Harriet Tubman 
(c. 1820-1913)

“But I was free, and they should be free.I would make a home in the North and bring them there, God helping me. Oh, how I prayed then. I said to de Lord, “I’m gwine to hole stiddy on to you, an’ I know you’ll see me through.'"

Harriet Tubman's insight on her miraculous rescue of slaves

Harriet Tubman (c.1820-1913) was a field slave on Maryland’s Eastern Shore when she escaped to freedom in 1849. During the next several years, she returned many times and miraculously led approximately 300 slaves to freedom. Even though there was a bounty on her head, she was never captured and never lost one of those she was rescuing. 

Biographer's account of how Harriet Tubman learned humility

“ ‘And so,’ she said, ‘from Christmas till March I worked as I could, and I prayed through all the long nights—I groaned and prayed for ole master: “Oh Lord, convert master!” “Oh Lord, change dat man’s heart!” ‘Pears like I prayed all de time,’ said Harriet; ‘ ‘bout my work, everywhere, I prayed an’ I groaned to de Lord.

“ ‘When I went to de horse-trough to wash my face, I took up de water in my han’ an’ I said, “Oh Lord, wash me, make me clean!” Den I take up something to wipe my face, an’ I say, “Oh Lord, wipe away all my sin!” When I took de broom and began to sweep, I groaned, “Oh Lord, wha’soebber sin dere be in my heart, sweep it out, Lord, clar an’ clean!” ’

“No words can describe the pathos of her tones, as she broke out into these words of prayer, after the manner of her people.

“ ‘An’ so,’ said she, ‘I prayed all night long for master, till the first of March; an’ all the time he was bringing people to look at me, an’ trying to sell me. Den we heard dat some of us was gwine to be sole to go wid de chain-gang down to de cotton an’ rice fields, and dey said I was gwine, an’ my brudders, an’ sisters. Den I changed my prayer. . . . I began to pray, “Oh Lord, if you ant nebber gwine to change dat man’s heart, kill him, Lord, an’ take him out ob de way.”

“ ‘Nex’ ting I heard old master was dead, an’ he died jus’ as he libed. Oh, then, it ‘peared like I’d give all de world full ob gold, if I had it, to bring dat poor soul back. But I couldn’t pray for him no longer.’ ”

Sarah H. Bradford (Sarah Hopkins)
Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman