--- title: "Harriet Tubman: The Work of Freedom" description: "Read Harriet Tubman’s illustrated biography in 20 pages: the Underground Railroad, Combahee River raid, women’s suffrage and the work of freedom." url: "https://minutebio.org/harriet-tubman-the-work-of-freedom" published: "2026-10-31T00:00:09Z" categories: ["Leaders & Strategists"] --- # Harriet Tubman: The Work of Freedom Follow Harriet Tubman from Maryland slavery to repeated rescue journeys, Civil War service, voting-rights advocacy and a lifetime of community care. ![AI-illustrated cover: Harriet Tubman leads travelers through woodland, with an older Tubman offering care in a smaller scene below.](https://minutebio.org/assets/uploads/fdcee185eea19a2432c44526fa591443.webp) ![AI-illustrated cover: Harriet Tubman leads travelers through woodland, with an older Tubman offering care in a smaller scene below.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/fdcee185eea19a2432c44526fa591443.webp) ![Young Araminta Ross, called Minty, with her parents in Maryland; an empty place represents family separation under slavery.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/352ea786b961fa687472a555bfd77c91.webp) ![Teenage Minty after a head injury, her mother helping her, and later Harriet living with lasting pain.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/3012ce5108f46842f01b4bcb9bb60b4f.webp) ![Harriet learns wooded waterways alongside her father Ben Ross, while Black mariners exchange goods and knowledge.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/48bf78627d8b24451bd3c16f8511810d.webp) ![Harriet marries free Black man John Tubman, but marriage does not release her from enslavement.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/db261e8a59deaddcb72c44ba0a9bef55.webp) ![Harriet prepares a bundle and escapes alone in 1849, reaching Pennsylvania after an earlier return with her brothers.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/e3ec486af150d1303832cb9830f9e1a8.webp) ![Harriet works in Philadelphia, saves money and builds antislavery connections while thinking of her family.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/e157e9bed7b6455153d1959c5761c40c.webp) ![Harriet prepares to return to Maryland; a refuge doorway illustrates the human network of the Underground Railroad.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/3c0cf31df99e9b952cb6ee376f1d8c3f.webp) ![The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 deepens danger; a community meets and freedom seekers travel onward toward Canada.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/3edc445ffb5cbfaf86fdffb8cec66a6f.webp) ![Harriet and companions travel at night, receive shelter and arrive in a Canadian community.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/6fa8de28a7f236d0d1ab1fb8e6e7a372.webp) ![Harriet reunites with family and guides travelers; narration explains about thirteen trips and roughly seventy people, alongside loss.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/1d48637c2fedffff8ce4ef31ab6b9ad4.webp) ![Harriet and family make a home near Auburn, New York, sharing food, shelter and care.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/57636b35c8bf6c03f73a4fcb2fe130fa.webp) ![Harriet serves in South Carolina during the Civil War, nursing and listening to local Black knowledge.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/67902e58ab6bbc2b11b4e13a392027b2.webp) ![Harriet and Black scouts study the Combahee River and brief Colonel James Montgomery and Union troops.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/d09fe8800efc3a674db3651681d58685.webp) ![Period Union steam vessels carry families to freedom during the June 1–2, 1863 Combahee raid, with Black soldiers assisting.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/da44e9ec8fb7ee6d4b06673b4c6c36b6.webp) ![Harriet builds postwar family life with Nelson Davis and their adopted daughter Gertie while helping neighbors.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/c0c00a7d8fdaca04d8b5c9884e586f84.webp) ![An older Harriet addresses women’s suffrage meetings, arguing for fuller rights after slavery.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/a386ee4147e81a19c483609be33705c8.webp) ![Harriet seeks recognition of her nursing service; documents represent the delayed 1899 pension increase.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/29976fef67cc1729a77086a9ed8fea2f.webp) ![Elderly Harriet works with the AME Zion Church on a home for aged Black people and later becomes a resident herself.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/6994152501636a713e08eba1f41ef7eb.webp) ![An empty chair marks Harriet’s death in 1913; a preserved home and a symbolic welcoming doorway close the story of shared freedom.](https://editor.blogmaker.app/web/assets/uploads/38a9e612372bfe5c6f0ffef03958e6d7.webp) ## Behind the Panels Harriet Tubman (around 1822–1913) escaped slavery and repeatedly returned to help others. This illustrated biography follows her work through the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, women’s voting rights and community care. Its narration is original; the AI-assisted artwork reconstructs historical settings and is not documentary evidence. No invented speech is presented as a quotation. Modern scholarship supports about thirteen return journeys to Maryland and roughly seventy people directly guided to freedom, rather than the often-repeated claim of three hundred. Tubman also helped others with information. Liberation depended on freedom seekers themselves and a network of Black and white allies, not one person acting alone. The Combahee expedition occurred on June 1–2, 1863. Tubman’s intelligence and guidance were crucial, while Colonel James Montgomery commanded the Union force and Black soldiers helped more than seven hundred people escape slavery. In 1899, her pension was increased to twenty dollars per month for nursing service; this was not full payment for all her wartime work. The AME Zion Church partnered in opening the home for the aged in 1908. ### Sources and further reading - [National Park Service: early life and escape](https://www.nps.gov/hatu/learn/historyculture/htubman.htm) - [National Park Service: family, freedom and the Underground Railroad](https://www.nps.gov/hart/faqs.htm) - [Maryland: myths and facts, by historian Kate Clifford Larson](https://www.visitmaryland.org/article/myths-facts-about-harriet-tubman) - [Parks Canada: Harriet Tubman](https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/personnage-person/harriet-tubman) - [National Park Service: the Combahee River expedition](https://home.nps.gov/articles/000/we-called-ourselves-combee.htm) - [Smithsonian: Combahee Ferry Raid](https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/combahee-ferry-raid) - [National Archives: her pension claim](https://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/claim-of-harriet-tubman) - [National Park Service: the home for the aged](https://www.nps.gov/hart/learn/historyculture/home-for-the-aged.htm) - [Library of Congress: the 1868–69 portrait](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018645050/)