Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (born 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland, died March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York), also known as Black Moses, was an African-American freedom fighter. An escaped slave, she worked as a guerrilla, farmhand, lumberjack, laundress and cook, refugee organizer, raid leader and intelligence commander, nurse and healer, revival speaker, feminist and fundraiser, all as part of the struggle for liberation from slavery and racism.

Escape and abolitionist career

On hearing that the slaves of the plantation were to be sold, she took her emancipation into her own hands, and escaped northward, leaving behind her husband who did not want to follow. On her way she was assisted by sympathetic Quakers, members of the Abolitionist movement who were instrumental in maintaining the Underground Railroad. She was called "Moses" by those she helped escape on the Underground Railroad. She made many trips South to help other slaves escape. With 19 expeditions where she personally guided around 300 slaves to freedom, she was never captured and, in her own words, "never lost a passenger" despite the combined bounty for her which totaled $40,000, which was the highest amount for any conductor. During the American Civil War, in addition to working as a cook and a nurse, she served as a spy for the North, and again was never captured. And she guided hundreds of people trapped in slavery up to the free states, during the Civil War.

Related Topics:
Quaker - Abolitionist - Underground Railroad - American Civil War - Spy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~