle; Black Religion And American Evangelism: White Protestants, Plantation Missions, and the Flowering of Negro Christianity, 1787-1865.

Sources: Washington, Margaret. “Review.” The Journal of African American History , vol. 95, no. 2, 2010, pp. 260–262. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/jafriamerhist.95.2.0260. Conrad, Earl. “I Bring You General Tubman.” Taylor Francis Online , 14 April. 2015, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00064246.1970.11430666?journalCode=rtbs20 Conrad, Earl. “The Charles P. Wood Manuscripts of Harriet Tubman by Earl Conrad.” Harriet Tubman , www.harriettubman.com/cwood.html “Bound for the Promised Land.” Publisher’s Weekly , www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-345-45627-4 Faust, Drew Gilpin. “Then General.” New York Times , 15 Feb, 2004, www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/books/the-general.html “Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom.” Publisher’s Weekly, www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-316-14492-6 Davis, Bernadette. “Harriet Tubman Gets Her Due.” Bookpage , Feb. 2004, bookpage.com/reviews/3329-catherine-clinton-harriet-tubman McPerson, James. “The Moses of Her People.” New York Times , 11 March. 2004, www.nybooks.com/articles/2004/03/11/the-moses-of-her-people/ Chesler, Andrew. “Four Best Biographies of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.” Signature Reads , 9 March, 2012, www.signature-reads.com/2012/03/best-books-harriet-tubman-underground-railroad/

9 thoughts on “ Best Books About Harriet Tubman ”

I am writing a thesis on Harriet Tubman and her rise to prominence in American history textbooks. Do you know where I may be able to survey textbooks from the 1970s on? I am researching when and how Harriet Tubman became a national figure and was closely associated with the Underground Railroad. I believe this occurred after the Civil Rights era of the 1960s.

Wow, your thesis sounds really interesting. Sites like ebay, amazon and other sites that sell used books are the only places that I can think of that would have old textbooks. I’m not sure if libraries or other research centers would have them. That’s an interesting question that no one has ever asked me before and now I’m curious too. As for Tubman’s rise in popularity, I know it was Sanborn’s 1863 article in the Commonwealth Magazine that first made Tubman famous but I think you’re definitely onto something about her rise in popularity during the Civil Rights era.

What about “Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman” written in 1954 by Dorothy Sterling. I think I read that book 50 times when I was a kid. It was wonderful.

I am unable to locate some of the mentioned books at the San Francisco Public Library any suggestion where they may be found?

A lot of these books are old and may be hard to find. I don’t know what libraries might have them but you can sometimes find old books for sale online.

Thanks for this post. I read Clinton and Bradford and I am reading Larson now. Good recomendations.

I’m an older white woman who learned about Harriet Tubman in the late 1950’s. Try finding old encyclopedias and old history books used by schools in the north.

Earl Conrad’s book was published by Carter G. Woodson and the Associated Publishers as General Harriet Tubman in 1943. it was republished by the Press in 1990 with a new introduction written after his death by his wife. the book was available to the public from the early 40’s into the 1990’s when the Associated Publishers closed their operation. Black Classic Press republished General Harriet Tubman in 2020. the book is availble for all booksellers and on Amazon.

I am looking for a biography of Harriet Tubman that is written by an African American author. I can’t find one. Do you know of one?

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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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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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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

Related topics.

• MODERN HISTORY
• HISTORIC SITES
• HISTORIC PRESERVATION
• AFRICAN AMERICANS

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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.

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The 5 Best Books on Harriet Tubman

Essential books on harriet tubman.

There are numerous books on Harriet Tubman, and it comes with good reason, after being born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue about 70 enslaved people , including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Furthermore, during the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army.

“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,” she remarked.

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of America’s most consequential figures to the heights of societal contribution, we’ve compiled a list of the 5 best books on Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton

Celebrated for her exploits as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has entered history as one of nineteenth-century America’s most enduring and important figures. But just who was this remarkable woman? To John Brown, leader of the Harper’s Ferry slave uprising, she was General Tubman. For the many slaves she led north to freedom, she was Moses. To the slaveholders who sought her capture, she was a thief and a trickster. To abolitionists, she was a prophet.

Now, in a biography widely praised for its impeccable research and its compelling narrative, Harriet Tubman is revealed for the first time as a singular and complex character, a woman who defied simple categorization.

Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People by Sarah H. Bradford

This simple, unvarnished account recalls the courageous life of Harriet Tubman, one of the best-known “conductors” on the Underground Railroad. First published in 1869 and privately printed to raise funds for “the Moses of her people,” Sarah Bradford’s memorable biography recalls the former slave’s grim childhood; her perilous experiences leading slaves into Canada; her efforts as a Civil War nurse, cook, and scout for the Union Army; and her post-conflict endeavors to aid and educate former slaves.

An inspiring story of bravery, perseverance, and self-sacrifice, this accurate, reliable account by Tubman’s contemporary is essential reading for students of American history and African-American studies.

Bound for the Promised Land by Kate Clifford Larson

Harriet Tubman is one of the giants of American history – a fearless visionary who led scores of her fellow slaves to freedom and battled courageously behind enemy lines during the Civil War. Now, in this magnificent biography, historian Kate Clifford Larson gives us a powerful, intimate, meticulously detailed portrait of Tubman and her times.

Drawing from a trove of new documents and sources as well as extensive genealogical data, Larson presents Harriet Tubman as a complete human being – brilliant, shrewd, deeply religious, and passionate in her pursuit of freedom. A true American hero, Tubman was also a woman who loved, suffered, and sacrificed.

Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry

Harriet Tubman was born a slave and dreamed of being free. She was willing to risk everything – including her own life – to see that dream come true. After her daring escape, Harriet became a conductor on the secret Underground Railroad, helping others make the dangerous journey to freedom.

Originally written for young people, this gem among books on Harriet Tubman is an accessible portrait of the woman who guided about 70 slaves to freedom and an award-winning introduction to the late abolitionist.

Freedom Train by Dorothy Sterling

Written for young people, Freedom Train tells the story of a young Harriet Tubman born into slavery who knew only hard work and hunger. Escape seemed impossible – certainly dangerous. Yet Harriet did escape North, by the secret route called the Underground Railroad. Harriet didn’t forget her people. Again and again she risked her life to lead them on the same secret, dangerous journey.

If you enjoyed this guide to the best books on Harriet Tubman, be sure to check out our list of The 10 Best Books on Rosa Parks !

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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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 .

ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE; POWER AND POLITICS

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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The Fugitive

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By Madison Smartt Bell

• June 24, 2007

Best known as a hero of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has been the subject of hundreds of books for young people. Full-scale biographies, however, have been scarce, though three — by Jean Humez, Catherine Clinton and Kate Clifford Larson — have appeared since the year 2000. “Harriet Tubman,” the novelist Beverly Lowry’s contribution, is labeled a biography, but the subtitle, “Imagining a Life,” qualifies that claim. In an author’s note, Lowry painstakingly explains her decision “to emphasize the visual elements of Harriet’s story — what things looked like, places and clothes, faces, plants, the sky — and to thread information from the sources” listed in her bibliography “in order to come up with one version of what life might have been like for the American hero Harriet Tubman.” She also makes us aware that Tubman was one of the first American celebrities to market her own story for profit, so the first full record of her life contains material that she and her original biographer, Sarah Hopkins Bradford, thought would sell.

Fictionalized biographies are troubling to readers who want to know at all times what’s fact and what’s invention. Lowry signals, unobtrusively but clearly, when she is gliding into the imagined phases of her narrative. Particularly in the first half of the book, this method produces vivid scenes of Tubman’s life as she (might well have) lived it.

Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross around 1822, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She was the property of Edward Brodess, an unprosperous farmer who staved off bankruptcy by hiring out or selling his slaves. First hired out at the age of 6, Minty, as she was known, was beaten for poor performance of housework she’d never been taught to do. Her hire-masters tried using her to check muskrat traps, and kept her wading through cold water during a bout of measles until she collapsed. Still, she preferred outdoor labor. In her early 20s, she made a deal with one of her hire-masters, Brodess’s stepbrother A. C. Thompson, which permitted her to find her own jobs and keep whatever earnings were left after both Thompson and Brodess had satisfied their claims.

When Tubman was 13, her skull was fractured by a two-pound lead weight launched in a dispute between an overseer and another slave. Brodess promptly tried to sell his damaged property, but found no takers. Minty recovered but soon began having visions and conversations with God. She had witnessed the Leonid meteor shower of 1833, a revelation of falling stars that many thought portended a great upheaval in the order of things. In later life, Tubman would claim she had always known how to follow the North Star, which led to freedom.

On the non-astral plane, she also learned, much later in life, that a term in Brodess’s great-grandfather’s will should have set her mother, and her mother’s children, free at age 45. As it happened, she did not have to wait that long. At 26, when she heard that Brodess was trying to sell her again, she asked God to kill him. He died about a week later. His widow was still more desperate to raise money by selling slaves. Minty, now married to John Tubman, tried to escape with three of her brothers in September 1849, but they lost their nerve. A few days later she went alone. After crossing to freedom she took her mother’s name, Harriet.

A year later, Harriet returned to rescue family members who had been put up for sale. Slaves who were not her relatives asked her to help them escape too. The recent passage of the Fugitive Slave Act meant that escapees could be recaptured even in the North. The Underground Railroad ramped up in response, now conveying fugitives all the way to Canada.

Relying on her visions, her sixth sense for danger and her colloquies with God, Harriet ran extraordinary risks in her numerous returns to slave territory, once (in an episode rendered well by Lowry) brushing elbows with her former master A. C. Thompson. Slaves began calling her Moses, after her habit of singing “Go Down Moses” to discreetly announce her presence. John Brown, with his more martial bent, called her “General Tubman.”

By the outbreak of the Civil War, Tubman had gotten most of her family north, and become a symbol of the possibility of freedom to a great many more. Though she would become a star on the abolitionist lecture circuit, she always had to struggle to finance her expeditions and to support the growing circle of family and friends she had helped establish in Canada and upstate New York. Though she served in the United States Army as a scout and spy, the government would repeatedly deny her a pension. In 1865 she was severely beaten for refusing to leave a whites-only car on a train from Philadelphia to New York. After a slow recovery, she returned to her large dependent household, begging for food when she couldn’t find work. Under these circumstances, in 1868, she began collaborating with Sarah Bradford in the marketing of her legend.

Lowry, a white Southerner, makes painfully sure we know she knows that slavery was a Bad Thing. The hardships Harriet Tubman suffered in the North come through just as clearly through uncommented description. Though she insists her work is not scholarly, Lowry’s dramatic retelling seems thoroughly researched, and she succeeds in animating the icon that Tubman helped to make of herself. “I am as proud of being a black woman,” she told the conductor of the train where she was beaten, “as you are of being white.” That pride shines through in the marvelous photographs of Tubman that illustrate the book — images that, amplifying Lowry’s words, show forth her indomitable desire to be herself in freedom.

Madison Smartt Bell is the author, most recently, of “Toussaint Louverture.”

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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.

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

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For 15 years, an increasingly frail Tubman had dreamt of a rest home for elderly and infirm Black folks in New York and had worked tirelessly to achieve its opening. Officially called the Harriet Tubman Home , it was just one more selfless act in a lifetime of service. “I did not take up this work for my own benefit, but those of my race who need help,” she said humbly that day . “The work is now well started, and I know God will raise up others to take care of the future. All I ask is united effort, for united we stand divided we fall.”

