Harriet Tubman was born a slave. She escaped to freedom in 1849. She risked her life to lead hundreds of slaves to escape to free states or Canada through a system of safe houses called the Underground Railroad. At that time, the Fugitive Slave Law made it a crime to help runaway slaves. During the Civil War she was a nurse and a spy for the Union troops. After the war, she raised money for black schools and started a home for elderly blacks in Auburn, New York. She is known as "The Moses of Her People."