In December 1850, Harriet Tubman saved three family members from an auction block in a daring rescue in Cambridge, Maryland. It was the start of one of the most legendary careers in the annals of the Underground Railroad.

Underground activists like Tubman faced enormous danger under the newly passed Fugitive Slave Act. But they refused to accept a law they deemed unjust. In the 1850s, they brazenly defied slave hunters and federal officials, sparking a series of violent clashes.

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What Does It Mean to Know a Biographical Subject