American abolitionist and political activist.

Born a slave in Maryland, Harriet Tubman escaped in 1849 to Philadelphia. Nicknamed “Moses” she made 13 trips back to Maryland to get family and other slaves. According to some historians, Tubman may have stayed with one of her groups of fugitive slaves at the home of Frederick Douglass. Tubman helped John Brown with his raid on Harpers Ferry. During the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army as a cook, nurse, then a scout and spy. Tubman was a suffragette until her death in 1913.