Harriet Tubman
(1820-1913) Born into slavery in Maryland, Harriet Tubman escaped to freedom in the North in 1849 to become the most famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad. Between 1850 and 1860, Tubman made 19 trips from the South to the North, guiding more than 300 people, including her parents and several siblings, from slavery to freedom. A leading abolitionist before the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army as an armed scout and a spy during war. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war as she guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina.