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Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom
The definitive biography of one of the most courageous women in American history "reveals Harriet Tubman to be even more remarkable than her legend" (Newsday).Celebrated for her exploits as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has entered history as one of nineteenth-century America's most enduring and important figures. But just who was this remarkable woman? To John Brown, leader of the Harper's Ferry slave uprising, she was General Tubman. For the many slaves she led north to freedom, she was Moses. To the slaveholders who sought her capture, she was a thief and a trickster. To abolitionists, she was a prophet.Now, in a biography widely praised for its impeccable research and its compelling narrative, Harriet Tubman is revealed for the first time as a singular and complex character, a woman who defied simple categorization."A thrilling reading experience. It expands outward from Tubman's individual story to give a sweeping, historical vision of slavery." --NPR's Fresh Air
281 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 2, 2004
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About the author
Catherine Clinton
59 books71 followersProfessor of history at Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Specializes in American history, African-American history, the Civil War, and women's history. Previously taught at Brandeis and Harvard universities. Born in 1952, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Studied sociology and history at Harvard, earned a master's degree from Sussex and a doctorate from Princeton.
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February 11, 2026
Harriet Tubman’s courage echoes across the ages. Having escaped from slavery in the antebellum South, she repeatedly returned to the South to help others escape from slavery. She used her close observations of landscape and human character as an anti-slavery activist, and eventually as a scout for the Union Army during the Civil War. Her heroism is now generally accepted and celebrated, but it was not always so, as historian Catherine Clinton chronicles in her 2004 biography Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom.
Clinton, a professor of history at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), has focused in her career on Southern U.S. women’s history, and therefore her focus on this particularly heroic African American woman from the Southern U.S. is well-considered. In looking at Tubman’s early years as an enslaved person in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Clinton not only captures the difficulties and traumas of Tubman’s early years – e.g., the severe head injury that she suffered when a slaveholder threw a heavy lead object at an enslaved person who was running from a store – but also emphasizes the specific historical context within which Tubman moved from enslaved person to self-liberated anti-slavery activist.
The threats to enslaved people went beyond the obvious threats to life and health – for instance, the fact that “The mortality rate for black children in the Chesapeake during the first half of the nineteenth century was double that of white infants” (p. 12). One threat, which specifically targeted the unity of enslaved families, related to a provision in the U.S. Constitution at the time of its ratification in 1788: “By 1808 [14 years before Tubman’s birth in 1822], the external slave trade was prohibited due to constitutional mandate” (p. 12). Clinton notes that “When the international slave trade ended, the enslaved population in America was not quite 2 million” (p. 12); at that time, slavery was becoming less profitable in Upper South states like Maryland and Virginia, even as it was becoming more profitable in Lower South states like Alabama and Mississippi.
A domestic slave trade developed, as Upper South slaveholders sold enslaved people to slave traders who would convey their unfortunate prisoners down to the hellish conditions of Deep South plantations. Tubman experienced this horror of Southern slavery for herself, as two of her sisters were sold off by just this means. On the one hand, slaveholders saw enslaved children as “a means of anchoring adult slaves on the plantation. Owners believed parenthood reduced the rate of runaways.” On the other hand, “Slaveholders treated slave children as commodities” (p. 13), and did not hesitate to break up enslaved families if doing so seemed like the “profitable” thing to do.
Against the drudgery and hopelessness of slavery, and the brutal punishments that could be meted out at a slaveholder’s whim, Harriet’s faith sustained her. “Growing from a girl into a young woman, Araminta [Tubman's original name] experienced an intensification of her Christian faith, a deep and abiding spiritual foundation that remained with her throughout her life” (p. 20). That depth of religious faith sustained Harriet Tubman through many travails, many harrowing experiences, as she worked to free people from slavery.
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom benefits from observations that Clinton shares regarding what she observed in the course of her research, as when she describes the still-extant village store where Tubman suffered her head injury:
On a deserted road in Dorchester County, a small wooden structure, once a store, can still be found. The building has a porch and ceilings too low for anyone over six feet to stand upright. At the small crossroads of Bucktown, Maryland, only the asphalt and telegraph lines, plus an occasional passing car, suggest it is a later century than Tubman’s. A sense of the past haunts this secluded spot. Even on a bright day, the place has an air of melancholy. (p. 21)
The slaveholder who held Tubman in bondage died in 1849. Facing an uncertain future that included the possibility of being “sold south” as two of her sisters had, Tubman resolved to escape from slavery. “Years later, Tubman likened her decision to an epiphany: ‘I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other’” (p. 28).
It provided a measure of hope for any enslaved person seeking to escape that “By the 1840’s, informal networks were well established, as was the reigning metaphor of the Underground Railroad (UGRR)” (p. 31). Tubman successfully made her escape to the free-state city of Philadelphia, and “Once freed, Araminta decided to take a new first name: Harriet. This was the name of her mother, and may also have been the name of one of her sisters who disappeared in the South” (p. 29).
Yet this escape was only a beginning to Tubman’s anti-slavery activism. Not long after her escape to Philadelphia, the United States Congress passed a strengthened Fugitive Slave Law: “Blacks and abolitionists nicknamed it the Bloodhound Law” (p. 43). Opposing to the Bloodhound Law and its enforcers were the “Promoters of the liberty lines”, UGRR activists who “echoed the sentiments of America’s founders: impassioned opposition to tyranny and oppression” (p. 52).
Tubman opposed the strengthened pro-slavery laws on the most practical level possible. She became known as “the Moses of her people” for the way she repeatedly journeyed back into the slave South to lead mass escapes of enslaved people. Her determination was absolute. On one mass escape, when one enslaved man decided to turn back and return to the plantation, Tubman realized that the man’s impulse “would compromise the entire operation” (p. 69) and put a gun to the man’s head, saying, “Move or die.” The man moved, and it became widely known that if you set forth with Harriet Tubman on one of her mass escapes, you might go North to freedom, and you might go to Heaven, but you were not going back to slavery.
Clinton chronicles the friendship between Tubman and John Brown – kindred spirits who sensed each other’s anti-slavery militancy. Tubman supported Brown’s plan for a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, and even when the plan went awry, “Tubman never wavered in her support” for Brown. For her, “Brown was someone with whom she had felt a special kinship, and someone whose loss was deeply personal”; moreover, “his death in some ways reinforced her own prophetic powers, as she had witnessed his demise in a dream” (pp. 101-02).
When the American Civil War began, Tubman’s anti-slavery career took a new direction. She traveled south to South Carolina, where she treated ill and wounded ex-slaves in coastal areas that had been liberated by Union forces. Yet her gift for covert operations against slavery found an outlet in one last great campaign of liberation – the Combahee River Raid of June 1863. Tubman served as a scout on this expedition of 150 African American soldiers of the U.S. Army, guiding two Union ships up the river. The expedition freed more than 750 enslaved people from Confederate plantations, and then Tubman led the ships safely back down the river to Union-held territory. The success of the raid raised morale in the North, and embarrassed the Confederates. As Clinton dryly puts it, “Moses was alive and well – and ‘above ground’ in the war to end slavery” (p. 128).
