Harriet Tubman | Abolitionist & Suffragist

This episode of Ballot and Beyond, contributed by the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, is adapted from a biographical sketch of Harriet Tubman written by Dr. Kate Clifford Larson. Dr. Larson is a scholar and the author of the Tubman biography, “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero.” The reader is Jean Thompson, a volunteer with Maryland Women’s Heritage Center.

Best known for her heroism on the Underground Railroad, abolitionist Harriet Tubman also was an advocate for women’s rights and equality. When interviewed at the turn of the 20th century, Tubman noted that she had been a member of “Miss Anthony’s organization,” the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. She remained in contact with many white suffragists but championed the activism of black women leaders in responding to the racism they confronted in the predominantly white National Woman’s Suffrage Association. Near the end of her life, Tubman encouraged a fellow suffragist, “tell the women to stand together..." Tubman died in 1913, seven years before women got the vote.

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