Harriet Tubman is a legendary figure known as the “Moses” of her people. And like most legends, the details become greatly exaggerated over the course of time. One of the facts of Harriet’s life that is the most debated is the number of trips to the South she made along with how many slaves she ultimately rescued. The most famous statistics are 19 trips and 300 slaves but is this true or even remotely accurate?
Harriet herself has barely recollection of how many trips she made (except that she went to Canada 11 times) and the number of 19 trips first appears in Bradford’s 1869 Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. Sarah Bradford records ” She went back and forth ninteen times, according to her firends.” So the original source of the number 19 wasn’t even Harriet herself but other un-named friends (Sernett,58). Due to Bradford’s earliness in recording Harriet’s interview and the subsequent dependency of other authors on Bradford, it is no surprise as to how the number 19 became so entrenched in history books. There are at least 9 recorded trips with details with Sanborn’s Commonwealth article of 1863 (Sarnett, 56). Oddly enough, If Harriet did indeed complete 9 trips, she would have crossed the North-South border 19 times including her first escape alone.
As to the number of slaves that she led to freedom, the popular media (thanks to Bradford) say she rescued more than 300. Thomas Garret, an abolitionist, estimated that 60-80 slaves were freed. But Bradford assumed he was only referring to the ones Harriet directed towards his station and estimated that she helped near 300 slaves overall. Over time “near” became “over”. But according to many sources though, the largest group Harriet ever led at a time was 11. Even if she did make ninteen round trips with 11 people each time, she would barely pass over the 200 mark. It is safe to assume that Garret’s own estimate is far much closer to the actual number than Bradford’s guess. (Sarnett, 65)
But even though she did not lead the hundreds or come back dozens of times into slave territory, we can infer that Harriet did in fact go back to help her people many times in a dangerous era. With the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, Harriet had to go the extra miles and secure her people’s position under the “lions paw” up in Canada. Furthermore, there was a bounty for her head which was a small fortune to anyone if she were caught. Even if her facts and feats were exaggerated, it can be concluded that her bravery was not.