Erin C. Perkins
Harriet Tubman is an instrumental black female leader best known for her brave escapades as an Underground Railroad conductor. During a 10-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted more than 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she “never lost a single passenger.”
In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the plantation, was to be sold, Tubman resolved to run away. She set out one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white woman, Tubman was on her way. She found other slaves seeking freedom and escorted them to the North. Tubman continued to return to the South again and again.
By 1890, Tubman had done 19 “rescue” trips. She was heroically named “Moses” for her courageous journeys and fearless efforts that helped deliver handfuls of slaves to freedom.
Tubman was friends with the leading abolitionists of the day, and she took part in antislavery meetings. During the Civil War she worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even as a spy. After the war she settled in Auburn, N.Y. She died in 1913.