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Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) was born into slavery in Maryland. After years of inhumane treatment from her various owners, she took her emancipation into her own hands, and escaped northward. On her way she was assisted by sympathetic Quakers, members of the Abolitionist movement who were instrumental in maintaining the Underground railroad. She herself was later to become famous as "Moses", one of the most successful guides of the Underground Railroad; she made many trips South to help other slaves escaped and, in her own words, "never lost a passenger." During the American Civil War she served as a spy for the North, and again was never captured.

With Sarah Bradford acting as her biographer and transcribing her stories, she was able to have the story of her life published in 1869 as "Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman". This was of considerable help to her asd financial state - she was not awarded a government pension for her military service until some 30 years after the fact. Eventually, she settled in the home for needy blacks that she herself had helped to found, and died there at the age of 93, to the last telling stories of her adventures.

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See also: Slave narrative