Harriet Tubman (1820?-1913)

The "Moses" who set people free

In 1849 Tubman, a Baltimore slave, escaped to Philadelphia and freedom. She returned in 1850 to guide her sister and two nieces to freedom, and then other relatives (including her aged parents), and eventually between sixty and three hundred slaves. At one time, Southern reward for her capture stood at an astounding $40,000.

During the Civil War--which she had foreseen in a vision years earlier--she served both as a nurse and a northern spy and scout, securing military information from blacks behind Confederate lines.

Tubman, sometimes called "the Moses of her people," was a deeply religious woman who never doubted that her actions were guided by God through omens and dreams.