Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Dorchester County,
Maryland in 1820. While she grew up she served as a field hand and a house
servant on a plantation in Maryland. In 1844 she married a free black named
John Tubman. In about 1849 she escaped to the North and before the outbreak
of the Civil War made nineteen trips back to lead other slaves to freedom,
including her parents, on a clandestine route known as the Underground
Railroad. She guided an estimated amount of 300 slaves to Canada. For leading
her people to the "promised land", she became known as the Moses of her
people. Her home in Auburn, NY, was an important station on the Underground
Railroad. During the Civil War, she served the Union Army as a cook, nurse,
spy, and scout working mostly in coastal regions of South Carolina. In
the last years of her life, she maintained a home for elderly former slaves
in Auburn, NY, where she died in 1913. For her efforts she became one of,
if not the most famous slavery abolitionists.
George Cassutto's Cyberlearning World: http://www.cyberlearning-world.com
[Lesson Plan of the Day] [Cassutto Memorial] [About the Author] [Search]
[Civics Lesson Plans]