Born: 1820 Died: March 10, 1913 Biography: Born into the life of slavery in 1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harriet Ross was named after her two slave parents. As a slave she lived under terrible conditions, often being whipped as a small child. She was seriously injured when she was 12 years old. The white overseer had hit her in the head with a 2 lb. iron weight for not helping him to tie up another slave. She suffered periodic blackouts from her injury the rest of her life. In 1849, she escaped from her slave master and found a safe haven in Philadelphia, Pa. She was helped by the underground railroad, a series of homes, tunnels and roads set up by abolitionists and former slaves, to help slaves make it to free soil. "When I found I had crossed the Mason-Dixon line.....I felt like I was in heaven." Tubman once wrote. She would spend the rest of her life helping slaves make it to freedom. When she was 25 years old she married John Tubman, a free African American. After escaping to Philadelphia, Harriet worked as a maid, and joined a large abolitionist group in the city. In 1850, Congress made it illegal to help a runaway slave. That's when Harriet joined the underground railroad. In 1851, on her first expedition, she managed to thread her way through the backwoods to Baltimore and return to the North with her sister, and her sister's children. Harriet traveled South over 18 times, helping more than 300 slaves make it to freedom. In 1857 she was able to finally lead her parents to freedom. They settled in Auburn, N.Y., which became Harriet's home as well. When the Civil War broke out, Harriet became a soldier, a spy, a nurse and for a while she served at Fortress Monroe. All the while she continued to ferry slaves from the South to the North, and to freedom. Harriet was never caught, and she never lost a slave to the Southern Militia. The more successful she was, the bigger her reputation grew, and the more she was hunted. At one time there was a reward totaling $40,000 for her capture. She also took part in a military campaign that resulted in the rescue of 756 slaves, and destroyed millions of dollars of enemy property. After the war, she returned to her home in Auburn, N.Y. There she continued her involvement in social issues, including the women's rights movement. She established a home in Auburn for elderly poor black people in 1908. Later it became known as the Harriet Tubman Home. Harriet Tubman passed away on March 10, 1913, she was 93 years of age.