Harriet Tubman

vers 1822-1913 19th century Feast day: March 10

Active trust in God that sets one walking toward freedom, for oneself and for others.

Who was Harriet Tubman?

Born into slavery in Maryland and marked for life by a blow received as a child, she escaped in 1849 and then returned tirelessly to the South to lead dozens of enslaved people to freedom along the Underground Railroad. A guide, a spy during the Civil War, and later an activist for rights, she credited each of her deliverances to a leading she said came from God. She never, she said, lost a single passenger.

In their own words

I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger.

Sarah H. Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, 1869

'Twant me, 'twas the Lord. I always told him, I trust to you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me. And he always did.

Sarah H. Bradford, Harriet, the Moses of Her People, 1886

I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person now I was free. There was such a glory over everything.

Sarah H. Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, 1869