Harriet Tubman

What Harriet contributed

Returned to slaveholding territory to guide relatives and others toward freedom.

The story

After escaping slavery in 1849, Tubman made repeated rescue journeys. During the Civil War she served as a nurse, scout, and spy and assisted the Combahee River raid, which freed hundreds of enslaved people.

Why it matters

Her courage joined personal rescue work with a larger struggle against slavery.