Harriet Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1820. Her mother Harriet (“Rit”) worked as a cook in the plantation’s “big house,” and her father Benjamin was a timber worker, who was later set free. Araminta later changed her first name to Harriet in honor of her mother.
At the age of 5, Harriet began working as a house slave. She was constantly mistreated and beaten, leaving her with permanent emotional and physical scars. In 1849, the knowledge that her two brothers Ben and Henry were about to be sold provoked Harriet to plan an escape with her family. Harriet and her two brothers escaped their Maryland plantation on September 17th, 1849. Out of fear of being caught, the brothers changed their minds and went back. Harriet persevered, traveling 90 miles north to Pennsylvania and finally to freedom. Although her escape was successful, Harriet was determined to go back and help the rest of her family escape.
Time and time again, Harriet went back to the Maryland plantation, and successfully led her family members and many other slaves to the North, bringing them to freedom. By the end of her life, she had freed more than 300 slaves by taking them through the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape into free states.
In addition to being the most notable conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet was also a nurse, women’s rights activist, and worked for the Union Army. When the Civil War began, Tubman first worked as a cook and nurse for the Union Army, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 enslaved people.
Throughout her life, Harriet was friends with notable historical figures such as Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garret, and Susan B Anthony.
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The Breathtaking Courage
of Harriet Tubman
Lesson by Janell Hobson, directed by Yan Dan Wong for TED-Ed
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After establishing roots in Auburn, New York, Harriet spent much of her time fighting for women’s rights and women’s suffrage. Despite the fact that she was illiterate, Harriet spoke at events in major cities such as Boston and New York, and was once a guest speaker at the first meeting for the National Association of Colored Women. A remarkable storyteller, Harriet had a profound impact on audiences every time she spoke. Although Harriet died before the passing of the 19th amendment, which granted women the right to vote, she was a significant part of the fight for women's rights and is considered to be one of the most notable figures in the women's rights movement across the United States, and a symbol of both racial and gender equality.
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The Underground Railroad was not an actual railroad, but rather a network of various secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African Americans to escape into free states, using both natural and man made modes of transportation, including rivers, trails, and canals. There were a number of different routes that have been identified by researchers over the past century, as well as notable points along the journey that were “safe spaces.” Many routes led to the same place, but not all travelers of the Underground Railroad ended up in the same location.
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Those guiding the enslaved persons were known as conductors, Harriet Tubman being arguably the most well-known and successful conductor of the Underground Railroad. There were extreme risks involved in being both a conductor and a passenger in the Underground Railroad - if caught, passengers would be killed or forced back into slavery, and conductors would go to jail. The most popular destinations included free states in the North and countries such as Canada and Haiti.
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In the United States, the current face on the $20 bill is the controversial former US President Andrew Jackson. However, by the end of the decade, the image on the bill will be changed to Harriet Tubman's face. In 2014, a 9-year old girl named Sofia wrote a letter to President Barack Obama towards the end of his presidency, in an effort to get a woman represented on one of the US notes, considering there are no women depicted on paper currency. Under President Trump’s administration, the Treasury Secretary said that the redesign of the $20 would be delayed until 2026. However, in January 2021, the Biden Administration announced it will push forward the plan to make Harriet Tubman the face of the new $20 bill.
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Numerous visual artists from many different eras have depicted Harriet Tubman as an inspirational figure. Below is a collection of paintings and artworks honoring her life and resilience.
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Here, you will find simple and gentle practices, prompts and rituals inspired by Harriet Tubman, that will help you connect with her energy and embody her qualities.
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Tonglen is Tibetan for ‘giving and taking’ (or sending and receiving), and refers to a meditation practice found in Tibetan Buddhism. Tonglen is also known as exchanging self with other. Below is a simple exercise for practicing Tonglen Compassion Meditation—consciously breathing in the suffering of others, and breathing out relief for that suffering.
1. Find a comfortable position and begin to follow your breath and quiet the mind. After a few minutes or once you are relaxed, you can bring to mind a friend or loved one whom you know is experiencing emotional discomfort or suffering. Imagine that he or she is standing in front of you, and visualize their suffering as a dark, heavy cloud surrounding him or her.
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2. Move your awareness to your heart area and breathe in deeply, imagining yourself inhaling those dark, heavy, uncomfortable, cloudy feelings, directly into your heart. As you breathe out from the heart area, imagine that your heart is a source of bright, warm, compassionate light, and you are breathing that light into the person who is suffering. Imagine that the dark feelings are disappearing without a trace into the light of your heart; the dark clouds transforming into a bright, warm light at the center of your heart, alleviating his or her suffering.