Tubman has long been famous throughout the world for her work as a brilliant, daring guide for the Underground Railroad . She escaped her own slavery in 1849 but returned to the South and over the next decade rescued dozens of fellow enslaved people. “She's 5 feet tall,” Elizabeth Cobbs, author of The Tubman Command told NPR . “She's a tiny little thing, like a strong wind might blow her away…And she looks kind of like nobody. But she must have had one of these faces that's very changeable. She was also very good at disguise. She was able to get in and out of places that someone else would have been stopped and accosted.”

It was this adaptability that would lead Tubman to excel in her post-Underground Railroad endeavors. Over the next half-century, she would work as a Union Army General, a liberator, a nurse, a cook, a scout, a spy-ring chief, a celebrated orator, a caretaker and a community organizer.

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

Tubman took care of 'contrabands' in the South during the Civil War

According to Catherine Clinton, author of Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom , the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 initially seemed to Tubman an unnecessary step. If President Abraham Lincoln would only free enslaved people across the South, they would rise up and destroy the Confederacy from within, thus negating the need for thousands of senseless deaths. "This Negro can tell Mister Lincoln how to save the money and the young men," she told friend Lydia Maria Child. “He can do it by setting the Negroes free.”

Despite her disappointment and misgivings, in May 1861, Tubman – now in her late thirties – arrived at the Union-controlled Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. Enslaved people, known as “contrabands,” were pouring into Union held facilities, and Fort Monroe was no exception. Tubman set about cooking, cleaning and nursing the sick back to health, overlooking the very clear danger she was in as a wanted fugitive slave in the South.

In May 1862, at the request of the U.S. government, Tubman traveled to Port Royal, in Beaufort County off the South Carolina coast. Thousands of enslaved people had flooded into the Union-held Sea Islands of Carolina, and a humanitarian crisis was brewing. A white volunteer named Elizabeth Botume, described the scene at the Beaufort port:

Negroes, negroes, negroes. They hovered around like bees in a swarm. Sitting, standing, or lying at full length with their faces turned to the sky. Every doorstep, box, or barrel was covered with them, for the arrival of a boat was a time of great excitement.

Still going by the code name of “Moses,” Tubman’s reputation preceded her in Union circles. Although Union officers “never failed to tip their caps when meeting her,” she soon refused to take rations, so as not to insult the displaced Black population. Instead, after long days working as a root doctor, nurse and cook, she would make her own “pies and root beer” to sell and make ends meet. According to Clinton, she even used her own meager earnings to build a laundry so that she could teach female refugees the trade.

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

She led a group of emancipated Black Americans as Union spies

On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation officially set enslaved people in the Confederacy free. The Union brass realized that they now had a huge network of emancipated Black Americans who could become soldiers, munitions workers and rebel leaders. Tubman’s amazing skills as a spy and scout could now be used to its full advantage. According to Clinton :

By early 1863, after ten months spent ministering to the sick, Tubman had been given the authority to line up a roster of scouts, to infiltrate and map out the interior. Most of her agents were men recruited directly from the surrounding low country. Several were trusted water pilots, like Solomon Gregory, who could travel upriver by boat undetected. Her closely-knit band became an official scouting service for the Department of the South.

Tubman and her spies quickly learned that there were thousands of newly freed Black people all over the South eager to leave the low country and join the Union. Formerly enslaved people felt comfortable talking to Tubman and her scouts and trusted their instructions. “They had lived their lives as invisible people,” writes Thomas B. Allen in his book Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent . “That quality of invisibility, which Harriet Tubman knew so well, became the basis for using ex-slaves as spies for the Union.”

Using the Tubman spy ring’s information, on the night of June 22, 1863, the Union Army launched the Combahee River Raid. Leading the 150 Black Union troops and a trio of federal ships was no other than Tubman herself. Into the morning of the 23rd, an armed Tubman navigated her men through 25 miles of riverfront, home to the most aristocratic plantations of the Old South.

All along the river, formerly enslaved people were waiting, having heard Moses was coming. “I never saw such a sight,” Tubman recalled . “Sometimes the women would come with twins hanging around their necks; it appears I never saw so many twins in my life; bags on their shoulders, baskets on their heads, and young ones tagging along behind, all loaded; pigs squealing, chickens screaming, young ones squealing.”

A master storyteller, Tubman would later joke that she had such difficulty with two slippery pigs that she resolved to never wear skirts on a mission and wrote her friends in the North for bloomers. Confederates scrambled to respond to the raid, but they had been taken by complete surprise. By daylight, over 750 people had joined the Union. Tubman (who could not write) dictated a summation of the raid to journalist Franklin Sanborn:

We weakened the rebels somewhat on the Combahee River by taking and bringing away seven hundred and fifty-six head of their most valuable livestock, known up in your region as “contrabands,” and this, too, without the loss of a single life on our part, though we had good reasons to believe that a number of rebels bit the dust.

After the triumph of the raid, Tubman now had to find a way to care for the new refugees at Port Royale. While she often used her own money to make sure new residents didn’t starve, news of the successful raid was spreading around the country. In a July 1863 edition of the abolitionist paper Commonwealth , Tubman’s friend Sanborn finally unveiled the legendary Moses of the UGRR and U.S. Army as Tubman. However, Tubman had no time to revel in her new-found fame – the nearby Second Battle of Fort Wagner, where the legendary Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth lost 40 percent of their men – brought hundreds of new soldiers directly under Tubman’s care.

