Harriet Tubman (c. 1820 – March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the U.S. Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue over seventy slaves using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, then immediately returned to Maryland to rescue her family. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other slaves to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy, Tubman (or "Moses", as she was called) "never lost a passenger". Large rewards were offered for the capture and return of many of the people she helped escape, but no one ever knew it was Harriet Tubman who was helping them. When a far-reaching United States Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850, she helped guide fugitives further north into Canada, and helped newly-freed slaves find work. When the American Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the raid on the Combahee River, which liberated more than seven hundred slaves. After the war, she retired to the family home in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents.
Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1702: Princess Anne of Denmark and Norway became the Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, succeeding William III. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Great_Britain> 1782: American Revolutionary War: Almost 100 Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio died at the hands of Pennsylvanian militiamen in a mass murder known as the Gnadenhutten massacre. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenhutten_massacre> 1966: Nelson's Pillar, a large granite pillar with a statue of Lord Nelson on top in Dublin, Ireland, was destroyed by a bomb. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson%27s_Pillar> 1978: BBC Radio 4 transmitted the first episode of English author and dramatist Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction radio series that was later adapted into novels, a television series, and other media formats. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_%28radio_series%29> 1983: The Cold War: During a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire". <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/evil_empire> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: pulsate (v): 1. To expand and contract rhythmically; to throb or to beat. 2. To quiver, vibrate, thrill. 3. To produce a recurring increase and decrease of some quantity <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pulsate> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh enrichment. --Johannes Kepler <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
