Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman ( born Araminta Harriet Ross ; 1820 – March 10 , 1913 ) was an African - American abolitionist , humanitarian , and Union spy during the American Civil War . Born into slavery , Tubman escaped and subsequently made more than nineteen missions to rescue more than 300 slaves using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad . She later helped John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry , and in the post - war era struggled for women ' s suffrage . As a child in Dorchester County , Maryland , Tubman was beaten by masters to whom she was hired out . Early in her life , she suffered a severe head wound when hit by a heavy metal weight . The injury caused disabling seizures , narcoleptic attacks , headaches , and powerful visionary and dream experiences , which occurred throughout her life . A devout Christian , Tubman ascribed the visions and vivid dreams to revelation s from God . In 1849 , Tubman escaped to Philadelphia , then immediately returned to Maryland to rescue her family . Slowly , one group at a time , she brought relatives out of the state , and eventually guided dozens of other slaves to freedom . Traveling by night , Tubman ( or " Moses " , as she was called ) " never lost a passenger " . Large rewards were offered for the return of many of the fugitive slaves , but no one then knew that Tubman was the one helping them . When the Southern - dominated Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 , requiring law officials in free states to aid efforts to recapture slaves , she helped guide fugitives farther north into Canada , where slavery had been abolished in 1834 . When the American Civil War began , Tubman worked for the Union Army , first as a cook and nurse , and then as an armed scout and spy . The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war , she guided the Combahee River Raid , which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina . After the war , she retired to the family home in Auburn , New York , where she cared for her aging parents . She became active in the women ' s suffrage movement in New York until illness overtook her . Near the end of her life , she lived in a home for elderly African Americans that she had helped found years earlier . Early life and education . Harriet Tubman was born Araminta " Minty " Ross to slave parents , Harriet ( " Rit " ) Green and Ben Ross . Rit was owned by Mary Pattison Brodess ( and later her son Edward ) . Ben was held by Anthony Thompson , who became Mary ' s second husband , and who ran a large plantation near Blackwater River in Madison , Maryland . As with many slaves in the United States , neither the exact year nor place of Araminta ' s birth was recorded , and historians differ as to the best estimate . Kate Larson records the year 1822 , based on a midwife payment and several other historical documents , including her runaway advertisement while Jean Humez says " the best current evidence suggests that Tubman was born in 1820 , but it might have been a year or two later . " Catherine Clinton notes that Tubman reported the year of her birth as 1825 , while her death certificate lists 1815 and her gravestone lists 1820 . In her Civil War widow ' s pension records , Tubman claimed she was born in 1820 , 1822 , and 1825 , an indication , perhaps , that she had only a general idea of when she was born . Modesty , Tubman ' s maternal grandmother , arrived in the United States on a slave ship from Africa ; no information is available about her other ancestors . As a child , Tubman was told that she was of Ashanti lineage ( from what is now Ghana ) , though no evidence exists to confirm or deny this assertion . Her mother Rit ( who may have had a white father ) was a cook for the Brodess family . Her father Ben was a skilled woodsman who managed the timber work on Thompson ' s plantation . They married around 1808 and , according to court records , they had nine children together : Linah , born in 1808 , Mariah Ritty in 1811 , Soph in 1813 , Robert in 1816 , Minty ( Harriet ) in 1822 , Ben in 1823 , Rachel in 1825 , Henry in 1830 , and Moses in 1832 . Rit struggled to keep their family together as slavery threatened to tear it apart . Edward Brodess sold three of her daughters ( Linah , Mariah Ritty , and Soph ) , separating them from the family forever . When a trader from Georgia approached Brodess about buying Rit ' s youngest son , Moses , she hid him for a month , aided by other slaves and free blacks in the community . At one point she confronted her owner about the sale . Finally , Brodess and " the Georgia man " came toward the slave quarters to seize the child , where Rit told them , " You are after my son ; but the first man that comes into my house , I will split his head open . " Brodess backed away and abandoned the sale . Tubman ' s biographers agree that stories told about this event within the family influenced her belief in the possibilities of resistance . Childhood . Because Tubman ' s mother was assigned to " the big house " and had scarce time for her family , as a child Tubman took care of a younger brother and a baby , as was typical in large families . When she was five or six years old , Brodess hired her out as a nursemaid to a woman named " Miss Susan " . Tubman was ordered to keep watch on the baby as it slept ; when it woke and cried , Tubman was whipped . She later recounted a particular day when she was lashed five times before breakfast . She carried the scars for the rest of her life . She found ways to resist , running away for five days , wearing layers of clothing as protection against beatings , and fighting back . As a child , Tubman also worked at the home