Later chapters of Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom discuss Tubman’s retirement to Auburn after Union victory in the war, as well as her continued humanitarian and philanthrophic activities like her work “to establish a separate charitable institution in Auburn for the needy and neglected of her race” (p. 150). To the end of her life, she never stopped fighting to provide relief, succor, and help for those who had known, and were still fighting, oppression.
A thoughtful final chapter, “Harriet Tubman’s Legacy,” provides a thoughtful look at how Tubman and her times are interpreted – everything from women’s shelters that bear her name, to arguments over whether a “billboard-sized portrait” of Tubman in her native state of Maryland should or should not show her holding a rifle. As Clinton points out, “Tubman died the same year that Rosa Parks was born” (p. 159) – a telling indicator of the continuity of this nation’s civil-rights history.
On a recent journey to Dorchester County, Maryland, I had the opportunity to visit the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad visitor center, part of a park that is jointly administered by the National Park Service and the Maryland Park Service. The visitor center was open, with state employees staffing it, in spite of the ongoing government shutdown -- something that I can't help thinking Ms. Tubman would have liked -- and its exhibits provide eloquent testimony to the heroism and courage Ms. Tubman exhibited during her repeated trips down and back up the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
In nearby Cambridge, Maryland -- a city where pre-Civil Rights Era segregation was particularly harsh, and where race-related civil disturbances drew national attention through much of the 1960's -- Ms. Tubman's courage is acknowledged and celebrated by residents of all backgrounds. I take that as a sign of progress, and as reason for hope.
The "Take My Hand" mural on the side of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, on Race Street in downtown Cambridge, shows Ms. Tubman, standing next to a rowboat, with an Eastern Shore creek behind her, reaching out toward the viewer. She reaches out to us still, inviting us to join her in the quest to achieve freedom for all people.
Because Clinton published this book in 2004, she was not able to include some other indicators of Harriet Tubman’s ongoing influence – e.g., Kasi Lemmons’s Oscar-nominated biographical film Harriet (2019), or plans for Tubman’s likeness to replace that of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. But Clinton’s Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom is certainly an important step in encouraging greater understanding of the work and the contributions of this great American.
Clinton, a professor of history at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), has focused in her career on Southern U.S. women’s history, and therefore her focus on this particularly heroic African American woman from the Southern U.S. is well-considered. In looking at Tubman’s early years as an enslaved person in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Clinton not only captures the difficulties and traumas of Tubman’s early years – e.g., the severe head injury that she suffered when a slaveholder threw a heavy lead object at an enslaved person who was running from a store – but also emphasizes the specific historical context within which Tubman moved from enslaved person to self-liberated anti-slavery activist.
The threats to enslaved people went beyond the obvious threats to life and health – for instance, the fact that “The mortality rate for black children in the Chesapeake during the first half of the nineteenth century was double that of white infants” (p. 12). One threat, which specifically targeted the unity of enslaved families, related to a provision in the U.S. Constitution at the time of its ratification in 1788: “By 1808 [14 years before Tubman’s birth in 1822], the external slave trade was prohibited due to constitutional mandate” (p. 12). Clinton notes that “When the international slave trade ended, the enslaved population in America was not quite 2 million” (p. 12); at that time, slavery was becoming less profitable in Upper South states like Maryland and Virginia, even as it was becoming more profitable in Lower South states like Alabama and Mississippi.
A domestic slave trade developed, as Upper South slaveholders sold enslaved people to slave traders who would convey their unfortunate prisoners down to the hellish conditions of Deep South plantations. Tubman experienced this horror of Southern slavery for herself, as two of her sisters were sold off by just this means. On the one hand, slaveholders saw enslaved children as “a means of anchoring adult slaves on the plantation. Owners believed parenthood reduced the rate of runaways.” On the other hand, “Slaveholders treated slave children as commodities” (p. 13), and did not hesitate to break up enslaved families if doing so seemed like the “profitable” thing to do.
Against the drudgery and hopelessness of slavery, and the brutal punishments that could be meted out at a slaveholder’s whim, Harriet’s faith sustained her. “Growing from a girl into a young woman, Araminta [Tubman's original name] experienced an intensification of her Christian faith, a deep and abiding spiritual foundation that remained with her throughout her life” (p. 20). That depth of religious faith sustained Harriet Tubman through many travails, many harrowing experiences, as she worked to free people from slavery.
Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom benefits from observations that Clinton shares regarding what she observed in the course of her research, as when she describes the still-extant village store where Tubman suffered her head injury:
On a deserted road in Dorchester County, a small wooden structure, once a store, can still be found. The building has a porch and ceilings too low for anyone over six feet to stand upright. At the small crossroads of Bucktown, Maryland, only the asphalt and telegraph lines, plus an occasional passing car, suggest it is a later century than Tubman’s. A sense of the past haunts this secluded spot. Even on a bright day, the place has an air of melancholy. (p. 21)
The slaveholder who held Tubman in bondage died in 1849. Facing an uncertain future that included the possibility of being “sold south” as two of her sisters had, Tubman resolved to escape from slavery. “Years later, Tubman likened her decision to an epiphany: ‘I had reasoned this out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other’” (p. 28).
It provided a measure of hope for any enslaved person seeking to escape that “By the 1840’s, informal networks were well established, as was the reigning metaphor of the Underground Railroad (UGRR)” (p. 31). Tubman successfully made her escape to the free-state city of Philadelphia, and “Once freed, Araminta decided to take a new first name: Harriet. This was the name of her mother, and may also have been the name of one of her sisters who disappeared in the South” (p. 29).
Yet this escape was only a beginning to Tubman’s anti-slavery activism. Not long after her escape to Philadelphia, the United States Congress passed a strengthened Fugitive Slave Law: “Blacks and abolitionists nicknamed it the Bloodhound Law” (p. 43). Opposing to the Bloodhound Law and its enforcers were the “Promoters of the liberty lines”, UGRR activists who “echoed the sentiments of America’s founders: impassioned opposition to tyranny and oppression” (p. 52).
Tubman opposed the strengthened pro-slavery laws on the most practical level possible. She became known as “the Moses of her people” for the way she repeatedly journeyed back into the slave South to lead mass escapes of enslaved people. Her determination was absolute. On one mass escape, when one enslaved man decided to turn back and return to the plantation, Tubman realized that the man’s impulse “would compromise the entire operation” (p. 69) and put a gun to the man’s head, saying, “Move or die.” The man moved, and it became widely known that if you set forth with Harriet Tubman on one of her mass escapes, you might go North to freedom, and you might go to Heaven, but you were not going back to slavery.
Clinton chronicles the friendship between Tubman and John Brown – kindred spirits who sensed each other’s anti-slavery militancy. Tubman supported Brown’s plan for a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, and even when the plan went awry, “Tubman never wavered in her support” for Brown. For her, “Brown was someone with whom she had felt a special kinship, and someone whose loss was deeply personal”; moreover, “his death in some ways reinforced her own prophetic powers, as she had witnessed his demise in a dream” (pp. 101-02).
