Harriet Tubman

Civil Rights Leader

Birthday March 6, 1820

Birth Sign Pisces

Birthplace Maryland

DEATH DATE Mar 10, 1913 (93)

#600 Most Popular

About

Escaped slave who became an abolitionist and Union spy during the Civil War and rescued over 300 slaves using the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses that aided runaway slaves. She also acted as a nurse for Union soldiers during the Civil War. After the war, she fought for women's suffrage.

Before Fame

She worked as a slave for James Cook, checking muskrat traps in the marshes.

Trivia

She helped John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. Her exact date of birth is unknown and there are varying accounts of when she was born. Historians have tabbed her birth year as 1822 based on records, but her death certificate lists 1815 and her gravestone reads 1820. 

Family Life

She married a free man named John Tubman in 1844, and they adopted a daughter named Gertie in 1874.

Associated With

Frederick Douglas worked with her to help slaves. They both doubted abolitionist John Brown's plan to overthrow the slave system with violence.