Fact check: Harriet Tubman helped free slaves for the Underground Railroad, but not 300

The claim: Harriet Tubman made 19 trips for the Underground Railroad during which she freed over 300 slaves and had a $40,000 bounty on her head.

Renowned abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman is making the rounds in social media, thanks to a comment from rapper Kanye West.

West, who announced his presidential bid on July 4 via Twitter, held his first political campaign rally at the Exquis Event Center in North Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday. West's lengthy speech touched upon various topics ranging from abortion, religion, international trade and licensing deals, but strangely diverged into a rant criticizing Tubman.

"Well, Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves. She just had the slaves go work for other white people," West said.

The rapper's disparaging comments have sent many to Tubman's defense on social media. One post depicts a meme that praises Tubman's anti-slavery exploits and alleges the former slave had a significant bounty on her head.

"#HarrietTubman made 19 trips along the Underground Railroad to free over 300 enslaved people between 1850-1860. She once had a $40,000 ($1.2 million in 2020) bounty on her head. She carried a pistol on her for protection from slave catchers and slaves who wanted to turn back." The text is accompanied by an image of a seated elderly Black woman wearing a white shawl.

USA TODAY awaits comment from the Instagram user who shared the meme.

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Tubman freed slaves just not that many

Harriet Tubman was born Araminta "Minty" Ross in the early 1820s in Dorchester County, Maryland. She was a house slave from a young age before working the field harvesting flax at age 13. Early on, Tubman suffered a traumatic brain injury when an overseer threw a heavy weight, aiming for another slave but striking Tubman instead. She did not receive proper medical care and would suffer "sleeping fits," likely seizures, for years after.

In the fall of 1849, Tubman managed to escape north using the Underground Railroad and would later serve as a "conductor" for many other escaping slaves. Existing documentation and Tubman's own words show she would make the trip to Maryland approximately 13 times, not 19 as the meme claims.

According to the National Park Service in an article on myths and facts about Tubman, "During public and private meetings during 1858 and 1859, Tubman repeatedly told people that she had rescued 50 to 60 people in eight or nine trips. This was before her very last mission, in December 1860, when she brought away seven people."

Harriet Tubman, 1868 or 1869, taken by Benjamin Powelson.
Harriet Tubman, 1868 or 1869, taken by Benjamin Powelson.

The exaggerated number in the meme is believed to have been propagated by Sarah Hopkins Bradford, a writer and historian who was a contemporary of Tubman, best known for her biographies on the abolitionist.

"Bradford never said that Tubman gave her those numbers, but rather, Bradford estimated the exaggerated number. Other friends who were close to Tubman specifically contradicted those higher numbers," the National Park Service writes.

Kate Clifford Larson, author of "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero," agreed.

"My research has confirmed that estimate, establishing she brought away about 70 people in about 13 trips and gave instructions to about 70 more who found their way to freedom on their own," she wrote in a 2016 Washington Post opinion piece.

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A bounty too steep

The only known bounty for Tubman was an Oct. 3, 1849, advertisement posted by Tubman's childhood mistress, Eliza Brodess. The $100 bounty (a little over $3,300 today) was not exclusively for Tubman and included her brothers "Ben" and "Harry."

"The $40,000 bounty figure was made up by Sallie Holley, a former anti-slavery activist in New York, who wrote a letter to a newspaper in 1867, arguing for support for Tubman in her pursuit of back pay and pension from the Union Army," the National Park Service writes. Historians also agree that an exorbitant bounty was unlikely.

There is one kernel of truth: Tubman did carry a pistol during her rescue missions. According to Clifford in her book, Tubman carried the firearm to deter the slaves being led to freedom from losing heart and turning back — "for a dead fugitive slave could tell no tales."

The picture included in the meme is an actual image of Tubman in her later years.

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Our ruling: Partly false

We rate the claim Harriet Tubman made 19 trips for the Underground Railroad during which she freed over 300 slaves, had a $40,000 bounty and carried a pistol during her trips as PARTLY FALSE because some of it is not supported by our research. While it is true Tubman did free slaves — estimated around 70 during her 13 trips — and carried a small pistol for her own protection and to discourage anyone from turning back, the other historical claims contained in the meme are exaggerations, according to historians and experts. The image contained in the meme does feature an elderly Tubman circa 1911.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Harriet Tubman helped free slaves for the Underground Railroad, but not 300