Harriet Tubman

Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman refused to submit to bondage after witnessing the sale of her three sisters to slave traders and facing the real possibility of the same fate herself. In 1849, she escaped with her two brothers, but when they feared capture and separation from family and persuaded her to return, she later made a daring solo escape to Pennsylvania that same year. Although freedom felt heavenly to her, loneliness deepened her determination to rescue those left behind, and she returned to Maryland more than a dozen times over the course of a decade to free at least 70 family members and friends from enslavement. Harriet Tubman and members of her family first settled in St. Catharines, Ontario, and in 1859 she bought property in Auburn, NY, where she cared for family members and previously enslaved people.

Maryland · United States