Harriet Tubman

Tubman was born a slave sometime around 1820. Her parents, Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross, named the baby Araminta. Tubman would change her name when she escaped to freedom. She received a head injury as a girl from a thrown brick, and she was farmed out to many different households, some of which treated her better than others. She preferred outdoor work and worked in a lumber business for a while. Sometime around 1844, she married John Tubman, who would later refuse to go to the North with her.

Tubman escaped slavery in September 1849, fleeing to Philadelphia. Shortly after this, she made her first journey back into slave territory to help her niece and children escape. She began making one or two journeys a year to help fugitives escape via the UGRR. She would rescue slaves in the fall, spend the winter in Canada, work during the spring and...