Harriet Tubman's Greatest Achievement: The Combahee River Raid

Tubman’s contribution to the Union had great affects to defeat the South in the Combahee River Region. Harriet Tubman was a slave, escaped through the Underground Railroad. She got information of where torpedoes might be. Harriet and Colonel Montgomery lead the expedition up the river. After it was all said and done, there were 700 slaves saved and the Union army destroyed nearly a million dollars in commissary stores, cotton and railroad. This tighten the rope even more by cutting another way the South got there supplies. It was a great blow to the military, even psychologically. This also marked the first and only time were a woman lead a military operation during the Civil War.

The first reason why Tubman’s spy career (and more particularly the Combahee River Raid) was her greatest achievement was because of the large number of people that she helped. On June 2, 1863, Tubman led a nighttime raid in South Carolina, which freed over 800 slaves (Document C), a truly massive number. This matters because of the numbers. 800 people freed is no small feat and is a major accomplishment that deserves a lot more recognition than it gets. 800 in one night is over ten times the amount of people Tubman would ever help in all of her careers before and after the raid combined.

Calming them down like Tubman does is one of the best things that could have been done in that situation, and helped keep those now freed feel safe. Those were just some of the reasons that Harriet Tubman's greatest achievement was the raid due to how many people were saved, the amount of risk involved, and how well it was handled by her. Some people may disagree that the raid was Harriet Tubman’s greatest achievement, but instead they have some other ideas on what her greatest achievement was. One achievement some of these people think was Tubman’s greatest was that in Tubman’s sixties she took care of others in her home (Document E).

Harriet Tubman's greatest achievement was helping the poor and sick. Source C proves this claim through this quote which states, "Here she found thousands of sick soldiers contrabands*, and immediately gave up her time and attention to them. At another time, we find her nursing those who were down by hundreds with small-pox and malignant fevers. " The source shows the true impact of Harriet Tubman and provides the magnitude of the people she saved, proving many people most likely would not have survived without her. This further proves her impact and proves that Harriet helping the poor and the sick was her greatest achievement.

Throughout her whole life she helped many people and got so many slaves to freedom (Background Document). Because of the risk, time spent, and the amount of people saved, being a conductor on the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman’s greatest achievement. The

Imagine being in constant danger. Imagine willingly being in constant danger. That is what Harriet Tubman did constantly, just to help others and to fight for what she believed in. Harriet Tubman was a brave African American escaped slave, whom continuously risked her life to help save other slaves. She did many things in her life, but in terms of how many people saved, how long it took, and the amount of risk that was there, Harriet Tubmans greatest achievement was scouting a raid to free slaves.

She chose to sing, and because of her efforts 800 slaves were freed (Document C). While Harriet Tubman helped many in her lifetime, during the Union raid she aided in the freeing of 800 slaves, which rises above all her other accomplishments. To aid in the raid, a small team of African American spies was led by Harriet Tubman, and their primary goal was to gather “intelligence”(Document C). Being a spy would have been very risky, especially for her since she was so hated in the south. And despite everything else going on, Harriet Tubman still managed to help 100 slaves enlist in the war (Document C).

Not only did Tubamn give comfort to the soldiers and consult them with her words to be able to be secretive but yet helpful, she did it without knowing a single thing about the people that she had to communicate with, and the only thing that she could have known about them was that they shared a similar past, knowing that it was extremely common that slaves were not free. But even without knowing the type of person they were, she trusted her gut and helped to not only bring them success but also bring a feeling of success to herself because all she wanted was liberty without getting any type of reward near the end. To conclude, Harriet Tubman did accomplish many great things in her life other than her work as a spy, which showed off her considerate character. Although many other people believe that her work in the UGRR, work as a nurse, and work as a caregiver were her greatest achievements, they can easily be overthrown by the impact that her achievements as a spy gave

Tubman also risked getting caught by Confederate soldiers so they tore up the railroad and blew up the bridge so that they could not get followed (Document C). This evidence is relevant because it shows what she risked, she could have been captured or killed by Confederate soldiers during her raid or spy work. Harriet Tubman also risked getting the now-fugitive slaves caught. Harriet Tubman, after being a conductor of the Underground Railroad, spent about 3 years helping the Union Army save slaves and gather information for the Union Army (Background essay). Although there is not much information on her spy work with the Union army there is evidence that she saved more slaves being a spy than a conductor.

The first contribution of Harriet Tubman is that she served as a spy for the union army, because she wanted freedom for all the people who were forced into slavery not just the people she could help by herself. One day Tubman took one of the most

The soldiers that Harriet Tubman helped still had a chance of dying from diseases that the flies that flew around them carried. When Harriet Tubman helped the elderly and the disabled, she helped six to eight people at a time. The Underground Railroad, however, helped one hundred thousand slaves escape. Harriet Tubman put a lot of effort into being a nurse. According to Document D, Harriet Tubman had to gather ice, water, and other supplies needed to treat the soldiers.

She did anything and everything she could do to help. Tubman was not paid for her work with the Union government, but she did collect government food. Once she realized there was not enough food for all of the refugees, she

Harriet Tubman went through hard times but she never let any of those be excuses. Harriet was a slave and was mistreated badly. One time she was asked to watch a baby and when she fell asleep, the Baby’s mother beat her. “ Ross had to stay awake all night so that the baby wouldn't cry and wake the mother. If Ross fell asleep, the baby’s mother whipped her. From a very young age, Ross was determined to gain her freedom: (“Harriet Tubman”. Contemporary). Tubman was caught with a man trying to escape and when he ran, the owner threw a brick but the brick hit Harriet instead. She then had a concussion and mental problems the rest of her life. “... when the young man started to run away, the overseer picked up a heavy iron weight and threw it at him. He missed the man, and hit Harriet instead. She suffered from seizures for the rest of her life” (“ Harriet Tubman”. Contemporary). Harriet had a hard childhood and she was treated horribly, so she tried to change that.

Then, not long after joining the army she became the first woman to be an armed spy for the union (Harriet Tubman, np). Tubman led the Combahee River Raid, which freed more than seven hundred slaves in South Carolina (Harriet Tubman, np). Harriet was one of nine children born between 1808 and 1832. She was probably born in 1820, but the year of her birth is not known. She was born to enslaved parents in Dorchester County, Maryland (Harriet Tubman, np). She changed her name when she got married from Araminta Harriet Ross to just Harriet, probably to honor her mother (Harriet Tubman, np). Harriet had a very hard life growing up. First, being born into slavery, then having her family split up at a young age, three of her little sisters were sold to another plantation. The son of the plantation, where Harriet was born, Edward decided to sell them for the money (Harriet Tubman, np). When a man from Georgia came and tried to buy Moses, which is Rit’s youngest son, Rit refused to not further separate her family and to be a good example for her youngest daughter (Harriet Tubman,

     During the Civil War, which began in 1861, Tubman served as a nurse, scout, and spy for the Union Army in South Carolina. She helped cook and prepare food for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was made up of all black soldiers and was better known as the Glory Brigade. She later received an award for her efforts, but no pay.