Harriett Tubman
Abolitionist, social activist
Born: March 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland
Lived In: Cape May, New Jersey
Died: March 10, 1913, in Auburn, New York
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2008: Historical
It wasn’t enough for Harriet Tubman to escape slavery. After achieving her own emancipation, she undertook more than a dozen missions to liberate some 70 other enslaved people, including family members, and helped countless others find freedom via the network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
Born Araminta “Minty” Ross on a Maryland plantation, Tubman labored as a field hand while still a child, developing strength and stamina from years of loading wood and driving oxen. As an adolescent, she was struck in the head with a metal weight thrown by an overseer. The injury left her with headaches for the rest of her life—but also brought on visions that reinforced her passion for God.
Minty was around 22 years old when she married John Tubman, a free black man. (She took her new first name from her mother.) In 1849, fearful of being sold, she fled bondage with two of her brothers, but turned back after the men decided to quit the escape. Within several months, Tubman escaped on her own, traveling for at least three weeks by foot from Maryland to Delaware and into Pennsylvania, using the Underground Railroad.
After emancipating herself, Tubman lived in Philadelphia and at times in Cape May, a center of abolitionist activity. According to the New Jersey Historical Commission, she spent at least two summers in Cape May, working in hotels and for families as a cook. The income helped fund her rescue missions. Concerned about the fate of kinfolk she left behind, Tubman first returned to Maryland to help with the escape of a niece and her family. She returned again for other family members, including her youngest brother.
Tubman continued with these missions, each time risking severe punishment under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Fortified by her faith, she became expert at using subterfuge to disguise herself and her escapees, barely dodging capture on several occasions. On one mission, Tubman guided a group of at least 11 escapees. On a later mission, she rescued her own parents, leading them all the way to safety in Southern Ontario. Speaking of her eight years as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, she said, “I never lost a passenger.”
By the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, Tubman was living in her own home in Auburn, New York, which became a sanctuary for family and friends. In 1862, she traveled to Port Royal, South Carolina, to help with the care of liberated former slaves, while also nursing sick and wounded Union soldiers. She used her knowledge of the terrain to help map the area and provide intelligence for the Union. In 1863, she guided Union steamboats on a raid at Combahee Ferry. The assault—said to be the first American military operation planned and led by a woman–resulted in the emancipation of more than 750 enslaved people—and earned her the sobriquet “General Tubman.”
Tubman continued to spy and scout for the Union and tend to wounded soldiers and newly liberated people until the end of the war. Despite her valuable assistance, it took more than 30 years for Congress to grant her a small military pension acknowledging only her service as a nurse. Meanwhile, she lived on her Auburn farm largely thanks to contributions from supporters and the publication of an authorized biography.
In her later years, Tubman became active in the women’s suffrage movement, working alongside leaders such as Susan B. Anthony, and delivering speeches in major cities throughout the Northeast. Never forgetting those she helped to free, Tubman worked with an Auburn church to help create a home for aged and indigent former slaves.
Tubman’s life has been documented in books, TV productions and in a major 2019 biographical film titled “Harriet.” National Parks sites in Maryland and New York carry her name; in New Jersey, the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May celebrates her legacy. In 1978, she became the first African American woman honored with a postage stamp. A plan is in place to add her portrait to the $20 bill, replacing President Andrew Jackson, a slaveholder, but that plan has run into years of unexpected hurdles and delays.