President Lincoln seemed to reverse
his anti-slavery stance by publicly
reprimanding Union General David
Hunter’s “local” abolition of slavery
in the district of Port Royal, South
Carolina. She became acquainted
with Hunter while serving with a
group of Northeastern abolitionists
who had accompanied the Federal
armies occupying the South Carolina
coastal islands. There, she became
indispensable both as a nurse, and as
an intermediary between the officers
and fugitive slaves who ran to the
safety of Hunter’s lines.
Tubman likened the necessity for the
abolition of slavery to treating a snake
bite: “You send for a doctor to cut the
bite; but the snake, he rolled up there,
and while the doctor doing it, he bite
you again. The doctor dug out that
bite; but while the doctor doing it, the
snake, he spring up and bite you again;
so he keep doing it, till you kill him.”
Union adviser
After the Emancipation Proclamation,
she redoubled her efforts on behalf
of the Union cause in the South
Carolina coastal areas, leading a
group of Union scouts through
the area’s complex system of
waterways, islands, and
marshes. These forays gave
Union commanders priceless
local knowledge, and Secretary
of War, Edwin Stanton,
officially supported her
efforts. In July 1863, using
information she had gleaned
during her scouting trips,
Tubman advised and assisted
Colonel James Montgomery in
his raid of the Combahee River
plantations by guiding Union steamboats
past Confederate torpedoes to safe
landing zones. Once ashore, the Union
troops burned several plantations and
bridges, confiscated thousands of dollars
of supplies, and liberated over 700
slaves. Confederate soldiers arrived too
late to stop the destruction and the
escaped slaves crowded onto the Federal
steamboats. Many of them later joined
the black regiments that were forming.Humanitarian to the last
A few weeks later, Tubman traveled
with the 54th Massachusetts to its
launching point at Battery Wagner,
reportedly serving Colonel Robert
Gould Shaw his last meal. For the rest
of the war, she worked without pay for
Union forces as they tightened the noose
around Charleston, South Carolina,
assisting with fugitive slaves, scouting
deeper into Confederate territory, and
advising Federal officers about the
needs of the freedmen. Toward the end
of the war she served as a volunteer
nurse in Virginia, finally heading back
to New York following Lee’s surrender.
Tubman never enjoyed official status
during the Civil War, even though her
contributions to the Northern cause
were well-known in Washington. Shereceived no pay for all her sacrifices
before or during the war, and it was not
until 1899 that she received a pension.
Tubman spent most of the meager
sums she earned doing odd jobs to
support her elderly parents and the
former slaves she boarded at her home.
Friends and admirers were outraged at
the poverty she endured and periodically
raised monies for her support. She also
earned royalties from her biographies.
In Tubman’s later years, she discovered
a new cause: the women’s suffrage
movement. When asked by a white
woman if she thought females should
be able to vote, she replied, “I suffered
enough to believe it.” Advocates of
women’s suffrage Susan B. Anthony
and Emily Howland counted Tubman
as a colleague and friend. In 1903, she
donated land she owned to create a
home for aged and poverty-stricken
blacks. The Harriet Tubman Home for
the Aged opened on June 23, 1908,
and it was there that Tubman died, as
a resident, nearly five years later.HARRIET TUBMAN■ c.1820 Born Araminta “Minty” Ross in
Dorchester County, Maryland, to slave parents
Harriet “Rit” Green and Ben Ross.
■ 1834 Struck on head by an iron weight, which
causes serious side effects for the rest of her life.
■ 1844 Marries freedman John Tubman. Takes the
first name of “Harriet.”
■ 1849 Runs away from slavery in the late fall
after hearing rumors she might be sold.
■ 1850 Fugitive Slave Act passed. Tubman
conducts her niece and niece’s two children to
freedom in the North.
■ 1851–52 Conducts other slaves, including her
brother Moses, from the Eastern Shore of
Maryland to freedom. Her husband John, who
has remarried, refuses to relocate North.
■ 1854–60 Makes many trips to the Eastern
Shore, personally guiding hundreds to freedom;
comes to the attention of the leading abolitionists
during this time.
■ 1858 Meets John Brown at her home in St.
Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Confers on, but
does not participate in, the Harpers Ferry raid.
■ 1859 Lectures in New England about her work
on the Underground Railroad.
■ 1862–65 Works in an unofficial but valuable
capacity for the Union forces at Hilton Head,
South Carolina, as a nurse, cook, and scout.
■ 1863 Along with Colonel James Montgomery,
Tubman co-leads the Combahee River Raid on
June 2, in which 700 slaves are liberated and
critical Confederate supplies are burned.
■ 1865 Nurses wounded soldiers at Fortress
Monroe, Virginia.
■ 1869 Marries Civil War veteran Nelson Davis.
■ 1870–90 Farms her small property in Auburn,
New York, and engages in numerous small
enterprises, most of which do not prosper.
Supports former slaves and the destitute.
■ 1888 Nelson Davis dies.■ 1890s Becomes actively involved in the suffrage
movement, attending both black and white
suffrage conventions; continues to do this into
the early 1900s.
■ 1896 Purchases 25 acres (10 hectares)
adjoining her property to establish a home for
elderly and sick African-Americans.
■ 1908 The Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged
is opened by the African Methodist Episcopal
Zion Church.
■ 1913 Dies on March 10 at the age of 91, and is
buried at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.TIMELINEThe Underground Railroad
Small groups of slaves were secretly conducted north
along the Underground Railroad, stopping at safe houses
or “stations” on the indirect route. Fugitives evaded
capture with the assistance of anti-slavery sympathizers.TUBMAN (FAR LEFT) WITH HER FAMILY“This is the only military
command in American history
wherein a woman, black or
white, led the raid ...”
SECRETARY OF WAR EDWIN M. STANTON ON THE COMBAHEE RIVER RAID