Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822, and named Araminta Ross. After escaping, she went back again and again: some 13 missions that brought about 70 people out, family and friends among them, through the network of safe houses called the Underground Railroad. In the Civil War she served the Union Army as a scout and spy, and she guided the 1863 raid at Combahee Ferry in South Carolina that freed more than 700 people.

Around 1897 Queen Victoria sent her a shawl of silk lace and linen, and it is now in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. Free timed passes to the museum go quickly, so book ahead, and start at the history galleries on the lowest level: they climb from slavery toward the present.