Harriet Tubman
See Lesson Ideas for this topicHarriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross around 1850 in Dorchester County, Maryland. She changed her name to Harriet, after her mother, and then later married a freed slave named John Tubman. From a young age, Harriet Tubman was fiercely independent and courageous and stood up for her fellow slaves. When she was twelve years old, she refused to tie up a slave and an angry overseer threw an iron weight. The weight struck her on the head and for the rest of her life, Tubman was prone to narcolepsy.