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Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland, likely in 1822, in Dorchester County. Her birth name was Araminta Ross. She later chose the name Harriet, after her mother, Harriet “Rit” Green. Tubman’s family was deeply spiritual, and her early life was shaped by both suffering and faith. As a child, she endured brutal treatment and once suffered a serious head injury when an overseer struck her with a heavy metal weight. This injury caused her to experience vivid dreams and visions, which she believed were revelations from God. These spiritual experiences, along with stories from her mother and the strong Methodist tradition in her family, became the foundation of her faith and courage.
Tubman’s faith became inseparable from her activism when, in 1849, she escaped slavery. She made the dangerous journey alone, guided by the North Star. After gaining her freedom, she could not rest while her family and others remained enslaved. Tubman felt a divine calling to return. Between 1849 and 1860, she made around 13 missions back into slaveholding territory, helping to rescue about 70 enslaved people. She used the network known as the Underground Railroad, a loose system of safe houses and abolitionist supporters, to move people to safety. Tubman’s reliance on prayer and spirituals was central to these operations. She often sang hymns as coded messages—changing the lyrics to signal danger or a clear path. She credited God with protecting her and said she “never lost a passenger.” Her unwavering resolve earned her the nickname “Moses,” after the biblical figure who led his people to freedom.
During these missions, Tubman was known to say, “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.” She carried a revolver for protection, but she depended just as much on intuition and the belief that God was guiding her steps. According to abolitionist Thomas Garrett, “I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul.” Tubman’s spiritual confidence gave her the courage to defy slaveholders, evade capture, and threaten anyone who endangered the group’s safety by turning back.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Tubman’s faith and sense of mission led her to the Union Army. She served as a scout, spy, nurse, and cook. In 1863, she led the Combahee River Raid in South Carolina—the first military operation in the United States led by a woman. That night, Tubman and Union soldiers freed more than 700 enslaved people. Her leadership during the raid was credited in part to her ability to inspire trust through prayer and song, even in the chaos of war.
After the war, Tubman continued to act on her deep convictions. She became active in the women’s suffrage movement, believing that equality before God included women’s right to vote. Tubman spent her later years in Auburn, New York, where she established a home for elderly African Americans. She supported herself through donations and, despite her military service, had to apply for a federal pension. Decades after her service, she was granted $20 a month.
Tubman died in Auburn in 1913. On Veterans Day 2024, more than a century after her death, she was posthumously promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard, making her one of the few women in American history to be honored with such a military distinction.