of a planter named James Cook . She had to check the muskrat traps in nearby marshes , even after contracting measles . She became so ill that Cook sent her back to Brodess , where her mother nursed her back to health . Brodess then hired her out again . Tubman spoke later of her acute childhood homesickness , comparing herself to " the boy on the Swanee River " , an allusion to Stephen Foster ' s song " Old Folks at Home " . As she grew older and stronger , she was assigned to field and forest work , driving oxen , plowing , and hauling logs . Head injury . One day , the adolescent Tubman was sent to a dry - goods store for supplies . There , she encountered a slave owned by another family , who had left the fields without permission . His overseer , furious , demanded that Tubman help restrain the young man . She refused , and as the slave ran away , the overseer threw a two - pound weight at him . He struck Tubman instead , which she said " broke my skull " . She later explained her belief that her hair – which " had never been combed and . . . stood out like a bushel basket " – might have saved her life . Bleeding and unconscious , Tubman was returned to her owner ' s house and laid on the seat of a loom , where she remained without medical care for two days . She was sent back into the fields , " with blood and sweat rolling down my face until I couldn ' t see . " Her boss said she was " not worth a sixpence " and returned her to Brodess , who tried unsuccessfully to sell her . She began having seizures and would seemingly fall unconscious , although she claimed to be aware of her surroundings while appearing to be asleep . These episodes were alarming to her family , who were unable to wake her when she fell asleep suddenly and without warning . This condition remained with Tubman for the rest of her life ; Larson suggests she may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy as a result of the injury . The severe head wound occurred when Tubman was becoming deeply religious . As an illiterate child , she had been told Bible stories by her mother . The particular variety of her early Christian belief remains unclear , but Tubman acquired a passionate faith in God . She rejected the teachings of the New Testament that urged slaves to be obedient and found guidance in the Old Testament tales of deliverance . After her head injury , Tubman began having visions and potent dreams , which she considered signs from the divine . This religious perspective instructed her throughout her life . Family and marriage . By 1840 , Tubman ' s father , Ben , was manumitted from slavery at the age of 45 , as stipulated in a former owner ' s will , though his real age was closer to 55 . He continued working as a timber estimator and foreman for the Thompson family , who had held him as a slave . Several years later , Tubman contacted a white attorney and paid him five dollars to investigate her mother ' s legal status . The lawyer discovered that a former owner had issued instructions that Rit , like her husband , would be manumitted at the age of 45 . The record showed that a similar provision would apply to Rit ' s children , and that any children born after she reached 45 years of age were legally free , but the Pattison and Brodess families had ignored this stipulation when they inherited the slaves . Challenging it legally was an impossible task for Tubman . Around 1844 , she married a free black man named John Tubman . Although little is known about him or their time together , the union was complicated because of her slave status . Since the mother ' s status dictated that of children , any children born to Harriet and John would be enslaved . Such blended marriages - free people marrying enslaved people – were not uncommon on the Eastern Shore of Maryland , where by this time , half the black population was free . Most African - American families had both free and enslaved members . Larson suggests that they might have planned to buy Tubman ' s freedom . Tubman changed her name from Araminta to Harriet soon after her marriage , though the exact timing is unclear . Larson suggests this happened right after the wedding , and Clinton suggests that it coincided with Tubman ' s plans to escape from slavery . She adopted her mother ' s name , possibly as part of a religious conversion , or to honor another relative . Escape from slavery . In 1849 , Tubman became ill again , and her value as a slave was diminished as a result . Edward Brodess tried to sell her , but could not find a buyer . Angry at his action and the unjust hold he kept on her relatives , Tubman began to pray for her owner , asking God to make him change his ways . " I prayed all night long for my master , " she said later , " till the first of March ; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me , and trying to sell me . " When it appeared as though a sale was being concluded , she switched tactics . " I changed my prayer , " she said . " First of March I began to pray , ' Oh Lord , if you ain ' t never going to change that man ' s heart , kill him , Lord , and take him out of the way . " A week later , Brodess died , and Tubman expressed regret for her earlier sentiments . Brodess ' s death increased the likelihood that Tubman would be sold and her family would be broken apart , as frequently happened in the settlement of an estate . His widow , Eliza , began working to sell the family ' s slaves . Tubman refused to wait for the Brodess family to decide her fate , despite her husband ' s efforts to dissuade her . " [ T ] here was one of two things I had a right to , " she explained later , " liberty or death ; if I could not have one , I would have the other . " Tubman and her brothers , Ben