Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1822. After escaping to Philadelphia in 1849, she returned south repeatedly and led about 13 missions that rescued roughly 70 enslaved people, including relatives, through the Underground Railroad. She travelled by night and in strict secrecy, and said she never lost a passenger. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 she guided people farther north into Canada. During the Civil War she served the Union as a cook, nurse, armed scout and spy, and she is widely credited as the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States, the Combahee Ferry raid that freed more than 700 people. Later she campaigned for women's suffrage. A head injury in childhood left her with lifelong spells of sleepiness and visions she attributed to God.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.