Harriet Tubman, 1822-1913

Harriet Tubman WWP

Harriet Tubman Quilt Art by Bisa Butler on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Photo credit - courtesy of Rachel Sharon

“The Black Moses,” a former slave and an iconic brave leader who freed hundreds of enslaved people.



Harriet Tubman was born as Araminta Ross into an enslaved family on the eastern shore of Maryland, her exact year of birth unknown, estimated between 1815 and 1825. As a child, her tasks were collecting and killing muskrats from traps and working in the fields. She was separated from her family several times when she was sent to work in different white families’ houses. As a teenager, she witnessed an enslaved person trying to escape, she blocked the door with her body to prevent his capture, and her master hit her in the head with a heavy metal weight. The injury has caused her hallucinations, and she would suddenly fall asleep.

Tubman got married, but her determination to be free did not leave her. On September 17th, 1849, she escaped, traveled by foot from Maryland to Pennsylvania, and became free. She returned to Maryland 19 more times over a decade as a conductor of the Underground Railroad – a secret network of routes to escape slavery. Among the hundreds of people who she led to freedom was her family. Guiding people into freedom got her the nickname the Black Moses.
 

During the Civil War, Tubman served as a nurse, a cook, and a spy. Her service was not acknowledged officially, and she struggled financially while being generously philanthropic, supporting former slaves on their first steps in the free world. She led a 34-year campaign against the government to get her veteran pension, sold vegetables from her garden and published two biographies with the help of friends to raise funds. She traveled the country delivering speeches in support of women’s suffrage, abolitionism, and human rights.

She was married twice, once before her escape. She changed her name, taking her mother’s first name Harriet, and her first husband’s family name, Tubman. In her sixties, she married Nelson Davis, who was about 20 years younger than her. She never had children, and with Davis, they adopted a daughter, her niece.

Before her death in her nineties, she established a home for elderly black people. She was buried with military honors in Auburn’s Fort Hill Cemetery.

Harriet Tubman’s Escape to Freedom | Black History Month for Kids

Build students background knowledge about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad with this free video and resources from Scholastic News for grade 2. Read more here: http://bit.ly/3asKmaH

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“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

“I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

Fun Facts

  • She always carried a weapon on her journeys in the Underground Railroad to threaten those who considered turning back.
  • She would disguise herself by dressing up as a man or an older woman to avoid getting caught.
  • She is proud to have never combed her hair and said it saved her life during the head injury.
  • She never learned to read or write.
  • She was well-known for never losing a passenger in the underground railroad.
  • Slave owners offered very high rewards of $40,000 for her capture.
  • In 2016 the US Treasury announced that a new design of the $20 bill would have her portrait. The new design was expected in 2020.
  • She is said to have been the only woman who led men into battle during the Civil War.
  • Harriet Tubman Day is observed annually on the day she died, on March 10th, 1913.
  • There are statues, national parks, schools, and institutions in her name, all around the US and even in Canada.
  • The State of Maryland is working to place a statue of her in a prominent location in the US Capitol.

Awards

  • The US Maritime Commission named its first Liberty Ship after her
  • Queen Victoria of England awarded her with a silver medal in 1897

Creations By and About Her

  • Books about her
  • The movie “Harriet” (2019) about Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes

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Harriet Tubman’s Escape to Freedom | Black History Month for Kids

Build students background knowledge about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad with this free video and resources from Scholastic News for grade 2. Read more here: http://bit.ly/3asKmaH
Share:

This post is also available in: Español

Category: Activism & Feminism and Politics & Leaders
Tags: 19th Amendment Centennial Anniversary, Abolitionist, African-American Women, NYC Women, and Suffragist

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