Harriet Tubman was born a slave in 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland. At the age of 11, she was sold to a farmer named Edward Brodess who lived in Auburn, Maryland. In 1849, Tubman escaped from slavery by running away with her husband John Tubman (who had been hired out of state). After reaching Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she continued on to New York City where she worked as a housekeeper and saved money to help more slaves escape from Maryland.
In 1850, Tubman helped a slave escape from a plantation in Maryland. The slave’s owner offered a $300 reward for her capture, but she was not caught.
In 1856, Tubman helped rescue her niece and two other slaves from a plantation in Maryland. She disguised herself as an old woman and led them by train to Philadelphia where they could safely escape slavery via the Underground Railroad.
During the Civil War (1861-65), Tubman worked as a cook and a nurse for the Union Army. In 1863, she helped lead a raid on a Confederate camp in South Carolina that freed more than 750 slaves.
Tubman returned to Maryland many times over the next decade to rescue more than 70 slaves from plantations in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. She became known as the “Moses” of her people because she led them out of bondage.
