TUBMAN, HARRIET (born Araminta Ross, c. 1822–10 March 1913), American abolitionist and legendary figure in the Black struggle for freedom, most notably for her role in developing and implementing a systematic strategy for African Americans to escape from slavery via the Underground Railroad. Against the background of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which ensured that runaway slaves and all who harbored or assisted them would be punished, Tubman organized an intricate system, involving the use of coded language through music, elaborate routes, and safe houses, to facilitate the escape of an estimated one hundred to three hundred enslaved persons between 1849 and the 1860s.
Harriet Tubman was born a slave on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. During the mid-1820s, she, her mother, and her siblings were forced to move to Bucktown with Edward Brodess, where Tubman was hired out as temporary slave labor for various plantations. In addition to whippings, Tubman was nearly killed when she was hit in the head by an iron weight thrown by an overseer, which resulted in a severe injury that not only disabled her but diminished her value as a slave—her owner tried to sell her but was unable.
In 1849 after Tubamn's owner died, leaving his estate in financial ruin, Tubman grew anxious that his widow would sell her away from her family, so in the late fall of 1849, she escaped to Philadelphia, making use of the Underground Railroad. After her successful escape, Tubman returned to free her sisters and children, and in December 1850, she also helped rescue her niece and children, which began the first of many abolitionist journeys south.
By 1855, Tubman had become a crucial figure in the abolitionist networks of Philadelphia and New England, making many journeys back down South to abet the escape of more slaves. Despite suffering frequent seizures, the direct result of violence enacted on her by White overseers, Tubman cultivated, sustained, and maintained her work, all while eluding capture and death in spite of the massive bounties (as high as forty thousand dollars at one point) placed on her by slaveholders. She carried a revolver and was a master of disguise.
Tubman was deeply religious, guided at times as if by divine providence. Over time she earned the nickname “Moses,” even though the nature of her clandestine work prevented her from assuming overt leadership roles in the abolitionist movement à la Frederick Douglass or John Brown, both of whom were admirers.
During the Civil War Tubman continued her work on the Underground Railroad while serving as an armed scout, spy, and nurse for the Union Army. She was the first American woman to lead an armed raid. After the war she worked with Black churches to establish schools and homes for newly freed slaves as well as the elderly and poor. In her later life, she continued her humanitarian work by contributing to the efforts of the National Association of Colored Women and women’s suffrage move- ment. She died on March 10, 1913, at the age of ninety-one, and was buried with semi-military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.