and Henry , escaped from slavery on September 17 , 1849 . Tubman had been hired out to Dr . Anthony Thompson , who owned a large plantation in an area called Poplar Neck in neighboring Caroline County ; it is likely her brothers labored for Thompson as well . Because the slaves were hired out to another household , Eliza Brodess probably did not recognize their absence as an escape attempt for some time . Two weeks later , she posted a runaway notice in the Cambridge " Democrat " , offering a reward of up to 100 dollars for each slave returned . Once they had left , Tubman ' s brothers had second thoughts . Ben may have just become a father . The two men went back , forcing Tubman to return with them . Soon afterward , Tubman escaped again , this time without her brothers . Beforehand , she tried to send word to her mother of her plans . She sang a coded song to Mary , a trusted fellow slave , that was a farewell . " I ' ll meet you in the morning , " she intoned , " I ' m bound for the promised land " . While her exact route is unknown , Tubman made use of the network known as the Underground Railroad . This informal , but well - organized , system was composed of free and enslaved blacks , white abolitionists , and other activists . Most prominent among the latter in Maryland at the time were members of the Religious Society of Friends , often called Quakers . The Preston area near Poplar Neck in Caroline County contained a substantial Quaker community , and was probably an important first stop during Tubman ' s escape . From there , she probably took a common route for fleeing slaves - northeast along the Choptank River , through Delaware and then north into Pennsylvania . A journey of nearly 90 miles ( 145 kilometers ) , her traveling by foot would have taken between five days and three weeks . Tubman had to travel by night , guided by the North Star , and trying to avoid slave catchers , eager to collect rewards for fugitive slaves . The " conductors " in the Underground Railroad used a variety of deceptions for protection . At one of the earliest stops , the lady of the house ordered Tubman to sweep the yard to make it appear as though she worked for the family . When night fell , the family hid her in a cart and took her to the next friendly house . Given her familiarity with the woods and marshes of the region , it is likely that Tubman hid in these locales during the day . Because the routes she followed were used by other fugitive slaves , Tubman did not speak about them until later in her life . Particulars of her first journey remain shrouded in secrecy . She crossed into Pennsylvania with a feeling of relief and awe , and recalled the experience years later : " When I found I had crossed that line , I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person . There was such a glory over everything ; the sun came like gold through the trees , and over the fields , and I felt like I was in Heaven . " " Moses " . After reaching Philadelphia , Tubman began thinking of her family . " I was a stranger in a strange land , " she said later . " [ M ] y father , my mother , my brothers , and sisters , and friends were [ in Maryland ] . But I was free , and " they " should be free . " She began to work odd jobs and save money . At the same time , the U . S . Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 , which forced law enforcement officials ( even in states that had outlawed slavery ) to aid in the capture of fugitive slaves , and imposed heavy punishments on those who abetted escape . The law increased risks for escaped slaves , and more began to try to get to Canada , which had abolished slavery . Racial tensions increased in Philadelphia , as waves of poor Irish immigrants competed with free blacks for work . In December 1850 , Tubman received a warning that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold ( along with her two children , six - year - old James Alfred , and baby Araminta ) in Cambridge . Tubman returned to the land of her enslavement . She went to Baltimore , where her brother - in - law Tom Tubman hid her until the time of the sale . Kessiah ' s husband , a free black man named John Bowley , made the winning bid for his wife . Then , while he pretended to make arrangements to pay , Kessiah and their children escaped to a nearby safe house . When night fell , Bowley sailed the family on a log canoe 60 miles ( 100 kilometers ) to Baltimore . They met up with Tubman , who brought the family safely to Philadelphia . The following spring , she headed back into Maryland to help guide away other family members . On her second trip , she brought back her brother Moses , and two other unidentified men . It is likely that Tubman was by this time working with abolitionist Thomas Garrett , a Quaker working in Wilmington , Delaware . Word of her exploits had encouraged her family , and biographers agree that she became more confident with each trip to Maryland . As she led more individuals out of slavery , she was named " Moses " by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison , an allusion to the prophet in the Book of Exodus who led the Hebrews to freedom from Egypt . During an interview with author Wilbur Siebert in 1897 , Tubman revealed some of the names of helpers and places she used along the Underground Railroad . She stayed with Sam Green , a free black minister living in East New Market , Maryland ; she also hid near her parents ' home at Poplar Neck in Caroline County , Maryland . From there , she would travel northeast to Sandtown and Willow Grove , Delaware , and onto the Camden area where free black agents , William and Nat Brinkley and Abraham Gibbs , guided her north past Dover , Smyrna , and Blackbird , where