Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist who helped thousands escape the bonds of enslavement, has been posthumously awarded the rank of general.
In a ceremony at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in the abolitionist’s home of Dorchester, Md., Gov. Wes Moore (D) made Tubman a one-star brigadier general in the state’s National Guard.
“Today, we celebrate a soldier and a person who earned the title of veteran,” Moore said during Monday’s ceremony. “Today we celebrate one of the greatest authors of the American story.”
“She knew that in order to do the work, that meant that she had to go into the lion’s den,” he added. “She knew that leadership means you have to be willing to do what you are asking others to do.”
Tubman was born into slavery in 1822, but escaped in 1849 after learning she and her brothers were to be sold. She settled in Philadelphia but returned to Maryland in 1850 to rescue her family.
“I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home, after all, was down in Maryland, because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there,” Tubman said, according to the National Park Service.
“But I was free, and they should be free,” she added.
Tubman became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping lead other enslaved Black Americans to freedom. She risked her own freedom and life numerous times as she rescued approximately 70 enslaved African Americans.
“I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say — I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger,” Tubman said at a women’s suffrage convention in 1896.
But Tubman’s commitment to freedom didn’t stop with the Underground Railroad.
During the Civil War, she served as a scout, spy and nurse for the Union Army and led 150 Black soldiers on a raid in South Carolina. Her service for the Union made her the first woman to oversee American military action during a time of war.
“She raised her hand to join the Union Army as both a soldier and a spy because she believed that if you want to change a flawed system, you have to be willing to fight for it,” Moore said.
Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece, Tina Wyatt, spoke at Monday’s ceremony, saying the abolitionist deserved just as much recognition on Veteran’s Day as any other service member.
“Aunt Harriet was one of those veterans informally, she gave up any rights that she had obtained for herself to be able to fight for others,” Wyatt said. “She is a selfless person.”
Recognition for Tubman has grown over the last few years. In 2021, the Biden Administration revived an Obama-era effort to place Tubman on the $20 bill.
Though the effort has stalled, commitment to honoring Tubman has continued.
In 2022, a Chicago elementary school was stripped of its previous namesake and renamed after Tubman. Meanwhile, the city if Philadelphia plans to unveil a 14-foot bronze statue, created by a Black artist, of the icon next year.
A monument honoring her was also placed in a Newark, N.J., space that once held a statue of Christopher Columbus last year.
Major Gen. Janeen Birckhead on Monday said recognition of Tubman’s sacrifices were “long overdue.”
“Harriet Tubman should be revered always for risking her life and her own freedom and the cause of justice for the enslaved,” Birckhead said. “Now we make the grassroots honor, in a formal way, to proclaim that Harriet Tubman was courageous, she sacrificed, she’s a skillful leader and she advanced the survival of a nation.”