When the American Civil War began, Tubman’s anti-slavery career took a new direction. She traveled south to South Carolina, where she treated ill and wounded ex-slaves in coastal areas that had been liberated by Union forces. Yet her gift for covert operations against slavery found an outlet in one last great campaign of liberation – the Combahee River Raid of June 1863. Tubman served as a scout on this expedition of 150 African American soldiers of the U.S. Army, guiding two Union ships up the river. The expedition freed more than 750 enslaved people from Confederate plantations, and then Tubman led the ships safely back down the river to Union-held territory. The success of the raid raised morale in the North, and embarrassed the Confederates. As Clinton dryly puts it, “Moses was alive and well – and ‘above ground’ in the war to end slavery” (p. 128).
Later chapters of Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom discuss Tubman’s retirement to Auburn after Union victory in the war, as well as her continued humanitarian and philanthrophic activities like her work “to establish a separate charitable institution in Auburn for the needy and neglected of her race” (p. 150). To the end of her life, she never stopped fighting to provide relief, succor, and help for those who had known, and were still fighting, oppression.
A thoughtful final chapter, “Harriet Tubman’s Legacy,” provides a thoughtful look at how Tubman and her times are interpreted – everything from women’s shelters that bear her name, to arguments over whether a “billboard-sized portrait” of Tubman in her native state of Maryland should or should not show her holding a rifle. As Clinton points out, “Tubman died the same year that Rosa Parks was born” (p. 159) – a telling indicator of the continuity of this nation’s civil-rights history.
On a recent journey to Dorchester County, Maryland, I had the opportunity to visit the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad visitor center, part of a park that is jointly administered by the National Park Service and the Maryland Park Service. The visitor center was open, with state employees staffing it, in spite of the ongoing government shutdown -- something that I can't help thinking Ms. Tubman would have liked -- and its exhibits provide eloquent testimony to the heroism and courage Ms. Tubman exhibited during her repeated trips down and back up the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
In nearby Cambridge, Maryland -- a city where pre-Civil Rights Era segregation was particularly harsh, and where race-related civil disturbances drew national attention through much of the 1960's -- Ms. Tubman's courage is acknowledged and celebrated by residents of all backgrounds. I take that as a sign of progress, and as reason for hope.
The "Take My Hand" mural on the side of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, on Race Street in downtown Cambridge, shows Ms. Tubman, standing next to a rowboat, with an Eastern Shore creek behind her, reaching out toward the viewer. She reaches out to us still, inviting us to join her in the quest to achieve freedom for all people.
Because Clinton published this book in 2004, she was not able to include some other indicators of Harriet Tubman’s ongoing influence – e.g., Kasi Lemmons’s Oscar-nominated biographical film Harriet (2019), or plans for Tubman’s likeness to replace that of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. But Clinton’s Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom is certainly an important step in encouraging greater understanding of the work and the contributions of this great American.
November 6, 2019
Tubman was illiterate, so she didn’t write her own story of her escape from slavery and subsequent work with the Underground Railroad. She was also self effacing and reluctant to exclaim her accomplishments as an advocate for former slaves or as a nurse and spy during the Civil War. Furthermore, work with the Underground Railroad was secretive and many records either were not kept or were lost. These factors combine to limit the availability of factual information about Tubman. Nevertheless, the author managed to write a comprehensive book that covered both the facts and myths surrounding Tubman’s life and work. There is also a lot of information about the abolitionist movement and the participation of African American soldiers in the Civil War. Before this, I had read only fictional depictions of Tubman, so this book was very informative.
March 11, 2016
"If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going' if you are hungry, keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going." - Harriet Tubman
I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one or two things I had a right to, liberty or death; If I could not have one, I would have the other. Harriet Tubman
Born and named Araminta by her parents, she later took her Mother's Name (and possibly the name of one of her sisters), Harriett after she became free. "When Araminta escaped the hell of slavery for the "heaven" of liberty, she had "crossed the line of which she had so long been dreaming," and was reborn as Harriet."
What a fierce strong woman! Calling her fierce feels like an understatement. How does an individual born into slavery, be beaten and whipped, had family members sold never to be seen again, gather that little bit of something from down deep inside to make such a stand in life.
Not only did she help run the underground railroad, she served as nurse and spy in the Civil war, she was present at battles, she risked her life time and time again in the pursuit of freedom not just for herself, but for all slaves. She was also a strong supporter of women's rights and fought hard to be treated as an equal.
Harriet Tubman referred to as the Moses of her people led over 300 slaves to freedom. She was known for carrying a gun and was reported as placing the gun to the head of a man who decided he would go back to the plantation and take his chances. She told he something to the effect of be free or die. In battle during the civil war , she was often refereed to as "a black woman" her name never given but it is estimated that she helped 700 slaves be freed during the Combahee raid.
She was known for her ability to blend in, she was smart, courageous., she put others first. Again and again while reading this book, I kept asking myself, " where did she get it?" The "it" being that spark, that drive, that fight. I recall the words of a family member of mine who is a Holocaust survivor. She often says " I have already lost everything that can be lost. I have have had taken, everything that can possibly be taken" I think this applies to Harriet Tubman. Born into slavery, beaten, she suffered a severe head wound when when a slaveholder was attempting to discipline another slave, she dug down deep inside of herself, in her own quiet way, she fought back.
She was deeply religious. The book tells how she often turned to God for help and guidance the way some might turn to a friend. She is quoted as saying that God never let her down. In her words she said "twaisn't me, twas the lord! I always told him, "I trust to you. I don't where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me" and he always did. She is refereed to as the Moses of her people. The book states she believed she was doing the Lord's bidding.
This was an extremely educational book. I will admit that at times it felt like I was reading a school history book, but overall I enjoyed this book. There were times I thought the book would go off on a tangent and then bring things back to the point.
Overall a very inspirational read. I think books such as this should be taught in women's studies courses (also in history courses, black history course, etc.) but as a woman, I see Harriet Tubman's life as inspirational and shows what a woman can do; What a woman is capable of.
I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one or two things I had a right to, liberty or death; If I could not have one, I would have the other. Harriet Tubman
Born and named Araminta by her parents, she later took her Mother's Name (and possibly the name of one of her sisters), Harriett after she became free. "When Araminta escaped the hell of slavery for the "heaven" of liberty, she had "crossed the line of which she had so long been dreaming," and was reborn as Harriet."
What a fierce strong woman! Calling her fierce feels like an understatement. How does an individual born into slavery, be beaten and whipped, had family members sold never to be seen again, gather that little bit of something from down deep inside to make such a stand in life.
Not only did she help run the underground railroad, she served as nurse and spy in the Civil war, she was present at battles, she risked her life time and time again in the pursuit of freedom not just for herself, but for all slaves. She was also a strong supporter of women's rights and fought hard to be treated as an equal.
Harriet Tubman referred to as the Moses of her people led over 300 slaves to freedom. She was known for carrying a gun and was reported as placing the gun to the head of a man who decided he would go back to the plantation and take his chances. She told he something to the effect of be free or die. In battle during the civil war , she was often refereed to as "a black woman" her name never given but it is estimated that she helped 700 slaves be freed during the Combahee raid.
