Harriet Tubman

It was the autumn of 1849, on the road north, in the United States.

A woman was walking alone, toward Philadelphia. She covered nearly 90 miles on foot. Then she crossed the line.

Years later, she described that moment:

Her name was Harriet Tubman. She was born enslaved around 1822, in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was born Araminta Ross, daughter of Ben and Rit Ross.

At about thirteen, she was struck on the head. A weight thrown at a young man who was trying to flee had struck her.

All her life, she lived with seizures and visions. She saw them as messages from God.

In 1844, she married John Tubman, a free Black man. She took the name Harriet. But the marriage was not recognized, and she remained enslaved.

In 1849, her enslaver died. She feared being sold.

On 17 September, she fled with two of her brothers, Ben and Henry. The brothers turned back. They forced her to return with them.

A few weeks later, she set out again. Alone, this time.

In Philadelphia, Quakers helped her. She worked for a year to pay for a journey back. In December 1850, she returned to Maryland in secret. She brought back her niece Kessiah and Kessiah's two daughters.

But in 1850, a Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Freedom seekers could now be captured in the Northern states and returned to slavery.

So Harriet changed her route. The road would end in Canada.

In December 1851, she settled in St. Catharines, in Canada West, today Ontario. She rented a house on North Street.

Close by lived a Black community, gathered around its churches. One of them is now Salem Chapel, a heritage site.

Later, she explained her choice. She would no longer trust Uncle Sam with her people. So she had brought them all the way to Canada.

From 1851 to 1862, she made about thirteen trips into Maryland. She brought out some seventy people, including members of her family. To fifty or sixty others, she gave instructions for escaping.

She never lost a single passenger.

She used spirituals as coded messages. People called her "Moses," after the prophet who led his people out of Egypt.

In 1859, she bought a house in Auburn, New York, and settled her parents there. In 1861, in St. Catharines, she founded a society to aid fugitives with her brother William Henry.

During the Civil War, she served the Union army: nurse, scout, spy, cook.

On 1 June 1863, she accompanied Colonel James Montgomery and the 2nd South Carolina Infantry. It was a raid on the Combahee River. More than seven hundred people were freed.

After the war, she returned to Auburn. There she opened a home for elderly African Americans.

She died on 10 March 1913, in Auburn. Just before, she quoted the Gospel of John: "I go away to prepare a place for you."

In 2005, Canada designated her a Person of National Historic Significance.

Harriet Tubman lived her Christian faith and sang the spirituals of her people. She went back for others, again and again. That way of living echoes Ubuntu, without being the same thing.

One of her sayings has remained: "Glory to God and Jesus, too. One more soul is safe!"

One day in 1849, she had looked at her hands to see if she was still the same.

Those hands then guided dozens of others, all the way to freedom.