03/05/2026
With the recent ending of Black History month and the beginning of Women's History month, Virginia Voice is sharing the remarkable story of Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Tubman was born somewhere between 1815 &1825, and she was enslaved from birth at a plantation in Maryland. In 1836, while she was assisting in the escape of a fellow enslaved man, a two-pound weight was thrown at her head, causing a traumatic brain injury, that would lead to her being disabled for the rest of her life. She experienced “sleeping spells,” terrible headaches, partial loss of vision, and what she described as visions. In 1849, the man who owned her family passed away, and his widow was attempting to sell her entire family. “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” She escaped and made her way to Philadelphia and began to get word of the sale of her loved ones. She returned to help enslaved people seek freedom 13 times over the course of her life, helping to free 70 men, women, and children along the Underground Railroad. She also left instructions on how to travel along the Underground Railroad to 60 additional enslaved individuals. Due to the Fugitive Slave Act, Philadelphia was no longer safe and the Underground Railroad was used to travel to Southern Canada. Before the Civil War, she freed both her parents and the majority of her siblings with their families. When the Civil War began, she joined the Union and became a nurse at Port Royal, SC and soon after a spy. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the Civil War, and her actions freed 750+ people before the Emancipation Proclamation could. Following the Civil War, she was never appropriately compensated by the Federal Government and economically struggled for the rest of her life. With the end of Slavery she turned to her new goal: Women’s Suffrage. She met with other famous suffragists like Susan B Anthony and spoke publicly for decades. She passed away in 1913, surrounded by friends and family.
