06/04/2026
Harriet Tubman wasn’t just the lead conductor on the Underground Railroad, she was also the first woman in U.S. history to lead a major military operation.
On June 2, 1863, abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman made history along South Carolina’s Combahee River. Tubman served as a Union scout, spy, and military strategist during the Civil War. Working with Union forces and African American soldiers, she helped plan and lead the Combahee Ferry Raid. The raid liberated more than 700 enslaved people, destroyed infrastructure, disrupted Confederate resources, and demonstrated the power of Black-led resistance and self-emancipation.
More than a century later, Tubman’s legacy inspired the Combahee River Collective, a Black feminist organization founded in 1974. Through its influential 1977 statement, the group challenged racism, sexism, class oppression, and homophobia, helping shape what would later be understood as intersectional feminist politics. The collective’s work emphasized that struggles for justice are interconnected.
From liberation on the waters of the Combahee River to the Black feminist theory that followed, Tubman’s legacy continues to inspire generations committed to freedom, equality, and justice
Follow to learn more about Black American history and the legacies of slavery.
📸: National Museum of African American History & Culture
