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
Earlier this week, the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
announced that archaeologists had discovered the location of a house where Harriet Tubman spent part of her childhood. Buried artifacts, including broken pottery, glass, and a button, helped pinpoint the site of the former dwelling on land once owned by Ben Ross, the father of the renowned abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor.
Tubman, whose maiden name was Aramint Ross (she later took her mother’s first name) was born into slavery in March of 1822. She was forced to work as a nursemaid, fieldhand, and woodcutter. Although she remained enslaved, she married a freed slave named John Tubman. In 1949, when she learned she might be sold, she escaped alone to Philadelphia and freedom.