Harriet Tubman has become synonymous with the Underground Railroad, her numerous trips to guide slaves to freedom during the late 1800’s earning her the nickname “Moses.” But did you know that Tubman herself escaped from slavery, not once, but twice?

Harriet was born to enslaved parents in Maryland around the year 1822 (exact birth records are hard to come by for enslaved persons), the exact middle child of nine children: Linah, Mariah Ritty, Soph, Robert, Harriet, Ben, Rachel, Henry, and Moses. The family, unfortunately, like many of its kind, did not stay together for long. The three oldest daughters were soon sold and, soon, Harriet found herself playing the mother role to her younger siblings while her parents worked. When she was old enough, she was sent to work for her “masters,” taking jobs ranging from nursemaid to farmhand. She suffered diseases from the horrible working conditions as well as severe abuse from her overseers, even suffering a broken skull at one point which went untreated for two days, which caused her to suffer headaches and seizures for the rest of her life.

Through it all, however, Harriet remained strong in spirit, finding hope in her faith. But her frail physical health diminished her value to her owner, and he soon tried to sell her. When he died, the task fell to his wife. Fearing the further breakup of her family, Harriet and two of her brothers, Ben and Henry, successfully escaped on September 17, 1849.

It did not last long.

And not because they were caught, either.

Harriet’s brothers soon began to have second thoughts about their escape. Perhaps they feared life on the run or what would happen if they were captured. Or maybe they missed the family members they had left behind (Ben, for one, had a wife and children). Whatever the case, the trio returned to the plantation, the too-short taste of freedom bittersweet in their mouths.

Especially for Harriet.

Just a few short months later, on December 6, 1849, Harriet escaped again, this time without her brothers. Using the Underground Railroad for help, Harriet made it to Pennsylvania where, she vowed, she would not be enslaved again.

But neither could she sit back and allow others to be. After reaching Philadelphia, Harriet thought of her family. “I was a stranger in a strange land,” she said later. “[M]y father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were [in Maryland]. But I was free, and they should be free.”

Beginning in 1850, Harriet began assisting other slaves in their search for freedom. When even the north became too dangerous, Harriet began helping ferry slaves all the way to Canada. rom 1851 to 1862, Harriet returned repeatedly to Maryland, rescuing some 70 slaves in about 13 expeditions, including her other brothers, Henry, Ben, and Robert, their wives and some of their children. In addition, she also provided specific instructions to 50 to 60 additional enslaved people who escaped.

One of her last missions into Maryland was to retrieve her aging parents. Her father purchased her mother from Eliza Brodess in 1855, but even when they were both free, the area was hostile. In 1857, Tubman received word that her father was at risk of arrest for harboring a group of eight people escaping slavery. She led her parents north to St. Catharines, Canada, where a community of formerly enslaved people, including other relatives and friends, had settled.

To this day, Harriet Tubman, the woman who escaped slavery twice–then continued to risk her freedom time and time again–remains a shining example of courage, selflessness, and hope.