Editing Harriet Tubman (section)

== Nicknamed "Moses" ==
[[File:Harriet Tubman c1868-69 (cropped).jpg|thumb|alt=Photo of Tubman sitting|Tubman sitting (1868 or 1869)]]
After reaching [[Philadelphia]], Tubman thought of her family. "I was a stranger in a strange land," she said later. "[M]y father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and ''they'' should be free."{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=88|ps=. Emphasis in the original.}} While Tubman saved money from working odd jobs in Philadelphia and [[Cape May, New Jersey]],{{sfn|Dunbar|2019|p=43}} the [[31st United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] passed the [[Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]], which forced law enforcement officials to assist in the capture of escaped slaves{{snd}}even in [[Slave states and free states|states that had outlawed slavery]]{{snd}}and heavily punished abetting escape.{{sfn|Walters|2020|p=79}} The law increased risks for those who had escaped slavery, more of whom therefore sought refuge in [[Southern Ontario]], where slavery had been abolished.{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=60}}{{efn|The geographical area of Southern Ontario was part of the British province of [[Upper Canada]] when the province passed the 1793 [[Act Against Slavery]], which banned importation of slaves and required that enslaved children born after passage of the act would be freed at age 25. The [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833]] abolished slavery in most of the [[British Empire]] between 1834 and 1840. In 1841, the region was incorporated into the [[United Province of Canada]].}} Racial tensions were also increasing in Philadelphia as poor [[Irish Americans#Mid-19th century and later|Irish immigrants]] competed with free blacks for work.{{sfn|Clinton|2004|pp=49–53}}

In December 1850, Tubman was warned that her niece Kessiah and Kessiah's children would soon be sold in [[Cambridge, Maryland]]. Tubman went to [[Baltimore, Maryland|Baltimore]], where her brother-in-law Tom Tubman hid her until the sale. Kessiah's husband, a free black man named John Bowley, made the winning bid for his wife. While the auctioneer stepped away to have lunch, John, Kessiah and their children escaped to a nearby [[safe house]]. When night fell, Bowley sailed the family on a [[log canoe]] {{convert|60|mi|km}} to Baltimore, where they met with Tubman, who brought the family to Philadelphia.{{sfn|Larson|2004|pp=89–90}}

Early next year she returned to Maryland to guide away other family members. During her second trip, she recovered her youngest brother, Moses, along with two other men.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=90}} Word of her exploits had encouraged her family, and she became more confident with each trip to Maryland.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=90}}{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=82}}

In late 1851, Tubman returned to Dorchester County for the first time since her escape, this time to find her husband John. When she arrived there, she learned that John had married another woman named Caroline. Tubman sent word that he should join her, but he insisted that he was happy where he was. Suppressing her anger, she found some enslaved people who wanted to escape and led them to Philadelphia.{{sfn|Larson|2004|pp=90–91}}{{efn|John and Caroline raised a family together, until he was killed 16&nbsp;years later in a roadside argument with a white man named Robert Vincent.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=239}}}}

[[File:Frederick Douglass by Samuel J Miller, 1847-52.png|thumb|alt=Photo of Frederick Douglass|[[Frederick Douglass]] worked for slavery's abolition alongside Tubman.]]
Because the Fugitive Slave Law had made the northern United States a more dangerous place for those escaping slavery to remain, many escapees began migrating to Southern Ontario. In December&nbsp;1851, Tubman guided an unidentified group of 11&nbsp;escapees, possibly including the Bowleys and several others she had helped rescue earlier, northward. There is evidence to suggest that Tubman and her group stopped at the home of abolitionist and former slave [[Frederick Douglass]].{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=84}} Douglass and Tubman admired one another greatly as they both struggled against slavery. Years later he contrasted his efforts with hers, writing:

{{Blockquote|Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day – you in the night.&nbsp;... The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] – of sacred memory – I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have.{{sfn|Humez|2003|pp=306–307}}}}

From 1851 to 1862, Tubman returned repeatedly to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, rescuing some 70&nbsp;slaves in about 13&nbsp;expeditions,{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=xvii}} including her other brothers, Henry, Ben, and Robert, their wives and some of their children. She also provided specific instructions to 50 to 60&nbsp;additional enslaved people who escaped.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=xvii}} Because of her efforts, she was nicknamed "Moses", alluding to the biblical [[Moses|prophet]] who led the [[Hebrews]] to [[The Exodus|freedom from Egypt]].{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=85}} One of her last missions into Maryland was to retrieve her aging parents. Her father purchased her mother from Eliza Brodess in 1855,{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=119}} but even when they were both free, the area was hostile. In 1857, Tubman received word that her father was at risk of arrest for harboring a group of eight people escaping slavery. She led her parents north to [[St. Catharines]], [[Province of Canada|Canada]], where a community of formerly enslaved people, including other relatives and friends of Tubman, had gathered.{{sfn|Larson|2004|pp=143–144}}

