Cornered by armed slave catchers on a bridge over a raging river, Harriet Tubman knew she had two choices – give herself up, or choose freedom and risk her life by jumping into the rapids.
“I’m going to be free or die!” she shouted as she leapt over the side.
It was the start of an incredible journey from a slave born on a Maryland plantation to a brave liberator who played a major role in abolishing slavery.
Today, she is revered as an American heroine, one who has been brought to the silver screen in new movie Harriet.
British star Cynthia Erivo has just scooped two Golden Globe nominations for her leading role in the biopic – one for best actress and one for co-writing the movie’s original song.
Cynthia, known for her performance in The Color Purple on Broadway, says: “I knew what Harriet Tubman had achieved, that she’d saved a lot of lives, but I didn’t know about the love she had for her husband and her family.
"This is a woman who gave her life for America.”
This year, the US Government announced that Harriet’s face would be printed on the 20 dollar bill, replacing Andrew Jackson, the seventh US president, who was a slave owner known for his brutal punishments.
But while Harriet has her deserved place in history, the real woman may have been even more remarkable – and fearless – than the film suggests.
The slave rescuer dubbed “Moses” made at least 19 perilous trips back to the Deep South to rescue around 300 other slaves – including her parents and several siblings.
She was never caught and proudly boasted she never lost a single slave, thanks to her astute ability to outwit the slave catchers and bounty hunters, who were desperate to claim the $12,000 reward – £300,000 today – on her head.
She later became the only female “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, the secret network of routes and safe houses which fleeing slaves used.
But her bravery didn’t end there. Harriet became a spy for the Union Army during the Civil War and was the first woman to command an armed military operation when she led 150 black troops into Confederate territory.
Frederick Douglass, a leader of the abolitionist movement, said of her: “I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than Harriet Tubman.”
Born Araminta “Minty” Ross between 1820 and 1825, Harriet was one of nine children born to enslaved parents in Dorchester County, Maryland.
Put to work on her “owner’s” plantation almost as soon as she learned to walk, her early life was full of suffering.
While working as a nursemaid at the age of five, she was whipped and beaten as punishment whenever the baby cried. The exhausting field work and long hours of service as a maid and later a cook, left her malnourished and often ill.
Yet from Minty’s violent early years came a devout Christian faith, built on being read Bible stories by her mother, and a remarkable strength and courage.
Aged around 13, she was sent to get supplies from a dry goods store and found herself caught between a slave who had left his plantation without permission and his angry master.
When she blocked the white man’s path, he hurled a heavy weight which struck her on the head, crushing her skull. She was unconscious for two or three days and would have chronic seizures for the rest of her life, as well as vivid religious visions, which she claimed were premonitions from God.
It was around 1844 when she became Harriet Tubman, having married a free man named John Tubman and choosing to adopt her mother’s first name.
Five years later, she took her first steps to freedom. In September, 1849, she escaped the plantation with two of her brothers, only to return when Harry and Ben had second thoughts.
Instead of going on, she made sure they got back safely before making her second attempt – a 90-mile journey to the “free” state of Pennsylvania.
To avoid detection, she navigated through swamps and thick woods, and caught muskrats with her bare hands to eat.
Describing the moment she finally crossed the Pennsylvania state border, she said: “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.” But her thoughts immediately turned to her enslaved family: “I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom... because my father, my mother, my brother and sister, and friends weren’t there.”
Harriet decided to go back. And she dedicated the next decade of her life to rescuing her family and other slaves.
Between 1850 and 1860, she returned to Maryland 19 times, helping around 300 people, including four of her brothers, her 70-year-old parents and a niece, escape slavery.
During the trips south, she would often go in disguise, even sometimes dressing as a man to avoid detection. She would sing the hymn Go Down Moses as a coded message to let enslaved people know she had come.
Harriet would always flee with the slaves on a Saturday night, knowing that runaway notices couldn’t be placed in newspapers until Monday morning and they would have a two-day head start.
On one occasion, when she overheard men reading her wanted poster, which stated she was illiterate, she pulled out a book and pretended to read – a ploy which was enough to fool them.
She also carried drugs to dope babies in case they cried and a gun which she used to defend herself and to threaten the fugitives if they had second thoughts. “You’ll be free or die”, became her resolute message. Known as the “black ghost” by police and slave catchers, she only moved in the dead of night.
Yet her courage and belief that God was watching over her never wavered.
After the Civil War she settled in Auburn, New York, and became a symbol of the anti-slavery movement.
She opened the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged on her land in 1908, just a few years before she became one of its patients.
She died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913, surrounded by family and friends.
Her final words were, “I go to prepare a place for you”.
