8 Things You Didn't Know About Harriet Tubman

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek, Maryland, opens this weekend, making this an excellent time to refresh your memory about her amazing life.

Here are eight things you may have forgotten or may have never known about Tubman:

1.) She had a beautiful singing voice

Tubman reportedly had a beautiful singing voice and would sing two songs – “Go Down Moses” and “Bound For the Promised Land" – as signals while leading escapes. Tubman would change the tempo of the songs to let escaping slaves know if it was safe to come out of hiding.

2.) Two years after escaping, Tubman came back for her husband. But, he wasn't interested. 

Around 1844, Tubman married a free man named John Tubman. When Harriet escaped slavery in 1850, she did so alone, leaving her husband behind in Maryland. Two years later, she returned to the Eastern Shore, hoping to bring her husband north with her.

But, she soon discovered that he had married another woman and had no desire to leave. Harriet was ready to storm their house and make a scene, but eventually decided that John wasn’t worth the trouble. Instead, she found a group of slaves who wanted to escape and brought them up to Philadelphia.

3.) She was the first and only woman to lead an armed attack during the Civil War

Tubman was active in the Civil War, serving as a nurse, scout and key adviser for the Union army. She played a vital role in the Combahee River Raid, an operation that successfully destroyed several plantations along the Combahee River in South Carolina and freed between 720 and 800 slaves.

4.) She suffered from a form of epilepsy

As a child, Tubman suffered a debilitating injury that plagued her for the rest of her life. Tubman was inside a local general store when a slave who who left his farm without permission. An overseer ran in after the slave and demanded Tubman help him restrain the slave.

When she refused, the overseer threw a two-pound weight at the escaping slave. But the weight hit Tubman instead, fracturing her skull. She suffered from epileptic and narcoleptic symptoms for the rest of her life. The store still stands today and operates as a museum.

5.) She didn't free 300 slaves

The number of slaves Tubman personally freed has been greatly exaggerated. In an 1868 biography, Tubman is credited with rescuing 300 slaves, but the actual number is closer to about 70. Many of the slaves Tubman helped free were her family and friends.

6.) Tubman only rescued slaves from Maryland

Tubman never went into the Deep South to free slaves. Tubman never helped slaves escape from any state other than Maryland. Tubman was responsible for freeing slaves in other Southern states during the Civil War, but that was separate from the nighttime escapes that made her famous.

7.) She was born Araminta "Minty" Ross

Harriet Tubman wasn’t born Harriet Tubman. Her birth name was Araminta, a Puritan name that sometimes gets mistaken for being African in origin. Historians don't know why “Minty” changed her name to Harriet, but many believe she changed it when she married in honor of her mother.

8.) She used a pistol to threaten slaves who wanted to turn back

Tubman carried a pistol with her on rescue missions. The pistol was mainly for defense against persistent slave catchers, but Tubman didn’t hesitate to use it as a threat against any slave who lost their nerve and wanted to turn back. She reportedly pointed the gun at one such slave and told him, “You go on or die.” He went on.

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