Harriet Tubman
An American abolitionist and political activist. She was born into slavery, in 1822.
Tubman escaped and subsequently made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, family and friends.
She later helped abolitionist John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry.
She served as an armed scout and spy for the United States Army durring the Civil War.
Harriet had one daughter, Gertie, whom she and her second husband (Nelson Davis) adopted after the Civil war.
When Harriet was a teenager she suffered a head injury when an overseer threw a heavy metal at a runaway slave and instead hit her in the head.
Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross.
She was nicknamed “Minty” by her mother.
She cured dysentery.
As a result of the injury she suffered narcolepsy. It gave her visions and dreams that she considered signs from God. Religion faith was the reason she risked her life guiding slaves to freedom.
Unable to sleep, Tubman underwent brain surgery in Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. She refused anesthesia, instead she insisted to chew a bullet just like soldiers did when they had their legs amputated.
Slave owners later placed a bounty for her capture with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, raising the stakes even higher for her indispensable work.
Tubman was an activist in the struggle for women's suffrage in ther later years.
Just before Harriet's death in 1913 she told friends and family, "I go to prepare a place for you."
Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913. She was about 93 years old.
She was buried with military honors in Fort Hill Cemetery in New York.
The US Maritime Commission named its first Liberty Ship after her.
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