Harriet Tubman, née Araminta Ross, (born c. 1820, Dorchester county, Maryland, U.S. died March 10, 1913, Auburn, New York), American bondwoman who escaped from slavery in the South to become a leading abolitionist before the American Civil War. She led dozens of enslaved people to freedom in the North along the route of the Underground Railroad an elaborate secret network of safe houses organized for that purpose. Born into slavery, Araminta Ross later adopted her mother’s first name, Harriet. At about age five she was first hired out to work, initially serving as a nursemaid and later as a field hand, a