She was known for her ability to blend in, she was smart, courageous., she put others first. Again and again while reading this book, I kept asking myself, " where did she get it?" The "it" being that spark, that drive, that fight. I recall the words of a family member of mine who is a Holocaust survivor. She often says " I have already lost everything that can be lost. I have have had taken, everything that can possibly be taken" I think this applies to Harriet Tubman. Born into slavery, beaten, she suffered a severe head wound when when a slaveholder was attempting to discipline another slave, she dug down deep inside of herself, in her own quiet way, she fought back.
She was deeply religious. The book tells how she often turned to God for help and guidance the way some might turn to a friend. She is quoted as saying that God never let her down. In her words she said "twaisn't me, twas the lord! I always told him, "I trust to you. I don't where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me" and he always did. She is refereed to as the Moses of her people. The book states she believed she was doing the Lord's bidding.
This was an extremely educational book. I will admit that at times it felt like I was reading a school history book, but overall I enjoyed this book. There were times I thought the book would go off on a tangent and then bring things back to the point.
Overall a very inspirational read. I think books such as this should be taught in women's studies courses (also in history courses, black history course, etc.) but as a woman, I see Harriet Tubman's life as inspirational and shows what a woman can do; What a woman is capable of.
January 22, 2020
Harriet Tubman is famed for her work with the Underground Railroad, as a scout, spy and nurse during the Civil War and after the war her engagement in the suffragette movement and the establishment of homes for the disadvantaged, ill, aged and poor people of color. At birth, born into slavery and before emancipation, she went by the name of Araminta Ross. Her moniker? She came to be called the “Moses of her people”. She brought at least three hundred people out of slavery. To her credit must also be added the lives saved of 750 slaves in the 1863 Combahee River Raid, in South Carolina during the Civil War; she played an instrumental role as adviser and scout.
Although illiterate, her oratory had the ability to move people to get them to fight for the emancipation cause. These are Harriet Tubman’s words:
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the world."
"If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going."
I am sure you have heard them before, but did you know these were her words?! Pretty marvelous stuff!
The book is comprehensive; it covers her entire life as well as relevant information concerning the Underground Railroad, its organization and leaders, Tubman’s involvement in the Civil War, and furthermore, the laws passed to bring about the end of slavery.
There is one problem. It is very difficult to separate truth from myth, in regard to this woman and her deeds. Born a slave the year of her birth is not recorded. Illiterate, she could not write of her actions and experiences herself. Working with the Underground Railroad and as a spy during the Civil War, much is clouded in secrecy. I wish the author had more often stated her source material. I can only hope that what has been stated is correct, and that myth has now finally been separated from fact.
Shayna Small narrates the audiobook. The speed at which she reads varies. Not all, but a large portion is read way too fast. This is a book of non-fiction and it is difficult to absorb a large quantity of information at the rapid speed at which it is relayed here. The words are clearly spoken. Some people are fine with fast talk, but I am not. For this reason, I have rated the narration one star.
*********************''
*American Legends: The Life of Harriet Tubman 3 stars
*Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom 4 stars
Although illiterate, her oratory had the ability to move people to get them to fight for the emancipation cause. These are Harriet Tubman’s words:
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the world."
"If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going."
I am sure you have heard them before, but did you know these were her words?! Pretty marvelous stuff!
The book is comprehensive; it covers her entire life as well as relevant information concerning the Underground Railroad, its organization and leaders, Tubman’s involvement in the Civil War, and furthermore, the laws passed to bring about the end of slavery.
There is one problem. It is very difficult to separate truth from myth, in regard to this woman and her deeds. Born a slave the year of her birth is not recorded. Illiterate, she could not write of her actions and experiences herself. Working with the Underground Railroad and as a spy during the Civil War, much is clouded in secrecy. I wish the author had more often stated her source material. I can only hope that what has been stated is correct, and that myth has now finally been separated from fact.
Shayna Small narrates the audiobook. The speed at which she reads varies. Not all, but a large portion is read way too fast. This is a book of non-fiction and it is difficult to absorb a large quantity of information at the rapid speed at which it is relayed here. The words are clearly spoken. Some people are fine with fast talk, but I am not. For this reason, I have rated the narration one star.
*********************''
*American Legends: The Life of Harriet Tubman 3 stars
*Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom 4 stars
January 31, 2016
Surprisingly influential in my understanding of feminism, activism, and intersectionality: inspired by Tubman's life's work and the ways selected pieces have been elevated or eliminated from the historical narrative. Couple with Bell Hooks and Michelle Alexander writing about Radical Love for a complete nourishing meal.
This is a repost of a reflection I wrote in my zine, Ladders & Hips, back in 2008.
Tubman
Take the example of Harriett Tubman. Tubman has been mythologized by white biographers and public school teachers into a mythical heroine. She was the superwoman who ran back into slave country dozens of times to lead other enslaved people to freedom, risking her own life and freedom for theirs. While this myth is based in (an incredible fucking awesome) reality, it whitewashes over the complexity of Tubman’s diverse activism, and it strips away her humanity by making her some kind of unattainable soldier of the movement. By rediscovering the depth of Tubman’s activism and the ongoing (even to present-day!) nature of the causes she devoted most of her energy to, Tubman’s work becomes relevant—and dangerous—again. And by learning the emotional motivations and connections that Tubman had with her activism, she becomes a practical role model for serious activists today, someone who did incredible things with incredible courage, but courage that was based in relationships to her community, not just some innate fearlessness.
When Harriett Tubman went back South, she went back for her family. With each raid she tried to undermine enslavement as much as possible and provide access to freedom to any enslaved person who could safely come with her or hear her direction, but throughout that dangerous revolutionary work was the personal motivation and connection to her family. Tubman may never have been a mother, but she fiercely enacted her roles as daughter, sister, and caretaker/ward of her entire family. This devotion to keeping a family together is itself a rebellion against the physical and psychic aspects of slavery. In deconstructing the myth of Tubman an a warrior-mother to the entire African American people, we find a person who was in fact working out of motherly devotion to her own family as well as for her own greater political and philosophical causes. This brings her out fo the realm of fantasy. Tubman was not an unemotional, war-savvy guerilla—she was a complex and profoundly loving war-savvy guerrilla!
Tubman attacked enslavement at white supremacy on all fronts, throwing her body and soul at whatever fight was most accessible or most pressing at any one time. Yes, other abolitionists collected money, worked the underground railroad, cared for newly freed people, organized against discrimination, tended the sick and elderly, gave countless speeches, worked odd jobs to be self-sufficient, and even erupted in violent armed struggle. But Tubman did all of these things!
Whereas the wealthy neglected solidarity towards freed people’s poverty and job discrimination; whereas men refused care duties as women’s work and women refused fighting as men’s work; whereas the young neglected the old and infirm; whereas in all walks of the movement people hid behind their privileges as both excuses to avoid doing the work they could do and in an effort to maintain those privileges despite their commitment to pieces of Black and women’s liberation—Tubman followed through. She was a true revolutionary. She actively deconstructed hierarchies in society and also within her own movement by showing that no work was too small nor too great for her. Her commitment to enslaved people ran beyond simple emancipation to a true end of their oppression, meaning economic justice and security as well as an end to racial and gendered discrimination.