With her health failing, Tubman retreated to Auburn where she continued to serve the community

Tubman, who suffered from recurring illnesses, including narcolepsy because of an old head injury (caused by a slave owner hitting her with a metal weight), found her health failing by the spring of 1864. Worried about her family up in Auburn, she requested leave to go to her adopted hometown in the summer. She then went back to work with refugees at Fort Monroe, before officially retiring in 1865. However, on her train ride home, Tubman was the victim of a racist attack, because railroad officials believed her U.S. Army papers were forged. Clinton writes :

She was asked to leave her seat. Tubman politely refused. When she failed to move, the conductor called in assistance. Her stubborn resistance took four men altogether to eject her from her seat. She was dumped unceremoniously into the baggage car for the rest of her trip, let out of her imprisonment only when she reached her destination.

Not surprisingly, Tubman was thrilled to go back to the loving embrace of her extended family and friends in Auburn. She welcomed a network of parents, siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces, with whom she was finally able to enjoy quality time.

“Once while she was playing in the long grass,[her great-niece] Alice was taken by surprise when her great-aunt suddenly popped up in the meadow beside her,” Clinton writes . Tubman had stealthily slid out of her “rocking chair, flattened herself against the ground, and silently slithered up to the little girl to surprise her — a trick she had learned from her days with the Underground Railroad."

In her comfortable, rambling home, Tubman took in elderly, infirm and mentally disabled African Americans and cared for them free of charge. “All these years her doors have been open to the needy... The aged... the babe deserted, the demented, the epileptic, the blind, the paralyzed, the consumptive all have found shelter and welcome,” one Auburn friend wrote . “At no one time can I recall the little home to have sheltered less than six or eight wrecks of humanity entirely dependent upon Harriet.”

Often barely making ends meet, Tubman was constantly involved in community projects; raising money for schools, nurseries and churches. One friend wrote that “while Harriet has never been known to beg for herself, the cause of the needy will send her out with a basket on her arm to the kitchens of her friends, without a show of hesitation.”

Tubman also married a second time, after the death of her first husband, from whom she had been estranged for decades. Her new husband was Nelson Davis, a young, handsome Union veteran originally from North Carolina. The two were married in Auburn on March 18, 1869. It was reported :

The audience was large, consisting of the friends of the parties and a large number of first families in the city. Ladies and gentlemen who were interested in Harriet, and who for years had advised and assisted her, came to see her married. After the ceremony Rev. Mr. Fowler made some very touching and happy allusions to their past trials and apparently plain sailing the parties now had, when the ceremony ended amid the congratulations of the assembly, and the happy couple were duly embarked on the journey of life.

Over the years, Tubman would become a forerunner to today’s inspirational circuit speaker, talking to groups throughout the Northeast. “As a raconteur, Harriet herself, has few equals,” a friend recalled .

“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,” she once said .

Tubman also became a passionate suffragette, attending local meetings and national conferences. When asked if she believed in women’s suffrage she quipped; “I suffered enough to believe it.”

Amazingly, this revered, honored woman was nearly penniless for much of her life. For 30 years, the U.S. government denied Tubman a pension for her service during the Civil War, despite her extraordinary efforts. After her husband’s death in 1888, she was finally granted a widow’s pension, which increased to $20, because of her special service, in 1899.

However, Tubman’s last great dream was not for herself but for others. That was the 1908 opening of the Harriet Tubman Home, next to her estate in Auburn. Tubman herself moved into the home in 1911 and died there on March 10, 1913. Always the caretaker, always the leader, Tubman’s last words to her loved ones were unsurprising: “I go, to prepare a place for you.”

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Abolitionists

Harriet Tubman

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Abraham Lincoln

Susan B. Anthony

Lucretia Mott

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Frederick Douglass

Alexandre Dumas

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Mary Ann Shadd Cary

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Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom Paperback – January 5, 2005

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• Print length 304 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Back Bay Books
• Publication date January 5, 2005
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0316155942
• ISBN-13 978-0316155946
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (January 5, 2005)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316155942
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316155946
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
• #10 in U.S. Abolition of Slavery History
• #303 in Black & African American Biographies
• #881 in Women's Biographies

About the author

Catherine clinton.

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Harriet Tubman

• Occupation: Nurse, Civil Rights Activist
• Born: 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland
• Died: March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York
• Best known as: A leader in the Underground Railroad

• Her nickname as a child was "Minty".
• She was a very religious woman having learned about the Bible from her mother.
• Harriet bought a house in Auburn, New York for her parents after helping them to escape from the south.
• Harriet married John Tubman in 1844. He was a free black man. She married again in 1869 to Nelson Davis.
• She usually worked the Underground Railroad in the winter months when the nights were longer and people spent more time indoors.
• There is a story that slaveholders offered a reward of $40,000 for the capture of Harriet Tubman. This is likely just a legend and not true.
• Harriet was very religious. When she led fugitives across the border she would exclaim "Glory to God and Jesus, too. One more soul is safe!"
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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Harriet Tubman: 15+ Little-Known Facts About The American Icon And Hero

Posted: May 14, 2024 | Last updated: May 15, 2024

A legendary abolitionist, political activist, and freedom fighter, Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who dedicated and risked her life to help others gain their freedom as well. Utilizing the Underground Railroad, a network of anti-slavery safe houses, she led dozens of slaves to freedom, becoming a legend in her own right. However, this only scratches the surface of Tubman's actions.

Read through this article to learn more about Harriet Tubman's heroic life, including her service in the Union Army, and see how her actions went far beyond what's commonly known.

Her Exact Age Is Unknown

Harriet Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland. However, because she was born into slavery, her exact age is unclear. Some believe that she was born in the early 1820s, although the National Parks Conservation Association claims she was born in 1822.

She passed away in 1913 from pneumonia, which would have made her 91 years old according to the National Park Association's estimate. She was buried with military honors in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.

A Head Injury Affected Her Entire Life

As a child, Tubman was subjected to beatings and whippings from several slave masters. On one occasion, she suffered a severe head wound when an enraged owner threw a heavy object at another slave but ended up hitting her instead.

