Harriet Tubman

Born Araminta Ross

Harriet Tubman began life as Araminta Ross, probably in March 1822, in Dorchester County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She and her parents, Ben and Rit Ross, were enslaved, which meant other people claimed control over where they lived and worked. As a child, Araminta was hired out and forced to do difficult jobs, including outdoor labor. Those years taught her the forests, fields, and waterways of the region.

When she was about thirteen, an overseer threw a heavy metal weight at another enslaved person and struck Araminta’s head instead. She survived, but the injury caused pain and sudden sleeping spells for the rest of her life. In 1844, she married John Tubman, a free Black man, and began using the name Harriet Tubman—Harriet after her mother and Tubman from her husband.

Freedom, Then Dangerous Returns

In 1849, after her enslaver died and she feared being sold away, Tubman escaped alone to Philadelphia. Reaching a free state did not make slavery disappear, and her family remained in danger. She decided that her own freedom would have greater meaning if she helped others become free too.

Over the next decade, Tubman secretly returned to Maryland about thirteen times. Using knowledge of the Eastern Shore and help from the Underground Railroad’s network of Black and white abolitionists, she brought about seventy relatives and friends to freedom. She also gave directions to about seventy more people who escaped independently. These careful figures come from modern historical research; older stories sometimes exaggerated the totals. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made capture possible even in free states, some journeys continued north to Canada.

Nurse, Scout, Spy, and Raid Leader

When the Civil War began in 1861, Tubman turned her experience toward the Union effort against slavery. In South Carolina, she worked as a nurse and cook and gathered information as a scout and spy. On June 2, 1863, she joined Colonel James Montgomery and Black Union troops in the Combahee River Raid, which helped more than seven hundred enslaved people reach freedom.

Tubman’s knowledge of travel through marshy country supported work with Black scouts who knew the Combahee River area. Their gunboats moved upriver and damaged Confederate supplies. The National Park Service describes Tubman as the first woman in United States history to plan and lead an armed military raid. The achievement belonged to a team—Tubman, Black scouts, soldiers, boat crews, and freedom seekers acting together.

An Auburn Home and a Wider Legacy

Tubman bought property in Auburn, New York, from Senator William Seward in 1859 and made it a home for relatives and others who needed help. After the war, she married Civil War veteran Nelson Davis in 1869, and they later adopted a daughter named Gertie. Tubman kept serving her community even when money was tight. She supported education and care for older Black Americans and helped establish the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged.

She also spoke for women’s voting rights, linking that cause to the unfinished work of freedom and equality. Tubman died in Auburn on March 10, 1913, and was buried with military honors. Her life reached far beyond one famous escape route: she resisted slavery, led rescue missions, served during a war, cared for neighbors, and argued that rights should belong to everyone. Her courage mattered, but so did her planning, local knowledge, teamwork, and lifelong habit of turning freedom into practical help for other people.