Freed Slaves at Home
Post Civil War Years
After the war ended, Tubman resettled in Auburn, New York where she continued her work as a community activist, suffragist, and humanitarian. She opened her home to various family members and friends and also raised funds for the Freedmen’s Bureau which helped former slaves receive an education and basic resources. Tubman married a veteran, Nelson Davis, and eventually received a small Civil War nurse’s pension and a widow’s pension upon his death, although she was not paid for her services as a scout (Bennett, 2005).
A highlight of her charitable work was the opening of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged near her home in Auburn. Tubman continued appearing at suffrage conventions until the early 1900s when she died at the age of ninety (Larson, 2014). “Harriet Tubman’s life was rooted in an intensely deep spiritual faith and a lifelong humanitarian passion for family and community, for whom she risked her very own life, demonstrating an unyielding, and seemingly fearless, resolve to secure liberty, equality, and justice…throughout her long and productive life” (Larson, 2015, Harriet Tubman Biography section, para. 23).
After the war ended, Tubman resettled in Auburn, New York where she continued her work as a community activist, suffragist, and humanitarian. She opened her home to various family members and friends and also raised funds for the Freedmen’s Bureau which helped former slaves receive an education and basic resources. Tubman married a veteran, Nelson Davis, and eventually received a small Civil War nurse’s pension and a widow’s pension upon his death, although she was not paid for her services as a scout (Bennett, 2005).
A highlight of her charitable work was the opening of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged near her home in Auburn. Tubman continued appearing at suffrage conventions until the early 1900s when she died at the age of ninety (Larson, 2014). “Harriet Tubman’s life was rooted in an intensely deep spiritual faith and a lifelong humanitarian passion for family and community, for whom she risked her very own life, demonstrating an unyielding, and seemingly fearless, resolve to secure liberty, equality, and justice…throughout her long and productive life” (Larson, 2015, Harriet Tubman Biography section, para. 23).