The injury resulted in frequent dizziness, pain, and bouts of hypersomnia during her entire life. Following her injury, she also began experiencing visions and vivid dreams, which she interpreted as premonitions from God. This, along with being raised Methodist, led to her becoming extremely devout in her faith.

She Had An Issue With Abraham Lincoln

After the onset of the Civil War, it became nearly impossible for Harriet Tubman to continue her mission of rescuing slaves. So, she settled down in Port Royal, South Carolina helping abolitionists and the Union as a nurse to freed slaves. It was during this time that Tubman came into indirect conflict with Abraham Lincoln.

Tubman was working under General David Hunter, who was assembling a regiment of freed slaves. Lincoln believed that Hunter was moving too quickly and didn't have the right to emancipate Southern slaves. This led Tubman to write a not-so-nice letter to Lincoln, although she later regretted not meeting him.

She Escaped By Herself

In 1849, Tubman's master had died, and it was assumed that she and her family were going to be split up and sold off. On September 17, Harriet and her two brothers escaped but they ended up having second thoughts and returned, forcing Harriet to come with them. However, Harriet was determined, and escaped again -- on her own this time.

Although her exact route is unknown, she utilized the Underground Railroad made up of freed slaves and abolitionists. Following the North Star, Harriet traveled over 90 miles on foot until she finally made it to freedom in Pennsylvania.

The Myth About Her Bounty

Although she had a lot of notoriety, legend says that the slave owners in Maryland were so distraught by Tubman's freeing the slaves that they offered $40,000 for her capture, dead or alive. While this makes for a good story, it's only a myth. The only known bounty put on Tubman was just $100.

It's assumed that the larger dollar amount came from a letter written by an anti-slavery activist declaring that Tubman should be awarded $40,000 as a pension for her work in the Union Army during the Civil War.

She Rescued Over 70 Slaves In 13 Trips

Although the exact number of slaves that she helped remains unknown, it's estimated that Tubman helped at least 70 slaves escape the South through the use of the Underground Railroad.

She did this by either leading them directly or providing them with the information necessary to get out on their own. These trips ended at the beginning of the Civil War, although she noted to Frederick Douglass that nobody in her care ever died along the way.

Her Nickname Was Moses

Over the 11 years and numerous trips that Tubman returned to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to help escaped slaves, she made quite a name for herself both among the slaves and the slave owners.

Because of her bravery, skill, and determination, she was nicknamed "Moses" by those who she saved in her numerous trips. This is a reference to the prophet in the Bible, who led the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt to freedom.

She Was The First Woman To Lead An Armed Assault

In 1863, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War. While under the command of Colonel James Montgomery, she led 150 black Union troops in steamboats across the Combahee River in South Carolina. She helped guide the boats around Confederate mines and traps in the water until finally reaching the shore.

They then set fire to the surrounding plantations as the slaves scrambled to the boats. In total, over 750 slaves were rescued during the raid, with Tubman being hailed for her "patriotism, sagacity, energy, [and] ability."

She Admired Frederick Douglass

In December 1851, Tubman was leading a group of 11 fugitive slaves in the hopes of getting them to Canada. it's believed that she ended up stopping at the home of abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass to see refuge.

In his third autobiography, he wrote: "On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada." Because of the timing and number of people, this is believed to have been Tubman's group. The two admired each other greatly, with Douglass writing a letter when her biography was being composed.

She Was Still Mistreated After The War

Even though Tubman spent years in the Union military as a nurse, fighter, and a liaison to black Union units, she was still disrespected when the war finally ended. When she decided to settle down in Auburn, New York, it was clear the country was not grateful for her service.

On a train to Auburn, she was ordered to sit in the smoking car with the other black passengers. When she mentioned her service, the conductor grabbed her and a physical altercation ensued, resulting in Tubman getting injured. She was also denied compensation or a pension for her service for decades.

She Was Almost A Part Of The Raid On Harper's Ferry

In 1858, Harriet Tubman met John Brown, a white abolitionist who believed that he had been called by God to bring an end to slavery. Although Brown was much quicker to resort to violence than Tubman, the two worked together for a year.

Tubman is credited with assembling a fighting force of freed slaves that Brown would use to overrun the armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. When the time of the raid had come, Brown asked "General Tubman" to join him in battle, but she was not available. The raid was a complete disaster, and Brown was hanged for treason.

She Worked As A Scout For The Union Army

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863, Tubman was further inspired and became a scout. She was a leader through the lands around Port Royal, and her knowledge of navigating bogs and rivers in stealth was put to use against the Confederacy.

She worked under the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, mapping the unfamiliar terrain and observing its inhabitants. She also worked with Colonel James Montgomery, providing him with crucial information that resulted in the capture of Jacksonville, Florida.

She Had Brain Surgery Without Anesthesia

Even in her advancing age, her headaches and seizures from her early head injury continued to plague her. Finally, in the 1890s, she underwent brain surgery at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. At that point, she was unable to sleep from the constant "buzzing" in her head and requested to have an operation.

According to Tubman, "[the surgeon] sawed open my skull and raised it up, and now it feels more comfortable." She did not receive anesthesia for the procedure and instead bit down on a bullet as she had seen Civil War soldiers do when they had their limbs amputated.

She Married A Younger Man

After settling in Auburn, New York, without a pension, Tubman struggled to make ends meet and was forced to make a living performing odd jobs and taking in boarders. One of these people living with her was a former Union soldier named Nelson Davis.

The two fell in love and were married, although Davis was more than 20 years younger. Together, they adopted a baby girl named Gertie in 1874 and lived together as a family. Unfortunately, Davis passed away on October 14, 1888, of tuberculosis.

She Was Scammed For Gold

Even though she received some money for a two-volume biography written by an admirer, she was still in desperate need of money. In 1873, two men approached Tubman about handling a gold transfer worth around $5,000, for $2,000 in cash.

