Harriet Tubman escaped from the Maryland Slave Plantation to Philadelphia at the young age of only 29. There, she found the underground railroad, a huge network of safehouses that escaped slaves could hide in until the treatment of black Americans improved in her country. There, she stayed in hiding for a little less than a year, until one day, her previous owner at Maryland Plantation, Edward Brodess, passed away from an unknown disease. Harriet made multiple trips back to the slave camp, bringing back more than 300 slaves over almost 10 years. In all 19 missions, she never lost a passenger and brought them back to the underground railroad. These daring acts of bravery and defiance gained her a lot of support from her fellow slaves, but she grew extremely poor as she spent all her money to accommodate and feed the people she had saved. 

 

After she had left the underground railroad, Harriet took to being part of the war effort against the Confederates. The Civil War had just began, and Harriet quickly joined the Union Army, which were fighting for the rights of slavery and the unification of the country. As a maid, she quickly gained recognition and went on to become a scout and a spy. Eventually she would lead the raid at the Combahee River, which would result in the freeing of over 700 captured slaves. After the victory of the Unions, the current president, Abraham Lincoln, declared that all slaves in America were to be freed, and the institution of slavery was abolished. Harriet Tubman was the first black American woman to lead an armed assault, and she was pivotal in the recognition of her people. 

 

Towards the later years of her life, Harriet became extremely poor. As a slave, she had always lived in poverty, but her benevolence had begun to extend further than she could reach. She was old and frail, so she decided to accommodate the slaves that had recently been freed, and were struggling to start a new life. She sustained herself and the people she gave hospitality to by growing and selling produce in her back yard garden, also relying on the support from her neighbours and friends. As well as this, she fought for woman's suffrage by speaking at multiple meetings and set up an elderly retirement home for her parents. Overall, Harriet played an indispensable role for the freeing of slavery, fighting for what she believed in until the day she died.