other agents would take her across the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to New Castle and Wilmington . In Wilmington , Quaker Thomas Garrett would secure transportation to William Still ' s office or the homes of other Underground Railroad operators in the greater Philadelphia area . Still , a famous black agent , is credited with aiding hundreds of freedom seekers escape to safer places farther north in New York , New England , and Canada . In the fall of 1851 , Tubman returned to Dorchester County for the first time since her escape , this time to find her husband , John . She once again saved money from various jobs , purchased a suit for him , and made her way south . John , meanwhile , had married another woman named Caroline . Tubman sent word that he should join her , but he insisted that he was happy where he was . Tubman at first prepared to storm their house and make a scene , but then decided he was not worth the trouble . Suppressing her anger , she found some slaves who wanted to escape and led them to Philadelphia . John and Caroline raised a family together , until he was killed 16 years later in a roadside argument with a white man named Robert Vincent . Because the Fugitive Slave Law had made the northern United States more dangerous for escaped slaves , many began migrating further north to Canada . In December 1851 , Tubman guided an unidentified group of 11 fugitives , possibly including the Bowleys and several others she had helped rescue earlier , northward . There is evidence to suggest that Tubman and her group stopped at the home of abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass . In his third autobiography , Douglass wrote : " On one occasion I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof , and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them on to Canada . It was the largest number I ever had at any one time , and I had some difficulty in providing so many with food and shelter . . . " The number of travelers and the time of the visit make it likely that this was Tubman ' s group . Douglass and Tubman showed a great admiration for one another as they struggled together against slavery . When an early biography of Tubman was being prepared in 1868 , Douglass wrote a letter to honor her . It read in part : Journeys and methods . For 11 years Tubman returned repeatedly to the Eastern Shore of Maryland , rescuing some 300 slaves in about 19 expeditions , including her three other brothers , Henry , Ben , and Robert , their wives and some of their children . She also provided specific instructions for about 50 to 60 other fugitives who escaped to the north . Her dangerous work required tremendous ingenuity ; she usually worked during winter months , to minimize the likelihood that the group would be seen . One admirer of Tubman said : " She always came in the winter , when the nights are long and dark , and people who have homes stay in them . " Once she had made contact with escaping slaves , they left town on Saturday evenings , since newspapers would not print runaway notices until Monday morning . Her journeys into the land of slavery put her at tremendous risk , and she used a variety of subterfuges to avoid detection . Tubman once disguised herself with a bonnet and carried two live chickens to give the appearance of running errands . Suddenly finding herself walking toward a former owner in Dorchester County , she yanked the strings holding the birds ' legs , and their agitation allowed her to avoid eye contact . Later she recognized a fellow train passenger as another former master ; she snatched a nearby newspaper and pretended to read . Since Tubman was known to be illiterate , the man ignored her . Her religious faith was another important resource as she ventured repeatedly into Maryland . The visions from her childhood head injury continued , and she saw them as divine premonitions . She spoke of " consulting with God " , and trusted that He would keep her safe . Thomas Garrett once said of her , " I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God , as spoken direct to her soul . " Her faith in the divine also provided immediate assistance . She used spirituals as coded messages , warning fellow travelers of danger or to signal a clear path . She carried a revolver , and was not afraid to use it . Once a slave agreed to join her expedition , there was no turning back ; she threatened to shoot anyone who tried to return . Tubman told the tale of one journey with a group of fugitive slaves , when morale sank and one man insisted he was going to go back to the plantation . She pointed the gun at his head and said , " You go on or die . " Several days later , he was with the group as they entered Canada . It is more than likely that Tubman carried the handgun as protection from ever - present slave catchers and their dogs . Slaveholders in the region , meanwhile , never knew that " Minty " , the petite , five - foot - tall , disabled slave who had run away years before and never come back , was behind so many slave escapes in their community . By the late 1850s , they began to suspect a northern white abolitionist was secretly enticing their slaves away . They considered that John Brown himself had come to the Eastern Shore to lure slaves away before his ill - fated raid on Harper ' s Ferry in October 1859 . While a popular legend persists about a reward of US $ 40 , 000 for Tubman ' s capture , this is a manufactured figure . In 1868 , in an effort to drum up support for Tubman ' s claim for a Civil War military pension , a former abolitionist named Salley Holley wrote an article claiming US $ 40 , 000 " was not too great a reward for Maryland slaveholders to offer for her . " Such