In September, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) inaugurated a bronze statue at the institution’s headquarters to honor Harriet Tubman (1820-1913), an abolitionist symbol.
Tubman, was often referred to as the biblical namesake “Moses”. She was a freed slave who risked her life countless times to smuggle other slaves north in the years before the Civil War.
During the war, Harriet Tubman was a spy helping to gather vital information for the Union Army.
“The new Harriet Tubman statue at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, will be an inspiration to Agency officials for years to come,” the agency wrote.
Civil War role and legacy
In 1861, at the start of the war, Tubman had two years’ experience leading clandestine operations between the South and North, and believed that a Union victory was the fundamental step towards the abolition of slavery.
The governor of Massachusetts at the time, John A. Andrew, recruited Tubman to work for the Union Army.
She was assigned to Major General David Hunter, who was in charge of Union activities in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
She received official documents to travel with the Union Army as a nurse.
Although she performed these roles while visiting different hospital camps, she also worked to recruit spies, explore waterways along the coast, and report valuable information to Union officials, all while helping local enslaved escape to freedom.
Tubman supported Union Army intelligence using the trade she learned as an operator on the Underground Railroad.
In June 1863, she was assigned to lead 150 African-American Union soldiers on the Combahee River Raid.
On the night of June 1, three federal gunboats departed Beaufort, South Carolina, up the Combahee River. Tubman obtained information on the location of Confederate torpedoes planted along the river, which allowed Union ships to move away from danger.
As the ships continued upriver, Union troops—many of whom were formerly enslaved—convinced hundreds of enslaved men, women, and children to board their boats. A small company of Confederate troops tried, but failed, to stop the attack.
“It was the intelligence that Tubman provided that was able to save over 750 enslaved men and women, many of whom later joined the Union cause. Today, historians consider the Combahee River Raid a major military and intelligence success,” the CIA wrote in a statement.
After the war, Tubman spoke in the US supporting the rights of African Americans and became a major player in the Women’s Suffrage movement.
She passed away in 1913, but according to the CIA, “her life story and her work for social equality continue to inspire generations of people in books, museums and films,” they wrote in a statement.
Source: CNN Brasil
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