This is a repost of a reflection I wrote in my zine, Ladders & Hips, back in 2008.
Tubman
Take the example of Harriett Tubman. Tubman has been mythologized by white biographers and public school teachers into a mythical heroine. She was the superwoman who ran back into slave country dozens of times to lead other enslaved people to freedom, risking her own life and freedom for theirs. While this myth is based in (an incredible fucking awesome) reality, it whitewashes over the complexity of Tubman’s diverse activism, and it strips away her humanity by making her some kind of unattainable soldier of the movement. By rediscovering the depth of Tubman’s activism and the ongoing (even to present-day!) nature of the causes she devoted most of her energy to, Tubman’s work becomes relevant—and dangerous—again. And by learning the emotional motivations and connections that Tubman had with her activism, she becomes a practical role model for serious activists today, someone who did incredible things with incredible courage, but courage that was based in relationships to her community, not just some innate fearlessness.
When Harriett Tubman went back South, she went back for her family. With each raid she tried to undermine enslavement as much as possible and provide access to freedom to any enslaved person who could safely come with her or hear her direction, but throughout that dangerous revolutionary work was the personal motivation and connection to her family. Tubman may never have been a mother, but she fiercely enacted her roles as daughter, sister, and caretaker/ward of her entire family. This devotion to keeping a family together is itself a rebellion against the physical and psychic aspects of slavery. In deconstructing the myth of Tubman an a warrior-mother to the entire African American people, we find a person who was in fact working out of motherly devotion to her own family as well as for her own greater political and philosophical causes. This brings her out fo the realm of fantasy. Tubman was not an unemotional, war-savvy guerilla—she was a complex and profoundly loving war-savvy guerrilla!
Tubman attacked enslavement at white supremacy on all fronts, throwing her body and soul at whatever fight was most accessible or most pressing at any one time. Yes, other abolitionists collected money, worked the underground railroad, cared for newly freed people, organized against discrimination, tended the sick and elderly, gave countless speeches, worked odd jobs to be self-sufficient, and even erupted in violent armed struggle. But Tubman did all of these things!
Whereas the wealthy neglected solidarity towards freed people’s poverty and job discrimination; whereas men refused care duties as women’s work and women refused fighting as men’s work; whereas the young neglected the old and infirm; whereas in all walks of the movement people hid behind their privileges as both excuses to avoid doing the work they could do and in an effort to maintain those privileges despite their commitment to pieces of Black and women’s liberation—Tubman followed through. She was a true revolutionary. She actively deconstructed hierarchies in society and also within her own movement by showing that no work was too small nor too great for her. Her commitment to enslaved people ran beyond simple emancipation to a true end of their oppression, meaning economic justice and security as well as an end to racial and gendered discrimination.
May 25, 2023
2.5 stars
What was included about Tubman was good, but I felt this book just did not have enough information on her. Actual information about Harriet Tubman did not start until the middle of the book and even then was watered down with information about a number of other people. I know those people crossed paths with Tubman, and had there been information about Tubman all the way through the book, I might have been more accepting. Personally I was not a fan of this book.
What was included about Tubman was good, but I felt this book just did not have enough information on her. Actual information about Harriet Tubman did not start until the middle of the book and even then was watered down with information about a number of other people. I know those people crossed paths with Tubman, and had there been information about Tubman all the way through the book, I might have been more accepting. Personally I was not a fan of this book.
May 24, 2023
This is a facinating account of the life of Harriet Tubman who grew up as a slave, escaped to the north and kept going back to Maryland to bring other slaves to New York and Canada. She was relentless. She was also a great asset to the north in the Civil war, going in to the south to take care of the black soldiers. It didn't end there. She continued to raise awareness to other causes such as womens rights and took many destitute, sick and homeless people in to her home and cared for them.
The author did a tremendous amount of research for this book on a true American hero.
The author did a tremendous amount of research for this book on a true American hero.
March 1, 2021
I picked this up alongside another Harriet Tubman bio, Bound for the Promised Land, and wound up primarily reading that one while alternately reading and skimming this. Both biographers emphasize the fact that when they published, there had been no adult biography of Tubman written since the 1940s—I wonder how they felt upon finding that someone else was publishing another one the same year! There is no indication they read each other’s work, though ultimately they’re pretty similar.
Unfortunately, both bios are on the dry side and contain a lot of “might have felt” sort of speculation, and there doesn’t seem to be enough information available about Tubman for biographers to have different interpretations of her. She was illiterate throughout her life and so the available sources are largely biographies and newspaper articles published during her life, letters exchanged by her white friends, and public records and general information about the period. However, Larson’s biography, being a bit longer (with a text of 295 pages in hardcover as opposed to 221 here) contains more comprehensive analysis, significantly more information about the nearly 50 years of Tubman’s life after the Civil War (which get only one chapter here), and some useful maps. Clinton does paint more colorful pictures of some of the side characters in Tubman’s life and related historical events, but I found her seemingly abrupt changes of topic off-putting. This is not a bad choice if you’re looking for a short bio of a well-known historical figure, but overall I found Larson’s work to be the better one.
Unfortunately, both bios are on the dry side and contain a lot of “might have felt” sort of speculation, and there doesn’t seem to be enough information available about Tubman for biographers to have different interpretations of her. She was illiterate throughout her life and so the available sources are largely biographies and newspaper articles published during her life, letters exchanged by her white friends, and public records and general information about the period. However, Larson’s biography, being a bit longer (with a text of 295 pages in hardcover as opposed to 221 here) contains more comprehensive analysis, significantly more information about the nearly 50 years of Tubman’s life after the Civil War (which get only one chapter here), and some useful maps. Clinton does paint more colorful pictures of some of the side characters in Tubman’s life and related historical events, but I found her seemingly abrupt changes of topic off-putting. This is not a bad choice if you’re looking for a short bio of a well-known historical figure, but overall I found Larson’s work to be the better one.
September 22, 2022
I learned so much about Harriet Tubman that I didn’t know and this is like the third Harriet Tubman book I’ve read (unfortunately the literature is still way to dearth on this saint). It of course made me want to learn more about her and her life. I continue to be awed and amazed by her and disappointed at the reverence her peers get for talking about abolition verses the reverence and support for her legacy that she gets having actually oh I don’t actually personally helped others break their chains. Oh yeah and the more I learn of John Tubman the more I dislike him and his death was an example of poetic justice. He got just what he asked for.
December 25, 2015
What people sometimes forget is that Harriet Tubman held a gun to the head of slaves who wanted to stop, to quit, to return to their masters or lay stranded in the forest. This book is a reminder of that harsh woman, of the enduring person who would not take no for an answer.
July 8, 2015
I've been reading a fair amount about slavery, slave resistance and abolitionism in the midwest lately, and so enjoyed a break from that to read about its east coast counterpart.
Since this is the first large text I've ever read about Harriet Tubman (and the first of any sort since grade school), it's hard for me to tell where this biography of hers lies in terms of others or her life itself.