a high reward would have garnered national attention , especially at a time when a small farm could be purchased for a mere US $ 400 . No such reward has been found in period newspapers . ( The federal government offered $ 25 , 000 for the capture of each of John Wilkes Booth ' s co - conspirators in Lincoln ' s assassination . ) A reward offering of US $ 12 , 000 has also been claimed , though no documentation exists for that figure either . Catherine Clinton suggests that the US $ 40 , 000 figure may have been a combined total of the various bounties offered around the region . Despite the best efforts of the slaveholders , Tubman was never captured , and neither were the fugitives she guided . Years later , she told an audience : " I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years , and I can say what most conductors can ' t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger . " One of her last missions into Maryland was to retrieve her aging parents . Her father , Ben , had purchased Rit , her mother , in 1855 from Eliza Brodess for 20 dollars . But even when they were both free , the area became hostile to their presence . Two years later , Tubman received word that her father had harbored a group of eight escaped slaves , and was at risk of arrest . She traveled to the Eastern Shore and led them north into the Canadian city of St . Catharines , Ontario , where a community of former slaves ( including Tubman ' s brothers , other relatives , and many friends ) had gathered . John Brown and Harpers Ferry . In April 1858 , Tubman was introduced to the abolitionist John Brown , an insurgent who advocated the use of violence to destroy slavery in the United States . Although she never advocated violence against whites , she agreed with his course of direct action and supported his goals . Like Tubman , he spoke of being called by God , and trusted the divine to protect him from the wrath of slaveholders . She , meanwhile , claimed to have had a prophetic vision of meeting Brown before their encounter . Thus , as he began recruiting supporters for an attack on slaveholders , Brown was joined by " General Tubman " , as he called her . Her knowledge of support networks and resources in the border states of Pennsylvania , Maryland and Delaware was invaluable to Brown and his planners . Although other abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison did not endorse his tactics , Brown dreamed of fighting to create a new state for freed slaves , and made preparations for military action . After he began the first battle , he believed , slaves would rise up and carry out a rebellion across the south . He asked Tubman to gather former slaves then living in Canada who might be willing to join his fighting force , which she did . On May 8 , 1858 , Brown held a meeting in Chatham - Kent , Ontario , where he unveiled his plan for a raid on Harpers Ferry , Virginia . When word of the plan was leaked to the government , Brown put the scheme on hold and began raising funds for its eventual resumption . Tubman aided him in this effort , and with more detailed plans for the assault . Tubman was busy during this time , giving talks to abolitionist audiences and tending to her relatives . In the autumn of 1859 , as Brown and his men prepared to launch the attack , Tubman could not be contacted . When the raid on Harpers Ferry took place on October 16 , Tubman was not present . Some historians believe she was in New York at the time , ill with fever related to her childhood head injury . Others propose she may have been recruiting more escaped slaves in Canada , and Kate Clifford Larson suggests she may have been in Maryland , recruiting for Brown ' s raid or attempting to rescue more family members . Larson also notes that Tubman may have begun sharing Frederick Douglass ' doubts about the viability of the plan . The raid failed ; Brown was convicted of treason and hanged in December . His actions were seen by abolitionists as a symbol of proud resistance , carried out by a noble martyr . Tubman herself was effusive with praise . She later told a friend : " [ H ] e done more in dying , than 100 men would in living . " Auburn and Margaret . In early 1859 , abolitionist U . S . Senator William H . Seward sold Tubman a small piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn , New York for US $ 1 , 200 . The city was a hotbed of antislavery activism , and Tubman seized the opportunity to deliver her parents from the harsh Canadian winters . Returning to the U . S . meant that escaped slaves were at risk of being returned to the south under the Fugitive Slave Law , and Tubman ' s siblings expressed reservations . Catherine Clinton suggests that anger over the 1857 Dred Scott decision may have prompted Tubman to return to the U . S . Her land in Auburn became a haven for Tubman ' s family and friends . For years , she took in relatives and boarders , offering a safe place for black Americans seeking a better life in the north . Shortly after acquiring the Auburn property , Tubman went back to Maryland and returned with her " niece " , an eight - year - old light - skinned black girl named Margaret . The circumstances of this expedition remain clouded in mystery . There is great confusion about the identity of Margaret ' s parents , although Tubman indicated they were free blacks . The girl had left behind a twin brother and a loving home in Maryland . Years later , Margaret ' s daughter Alice called Tubman ' s actions selfish , saying , " she had taken the child from a sheltered good home to a place where there was nobody to care for her . " Indeed , Alice described it as a " kidnapping " . However , both Clinton and Larson present the possibility that Margaret