We May Never Know the Real Harriet Tubman‪.‬

During the 150th anniversary celebrations of the American Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, it is fitting to focus attention on the life of Harriet Tubman, New Yorker by choice, self-liberated former slave, religious evangelical Underground Railroad conductor, and Civil War scout and nurse. However, we may never know who the real Harriet Tubman was. There is even debate over her signature achievement as a conductor on the Underground Railroad leading enslaved Africans to freedom in the North and Canada. The number of trips she made to the South is not well documented and estimates range between seven and nineteen, although fourteen is probably the more accurate figure. Similarly, there is disagreement about the number of people she rescued on these trips, from sixty to almost four hundred. (2) The highly regarded Black Abolitionist Papers credit Tubman with "at least nine during the 1850s to lead some 180 slaves to freedom ..." (3) Tubman's star as a major historical actor has risen and fallen in the past 150 years. (4) In 1994, the heavily maligned National Council for History proposed U.S. History standards, overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of the U.S. Senate, that included six references to Harriet Tubman but none for Paul Revere, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, or the Wright blothers. (5) However, in 2006, when Atlantic magazine asked a panel of ten eminent historians to identify the 100 most influential figures in American history, Harriet Tubman did not make a list that included ten other women, four white abolitionists, and eight African Americans. On this list, Bell ranked as the 24th most influential American, the Wright brothers 23rd, and Thomas Edison 9th. (6)