Few individuals have made such a strong imprint on American historical past as Harriet Tubman did. A former enslaved individual, Tubman turned an abolitionist, humanitarian and chief of the Underground Railroad, which can have helped free greater than 100,000 individuals in the course of the antebellum interval.
This bio explores Tubman’s formative years in slavery, her escape to freedom and the way she helped information others to security. You’ll additionally find out about her contributions as a Union spy in the course of the Civil Conflict, in addition to different information about Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Tubman’s formative years
Born into the establishment of slavery, Harriet Tubman skilled numerous hardships throughout her childhood. Regardless of this, she would later commit her life to compassion and equality.
Beginning and context of slavery in Maryland
Araminta Ross was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, round 1820. She later adopted her mom’s first title, Harriet. When she was round 5 years previous, Tubman was pressured to work as a nursemaid and later as a area hand, cook dinner and woodcutter.
Tubman had eight brothers and sisters. Nonetheless, slavery stored lots of them aside.
Slavery in Maryland has an extended historical past, beginning in 1642 with the importation of slaves and ending in 1864. Within the 1660s, lower than 25% of the state’s sure laborers had been enslaved Africans. This quantity elevated to 33% by 1680 and round 75% by the early 1700s. Within the last many years of the 1700s, 44% of the 46,547 enslaved individuals in Maryland lived in teams of greater than 20 individuals within the Tidewater counties.
Early experiences and influences on Tubman
When Tubman was 12, she noticed an overseer (somebody who oversaw the day by day work of these enslaved) about to punish one other enslaved individual. When she tried to cease the state of affairs, the overseer struck her head with a heavy weight.
Tubman later stated:
“The burden broke my cranium … They carried me to the home, all bleeding and fainting. I had no mattress, no place to lie down on in any respect, they usually laid me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all day and the following.”
In round 1844, she married John Tubman, a free Black man. Nonetheless, the wedding later broke down.
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a pre-Civil Conflict system within the Northern United States that enabled enslaved individuals to flee from the South. Sympathetic Northerners who disagreed with the Fugitive Slave Act, which required “fugitive slaves” to return to their enslavers, helped these individuals attain a spot of security. Though not a bodily railroad, the system consisted of various routes that prolonged from the South to 14 Northern states and Canada.
On September 17, 1849, Tubman and two of her brothers escaped the plantation the place they had been enslaved. Nonetheless, her brothers modified their minds and returned. The Underground Railroad helped Harriet escape to Pennsylvania, the place she discovered work as a housekeeper.
Tubman’s position as a conductor
Tubman didn’t need to stay free on her personal, so she additionally tried to assist her family and friends escape. First, she led her niece and niece’s youngsters to Philadelphia by the Underground Railroad. Then, she made a number of harmful journeys again to Maryland over the following decade, finally serving to round 70 enslaved individuals escape.
This is a crucial second in Harriet Tubman’s story, with Britannica saying:
“Tubman displayed extraordinary braveness, persistence and iron self-discipline, which she enforced upon her fees. If anybody determined to show again — thereby endangering the mission — she reportedly threatened them with a gun and stated, ‘You’ll be free or die.’ She additionally was creative, devising numerous methods to higher guarantee success. One such instance was escaping on Saturday nights since it might not seem in newspapers till Monday.”
Tubman turned often called the “Moses of her individuals.”
Strategies used to information enslaved individuals to freedom
Tubman was often called a “conductor” within the Underground Railroad system — somebody who may enter a plantation, pose as an enslaved individual and assist individuals escape. Enslaved individuals would usually go away plantations at night time and journey to completely different protected places earlier than attending to their last vacation spot.
Typically, conductors would journey with enslaved individuals by practice or boat. Enslaved individuals usually wore disguises to keep away from suspicion.
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed escaped enslaved individuals to be captured and enslaved once more, which made Tubman’s position as a conductor tougher. She led enslaved individuals additional north to Canada, usually within the spring or fall when the times had been shorter.
Tubman additionally obtained help from well-known individuals who supported the abolition of slavery, together with Harriet Beecher Stowe andJohn Brown, who deliberate a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
The community of protected homes and allies
Conductors like Tubman would information enslaved individuals to a number of protected homes or “stations” alongside the Underground Railroad, which supplied safety, meals and a spot to sleep. These places included barns and church buildings owned by abolitionists and their allies.
A number of nationwide preservation applications are documenting protected homes and different websites related to the Underground Railroad.
Contributions in the course of the Civil Conflict
After the Civil Conflict began in 1861, Tubman continued her combat for freedom. She helped injured enslaved individuals as a nurse and later turned a spy for the Union Military.
Roles as a nurse and scout
Tubman was a nurse, cook dinner and laundress in the course of the Civil Conflict. She used her information of natural medicines to deal with injured troopers and escaped enslaved individuals at Fort Monroe, a former army set up in Hampton, Virginia.
She additionally turned an organizer and chief of scouts — individuals who gathered intelligence about enemy places in the course of the Civil Conflict — in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
The U.S. Military says:
“Harriet and her scouts supplied beneficial intelligence to the newly-formed black regiments, offering, for instance, vulnerabilities and places of Accomplice sentinels.”
This intelligence helped free enslaved individuals to kind Black Union regiments.
Tubman’s espionage work for the Union Military
In 1863, Tubman turned the primary girl in U.S. historical past to command an armed army raid. As a scout and spy, she guided Col. James Montgomery and his unit alongside the Combahee River to route Accomplice outposts, destroying meals, weapons and cotton and liberating greater than 750 enslaved individuals. She additionally labored with Common David Hunter.