In need of money and assuming the men were innocent, Tubman agreed to make the transfer. After borrowing the cash from a wealthy friend, she went to make the transfer. It was there that the men attacked her, rendered her unconscious with chloroform, and took the money.

She Became An Advocate For Women's Suffrage

After the Civil War and her time working as an abolitionist had ended, Tubman became involved with the women's suffrage movement. She toured around the east coast, telling her story and working alongside others such as Susan B. Anthony and Emily Howland.

When the National Federation of Afro-American Women was founded in 1896, she was the keynote speaker at the group's first meeting. Although she had made a name for herself in an entirely new cause, her poverty still forced her to sell a cow in order to attend a reception in Boston honoring her actions in the movement.

She Became Heavily Involved in The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

In the early 1900s, Tubman became deeply involved in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn, New York. In 1903, she even donated a piece of real estate that she owned to the church, to be used as a home for "aged and indigent colored people."

The home opened five years later, although it charged a $100 entrance fee for each resident. Tubman was disgusted by this, commenting, "they make a rule that nobody should come in without they have a hundred dollars. Now I wanted to make a rule that nobody should come in unless they didn't have no money at all."

She Was An Impressive Nurse

While serving as a nurse in Port Royal, Harriet Tubman used the local fauna to help heal soldiers who were suffering and dying from dysentery. She also risked the chance of getting smallpox while tending to others, although she never contracted the disease.

This led some people to believe that she was protected by God. As a nurse, she received government rations, but when other freed slaves saw this as special treatment, she quickly gave them up and started selling pies instead.

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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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Harriet Tubman homestead discovered

Sydney Giuliano

In October 2020, after years of negotiations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered with The Conservation Fund to acquire an additional 2,691 acres of forested wetlands to be added to  Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge . The parcel will provide essential habitat for migrating shorebirds, waterfowl, and other native species. Wildlife aren’t the only ones, however, that benefit from the riches of these lands. Beneath the soil there are deep historic roots that may help us piece together previously untold stories.

For years, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge has worked alongside the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and  Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park , preserving the landscape associated with Harriet Tubman’s childhood. The newly acquired lands, formerly managed for forests and hunting, have been on their radar for nearly 20 years. Based on previously gathered historical deeds, court, birth, and census records, the partnership believes that within those 2,691 acres are the 10 acres Harriet Tubman’s father, Ben Ross, received when released from slavery.

“Whether or not it’s the land that Ben Ross owned, there’s a story to be told there,” says Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex Leader Marcia Pradines. “We know this is the place where she grew up, where she learned about surviving on the land.”

During their second exploration in the Spring of 2021, the Maryland Department of Transportation’s archeological team, led by chief archaeologist Julie Schablitsky,  confirmed that they had officially discovered the location of Ben Ross’ cabin .

Making up for lost time 

The property has undergone a remarkable transformation and today looks far different from the landscape Tubman would have known. What were once irrigation ditches now gather water as the land is threatened by sea-level rise.

The ever-rising waters are largely the motivation behind the land acquisition.

“The reason why this land is so important, strictly from a habitat perspective, is that it will be at least partially marsh by 2100,” Pradines says.

The saturated site houses flourishing ecosystems teeming with wetland wildlife. Although ideal for migrating waterfowl, this swampy terrain is a hazard to researchers. As the water rises, so too does a sense of urgency. Refuge staff and partners now race against the clock as water threatens to wash away pieces of history.

Extracting the past is a task that takes extraordinary care.

“As an organization, we are largely pretty light on the landscape so there exists potential for a great number of breakthroughs,” says our Regional Historic Preservation Officer Amy Wood “Not excavating is always our first option. In archaeology, once we start to remove anything, information is lost. That’s why we get so upset when there’s damage done to a dig site. It’s not just the items, it’s the context in which you find them. If you damage the area you automatically lose 50 percent of the information.”

The longer they wait, the more of this land erodes. If artifacts aren’t lost to the erosion that 50 percent, the contextual information, will be.

Action and exploration  

Once the parcel officially became Service property in the fall, refuge leadership sprang into action, completing the necessary paperwork and ensuring archaeological exploration was appropriate for their management goals. The team avoided habitat disturbance by digging the initial 700 pits along existing 200-year-old roads that will one day be converted into a public use trail system.

As shared public lands, maintenance staff worked tirelessly, says Pradines, improving roads, posting signage, and creating parking spaces not only for hunters but for researchers as well, ensuring everyone would have safe access to their designated areas.

During that initial dig the archaeological team including biographers, students, and historians, unearthed several compelling artifacts, including shards of ceramic dishes and an 1808 coin. Despite their best efforts to comb the muddy, unforgiving landscape, they had not found substantial evidence of the Ross cabin.

With the threat of sea-level rise only steps behind them, the archaeological team returned to the refuge in March of 2021 to continue their search. After unearthing numerous key artifacts dating back to the 1800’s, archeologists were thrilled to confirm that they had officially found the location of Ben Ross’ cabin.

Puzzling through pieces of history  

Though they may seem small, a simple coin or a piece of clay may be invaluable historical clues. By piecing together similar shards of history, we can learn a lot about our ancestors including what materials they used to build their homes, what they did for work, what they did for pleasure, and overall how they lived. We can even track the movements of people across the greater landscape. For example if we find a tool only manufactured in Ohio buried in a swamp in Virginia, we get a better understanding of who was traveling where.

Even the wildlife holds clues that help us fill in the gaps of history. Crops that were planted, new animals introduced to an area, all of this can be discovered when we study the land.

The land holds scars, evidence of the interactions between people of the past and the habitat that they occupied. For that reason, land conservation and historical resource conservation are intrinsically linked. When we preserve these habitats, we are inevitably preserving stories. By reading these landscapes, we discover more about people like Harriet Tubman whose stories are interwoven in and deeply connected to the land.

