Harriet Tubman (1822–1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. After escaping slavery, Tubman made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people, including her family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage.
Widely known and well-respected while she was alive, Tubman became an American icon in the years after she died. A survey at the end of the 20th century named her as one of the most famous civilians in American history before the Civil War, third only to Betsy Ross and Paul Revere. She inspired generations of African Americans struggling for equality and civil rights; she was praised by leaders across the political spectrum.
Memorials
National parks, monuments and historical sites
In 2013, President Barack Obama created the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument, consisting of federal lands on Maryland's Eastern Shore at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn was authorized by the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act and established on January 10, 2017. The act also created the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland within the authorized boundary of the national monument, while permitting later additional acquisitions.
The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture has items owned by Tubman and related items, including one of the few photographic portraits of Tubman and postcards with images of her funeral.
The Salem Chapel in St. Catharines, where Tubman worshipped while living in the town, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1999. Tubman herself was designated a National Historic Person after the Canadian Historic Sites and Monuments Board recommended it in 2005.
State and local historical sites
In 1937, a gravestone for Harriet Tubman was erected by the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The Harriet Tubman Home was abandoned after 1920, but was later renovated by the AME Zion Church and opened as a museum and education center. A Harriet Tubman Memorial Library was opened nearby in 1979.
The Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May, New Jersey opened to the public on Juneteenth in 2021. Tubman worked in Cape May as a cook and housekeeper for several summers in the 1850s.
Other state and local historical sites about Tubman include the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Harriet Tubman Memorial Garden in Maryland.
Artistic portrayals
Tubman is the subject of works of art including songs, novels, sculptures, paintings, movies, and theatrical productions.
Visual arts
Sculptures of Tubman have been placed in several American cities. In 1995, sculptor Jane DeDecker created a statue of Tubman leading a child, which was placed in Mesa, Arizona. Copies were subsequently installed in several other cities, including one at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia; it was the first statue honoring Tubman at an institution in the Old South. Step on Board, a bronze sculpture by artist Fern Cunningham was placed at the entrance to Boston's Harriet Tubman Park in 1999. It was the first memorial to a woman on city-owned land. Swing Low, a statue of Tubman by Alison Saar, was erected in Manhattan in 2008. In 2009, Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland unveiled a statue created by James Hill, an arts professor at the university. It was the first sculpture of Tubman placed in the region where she was born. In 2023, a Tubman monument called Shadow of a Face was placed in Harriet Tubman Square in Newark, New Jersey.
Music and theater
Musicians have celebrated her in works such as "The Ballad of Harriet Tubman" by Woody Guthrie, the song "Harriet Tubman" by Walter Robinson, and the instrumental "Harriet Tubman" by Wynton Marsalis. There have been several operas based on Tubman's life, including Scottish composer Thea Musgrave's Harriet, the Woman Called Moses, which premiered in 1985 at the Virginia Opera. American composer Nkeiru Okoye wrote Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom, a two-act opera first performed in 2014.