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Video of the Week: Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman by Scott Rensberger from Scott Rensberger on Vimeo.

This Black History Month, we profile a runaway slave who outsmarted many … and led dozens of fellow slaves along the Underground Railroad to a new life. Her courage made her an American icon. Today, Harriett Tubman is the first black woman — set to be printed on US currency… the 20-dollar bill.

She is most famous for helping slaves escape on the Underground Railroad in the antebellum period. But it was during the Civil War that she helped free slaves by the hundreds. On June 2, 1863 Tubman was a guide for Colonel James Montgomery, who liberated between 700 to 750 slaves on a sweep through South Carolina.

Scott Rensberger takes us to where her life began…on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.