Harriet Tubman suffered a violent head injury as a child causing her to frequently slip into into sleep like states. These would produce vivid dreamlike hallucinations that Tubman interpreted as messages from god, to devote her life to freeing southern slaves through the Underground Railroad.

The Brain Injury That Helped End Slavery

An American icon of freedom and resilience, Harriet Tubman’s portrait is slated to grace the $20 bill beginning in 2030. It’s an auspicious achievement for a hero of civil rights who escaped from slavery, led hundreds of others to do the same, all while balancing a challenging array of chronic conditions including migraines and acute attacks of narcolepsy.

Before escaping to freedom and leading hundreds of southern slaves north along the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman lived for nearly 30 years in slavery. Born Araminta Harriet Ross in 1820 to enslaved parents Ben Ross and Harriet Green, Tubman was one of nine children and grew up on a Maryland plantation. It was near there that, when she was around 12 years old, she was mercilessl… Continue Reading (6 minute read)