Harriet Tubman’s life was a journey from bondage to freedom.
She was born into slavery in a rural county of Maryland in 1822. In 1849, at age 27, she ran away, never to be enslaved again. She would return at her own peril over a dozen times throughout the next decade, leading others to northern freedom in New York and Canada. Eventually becoming known as the conductor of the Underground Railroad, she was once quoted as saying: “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say—I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
Tubman was a very religious woman. She one time prayed for one of her masters to die, and a week later, he did. There are many stories of her not panicking even in the direst of circumstances, fully believing that God was watching out for her, and it truly seems as though he was. She had many close calls on the Underground Railroad, once hiding under a cart as it passed over a bridge swarming with white men, another time escaping capture by fording across a rushing river. When she and her ilk were starving, she prayed for food and was always saved. She often referred to her Maryland homeland as ‘Egypt,’ likening her struggle to that of the Israelites. Indeed, she was referred to as ‘Moses’ by slaves waiting for her next return and hoping to escape.
She worked as a nurse and a spy for the Union army during the Civil War, receiving praise from numerous Union generals despite her status as a woman (and, of course, a black person). She gathered precious intelligence from behind enemy lines via her network of friends and her knowledge of the area. “The thought of fear never seems to have had place for a moment in her mind. She had her duty to perform, and she expected to be taken care of till it was done.” And she fatefully was, living to the fine old age of 90, a remarkable feat of strength and endurance for someone who led such a rough and poverty-filled life.
Her post-war days saw her settled on her own private land in Auburn, New York, bought and paid for with her own money as a free woman. She worked various jobs and spent most of her time taking care of her family and other people in need. She was always tremendously generous to newly freed blacks and was a constant source of support for the downtrodden. Although she struggled for compensation for her wartime efforts, her network of friends and efforts in philanthropy kept her financially afloat throughout the later decades of her life. She eventually passed away in a nursing home, accompanied by friends and relatives.