DeNeen Brown on Harriet Tubman, Spy

Faculty Spotlight

DeNeen Brown

Longtime Washington Post journalist and University Honors Faculty Fellow, DeNeen Brown, recently published this fascinating article about Harriet Tubman.

An 1860-75 photo of Harriet Tubman
(Harvey B. Lindsley/Library of Congress/AP)

Renowned as a Black liberator, Harriet Tubman was also a brilliant spy

By DeNeen L. Brown

February 12, 2021

Under the cover of night on June 1, 1863, Harriet Tubman led Union troops from the Sea Islands up the black waters of South Carolina’s Combahee River, with a plan to destroy bridges, raid Confederate outposts and rice plantations, cutting off supply lines to Confederate troops.

While working as a spy for the Union Army, Tubman had slipped behind Confederate lines, gathering intelligence from enslaved Black people to obtain the coordinates of torpedoes planted along the river by Confederates.

That night, with Tubman leading the expedition, the Union gunboats quietly maneuvered, deftly avoiding each torpedo. The boats — the John Adams and the Harriet A. Weed — held Black soldiers as they moved up the Combahee, overrunning Confederate sentinels in a devastating raid. As the gunboats set anchor, Confederate guards fled. Union soldiers burned bridges, tore up railroads, set blaze to Confederate mansions and rice plantations.

Read the rest in The Washington Post here.