3. Next, try extending your compassion out to a stranger that may be experiencing dark, heavy feelings at this moment. As you did for your loved one, imagine inhaling these cloudy, dark feelings away from those people into your own heart. As the dark feelings settle into your heart, imagine that they are disappearing without a trace into the light of your compassionate heart. You can imagine this person or people being enveloped by the calm and comforting light that you are breathing out from your heart.
4. Continue the above process of sending and receiving, but this time extend your compassion out to someone you find difficult to associate with. Tonglen can extend infinitely, and the more you practice, the more your compassion will expand naturally. You might be surprised to find that you are more tolerant and able to be there for people even in situations where it used to seem impossible.
Tonglen on the spot
Tonglen can also be practiced informally and on the spot as one bears witness to suffering in everyday life. At any point during the day when you experience personal suffering or observe someone else who is suffering or struggling, you can do Tonglen for one to three breaths.
For example, if you see a mother struggling with an unruly child, you might wish to breathe in the stress and anxiety of the mother and breathe out a sense of calm and ease. You could also practice Tonglen for the child in this situation, breathing in the child’s discomfort and breathing out love and relief. If you see two people yelling at each other, you can breathe in the argument and breathe out understanding. Likewise, you can practice Tonglen for yourself if someone has upset you or something bad has happened.
This can be practiced as quickly as one cycle of breath or you could do it for longer. There’s no need to completely stop whatever you’re doing, just simply put enough energy into staying present with the suffering, without over analyzing or judging it.
Practicing Tonglen on the spot even just three times a day builds the compassion “muscle” in a truly transformative way.
Source: Positive Psychology
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The exercise: Each day of the week, engage in a secret act of virtue or kindness. Do something nice or needed for others, but do so anonymously. These acts can be very simple, like washing someone else’s dishes, picking up trash on the sidewalk, making an anonymous donation, or leaving a small gift on a coworker’s desk.
This practice helps us look at how willing we are to put the effort out to do good things for others if we never earn credit for it. Zen practice emphasizes “going straight on”—leading our lives in a straightforward way based on what we know to be good practice, undaunted by praise or criticism. A monk once asked the Chinese Zen master Hui-hai “What is the gate [meaning both entrance and pillar] of Zen practice?” Hui-hai answered: “Complete giving”.
The Buddha spoke constantly of the value of generosity, saying it is the most effective way to reach enlightenment. He recommended giving simple gifts—water, food, shelter, clothing, transportation, flowers. Even poor people can be generous he said, by giving a crumb of their food to an ant. Each time we give something away, whether it is a material object or our time, we are letting go of a bit of ourselves and practicing the utmost generosity. Generosity is the highest virtue, and anonymous giving is the highest form of generosity.
Practice by Jan Chozen Bays, from Mindfulness on the Go
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Learn more about Harriet Tubman with these books, films, TV series,
articles, and illustrated books for children.
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✎ Book
‘Harriet, The Moses of Her People: A Biography of Harriet Tubman’
by Sarah Hopkins Bradford -
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‘The Story of Harriet Tubman: A Biography Book for New Readers’
by Christine Platt -
✷ Illustrated book
‘Harriet Tubman: Little People, Big Dreams’
by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara -
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‘Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom’
by Catherine Clinton -
✷ Illustrated book
‘Who Was Harriet Tubman?’
by Yona Zeldis McDonough -
✎ Book
‘Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero’
by Kate Clifford Larson -
☆ Film
'Harriet'
by Kasi Lemmons -
✦ Article
‘A Short History of Harriet Tubman in American Pop Culture’
by Pacific Standard -
✦ Article
‘Abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Underground Railroad ‘Brought to Life' in Viral Photoshoot’
by Jorden Hales -
✷ Illustrated book
‘Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom’
by Carole Boston Weatherford -
✎ Book
‘The Underground Railroad’
by Colson Whitehead -
✻ TV Series
‘Underground’
by Misha Green & Joe Pokaski -
✻ TV Series
‘The Underground Railroad’
by Barry Jenkins -
✦ Article
‘What Sets Amazon’s The Underground Railroad Apart From Other Slavery Stories’
by Hannah Giorgis -
✦ Article
‘The True Story of ‘The Underground Railroad’’
by Meilan Solly