Defined by her courageous efforts to lead enslaved people to freedom, Harriet Tubman’s legacy as civil rights activist, military leader, historical figure and humanitarian continues to reverberate in today’s society.

115 years later, Serendipity Remembers Harriet Tubman, on the anniversary of her death on 10 March 1911, as a nationally recognised figure of resistance – a woman whose life reshaped the meaning of freedom itself.

Born in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was subjected to violence and forced labour from childhood.  As a young teenager she sustained a traumatic head injury, when an overseer threw a heavy object, intended for another enslaved person, and hit her.  The injury left her with lifelong seizures, narcolepsy and chronic pain.  Reportedly, Tubman translated this trauma into intense spiritual gifts that she believed provided divine guidance, claiming to know when danger was near and often predicting events.  These spiritual gifts, arising from her physical trauma, aided her navigation of the dangers of the Underground Railroad and maintained her faith in achieving freedom.

In 1849, Tubman escaped slavery.  But freedom for her was never individual – it was collective.

Returning repeatedly to the American South, she became one of the most effective conductors on the Underground Railroad.  Over the span of around a decade, Tubman made multiple rescue missions, guiding family members, friends and strangers towards liberation.  It is estimated that she directly led approximately 70 enslaved people to freedom, assisting many more through wider intelligence networks.

Her declaration – “You’ll be free or die” – reflected the lethal stakes of capture.  Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, she could be legally re-enslaved.  Those who assisted her risked prosecution, their lives, and Tubman operated under constant threat.

Yet, she was never captured.

Tubman’s work destabilised slaveholders’ confidence and disrupted the myth that enslaved people were passive.  Her resistance was disciplined and strategic.  She carried a firearm not as a form of aggression, rather as protection safeguarding herself and those she led.  Freedom, in her practice, required resolve.

During the American Civil War, Tubman expanded her role far beyond the Underground Railroad. She operated as a nurse, scout, cook and spy for the Union Army.  Notably, she led the Combahee River Raid in 1863, making her the first American woman to command an armed military expedition. This expedition freed over 700 enslaved people and significantly disrupted Confederate supply lines.

Despite her service, Tubman fought for decades to receive a military pension.  Recognition is not readily extended to Black women, even those who alter the course of war and history.

Post Civil War, Tubman continued to advocate for women’s suffrage and Black civil rights, highlighting her activism in the intersection of racial equality and women’s rights and demonstrating the inseparable nature of freedom and justice.  In her later life, she established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged which provided care for elderly Black people with few social protections.

As she aged, the injuries she had sustained in slavery intensified.  She was eventually admitted into the rest home she founded, later passing away from pneumonia surrounded by friends and family on 10 March 1911.

Just before she passed, she quoted the Gospel of John “I go away to prepare a place for you.”

Tubman was buried with semi-military honours at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn – a rare public acknowledgement of her extensive Civil War contributions.

Remembering Tubman on the anniversary of her death is an act of deserved recognition.  Her life forces us to reconsider how freedom is achieved.  It was not granted.  It was organised, engineered and defended.

On 10 March, we remember a woman who transformed personal survival into collective liberation, and whose legacy continued to shape how we understand resistance, courage and justice.

Image: Harriet Tubman portrait

Creator: Harvey B. Lindsley

License: Public Domain

Source: Library of Congress (via Wikimedia Commons)