If you love learning about the life of Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross) and her role in American history and more specifically, the civil war, then you’ll love reading these Harriet Tubman quotes. 

Harriet Tubman, among many other things, was a hero to African Americans and everyone fighting the civil rights movement. She was a leading abolitionist and the most famous conductor of the Underground Railroad, a network of antislavery activists doing rescue missions to help enslaved people escape. Because of this, she is sometimes known as the Moses of her people.

Below this image of Tubman, you’ll find her most famous quotes. As one of the bravest persons from her era, reading Tubman’s own words helps us understand history better. I hope you enjoy these quotes!

Image shows a picture of Harriet Tubman with flower decoration around her, on top of a green background.
What a nice portrait of an American hero!
  1. “Farewell, ole Maser, don’t think hard of me, I’m going on to Canada, where all the slaves are free”
  2. “God’s time is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.”
  3. “I am at peace with God and all mankind.”
  4. “I had crossed the line. I was free; but, there was no one there to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.”
  5. “Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”
  6. “I said to the Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to you, and I know you will see me through”
  7. “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person.”
  8. “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
  9. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
  10. “I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive. of freedom, keep going.”
  11. “If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there’s shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”
  12. “Slavery is the next thing to hell.”
  13. “And I prayed to God to make me strong and able to fight, and that’s what I’ve always prayed for ever since.”
  14. “Twant me, ’twas the Lord. I always told him, ‘I trust to you. I don’t know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,’ and He always did.”
  15. “Never wound a snake; kill it.”
  16. “Every time I saw a white man I was afraid of being carried away.”
  17. “I would fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me.”
  18. “If a person would send another into bondage, he would, it appears to me, be bad enough to send him into hell if he could.”
  19. “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”
  20. “There are two things I’ve got a right to, and these are, Death or Liberty – one or the other I mean to have. No one will take me back alive; I shall fight for my liberty, and when the time has come for me to go, the Lord will let them, kill me”.
  21. “I think there’s many a slaveholder that’ll get to Heaven. They don’t know better. They acts up to the light they have.”
  22. “Always remember you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the starts to change the world.”
  23. “In my dreams and visions, I seemed to see a line, and on the other side of that line were green fields, and lovely flowers, and beautiful white ladies, who stretched out their arms to me over the line, but I couldn’t reach them no-how. I always fell before I got to the line.”
  24. “I have heard their groans and sighs, and seen their tears, and I would give every drop of blood in my veins to free them.”
  25. “The Lord who told me to take care of my people meant me to do it just as long as I live, and so I did what he told me.”
  26. “I never had anything good, no sweet, no sugar; and that sugar, right by me, did look so nice, and my mistress’s back was turned to me while she was fighting with her husband, so I just put my fingers in the sugar bowl to take one lump, and maybe she heard me, for she turned and saw me. The next minute, she had the rawhide down.”
  27. “We would rather stay in our native land, if we could be as free there as we are here.”
  28. “Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.”
  29. “Pears like my heart go flutter, flutter, and then they may say, ‘Peace, Peace,’ as much as they likes – I know it’s goin’ to be war!”
  30. “I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.”
  31. “I said to the Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to you, and I know you will see me through.”
  32. “We’re rooted here, and they can’t pull us up.”
  33. “We was the fools, and the was the wise men; but we wasn’t fools enough to go down the high road in the broad daylight.”
  34. “To be sure, deep slumbers settle down upon them as soon as they are seated, which continue undisturbed till the congregation is dismissed; but they have done their best, and who can doubt that they receive a blessing.”
  35. “I grew up like a neglected weed, – ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it. Then I was not happy or contented.” -Harriet Tubman to Benjamin Drew
  36. “Now I’ve been free, I know what a dreadful condition slavery is. I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.”
  37. “I knew of a man who was sent to the State Prison for twenty-five years. All these years he was always thinking of his home, and counting by years, months, and days, the time till he should be free, and see his family and friends once more.”
  38. “We saw the lightning and that was the guns and then we heard the thunder and that was the big guns; and then we heard the rain falling and that was the blood falling; and when we came to get in the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.”

Thousands More Quotes For Any Occasion

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