Who was Harriet Tubman?
Q: Who was Harriet Tubman?
A: Harriet Tubman was an African-American anti-slavery worker, humanitarian, Union spy and the first black woman to ever lead an American mission during the American Civil War.
Q: How did she escape slavery?
A: She escaped to Philadelphia where slaves were free. She later returned to Maryland to rescue her family and guided dozens of other slaves to freedom.
Q: What caused Tubman's health problems?
A: When she was very young, an angry overseer threw a heavy metal weight at another slave which accidentally hit Tubman's head causing seizures, headaches, powerful visionary and dream experiences that she had all her life.
Q: What did Tubman do during the American Civil War?
A: During the American Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army as a cook, nurse, armed scout and spy. She was also the first woman to lead an armed group in the war and guided the Combehee River Raid which freed more than 700 slaves in South Carolina.
Q: What did Tubman do after the war?
A: After the war ended, she moved to her family home in Auburn New York where she cared for her aging parents and became active in women's suffrage movement until she became ill. Near the end of her life, she lived in a home for elderly African Americans which she helped create years earlier.
Q: How did people try to stop Harriet from freeing slaves?
A: Slave owners offered large rewards for anyone who could return their slaves but nobody knew it was Harriet freeing them so they never caught her.