In this case, a few key artifacts including nails, brick, glass, dish fragments, and even a button provided enough evidence to prove that this location had once held Ben Ross’ cabin. Through their continued research of this property, the archeological team hopes to discover more about Harriet Tubman’s upbringing.

These are the places where she learned the necessary skills to emancipate over 70 enslaved people. Under these stars she learned to navigate. In these forests she learned how to traverse the wilderness, find food to sustain herself, and hide among the trees. Working alongside her father who felled and sold timber for Baltimore shipyards, Tubman learned how to navigate the terrain. When interacting with mariners she garnered knowledge of Maryland’s waterways. These spaces, as much as the people around her, helped raise her into the leader she would eventually become.

Unearthing the unwritten and grounding history  

As a society, we predominantly study history from written accounts. In doing so, however, we ignore the rich histories of people whose stories may have never reached the page. Enslaved people were largely illiterate, forcibly kept from written language by slave masters who sought to deprive them of education in order to avoid potential uprisings.

By preserving historical sites we help ensure that these stories will not be forgotten. The physical evidence on the land gives us greater insight specifically into the lives of people whose stories have never been documented.

The cultural significance of land, however, is not simply determined by what we find on it. When we hold spaces, even those that were once sites of trauma, we create space for healing and unity. By recognizing the significance of certain locations we provide an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to gather and acknowledge both the painful and triumphant moments that occurred there.

In honoring these stories we recognize the significance of histories unwritten. We ensure true stories are told and uphold collective memory, painting a fuller picture of American history. These locations provide the roots. They give us an opportunity to grow, something that can only be accomplished if we recognize what we once were and where we need to grow from.

Telling the story  

When the location is visitor ready, the site will be added to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway. This byway is a 125-mile, self-guided scenic drive through more than 30 sites related to Harriet Tubman’s life and legacy.

Additionally, Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge seeks to honor this historic location by working alongside the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park to develop interpretive trails. As a land management organization, the Service must balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of the public and so the remainder of the parcel will be appropriately divided for outdoor recreation including hiking, birding, hunting, and fishing.

The refuge hopes that by telling this history they can attract the attention of new visitors.

“I think there’s a certain interest out there and folks typically are drawn to national parks for history, but we have our own set of history to offer,” says Historic Preservation Officer Wood. “Our unique piece is once you come for the history you’ll end up learning more about conservation.”

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The unlikely staying power of the humble floppy disk

Outdated and finite storage media are still used by governments around the world and have 'enduring' appeal'

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When Sony stopped manufacturing new floppy disks in 2011, most assumed the outdated storage medium – of which there is only a finite, decreasing number left – would die off.

But 15 years later , there are still those who "hold on to floppies", said Techspot , whether for " nostalgia-fuelled pleasure or necessity". 

Although from a "different era of computing", to this day floppy disks have an "enduring appeal", said the BBC . Some people are "in love with them", while around the world there are those who "depend on them". 

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'Floppy disks just work'

"Few things bring a smile to the face of long-time techies over 30 (or thereabouts) quite like the mention of floppy disks," said Techspot. 

The "floppy" emerged in around 1970 – so named because you could bend the original disks without breaking them. For about three decades, they were the main way people stored and backed up computer data. 

But by the 1990s they had largely fallen out of fashion, as technological advances like memory sticks and CDs, and later cloud storage, could store a far larger amount of information. The floppy was "immortalised" as the "save" icon on most computer applications, said the BBC. 

Now, floppy users are "slowly dying out", and the finite number of disks in the world is "gradually dwindling". But various "legacy industrial and government systems" around the world still use them, and some city transport systems even run on them. Some Boeing 747 aeroplanes use floppy disks to load "critical software updates" into their navigation computers. 

In the 2010s, US officials were discovered to still be using floppy disks to manage their nuclear weapons force. In 2022, Japan's digital minister "declared war" on floppy disks and other retro tech like CDs and mini-discs, after a committee discovered nearly 2,000 areas in which businesses were still required to use them. 

For a lot of people, "floppy disks just work", said the BBC. Why spend money upgrading technology that's "basically fine"? 

A 'powerfully weird little niche' 

Although floppy disk music "peaked" in the 2010s, it's "still going strong" in the 2020s, said The Verge . In the 2020 category, online music release catalogue Discogs.com shows a "healthy 500-plus floppy releases", more than the documented number released in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s combined. 

The floppy is a "quiet mainstay in DIY-driven media", wrote culture reporter Alexis Ong, especially in the so-called "lobit" subculture, which celebrates low-bitrate music "as a form of art and practicality". 

While physical media are being "miserably, myopically phased out of everyday retail", the "powerfully weird little niche" of floppy music is still "alive and kicking". 

Perhaps their appeal can be explained because "we've moved a little closer to their impending extinction", said Ong. Floppies "aren't made for long-term storage", which forces users to "confront the transience of art and information in the face of time and decay".

Maybe "one out of 100 floppies goes bad for me", musician and disk hobbyist Espen Kraft told the BBC. That's despite careful storage in a dry, non-humid environment. Storing collections in an attic or cellar risks a far higher rate of corrupted disks. Meanwhile, with nobody manufacturing the disks any more, computer systems that read them will only become more difficult to maintain.

The floppy is also running on "borrowed time", said Ong. Tom Persky, who runs floppydisk.com – the only remaining floppy seller – supposedly has about half a million disks in stock. The disks are also "pretty expensive" to buy, said Thomas Walskaar of Floppy Totaal.

So how to explain their enduring popularity? Perhaps floppy disks are "perfect reminders of how violently smashing bytes together on a thin, vulnerable plastic/magnet sandwich is still one of the most punk things you can do as a musician", said Ong.

