Everyone knows the name. You probably saw the picture in a history textbook back in third grade—the stern woman in the dark dress, the "Moses" of her people. But honestly, most of what we’re taught about the legacy of Harriet Tubman is just the tip of the iceberg. We treat her like a static figure in a museum, a brave woman who walked through the woods at night. She was so much more. She was a spy. She was a tactical genius. She was a naturalist who understood the Maryland ecosystem better than the people who "owned" the land.
She was also someone who lived with a traumatic brain injury for her entire adult life.
Think about that for a second. Every single mile she covered, every plantation she infiltrated, she did while dealing with sudden seizures and hypersomnia. She’d just fall asleep in the middle of a conversation. Yet, she never lost a passenger. That isn't just luck. It's high-level logistics. When we talk about her legacy, we have to talk about the sheer, gritty reality of what she pulled off against impossible odds.
The Myth of the "Lonely Wanderer"
There’s this misconception that Harriet just kind of winged it. People imagine her wandering through the brush, following the North Star by vibe alone.
That’s wrong.
Tubman was a master of intelligence gathering. Her legacy is rooted in her ability to build a massive, invisible infrastructure. She used "spirituals"—songs like "Go Down Moses" or "Wade in the Water"—not just for comfort, but as sophisticated encrypted data. A specific change in a lyric could mean the difference between a safe house being open or a literal death trap. She worked with a network of Black and white abolitionists, sure, but she also tapped into the "Black maritime" network. Black sailors and dockworkers were her eyes and ears in the ports. They moved information faster than the mail.
She was basically a high-level operative.
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Her work during the Civil War is where the legacy of Harriet Tubman gets even more intense. We don't talk enough about the Combahee River Raid in 1863. She didn't just tag along with the Union Army. She led them. She became the first woman to lead a major armed assault during the war. She had scouted the river personally, mapping out where the Confederate torpedoes (mines) were hidden in the water. Because she knew the terrain, the Union steamships didn't blow up. They rescued over 700 enslaved people in a single night.
It was total chaos, but Harriet was the calmest person there. Witnesses described her as looking like an "angel of resistance" amidst the smoke and the screaming.
Hard Truths About the Aftermath
You’d think after the war, the government would have showered her with honors.
They didn't.
For decades, she struggled to get the pension she earned. The U.S. government was happy to use her skills as a nurse and a spy, but when it came time to pay up? They hesitated. She spent years petitioning for her due. This is a crucial, if frustrating, part of the legacy of Harriet Tubman. It highlights the intersectional struggle she faced—not just as a formerly enslaved person, but as a woman. She eventually received a widow's pension because her second husband, Nelson Davis, was a veteran, but it took until 1899 for the government to recognize her own service with a dedicated monthly payment.
She didn't let the bitterness consume her, though. She just pivoted.
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She turned her home in Auburn, New York, into a sanctuary. She took in the elderly. She took in the poor. She was practicing "mutual aid" long before that became a buzzword on social media. She worked with icons like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, bringing the Black woman’s perspective to the suffrage movement. She reminded everyone that "freedom" wasn't a finished project just because the 13th Amendment existed.
Why Her Legacy is Evolving Today
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
It’s been a saga. The plan was announced, then delayed, then debated. Some people think it’s the ultimate honor—replacing Andrew Jackson, a man who enslaved people, with a woman who freed them. Others feel it’s kinda ironic. Why put the face of a woman who was once "property" on the very currency that bought and sold her?
That tension is exactly why her story stays relevant. It forces us to look at the foundations of American wealth and who was excluded from it.
But beyond the currency debate, her real legacy lives on in the "Black Joy" and "Black Hiking" movements. For a long time, the wilderness was framed as a place of terror for Black Americans—the place where you were hunted. Tubman’s story flips that script. For her, the woods were a sanctuary. The stars were her GPS. The medicinal plants were her pharmacy. Modern groups like "GirlTrek" explicitly cite Tubman as their inspiration, using walking as a form of healing and political activism.
The Science of Her "Visions"
We have to address the "spells."
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When Harriet was a teenager, an overseer threw a heavy metal weight at another enslaved person. It missed and hit Harriet in the head instead. It literally crushed her skull. For the rest of her life, she experienced what she called "visions" and "consultations with God."
Modern neurologists have looked at her symptoms and most agree she likely had temporal lobe epilepsy.
This doesn't make her legacy any less "miraculous." In fact, it makes it more human. Imagine navigating through a swamp at 2:00 AM, knowing that at any second, your brain might short-circuit and send you into a trance. She saw these episodes as divine guidance. Whether you believe they were spiritual or neurological, the outcome was the same: she had an uncanny ability to sense danger. She’d tell her groups to change direction based on a "feeling," and they’d later find out a patrol was waiting on the original path.
She turned a disability into a tactical advantage. That is some serious mental fortitude.
Practical Lessons from the Legacy of Harriet Tubman
If we want to actually honor her, we have to look past the "hero" label and see the strategist. Her life offers a blueprint for how to handle overwhelming systems of power.
- Intelligence precedes action. She never moved without information. She talked to "the help," she listened to the birds, and she knew the tides. Before you try to change a system, you have to map it.
- Logistics over luck. The Underground Railroad wasn't a "path"; it was a series of relationships. Your "network" isn't just a LinkedIn thing. It's the people who will hide you or help you when things go south.
- Sustainability and care. Harriet didn't just "free" people and walk away. She spent her old age making sure the people around her had beds, food, and dignity. True leadership involves the "aftercare" of the community.
- Resilience is a practice. Dealing with her head injury while fighting for abolition proves that you don't have to be "perfectly healthy" or "unburdened" to make a massive impact. You work with the brain and body you have.
To truly engage with the legacy of Harriet Tubman, visit the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland. Don't just look at the exhibits; look at the landscape. See the marshes. Feel how thick the air is. When you realize she did all of that on foot, with a price on her head and a hole in her skull, you realize that "hero" is actually an understatement.
The best way to carry her legacy forward is to look for the "torpedoes" in our own modern systems and help others navigate around them. She showed us that the North Star isn't just an object in the sky; it's a commitment to the idea that nobody is free until everyone is.
Actionable Next Steps
- Read Primary Accounts: Pick up Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman by Sarah H. Bradford. It was written during Tubman's lifetime and, while stylized, it contains her direct testimony.
- Support Modern Mutual Aid: Tubman's later life was dedicated to the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged. Find local organizations in your city that provide direct housing or elder care for marginalized communities.
- Explore the Network: Use the National Park Service’s "Network to Freedom" digital map to find Underground Railroad sites near your own home. You might be surprised how close you are to a piece of this history.