Harriet Tubman

African-American abolitionist (1822–1913)

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Lived 1821–1913, aged 92United States

United States WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
90 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1821–1913
Aged 92
Awards
4
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-08-31

She escaped once, then walked back into slave country thirteen times to pull seventy people out with her — family, strangers, anyone who'd risk the night. The Union Army gave her a rifle and she led the Combahee Ferry raid that freed more than seven hundred in one stroke, the first woman to command an armed operation in American history.

Biography

About

Born Araminta Ross around March 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman grew up under the whip and took a metal weight to the skull as a child when an overseer meant to hit someone else — the injury left her with lifelong dizziness, pain, sudden sleep, and visions she believed were messages from God. In 1849 she slipped north to Philadelphia, then turned around and began the slow extraction: one group at a time, always by night, guiding kin and dozens of others through the Underground Railroad without losing a soul. After the Fugitive Slave Act tightened the noose in 1850, she pushed her r…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman

said1886

I knew of a man who was sent to the State Prison for twenty-five years.

— Modernized rendition: So it was with me. I had crossed the line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but there was no one to

Harriet Tubman

said1886

Oh, Lord! You've been wid me in six troubles, don't desert me in the seventh!

— Modernized rendition: Oh, Lord! You've been with me in six troubles, don't desert me in the seventh!

Harriet Tubman

saidundated

I prayed all night long for my master. Till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me. I changed my prayer.

— As quoted in Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1971), by Sarah Hopkins Bradford, Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, pp. 14-15.

Harriet Tubman

saidundated

I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.

— As quoted in Women's Words : The Columbia Book of Quotations by Women (1996) by Mary Biggs, p. 2

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