You probably know your age. However, Harriet Tubman never knew that about herself. Some people think she was born in 1820. So, this year might be her 200th birthday. We may never know. Yet she stands as one of America’s greatest heroes.

Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Maryland. At the time, millions of black people in the United States had to work without pay. Tubman didn’t just escape from slavery. She risked her life to help others. Tubman may have rescued 300 people!

Kasi Lemmons knows about Tubman’s fight for freedom. She directed Harriet. That is a movie about Tubman’s life. “She was unstoppable,” Lemmons said. Tubman wanted “to be free and for all people to be free.”

Tubman’s fight for freedom began in 1849. That year, Tubman ran north to Pennsylvania. “Imagine traveling all that way alone, terrified, and cold,” Lemmons said.

Tubman used the Underground Railroad. That was a secret path where people helped slaves flee to free states. When Tubman finally got to Pennsylvania, she was no longer a slave. This is what she said:

“I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in Heaven.”

Harriet Tubman was free. Yet she wouldn’t rest. She went back on the Underground Railroad. She made trips to save other slaves. The journey was dangerous. But it didn’t matter. “She did not let anything stop her,” Lemmons explained.

Lesa Cline-Ransome wrote a book called Before She Was Harriet. “Harriet always fought for what she believed in,” she said. However, Cline-Ransome doesn’t think Tubman was fearless. “I think Harriet was often afraid,” she explained. “She pushed past her fears to help blacks escape slavery.”

February is Black History Month in the United States. Lemmons explained what that means. “Black History Month is a time to celebrate our heroes,” she explained. “It’s a time to celebrate our history.”


Updated February 5, 2020, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Alexa Tirapelli