Brandeis College says:
“Newspapers from Boston to Wisconsin reported on the river assault by Montgomery and his Black regiment, noting Tubman’s vital position because the ‘Black she Moses … who led the raid, and beneath whose inspiration it was originated and carried out.’”
Harriet Tubman was posthumously named a normal in a Veterans Day ceremony in 2024, with Gov. Wes Moore calling the event an excellent day for all the U.S.:
“Right now, we rejoice a soldier and an individual who earned the title of veteran. Right now, we rejoice one of many best authors of the American story.”
Advocacy for ladies’s rights
After the Civil Conflict, Tubman relocated to Auburn, Alabama, the place she taken care of orphans and older adults. She additionally turned energetic within the ladies’s suffrage motion and championed gender equality.
Involvement in suffrage actions
Tubman took half in numerous ladies’s suffrage conventions organized by Black and white ladies. She supported the Nationwide Ladies’s Suffrage Affiliation of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, which opposed the Fifteenth Modification of the U.S. Structure that granted the vote to Black males however not ladies.
The League of Ladies Voters of Oxford says:
“Tubman believed within the equality of all individuals — black or white, male or feminine. She was a powerful supporter of girls’s voting rights, giving speeches on ladies’s suffrage in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. Tubman shared her experiences of struggling within the struggle and railroad motion with a view to show that girls are equal to males. By all accounts, she was a dynamic speaker and storyteller.”
Speeches and writings selling gender equality
Like many enslaved individuals, Tubman had no formal training and couldn’t learn or write. Nonetheless, she gave a number of speeches throughout her later years about combating for equal rights.
Some of the well-known Harriet Tubman quotes about gender equality is:
“[If my services] don’t place girl as man’s equal, what do?”
In 2021, a household guide, “Past the Underground: Aunt Harriet, Moses of Her Individuals,” supplied private accounts of Tubman’s life.
Recognition and legacy
Tubman is an American icon, well-known for being a freedom fighter who helped get enslaved individuals to security. On account of her legacy, a brand new $20 invoice will function a design together with her likeness. When this occurs, Tubman will turn out to be the primary girl and first African-American individual on U.S. paper foreign money.
Commemorative parks and monuments
The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Nationwide Historic Park is a nationwide historic park in Church Creek, Maryland, that opened in 2013. It honors Tubman, her dedication to freedom and her contribution to the Underground Railroad. The customer middle commemorates Tubman’s life and legacy, that includes numerous reveals that illustrate her childhood and rescue missions.
A 13-foot monument to Tubman, created by Alison Saar, stands within the Harriet Tubman Memorial Plaza in Harlem. Saar characterizes Tubman “not because the conductor of the Underground Railroad, however because the practice itself, an unstoppable locomotive.”
Inventive representations of Tubman’s life
Tubman has been featured in lots of work and different art work all through the years. “Harriet Tubman” by Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas depicts her breaking the shackles of bondage and options figures that characterize enslavement and freedom. The piece is presently on show at The North Carolina Museum of Artwork.
William H. Johnson’s “Harriet Tubman,” displayed on the Smithsonian American Artwork Museum, exhibits Tubman carrying a striped Civil Conflict-era gown and holding a shotgun by her facet. Within the decrease proper of the portray, Tubman seems as an older girl carrying the scarf gifted to her by Queen Victoria.
Tubman’s influence on civil rights and fashionable activism
Tubman’s struggles nonetheless resonate with activists and civil rights leaders right this moment, with the 2019 Harriet Tubman film starring Cynthia Erivo introducing her to new audiences.
Affect on future generations of activists
Due to her unwavering activism, Tubman’s influence can nonetheless be felt around the globe.
Black Historical past Month UK says:
“Harriet Tubman’s life story is a strong instance of braveness, dedication and resilience within the face of adversity. Her legacy continues to encourage individuals right this moment to face up for what is correct, combat for justice and by no means hand over within the face of challenges.”
Legacy in ongoing struggles for human rights
In 1886, Tubman co-founded the Nationwide Affiliation of Coloured Ladies’s Golf equipment (NACWC) to advocate for equality and suffrage for African-American ladies. The group nonetheless operates right this moment and focuses on social justice, training, well being and financial empowerment by collective motion.
The Harriet Tubman Basis for Protected Passage supplies advocacy, help and assets for these in want. It really works with numerous organizations that promote human rights, fairness and group.
Harriet Tubman FAQs
What number of occasions did Harriet Tubman get caught?
Tubman was by no means caught throughout her many missions. Over a decade, she helped round 70 enslaved individuals escape from plantations and different places in Maryland, making her one of the well-known conductors of the Underground Railroad system.
When had been Harriet Tubman’s final phrases?
In 1913, Tubman died of pneumonia and was buried at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York. She was 91 years previous. Her last phrases had been, “I’ll go away to organize a spot for you that the place I’m you additionally could also be.” This can be a reference to the Bible verse John 14:3.
What occurred to Harriet Tubman on the age of 12?
Tubman noticed an overseer about to punish one other enslaved individual and stepped in to diffuse the state of affairs. The overseer struck her head with a heavy weight, which broke her cranium.
What was Harriet Tubman’s actual title?
Araminta Ross was Tubman’s actual title. She later adopted her mom’s first title, Harriet.
