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Harriet Tubman c.1820–1913, American abolitionist, b. Dorchester co., Md. A slave, she escaped in 1849 and became one of the most successful "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. She led more than 300 slaves to freedom, forcing the timid ahead with a loaded revolver. She was a friend of the principal abolitionists, and John Brown almost certainly confided his Harpers Ferry plan to her. In the Civil War, Harriet Tubman attached herself to the Union forces in coastal South Carolina, serving as a nurse, laundress, and spy. At Auburn, N.Y., her home for many years, the Cayuga co. courthouse contains a tablet in her honor.
See biographies by S. Bradford (1869, new ed. 1961) and E. Conrad (1942).
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