One of the main impressions I was left with from this book was that of Harriet Tubman's incredibly strength. I know it sounds cliche, but story after story of her endurance and tenacity left me in shock thinking about it. On all levels too: physical, psychological, emotional, etc.
From back-breaking field work (like splitting wood) to trudging through the freezing cold with a group of runaways to planning and carrying out rescues and physically fighting slave owners, slave catchers and police. (Heads up, a number of these anecdotes involve intense violence--a cornerstone of chattel slavery and capitalism).
The other impression was that Harriet had a strong sense of what she thought was right and wrong--and despite her age or being outnumbered at times--she was often willing to stand up for herself and those around her:
"When Araminta [Harriet] was an adolescent, she was hired out to work on the harvest for a man named Barrett. When another slave, a male coworker, left the fields and headed toward Bucktown, the overseer followed. Araminta raced ahead to warn her fellow field hand, knowing there would be trouble....
The overseer was determined to punish the field hand who had deserted his post with a whipping. In the confusion of the confrontation, the frightened slave bolted from the store. As the slave made haste, Araminta reportedly blocked the angry overseer's path of pursuit by standing in the doorway--just as he picked up a lead weight from the counter and threw it at the escapee.... Araminta's wound was deep and severe.
She later recalled that she had been wearing a covering on her head, and when the weight struck her it 'broke my skull and cut a piece of that shawl off and drove it into my head. They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they lay me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all that day and the next.'"
Sometime after this confrontation, Harriet starting falling into deep sleeps and having visions. Many biographers seem to think the wound made her suffer from narcolepsy--something that happened frequently, including on reconnaissance and spy missions, and leading runaways at night.
Fast forward 20 years to her first mob slave-rescue, that of Charles Nalle. Nalle was a runaway from Virginia living in Troy, New York. His own brother, a free person of color working as a slave catcher, tracked him down and had him arrested. With a large abolitionist crowd gathered outside the courthouse, no one was allowed into the court proceedings, but Harriet, using one of her common old-woman disguises, wormed her way in. When the judge ruled against Nalle, Nalle immediately ran towards the window and tried to jump to supporters below. Guards prevented this and kept a tight hold on him.
"Whirling out of her shawl and grabbing hold of Nalle, [Harriet] wrenched him free and dragged him down the stairs into the waiting arms of comrades assembled below.... 'She was repeatedly beaten over the head with policeman's clubs, but she never for a moment released her hold... until they were literally worn out with their exertions and Nalle was separated from them.'"
I've been hit by cops before, but never to the point where they couldn't go on from exhaustion--jesus! This is the sort of unbelievable fortitude I'm talking about.
Nalle was spirited away to a ferry full of almost 400 abolitionists, but the ferry was overtaken by police and Nalle re-arrested. When Tubman caught up with the crowd, she rallied them to re-storm the courthouse.
"'At last, the door was pulled open by an immense Negro and in a moment he was felled by the hatchet in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Morrison; but the body of the fallen man blocked up the door so that it could not be shut.'"
At this point, Harriet and a group of black women rushed the room, grabbed Nalle, pushed him back out and loaded him into a wagon heading out of town--successfully getting him out of the hands of the state and off to 'freedom'.
Part of the book I found most interesting, was Tubman's relationship with John Brown. Tubman had had a vision of meeting Brown (and his martyrdom) before they met, and the two hit it off when they did. Both saw themselves as being guiding by god to combat and destroy slavery (according to this book, Tubman thought god guided her to do almost everything, even small things throughout her day) and Brown soon began calling her 'General Tubman', sadly an exceptional title of esteem for a black abolitionist woman at the time.
It's possible Tubman was going to join Brown and others at Harper's Ferry, but the date being pushed back repeatedly, poor communication and Tubman being sick with a fever (likely from her adolescent head injury) made it so she missed out. Had she gone, she would have been one of a handful of black insurgents at Harper's Ferry, the only woman, likely would have been killed or executed and would have been saved from the biggest compromise that most abolitionists made shortly after--reversing their decades-long condemnation of the United States and joining the Union cause in the Civil War.
At this point, my criticisms of Tubman become somewhat generic ones of abolitionists at the time in general. Some of which are very clear from hindsight, but others they should have known better about.
Tubman joined the Union Army-- at first as a nurse, administering mainly herbal medicine made from local plants (one of many amazing skills Tubman seems to have just taught herself).
She later served as a spy and a guide on a couple of plantation raids--one of which returned over 750 slaves in one night, setting fire to the plantations they'd runaway from. To do so she utilized skills, communication methods and contacts from her UGRR days. The troops following her were also some opf the first black soldiers in the U.S. Army since the 1700s. Moments like this are still powerful, but also somewhat gross since they were done under the American flag.
After the Civil War, Harriet returned home to New York and more or less lived in poverty--the American government refusing to acknowledge her work in the military and denying her a pension for almost 30 years. If not for rich white friends she met during her years as an abolitionist, Tubman would have been even more destitute.
Speaking of rich, white friends, at least as far as I've been able to tell from memoirs and newspapers, very few abolitionists were (at least openly) critical of class outside of chattel slavery. Tons of abolitionists bankrolling the fight against slavery were wealthy merchants and soon to be at the helm of American exploitation. A number too took the bait of joining local and federal governments and militias and the military--who after the fight against chattel slavery was over went on to do things like lead military massacres against native peoples in the plains and west.
At least according to this book, Tubman after the Civil War remained patriotic to America, a country that forced her into slavery and when that ended left her in poverty. (Any one know of any abolitionists or slaves who refused to join the Civil War because [rightfully so] not trusting the government? Or who were critical of both chattel and wage slavery?)
A final quibble or two: In a lot of slave narratives (not written by former slaves themselves), the slaves are racistly portrayed as talking like "dis" and "dat". It's super offensive, and to be clear, it's not how black people talked then, *it's how racists back then perceived black people as talking*. All of that is to say, an official plaque dedicated to Tubman in her adopted hometown of Auburn, New York reads, "With implicit trust in God she braved every danger and overcame every obstacle, withal she possessed extraordinary foresight and judgement so that she truthfully said, 'On my Underground Railroad I nebber run my train off de track and I nebber los a passenger.'" Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck that.
And now are they really going to put her on money? Something she was bought and sold and traded with and she herself was denied most of her life? They condemn the best of us when we're alive, and canonize us when we're safe and dead.
Since this is the first large text I've ever read about Harriet Tubman (and the first of any sort since grade school), it's hard for me to tell where this biography of hers lies in terms of others or her life itself.
One of the main impressions I was left with from this book was that of Harriet Tubman's incredibly strength. I know it sounds cliche, but story after story of her endurance and tenacity left me in shock thinking about it. On all levels too: physical, psychological, emotional, etc.
From back-breaking field work (like splitting wood) to trudging through the freezing cold with a group of runaways to planning and carrying out rescues and physically fighting slave owners, slave catchers and police. (Heads up, a number of these anecdotes involve intense violence--a cornerstone of chattel slavery and capitalism).
