Harriet Tubman
Born 1820 or 1821
Dorchester County, Maryland
Died March 10, 1913
Auburn, New York
Escaped slave who became a leader of the
Underground Railroad
Risked her life in order to guide hundreds of
slaves to freedom in the North
"There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive."
Harriet Tubman was a fugitive slave who helped other slaves gain their freedom through the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was not actually a railroad. It was a secret network of abolitionists (people who fought to end slavery) who helped slaves escape from their masters and settle in the Northern United States and Canada, where slavery was not allowed. The Underground Railroad system consisted of a chain of homes and barns known as "safe houses" or "depots." The people who guided the runaway slaves from one safe house to the next were known as "conductors." As one of the most successful conductors, Tubman made nineteen dangerous trips into slave territory and helped more than three hundred slaves gain their freedom.
Born Into Slavery
Harriet Tubman was born on a plantation (a large farming estate) in Dorchester County, Maryland, in either 1820 or 1821.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 2,315 words (approx. 8 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Harriet Tubman Access Pass.