was in fact Tubman ' s daughter . Larson points out that the two shared an unusually strong bond , and argues that Tubman – knowing the pain of a child separated from her mother – would never have intentionally caused a free family to be split apart . Clinton presents evidence of strong physical similarities , which Alice herself acknowledged . Both historians agree that no concrete evidence exists for such a possibility , and the mystery of Tubman ' s relationship with young Margaret remains to this day . In November 1860 , Tubman conducted her last rescue mission . Throughout the 1850s , Tubman had been unable to effect the escape of her sister , Rachel , and Rachel ' s two children , Ben and Angerine . Upon returning to Dorchester County , Tubman discovered that Rachel had died , and the children could only be rescued if she could pay a US $ 30 bribe . She had no money , so the children remained enslaved . Their fates remain unknown . Never one to waste a trip , Tubman gathered another group , including the Ennals family , ready and willing to take the risks of the journey north . It took them weeks to safely get away because of slave catchers , forcing them to hide out longer than expected . The weather was unseasonably cold and they had little food . The children were drugged with paregoric to keep them quiet while slave patrols rode by . They safely reached the home of David and Martha Wright in Auburn , New York on December 28 , 1860 . Civil War . When the American Civil War broke out in 1861 , Tubman saw a Union victory as a key step toward the abolition of slavery . General Benjamin Butler , for instance , aided escaped slaves flooding into Fort Monroe . Butler had declared these fugitives to be " contraband " – property seized by northern forces – and put them to work without pay in the fort . Tubman hoped to offer her own expertise and skills to the Union cause , too , and soon she joined a group of Boston and Philadelphia abolitionists heading to the Hilton Head District in South Carolina . She became a fixture in the camps , particularly in Port Royal , South Carolina , assisting fugitives . Tubman soon met with General David Hunter , a strong supporter of abolition . He declared all of the " contrabands " in the Port Royal district free , and began gathering former slaves for a regiment of black soldiers . U . S . President Abraham Lincoln , however , was not prepared to enforce emancipation on the southern states , and reprimanded Hunter for his actions . Tubman condemned Lincoln ' s response and his general unwillingness to consider ending slavery in the U . S . , for both moral and practical reasons . " God won ' t let master Lincoln beat the South till he does " the right thing " , " she said . Tubman served as a nurse in Port Royal , preparing remedies from local plants and aiding soldiers suffering from dysentery . She rendered assistance to men with smallpox ; that she did not contract the disease herself started more rumors that she was blessed by God . At first , she received government rations for her work , but newly freed blacks thought she was getting special treatment . To ease the tension , she gave up her right to these supplies and made money selling pies and root beer , which she made in the evenings . Scouting and the Combahee River Raid . When Lincoln finally issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863 , Tubman considered it an important step toward the goal of liberating all black men , women , and children from slavery . She renewed her support for a defeat of the Confederacy , and before long she was leading a band of scouts through the land around Port Royal . The marshes and rivers in South Carolina were similar to those of the Eastern Shore of Maryland ; thus her knowledge of covert travel and subterfuge among potential enemies were put to good use . Her group , working under the orders of Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton , mapped the unfamiliar terrain and reconnoitered its inhabitants . She later worked alongside Colonel James Montgomery , and provided him with key intelligence that aided the capture of Jacksonville , Florida . Later that year , Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War . When Montgomery and his troops conducted an assault on a collection of plantations along the Combahee River , Tubman served as a key adviser and accompanied the raid . On the morning of June 2 , 1863 , Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore . Once ashore , the Union troops set fire to the plantations , destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies . When the steamboats sounded their whistles , slaves throughout the area understood that it was being liberated . Tubman watched as slaves stampeded toward the boats . " I never saw such a sight , " she said later , describing a scene of chaos with women carrying still - steaming pots of rice , pigs squealing in bags slung over shoulders , and babies hanging around their parents ' necks . Although their owners , armed with handguns and whips , tried to stop the mass escape , their efforts were nearly useless in the tumult . As Confederate troops raced to the scene , steamboats packed full of slaves took off toward Beaufort . More than 700 slaves were rescued in the Combahee River Raid . Newspapers heralded Tubman ' s " patriotism , sagacity , energy , [ and ] ability " , and she was praised for her recruiting efforts - most of the newly liberated men went on to join the Union army . Tubman later worked with Colonel Robert Gould Shaw at the assault on Fort Wagner , reportedly serving him his last meal . She described the battle by saying : " And then we saw the lightning , and that was the guns ; and then we