The other impression was that Harriet had a strong sense of what she thought was right and wrong--and despite her age or being outnumbered at times--she was often willing to stand up for herself and those around her:
"When Araminta [Harriet] was an adolescent, she was hired out to work on the harvest for a man named Barrett. When another slave, a male coworker, left the fields and headed toward Bucktown, the overseer followed. Araminta raced ahead to warn her fellow field hand, knowing there would be trouble....
The overseer was determined to punish the field hand who had deserted his post with a whipping. In the confusion of the confrontation, the frightened slave bolted from the store. As the slave made haste, Araminta reportedly blocked the angry overseer's path of pursuit by standing in the doorway--just as he picked up a lead weight from the counter and threw it at the escapee.... Araminta's wound was deep and severe.
She later recalled that she had been wearing a covering on her head, and when the weight struck her it 'broke my skull and cut a piece of that shawl off and drove it into my head. They carried me to the house all bleeding and fainting. I had no bed, no place to lie down on at all, and they lay me on the seat of the loom, and I stayed there all that day and the next.'"
Sometime after this confrontation, Harriet starting falling into deep sleeps and having visions. Many biographers seem to think the wound made her suffer from narcolepsy--something that happened frequently, including on reconnaissance and spy missions, and leading runaways at night.
Fast forward 20 years to her first mob slave-rescue, that of Charles Nalle. Nalle was a runaway from Virginia living in Troy, New York. His own brother, a free person of color working as a slave catcher, tracked him down and had him arrested. With a large abolitionist crowd gathered outside the courthouse, no one was allowed into the court proceedings, but Harriet, using one of her common old-woman disguises, wormed her way in. When the judge ruled against Nalle, Nalle immediately ran towards the window and tried to jump to supporters below. Guards prevented this and kept a tight hold on him.
"Whirling out of her shawl and grabbing hold of Nalle, [Harriet] wrenched him free and dragged him down the stairs into the waiting arms of comrades assembled below.... 'She was repeatedly beaten over the head with policeman's clubs, but she never for a moment released her hold... until they were literally worn out with their exertions and Nalle was separated from them.'"
I've been hit by cops before, but never to the point where they couldn't go on from exhaustion--jesus! This is the sort of unbelievable fortitude I'm talking about.
Nalle was spirited away to a ferry full of almost 400 abolitionists, but the ferry was overtaken by police and Nalle re-arrested. When Tubman caught up with the crowd, she rallied them to re-storm the courthouse.
"'At last, the door was pulled open by an immense Negro and in a moment he was felled by the hatchet in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Morrison; but the body of the fallen man blocked up the door so that it could not be shut.'"
At this point, Harriet and a group of black women rushed the room, grabbed Nalle, pushed him back out and loaded him into a wagon heading out of town--successfully getting him out of the hands of the state and off to 'freedom'.
Part of the book I found most interesting, was Tubman's relationship with John Brown. Tubman had had a vision of meeting Brown (and his martyrdom) before they met, and the two hit it off when they did. Both saw themselves as being guiding by god to combat and destroy slavery (according to this book, Tubman thought god guided her to do almost everything, even small things throughout her day) and Brown soon began calling her 'General Tubman', sadly an exceptional title of esteem for a black abolitionist woman at the time.
It's possible Tubman was going to join Brown and others at Harper's Ferry, but the date being pushed back repeatedly, poor communication and Tubman being sick with a fever (likely from her adolescent head injury) made it so she missed out. Had she gone, she would have been one of a handful of black insurgents at Harper's Ferry, the only woman, likely would have been killed or executed and would have been saved from the biggest compromise that most abolitionists made shortly after--reversing their decades-long condemnation of the United States and joining the Union cause in the Civil War.
At this point, my criticisms of Tubman become somewhat generic ones of abolitionists at the time in general. Some of which are very clear from hindsight, but others they should have known better about.
Tubman joined the Union Army-- at first as a nurse, administering mainly herbal medicine made from local plants (one of many amazing skills Tubman seems to have just taught herself).
She later served as a spy and a guide on a couple of plantation raids--one of which returned over 750 slaves in one night, setting fire to the plantations they'd runaway from. To do so she utilized skills, communication methods and contacts from her UGRR days. The troops following her were also some opf the first black soldiers in the U.S. Army since the 1700s. Moments like this are still powerful, but also somewhat gross since they were done under the American flag.
After the Civil War, Harriet returned home to New York and more or less lived in poverty--the American government refusing to acknowledge her work in the military and denying her a pension for almost 30 years. If not for rich white friends she met during her years as an abolitionist, Tubman would have been even more destitute.
Speaking of rich, white friends, at least as far as I've been able to tell from memoirs and newspapers, very few abolitionists were (at least openly) critical of class outside of chattel slavery. Tons of abolitionists bankrolling the fight against slavery were wealthy merchants and soon to be at the helm of American exploitation. A number too took the bait of joining local and federal governments and militias and the military--who after the fight against chattel slavery was over went on to do things like lead military massacres against native peoples in the plains and west.
At least according to this book, Tubman after the Civil War remained patriotic to America, a country that forced her into slavery and when that ended left her in poverty. (Any one know of any abolitionists or slaves who refused to join the Civil War because [rightfully so] not trusting the government? Or who were critical of both chattel and wage slavery?)
A final quibble or two: In a lot of slave narratives (not written by former slaves themselves), the slaves are racistly portrayed as talking like "dis" and "dat". It's super offensive, and to be clear, it's not how black people talked then, *it's how racists back then perceived black people as talking*. All of that is to say, an official plaque dedicated to Tubman in her adopted hometown of Auburn, New York reads, "With implicit trust in God she braved every danger and overcame every obstacle, withal she possessed extraordinary foresight and judgement so that she truthfully said, 'On my Underground Railroad I nebber run my train off de track and I nebber los a passenger.'" Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck that.
And now are they really going to put her on money? Something she was bought and sold and traded with and she herself was denied most of her life? They condemn the best of us when we're alive, and canonize us when we're safe and dead.
January 20, 2022
Due of Harriet Tubman’s fame, we tend to forget her unparalleled courageousness and the life-threatening risks she took in shepherding the enslaved to freedom. Whatever admiration you may already have for Tubman, it will be amplified after reading Catherine Clinton’s page-turning biography. She captures Tubman’s heroism with a thrilling subtlety that honors her towering importance in American history.
Escaping bondage in Maryland in 1849, Tubman spent the next decade venturing back into the hotbed of the South to guide fugitives to safety along the stations of the Underground Railroad. A severe head injury in her adolescence caused her to experience uncontrolled spells of momentary sleep where she drifted from midsentence into unconsciousness. These episodes may have contributed to her mighty visions and dreams about leading her people and to her belief that she was carrying out God’s mission as a 19th century Moses.
Tubman’s contributions to humanity went far beyond her daring expeditions to guide slaves to freedom. During the Civil War, she worked under the Secretary of War as a scout and spy for the Union forces. She also tended to the mass of refugees seeking sanctuary behind Union lines, and she worked as a nurse caring for the countless wounded. After the war, she continued to give tirelessly by opening the doors of her home in Auburn, New York to anyone in need. She was also a relentless advocate in battling the injustices of inequality, discrimination, and racism.