=== Routes and methods ===
Tubman's dangerous work required ingenuity. She usually worked during winter, when long nights and cold weather minimized the chance of being seen.{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=85}} She would start the escapes on Saturday evenings, since newspapers would not print runaway notices until Monday morning.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=100}} She used [[subterfuges]] to avoid detection. Tubman once disguised herself with a [[Bonnet (headgear)|bonnet]] and carried two live [[chicken]]s to give the appearance of running errands. Suddenly finding herself walking toward a former enslaver, she yanked the strings holding the birds' legs, and their agitation allowed her to avoid eye contact.{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=89}} Later she recognized a fellow train passenger as a former enslaver; she snatched a nearby newspaper and pretended to read. Tubman was known to be illiterate, and the man ignored her.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=125}}

In an 1897 interview with historian [[Wilbur Henry Siebert|Wilbur Siebert]], Tubman named some people who helped her and places she stayed along the Underground Railroad. She stayed with [[Samuel Green (freedman)|Sam Green]], a free black minister living in [[East New Market, Maryland]]; she also hid near her parents' home at Poplar Neck. She would travel from there northeast to [[Sandtown, Delaware|Sandtown]] and [[Willow Grove, Delaware]], and to the [[Camden, Delaware|Camden]] area where free black agents, William and Nat Brinkley and Abraham Gibbs, guided her north past [[Dover, Delaware|Dover]], [[Smyrna, Delaware|Smyrna]], and [[Blackbird, Delaware|Blackbird]], where other agents would take her across the [[Chesapeake and Delaware Canal]] to [[New Castle, Delaware|New Castle]] and [[Wilmington, Delaware|Wilmington]]. In Wilmington, Quaker [[Thomas Garrett]] would secure transportation to [[William Still]]'s office or the homes of other Underground Railroad operators in the greater Philadelphia area. Still is credited with helping hundreds escape to safer places in New York, [[New England]], and Southern Ontario.{{sfn|Larson|2004|pp=134–135}}

Tubman's faith was another important resource as she ventured repeatedly into Maryland. The visions from her childhood head injury continued, and she saw them as divine premonitions. She spoke of "consulting with God", and trusted that He would keep her safe.{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=91}} Garrett once said of her, "I never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul."{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=91}} Her faith also provided immediate assistance. She used [[Spiritual (music)|spirituals]] as coded messages, warning fellow travelers of danger or to signal a clear path. She sang versions of "[[Go Down Moses]]" and changed the lyrics to indicate that it was either safe or too dangerous to proceed.{{sfn|Larson|2004|pp=101, 188–189}} As she led escapees across the border, she would call out, "Glory to God and Jesus, too. One more soul is safe!"{{sfn|Humez|2003|p=228}} In a dictated letter to a friend, she said, "God set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free."{{sfn|Miles|2024|p=xx}}{{sfn|Cep|2024|p=62}}

She carried a [[revolver]] as protection from slave catchers and their dogs. Tubman also threatened to shoot anyone who tried to turn back since that would risk the safety of the remaining group, as well as anyone who helped them on the way.{{sfn|Clinton|2004|pp=90–91}}{{sfn|Wickenden|2021|p=111}} Tubman spoke of one man who insisted he was going to go back to the plantation. She pointed the gun at his head and said, "Go on or die."{{sfn|Humez|2003|p=188}} Several days later, the man who wavered crossed into Canada with the rest of the group.{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=91}}

By the late 1850s, Eastern Shore slaveholders were holding public meetings about the large number of escapes in the area; they cast suspicion on free blacks and white abolitionists. They did not know that "Minty", the petite, disabled woman who had run away years before, was responsible for freeing so many enslaved people.{{sfn|Larson|2004|pp=148–151}} Though a popular legend persists about a reward of $40,000 ({{inflation|US|40000|1860|r=-3|fmt=eq}}{{sfn|Consumer Price Index}}) for Tubman's capture, this is a manufactured figure: in 1867, in support of Tubman's claim for a military pension, an abolitionist named Sallie Holley wrote that $40,000 "was not too great a reward for Maryland slaveholders to offer for her".{{sfn|Larson|2022|p=189}} If it were real, such a high reward would have garnered national attention. A reward of $12,000 has also been claimed, though no documentation has been found for either figure.{{sfn|Larson|2004|p=191}}{{sfn|Sernett|2007|pp=94–95}}

Tubman and the fugitives she assisted were never captured.{{sfn|Dunbar|2019|p=75}} Years later, she told an audience: "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say{{snd}}I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."{{sfn|Clinton|2004|p=192}}