In news that can only be described as “I know you lying,” there’s been a wave of Black folks on TikTok who believe that famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman wasn’t a real person. In fact, they believe she never existed at all and the story we’ve all been told for decades upon decades is nothing more than fake news. Don’t worry, we’ll explain.
How It Started
Well, things all started when TikTok user Ce Chronicles put out a now-viral and since deleted video on the clock app some weeks back where she said that Harriet Tubman wasn’t a real person. She explained that her real name was Araminta Ross and that she a spy for the U.S. government. She also said that fellow abolitionist Sojourner Truth was also a spy and that her name wasn’t really her name either.
“They want us to look up and idolize these people, oh well, they look like just like me so I must look up to them.’ Stop that sh*t immediately,” she said in part.
As a result, this unfortunately kicked off a firestorm of other folks who felt the same way to hop on the app and give their reasonings as to why they don’t believe Tubman–or the Underground railroad wasn’t even a real thing.
“Hear me out, that shit does not make sense. Why would you be taking slaves underground in tunnel,” said one user in a compilation video.
Added another, “Harriet Tubman wasn’t even her name. I keep telling y’all America is a stage. These people are playing characters. Everybody for some odd reason has to change their name.”
Another user also blasted Tubman and the railroad’s “fake” existence in a separate video, going so far as to say that Tubman was actually trafficking slaves and not helping them.
Quick Fact Check
Now, let’s get to some facts. While it is true “Harriet Tubman” wasn’t her birth name, she was in fact a real person. According to records from Maryland State Government, Tubman was legally born with the name Araminta Ross back in 1822. She worked as a muskrat trapper, weaver, and nurse in her early years. During the time of the Civil War, she served as a Union Army as a cook and nurse, and later, an armed scout where she used her contacts and knowledge of the landscape provide insight.
After marrying a free slave, John Tubman, she changed her name to Harriet Tubman in order to escape to freedom. Over time, she took multiple trips to slave lands to help free others in what we know now as the Underground Railroad. No, it wasn’t an actual railroad that was underground, that was a just name given to her efforts to describe the covert and strategic routes she took.
We should also note that in this day and age of rampant disinformation, deliberate attempts at erasing Black history out of the history books, classrooms and institutions, an increasing anti-DEI efforts: a take like this is beyond dangerous. Not only does it perpetuate a false narrative and feed into the push towards anti-intellectualism, it also insultingly downplays the contributions of Black folks who literally built and shaped this country with their blood, sweat, and tears. We already have white folks trying to tear down monuments, rename streets, and reframe slavery, so why in the hell are some of our own people engaging in similar antics?
How It’s Going
Seeing the rise of all the blatant untruths, other Black TikTokers made sure to combat the ignorance.
For genealogist and historian Walt Way, he provided historical records and newspaper clippings from all over the world at that time proving Tubman’s existing and disproving her participation in trafficking enslaved Black folks.
“To keep it a bean with y’all, the fact that we have to defend Harriet Tubman’s existence in 2025…not only do we have access to letters she wrote, but also letters between other abolitionists that mentioned her, he said.
He later added: “Y’all seriously think a whole country wrote about a fictional character for decades?”
For user Madison, she offered a more comical response, saying that the only proper reaction to people saying that Tubman wasn’t real was: “Are you f*cking stupid?”
“Like, unfortunately we do have to get back to bullying. We have to get back to being like ‘you’re a f*ckign idiot.’ Right? What are you working with? Two brain cells that are just knocking around in all the free space between your ears? Harriet Tubman’s not real?? That’s the conspiracy theory that we want to latch onto?” she said in part.
We don’t know which part is worse: the fact there are people peddling this nonsense or that we’re all spending our time fighting with our own kinfolks trying to disprove it. They say a house divided can’t stand, this is not the time for us to not be a united front. It’s real dangerous out there and it’s only getting worse. Black folks, we gotta do better.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.