Harriet Tubman - Nursing Pioneer

Harriet Tubman

When you think about Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross), you may recall some of the things you learned about her from childhood. She was born into slavery in Maryland and fled to the state of Pennsylvania in 1849 for freedom. She took the name Harriet in honor of her mother, Harriet Ross. She is often called “Moses” because of the many trips she made to bring her family members and other enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad. You may also know that she was an activist, fought for women’s rights, and worked for the Union Army as a cook and as a spy.

She also achieved another fantastic accomplishment. She was a nurse! With her vast knowledge of roots and herbs, she treated and healed many soldiers afflicted with complex and life-threatening illnesses. In fact, she worked at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., and used many of her home remedies to treat fever, smallpox, and many other infectious diseases.

She was a pioneer in home health nursing traveling to Beaufort, South Carolina, to provide care to the Gullah people (African American descendants of enslaved people living in the Lower Atlantic region) in 1862. She was named matron of a hospital in Fort Monroe, Virginia, caring for African American soldiers wounded in the war in 1865. Despite her life-saving work on the battlefield and in the hospital, Harriet Tubman did not receive payment, nor did she receive a pension for her work as a nurse until 1892, when the Union Army Nurses Pension Act was passed.

Her tenacity and vision led to the opening of a home in 1908 for the elderly called Harriet Tubman Home for the Elderly. She continued to provide nursing care to the residents of the home until she passed away in 1913. She served over 60 years providing nursing care; thank you, Mother Tubman!

References

Flashback Friday. https://www.nursing.virgina.edu/news/flashback-harriet-tubman-nurse/ Retrieved 2-21-22

Gullah Geechee. https://gallahgeechecorridor.org. Retrieved 2-21-2022

Public Broadcasting Service. https://www.pbs.org/articles/harriet-tubman-facts-and-quotes. Retrieved 2-21-2022