Or, suggests Floppy Totaal's Niek Hilkmann, perhaps the appeal is more symbolic: a floppy "shows us that nothing is eternal and everything that seems to be very vague or obscure, especially in the digital realm, isn't that at all".

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Harriet Marsden is a writer for The Week, mostly covering UK and global news and politics. Before joining the site, she was a freelance journalist for seven years, specialising in social affairs, gender equality and culture. She worked for The Guardian, The Times and The Independent, and regularly contributed articles to The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The New Statesman, Tortoise Media and Metro, as well as appearing on BBC Radio London, Times Radio and “Woman’s Hour”. She has a master’s in international journalism from City University, London, and was awarded the "journalist-at-large" fellowship by the Local Trust charity in 2021. 

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SC church to unveil Harriet Tubman sculpture commemorating raid freeing 700 slaves

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A monument to Harriet Tubman , which Tabernacle Baptist Church leaders will unveil June 1, the anniversary of the raid in which Tubman helped free more than 700 slaves. (Provided/Tabernacle Baptist Church)

This story originally appeared on South Carolina Daily Gazette .

A historic Black church in South Carolina will unveil a sculpture of Harriet Tubman on the 161st anniversary of the raid she led that freed more than 700 slaves from Lowcountry plantations.

The June 1 unveiling of the sculpture , which is eight years in the making, will add to the long history of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Beaufort, where Civil War hero and South Carolina lawmaker Robert Smalls was buried in 1915.

Born enslaved in Maryland in 1822, Tubman is the best-known conductor of the Underground Railroad , as she led at least 70 slaves in Maryland to freedom before the Civil War.

But her work in South Carolina during the Civil War often gets overlooked, said Rev. Kenneth Hodges, the church’s pastor for 29 years.

The monument will be the first in the state marking her daring mission in June 1863 along the Combahee River, he told the SC Daily Gazette on Monday.

The raid made Tubman, known as the Moses of Her People, the first woman ever to lead a major military operation in the U.S. , according to the Smithsonian. She remained the only African American woman to lead troops in the Civil War, according to the National Park Service .

“Harriet Tubman is a world-renowned figure, and right now, South Carolina isn’t putting any resources into the fact that she was here,” Hodges said.

In 2016, the members of Tabernacle Baptist Church decided to change that. Despite delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the church raised $600,000 for the sculpture itself, plus another $100,000 for other expenses such as landscaping.

The money, all private donations, also covered the funding for an interpretive center on church grounds nearby, where people can go to learn more about Tubman.

The church will unveil the sculpture as part of a three-day celebration of the anniversary of the Combahee River Raid. The celebration, beginning May 31, will feature speeches from experts on Tubman, as well as her great-great-great grand niece, said Hodges, who represented that area of Beaufort and Colleton counties for 12 years in the House.

The festival will also have food trucks, a nod to the fact that Tubman once worked in a bakery in Beaufort, Hodges said.

Tubman, who escaped slavery alone to Philadelphia in 1849, first arrived in South Carolina in 1862. Using a network of spies, the abolitionist spent the following year gathering information about the plantations lining Beaufort’s Combahee River, where thousands of slaves farmed rice, according to the National Park Service .

The night of June 1, 1863, Tubman led three steamships up the river that carried several hundred African American soldiers from the 2nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, a regiment consisting largely of freed men from the sea islands. Using Tubman’s knowledge of the area, they avoided explosives and navigated to strategic points.

From the river, the ships sounded their whistles, and hundreds of slaves, including children, came running to the river. Soldiers waiting in rowboats took them to the steamships, where they escaped to safety.

Infantrymen burned the plantations behind them, striking a blow to the Confederacy with the destruction of several million dollars’ worth of homes and crops, according to the National Park Service.

The 14-foot-tall sculpture will show Tubman flanked by soldiers, with people running toward them, just as the slaves ran toward the boats.

The story was so evocative, the design came easily, said sculptor Ed Dwight, who lives in Colorado.

“That was the fun part, going back in history and seeing her being commissioned by the U.S. government,” Dwight said.

Dwight finds that his sculptures, which include the African American History Monument on Statehouse grounds, teach white and Black people alike about parts of history they didn’t know. Often, they walk away with more empathy than they had before, he said.

“That’s the ever-so-quiet effect of doing memorials down there” in the South, said the Black sculptor.

People might forget Tubman’s operation in South Carolina without reminders like the sculpture or the bridge over the Combahee River bearing Tubman’s name, Hodges said.

In 2006, while he was a state representative, Hodges sponsored the resolution to name the bridge before its construction.

“If we didn’t put emphasis on that, that part of her life would be void,” Hodges said. “It’s going to be a big, big thing for South Carolina.”

Tabernacle Baptist Church, officially organized the same year as the raid, is known for its historical connections, Hodges said.

The church itself is part of the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network.

Smalls, who was a state legislator and five-term congressman along with being a Civil War hero, is buried on the church’s ground.

Born enslaved in Beaufort, Smalls hijacked a Confederate ship to steer his family to freedom and deliver the ammunition on board to the Union on May 13, 1862. Last year, legislators approved designating every May 13 as Robert Smalls Day in South Carolina. Lawmakers agreed unanimously this year to create a commission tasked with recognizing Smalls on Statehouse grounds.

The monument will be the first to memorialize an individual Black person on the capitol complex.

Tabernacle is ahead of the state, Hodges pointed out: The church already has a bust commemorating Smalls.

“Tabernacle has always been associated with history and culture,” Hodges said. “That’s just an extension of our ministry, of our service to the community.”

SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: [email protected] . Follow SC Daily Gazette on Facebook and Twitter .

The post SC church to unveil Harriet Tubman sculpture commemorating raid freeing 700 slaves appeared first on Alabama Reflector .

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