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Harriet Ross Tubman

c.1821-1913

Name: Harriet Ross Tubman

Birthplace: Dorchester County, Maryland

Status: Born a Slave to the Ross family in Dorchester County Maryland.

Occupation/Training: Nurse, Spy, Social Reformer

Abolitionist Involvement: When the master died in 1849, and the family was about to be sold south, Harriet and her brother decided to escape to the North. She returned to her family two years later, but her husband had married another woman and was afraid to leave. She began to make several trips to Maryland via the Underground Railroad to secure freedom for her family. She returned to Maryland 19 times to bring slaves to freedom. She was given the nickname Black Moses of her people.

One of the most dangerous was the journey to free her parents in 1859, which she did successfully. She settled them on a farm in Auburn New York.

At the beginning of the war, she appealed to the governor of Massachusetts and reported to Gen Hunter in SC where she volunteered to be a nurse and a spy.

For almost 3 decades she went through many efforts to secure a small pension for her involvement in the Civil War. She was awarded a mere $20 per month. She continued her involvement in rights for the disadvantaged working for women's rights in upstate New York.

She died in 1913 at her home in Auburn, New York.

Family: Parents--Benjamin Ross, Harriet Green She married Civil War veteran Nelson Davis after the war.

Place of Death: Auburn, New York

Publications: Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman 1869; Harriet Tubman, The Moses of Her People by Sarah H. Bradford 1886 reprinted 1961

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