heard the thunder , and that was the big guns ; and then we heard the rain falling , and that was the drops of blood falling ; and when we came to get the crops , it was dead men that we reaped . " For two more years , Tubman worked for the Union forces , tending to newly liberated slaves , scouting into Confederate territory , and eventually nursing wounded soldiers in Virginia . She also made periodic trips back to Auburn , to visit her family and care for her parents . The Confederacy surrendered in April 1865 ; after donating several more months of service , Tubman headed home . Tubman returned to Auburn at the end of the war . During a train ride to New York , the conductor told her to move into the smoking car . She refused , explaining her government service . He cursed at her and grabbed her , but she resisted and he summoned two other passengers for help . While she clutched at the railing , they muscled her away , breaking her arm in the process . They threw her into the smoking car , causing more injuries . As these events transpired , other white passengers cursed Tubman and shouted for the conductor to kick her off the train . Despite her years of service , she had never received a regular salary and was for years denied compensation . Her unofficial status and the unequal payments offered to black soldiers caused great difficulty in documenting her service , and the U . S . government was slow in recognizing its debt to her . Tubman did not receive a pension for her service in the Civil War until 1899 . Her constant humanitarian work for her family and former slaves , meanwhile , kept her in a state of constant poverty , and her difficulties in obtaining a government pension were especially taxing for her . Later life . Tubman spent her remaining years in Auburn , tending to her family and other people in need . She worked various jobs to support her elderly parents , and took in boarders to help pay the bills . One of the people Tubman took in was a Civil War veteran named Nelson Davis . He began working in Auburn as a bricklayer , and they soon fell in love . Though he was 22 years younger than she was , on March 18 , 1869 , they were married at the Central Presbyterian Church . They spent the next 20 years together , and in 1874 they adopted a baby girl named Gertie . Tubman ' s friends and supporters from the days of abolition , meanwhile , raised funds to support her . One admirer , Sarah Hopkins Bradford , wrote an authorized biography entitled " Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman " . The 132 - page volume was published in 1869 , and brought Tubman some US $ 1 , 200 in revenue . Criticized by modern biographers for its artistic license and highly subjective point of view , the book nevertheless remains an important source of information and perspective on Tubman ' s life . Bradford released another volume in 1886 called " Harriet , the Moses of her People " , which presented a less caustic view of slavery and the South . It , too , was published as a way to help alleviate Tubman ' s poverty . Because of the debt she had accumulated ( including delayed payment for her property in Auburn ) , Tubman fell prey in 1873 to a swindle involving gold transfer . Two men , one named Stevenson and the other John Thomas , claimed to have in their possession a cache of gold smuggled out of South Carolina . They offered this treasure – worth about US $ 5 , 000 , they claimed – for US $ 2 , 000 in cash . They insisted that they knew a relative of Tubman ' s , and she took them into her home , where they stayed for several days . She knew that white people in the South had buried valuables when Union forces threatened the region , and also that black men were frequently assigned to digging duties . Thus the situation seemed plausible , and a combination of her financial woes and her good nature led her to go along with the plan . She borrowed the money from a wealthy friend named Anthony Shimer , and arranged to receive the gold late one night . Once the men had lured her into the woods , however , they attacked her and knocked her out with chloroform , then stole her purse and bound and gagged her . When she was found by her family , she was dazed and injured , and the money was gone . New York responded with outrage to the incident , and while some criticized Tubman for her naïveté , most sympathized with her economic hardship and lambasted the con men . The incident refreshed the public ' s memory of her past service and her economic woes . Wisconsin Representative Gerry W . Hazelton introduced a bill ( H . R . 3786 ) providing that Tubman be paid " the sum of $ 2 , 000 for services rendered by her to the Union Army as scout , nurse , and spy . . . " It was defeated . Suffragist activism . In her later years , Tubman worked to promote the cause of women ' s suffrage . A white woman once asked Tubman whether she believed women ought to have the vote , and received the reply : " I suffered enough to believe it . " Tubman began attending meetings of suffragist organizations , and was soon working alongside women such as Susan B . Anthony and Emily Howland . Tubman traveled to New York , Boston , and Washington , D . C . to speak out in favor of women ' s voting rights . She described her actions during and after the Civil War , and used the sacrifices of countless women throughout modern history as evidence of women ' s equality to men . When the National Federation of Afro - American Women was founded in 1896 , Tubman was the keynote speaker at its first meeting . This wave of activism kindled a new wave of admiration for Tubman among the press in the United States . A publication called " The Woman ' s Era " launched a series of articles on " Eminent Women " with a profile of Tubman . An 1897 suffragist newspaper reported a series of receptions in Boston honoring Tubman and her lifetime of service to the nation . However , her endless contributions to others had left her in poverty , and she had to sell a cow to buy a train ticket to these celebrations . AME Zion Church , illness , and death . At the turn of the 20th century , Tubman became heavily involved with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn . In 1903 , she donated a parcel of real estate she owned to the church , under the instruction that it be made into a home for " aged and indigent colored people . " The home did not open for another five years , and Tubman was dismayed when the church ordered residents to pay a $ 100 entrance fee . She said : " [ T ] hey make a rule that nobody should come in without they have a hundred dollars . Now I wanted to make a rule that nobody should come in unless they didn ' t have no money at all . " She was frustrated by the new rule but was the guest of honor nonetheless when the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged celebrated its opening on June 23 , 1908 . As Tubman aged , the sleeping spells and suffering from her childhood head trauma continued to plague her . At some point in the late 1890s , she underwent brain surgery at Boston ' s Massachusetts General Hospital . Unable to sleep because of pains and " buzzing " in her head , she asked a doctor if he could operate . He agreed and , in her words , " sawed open my skull , and raised it up , and now it feels more comfortable . " She had received no anesthesia for the procedure and reportedly chose instead to bite down on a bullet , as she had seen Civil War soldiers do when their limbs were amputated . By 1911 , her body was so frail that she had to be admitted into the rest home named in her honor . A New York newspaper described her as " ill and penniless , " prompting supporters to offer a new round of donations . Surrounded by friends and family members , Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia in 1913 . Just before she died , she told those in the room : " I go to prepare a place for you . " Legacy . Harriet Tubman , widely known and well - respected while she was alive , became an American icon in the years after she died . A survey at the end of the 20th century named her as one of the most famous civilians in American history before the Civil War , third only to Betsy Ross and Paul Revere . She inspired generations of African Americans struggling for equality and civil rights ; she was praised by leaders across the political spectrum . When she died , Tubman was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn . The city commemorated her life with a plaque on the courthouse . Although it showed pride for her many achievements , its use of dialect ( " I nebber run my train off de track " ) , apparently chosen for its authenticity , has been criticized for undermining her stature as an American patriot and dedicated humanitarian . Still , the dedication ceremony was a powerful tribute to her memory , and Booker T . Washington delivered the keynote address . The Harriet Tubman home was abandoned after 1920 , but was later renovated by the AME Zion Church . Today , it welcomes visitors as a museum and education center . Tubman was celebrated in many other ways throughout the nation in the 20th century . Dozens of schools were named in her honor , and both the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn and the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge serve as monuments to her life . In 1937 the gravestone for Harriet Tubman Davis was erected by the Empire State Federation of Women ' s Clubs ; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 . In 1944 , the United States Maritime Commission launched the " SS Harriet Tubman " , its first Liberty ship ever named for a black woman . In 1978 , the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in honor of Tubman as the first in a series honoring African Americans . She is commemorated together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Amelia Bloomer , and Sojourner Truth in the calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church on July 20 . In 1999 , the Canadian government designated the Salem Chapel , British Methodist Episcopal Church in St . Catharines , as a National Historic Site of Canada because of its association with Tubman . In 2002 , scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Harriet Tubman on his list of the 100 Greatest African Americans . In 2008 , Towson University named a new residence hall after Tubman . In March 2013 , President Barack Obama signed a proclamation creating Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument on the Eastern Shore . Historiography . Bradford ' s biographies were followed by Earl Conrad ' s " Harriet Tubman : Negro Soldier and Abolitionist " . Conrad had experienced great difficulty in finding a publisher – the search took four years – and endured disdain and contempt for his efforts to construct a more objective , detailed account of Tubman ' s life for adults . Several highly dramatized versions of Tubman ' s life had been written for children , and many more came later , but Conrad wrote in an academic style to document the historical importance of her work for scholars and the nation ' s memory . The book was finally published by Carter G . Woodson ' s Associated Publishers in 1942 . Despite her popularity and significance , another Tubman biography for adults did not appear for 60 years , until Jean Humez published a close reading of Tubman ' s life stories in 2003 , and Larson and Clinton both published their biographies in 2004 .