Tubman’s Underground Railroad work was her major contribution
Leading scores of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad is what Tubman is well known for. However, she also played a significant and pioneering role in the Civil War. She became the first woman in U.S. history to lead a military expedition when in 1863, she led soldiers with Colonel James Montgomery to raid rice plantations along the Combahee River in South Carolina and freed many slaves.
Let’s not forget that Tubman was also a Union army spy and recruiter. “She was one of the great heroines of the Civil War,” Thomas B. Allen, author of Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent said. “But her recognition didn’t come till many years after the war.” Tubman didn’t receive her pension until 1899. Tubman further fought for civil and political rights for women and minorities, as well as the disabled and aged.
