![[Harriet Tubman, full-length portrait, standing with hands on back of a chair]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090110021042im_/http://www.loc.gov/topics/africanamericans/images/htubman.jpg)
Harriet Tubman
(c. 1820 - March 10, 1913)
Born into harsh slavery as Araminta Ross in Dorchester County, Maryland. Tubman married a free African American at 25. Several years later, fearing she would be sold South, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia where she met William Still, the Philadelphia Stationmaster of the Underground Railroad and learned how the system worked.
In 1851 Tubman began relocating members of her family to St. Catharines (Ontario), Canada. Tubman returned to Maryland to rescue other members of her family. She is said to have operated without fear of any consequences and inspired bravery and courage in those fearful of escaping. Called "Moses" by those she helped escape on the Underground Railroad, Tubman conducted more than 300 people to freedom using the system. Her trips could take weeks at a time, all the while evading slave hunters and the authorities.
During the Civil War, Tubman served the Union as a soldier, spy and nurse. She was denied payment for her wartimes services and returned to Auburn, N.Y. There, she married Nelson Davis whom she had met in South Carolina during the war. Only 12 miles from Seneca Falls, she helped Auburn remain a center for women's activities. In 1995, the federal government honored her with a commemorative stamp.
Related Library Resources :
- Meet Amazing Americans: Harriet Tubman
- Photograph of Harriet Tubman
- Full-Length Portrait of Harriet Tubman
- American Women: Harriet Tubman
- Harriet, the Moses of Her People by Sarah H. Bradford (book)