Harriet Tubman (March 1822-10 March 1913), born Araminta "Minty" Ross, was an African-American abolitionist and social activist.
Biography[]
Araminta Ross was born into slavery in Madison, Maryland in 1822, and she was abused as a child, being injured by a heavy weight thrown at her head by an overseer and suffering from dizziness, pain, and excessive sleep for the rest of her life. In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, from which she smuggled her relatives to freedom, and then several other enslaved African-Americans. Nicknamed "Moses", she traveled by night during her rescue journeys, and, in 1859, she helped John Brown plan his raid on Harpers Ferry. During the American Civil War, she worked as a Union Army cook and nurse before serving as a spy, guiding the raid on Combahee Ferry and rescuing 700 enslaved people. After the war, she settled in Auburn, New York, and she advocated for women's suffrage until her death in 1913.