Harriet Tubman was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, and was originally named Araminta Harriet Ross and had the nickname, “Minty”. Her family was a victim of physical violence everyday which later resulted in permanent physical injuries for her. She suffered seizures, severe headaches, and narcoleptic episodes for the rest of her life. In the year 1844, Harriet married a free black man named John Tubman. In September 17, 1849, she escapes from slavery and flees to Philadelphia with her two brothers, Ben and Henry. Immediately after their escape, a notice appeared in the Cambridge Democrat with a reward of $300 for her and her two brothers. Feeling unsure, her two brothers returned to the plantation leaving Harriet by herself where she set off to Pennsylvania. Harriet used the network, Underground Railroad, to travel 90 miles to Philadelphia. After crossing the line to the free state of Pennsylvania, she made it her mission to save her family and the other slaves. She earned the nickname “Moses” after her first rescue mission for her niece Kessiah who was almost sold along with her two young children. Eventually, she led her parents, most of her siblings and about 60 other salves to freedom. Before life got better for the slaves, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850 which stated that escaped slaves could be captured in the North and returned to slavery. With the law being passed, Harriet reroutes the Underground Railroad to Canada where they prohibited slavery categorically. Harriet was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown in April 1858. When Brown was recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders at Harper’s Ferry, he turned to Tubman for help knowing that they shared a common goal. Tubman stayed diligent during the Civil War working for the Union as a cook and nurse. She quickly became an armed scout and spy. Harriet was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war where she guided the Combahee River Raid, which saved more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. In early 1859, abolitionist
Senator William H. Seward sold Tubman a small piece of land on the outer part
of Auburn, New York where it served as a place of safety or refuge for her
family and friends. In 1869, she married a Civil War veteran named Nelson Davis
and later on in 1874, they adopted a baby girl named Gertie. In 1897, Queen Victoria of England heard of her achievements and awarded her with a silver medal, a letter of accommodation, a cash stipend, and a silk shawl. Although she was
famous for her reputation as a conductor, abolitionist, activist, scout, spy, armed forces personnel, field worker, cook, housekeeper, leader and nurse,
she was always struggling with finances. Because of the heroism she showed
throughout the Civil War, she had many admirers. One in particular, Sarah H.
Bradford, wrote a biography about her called, “Scenes in the Life of Harriet
Tubman,” and all the proceeds went
to Tubman and her family. In 1903, she donated a piece of her land to the
African Methodist Episcopal Church in Auburn where the Harriet Tubman Home for
the Aged opened in 1908. As years pass by and as she ages, the injuries she
suffered at a young age began to get worse. She had to undergo brain surgery at
Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital to ease the pains she experienced
regularly. Tubman was eventually admitted into the rest home named in her
honor. She died from pneumonia in 1913. She was buried with military honors in at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn.