After the war, Tubman toured Eastern cities giving speeches in support of women’s suffrage, drawing on her experiences in the fight against slavery, and became a prominent voice in the campaign.
She lived on a small piece of land in Auburn, New York, given to her by abolitionist Senator William H Seward. In 1869, she married Nelson Davis, a Civil War veteran, and in 1874 they adopted a baby girl, Gertie.
In 1903 she donated part of the land to the Church and in 1908 the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, a home for elderly African-Americans, opened on the site. The brain injury she had sustained as a child was worsening with age, and in 1913 Tubman moved into the home named after her.
She died later that year, aged 91, surrounded by her family.
Tubman’s efforts were well documented in her lifetime, but like many African-Americans she was written out of history in the decades after the Civil War, says Mr Bordewich.
She remained mostly a folkloric figure until after the civil rights movement in the 1960s, when the story of her contribution slowly resurfaced and was set down in school textbooks for generations to come.
When the new $20 note comes into circulation – in 2020 at the earliest – Tubman will be the first woman on a US banknote since Martha Washington briefly graced the $1 bill in the 1890s. It is a “triumph for the public recognition of African-Americans who struggled for freedom,” says Mr Bordewich
Tubman will replace former President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner, on the front of the bill. Jackson will be moved to the back.
