Harriet Tubman: Conductor of Freedom reading Exercise

Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross around 1822 on a plantation near Bucktown, Maryland. As a child she endured punishing labor in timber fields, marshland trapping, and household chores. A severe head injury from a overseer’s thrown weight left her with headaches and sudden sleep spells, yet her mother’s stories from the Bible and tales of resistance strengthened her resolve.

In 1849 Tubman learned that she might be sold south, a fate that often split families and meant harsher conditions. Guided by the North Star and a network of free Black mariners, she fled to Pennsylvania, traveling mostly at night through swamps and byways. Upon reaching Philadelphia she chose the name Harriet, honoring her mother, and vowed to return for her kin despite the Fugitive Slave Act that made aiding escapees a federal crime.

Tubman studied maps, memorized safehouses, and saved wages from domestic work to finance rescue missions. She consulted abolitionists like William Still in Philadelphia and used coded songs to signal when it was safe to move. Her deep faith convinced her that divine guidance would help her navigate danger, and she carried a small pistol both for protection and to deter wavering fugitives from turning back.

Between 1850 and 1860 Tubman returned to the Eastern Shore roughly thirteen times, guiding an estimated seventy people to freedom and advising dozens more. She planned journeys in winter when cold weather discouraged patrols and footprints vanished in frozen soil. Conductors coordinated handoffs through safehouses owned by Black families, free Quakers, and sympathetic ministers stretching from Maryland to New York and Canada.

A typical rescue required disguise and improvisation. Tubman sometimes dressed as a male laborer to cross bridges or as a laundry worker carrying baskets. She used spirituals such as “Go Down, Moses” to communicate when to stay hidden or depart. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed slave catchers to seize alleged runaways even in free states, so Tubman often steered groups to St. Catharines, Ontario, where British law offered sanctuary.

Her reputation earned her the nickname “Moses,” reflecting both her faith and her determination never to lose a passenger. Abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass praised her tactical sense, noting that she navigated without maps yet anticipated river crossings, ferry checkpoints, and sudden raids. Rewards for her capture climbed into the tens of thousands of dollars, but her ability to change routes and travel silently kept her ahead of pursuers.

When the Civil War began in 1861, Tubman offered her expertise to the Union army. First she worked as a nurse and cook in Port Royal, South Carolina, using herbal remedies to treat soldiers and formerly enslaved people. Recognizing her knowledge of Southern terrain, Union officers recruited her as a scout and spy, enabling her to gather intelligence on Confederate positions and supply lines.

In June 1863 Tubman helped lead the Combahee River Raid alongside Colonel James Montgomery’s regiment of Black soldiers. She guided Union gunboats past mines, signaled when to attack rice plantations, and coordinated the evacuation of more than 700 enslaved people—one of the largest single liberations of the war. Her strategic planning displayed the same resolute calm she had shown on clandestine journeys north.

After the war Tubman settled in Auburn, New York, where she opened her home to relatives and aging community members. She campaigned for women’s suffrage with figures such as Susan B. Anthony and organized fundraising for schools serving freedpeople. Congress eventually granted her a military pension for her service, though the approval came only after years of petitions. Tubman remained a symbol of perseverance until her death in 1913, and her legacy continues in movements for civil rights and gender equality.