Escaping bondage in Maryland in 1849, Tubman spent the next decade venturing back into the hotbed of the South to guide fugitives to safety along the stations of the Underground Railroad. A severe head injury in her adolescence caused her to experience uncontrolled spells of momentary sleep where she drifted from midsentence into unconsciousness. These episodes may have contributed to her mighty visions and dreams about leading her people and to her belief that she was carrying out God’s mission as a 19th century Moses.
Tubman’s contributions to humanity went far beyond her daring expeditions to guide slaves to freedom. During the Civil War, she worked under the Secretary of War as a scout and spy for the Union forces. She also tended to the mass of refugees seeking sanctuary behind Union lines, and she worked as a nurse caring for the countless wounded. After the war, she continued to give tirelessly by opening the doors of her home in Auburn, New York to anyone in need. She was also a relentless advocate in battling the injustices of inequality, discrimination, and racism.
February 28, 2020
5 stars for Harriet. What an amazing woman. I saw a segment on CBS Sunday Morning show and was shocked at how little I knew about Tubman and was eager to learn more. I then saw the film and learned more and was even more blown away by her faith and courage. I was still hungry for more and wanted to know how much of this astonishing story was really true so I purchased this book on a sale.
The film had the facts down pretty well, but this went through more detail and into her later years of life where she continued to do a lot to help end the scourge of slavery in America. The book was a little dry, I prefer nonfiction to have a driving narrative style, but Harriet was such an amazing woman that she shines all the way through this. I'm in awe of this great American hero.
The film had the facts down pretty well, but this went through more detail and into her later years of life where she continued to do a lot to help end the scourge of slavery in America. The book was a little dry, I prefer nonfiction to have a driving narrative style, but Harriet was such an amazing woman that she shines all the way through this. I'm in awe of this great American hero.
May 6, 2021
3.5⭐⭐⭐
Interesting Read.....There was a lot of unverified information through this book according to the author. Therefore, I don't understand why she felt it necessary to proceed with writing this book. My other issue was the fact that she continue throughout the book referring slaves that were assisted by Harriet Tubman to freedom as refugees....That pissed me off! They were slaves, they didn't request passage to the United States...In addition, the slaves that Harriett Tubman assisted were born in the United States, so why would she call them refugees? This author is a professor at Harvard University teaching African American Studies....I really don't see what makes her qualified. Despite all of that, I really did enjoy the subject, which is why I decided to read the book...but, some of the information provided was a major disappointment. However, the narration was great!
Interesting Read.....There was a lot of unverified information through this book according to the author. Therefore, I don't understand why she felt it necessary to proceed with writing this book. My other issue was the fact that she continue throughout the book referring slaves that were assisted by Harriet Tubman to freedom as refugees....That pissed me off! They were slaves, they didn't request passage to the United States...In addition, the slaves that Harriett Tubman assisted were born in the United States, so why would she call them refugees? This author is a professor at Harvard University teaching African American Studies....I really don't see what makes her qualified. Despite all of that, I really did enjoy the subject, which is why I decided to read the book...but, some of the information provided was a major disappointment. However, the narration was great!
October 11, 2023
Superb! What a woman she was. Absolute hero.
March 8, 2019
So I named my puppy after Harriet Tubman, because obviously she's a badass and has a great name (which she chose for herself, by the way--birth name was Araminta). But I wanted to know more about her. This is a great biography, a wealth of knowledge about her.
>> For instance, at the age of five, she was responsible for caring for a baby AND simultaneously doing household chores--completely alone.
>> When her mother (whose real name was Harriet, nicknamed Rit) learned that their slaveowner wanted to sell one of her sons to a visiting buyer, she hid him in the woods for over a month. When he went to Rit's cabin to demand to see the boy, she threatened "The first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open." The buyer got tired of waiting around and left, and Rit's son (Harriet Tubman's brother) returned home. The slaveowner then admitted that he was "exceedingly glad she hid the boy, so that he couldn't sell him." Tl;dr, Harriet's mother was a badass who didn't take shit from anyone, consequences be damned.
>> Harriet's mother Rit was probably half-white, possibly the daughter of her owner.
>> Harriet and Frederick Douglass had several connections. For one, they both knew a slaveowner named Stewart; Harriet worked for him (hired out by her slaveowner) and Douglass's mother was likewise hired out to Stewart. Though let's not pretend any slaveowners can be decent, both noted that Stewart was a better man than most slaveowners; he allowed Harriet to save money from the extra work she did, and with it she bought herself a pair of steers. Harriet's father (a free black man) worked for Stewart and managed his business, "a relatively enlightened relationship" considering race relations in Maryland at the time.
>> Harriet regularly prayed that her slaveowner (who, unlike Harriet, was not a religious person) would convert to Christianity and see the error of his ways. When Harriet heard a rumor her slaveowner was considering selling her and her brothers, she changed her strategy: "I changed my prayer, and I said, 'Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way, so he won't do no mischief." It worked.
>> I like this passage about Harriet's escape. She was young, she was alone, and her husband, whom she seemed to love deeply, refused to come with her. But she was Harriet Tubman. "When Araminta escaped the hell of slavery for the 'heaven' of liberty, she had 'crossed the line of which she had so long been dreaming' and was reborn as Harriet. Her escape was remarkable. For one thing, the overwhelming majority of successful fugitives were men. But here was a girl in her twenties, venturing out of her home county for the first time, hoping to make it to freedom on her own. That she made this treacherous and unknown journey shows the nerve and resourcefulness that would become her trademark."
>> She was a master of disguise. Once, in her former town, she walked down the street incognito, with a bonnet pulled over her face and two live chickens. When she was approached by one of her former masters (she had lots as her former slaveowner hired her out often), she tugged the strings on the legs of her chickens so that they began to flap and squawk, giving her an excuse to tend to them and avoid contact with the former master, who passed just inches away.
Another time, seeing yet another former master nearby, she whipped out a newspaper. Because as a slave she'd been illiterate, the man never realized she was the same woman he'd known. Basically, she was always prepared with a change of costume or a diversion.
>> She was tough. Carried a pistol and wasn't afraid to use it. When one member of a party she was shepherding north decided he couldn't go on with the hard journey and would turn himself in, Harriet told him that wasn't an option; it would compromise the whole operation, which they all knew to be gin with. She aimed a revolver at his head and said "Move, or die!" (He moved.)
>> She's usually thought to be childless, but this author makes a good argument that she did have one child. On one of her journeys south, Harriet essentially kidnapped a little 8 year old girl named Margaret (later claiming the girl was her niece) and raised her as her own. A number of people noted that Margaret was the spitting image of Harriet, except for the fact that she was light-skinned. Pointing out that kidnapping a child from her parents was incredibly out of character for Harriet, the author builds a good argument that Margaret was actually Harriet's daughter, and that perhaps this was the reason that Harriet's first husband, John Tubman, refused to come north with her. Margaret, who would have been born shortly before the time Harriet left, could easily have been the result of the rape of Harriet by a white man, possibly her owner, and John could have been angry about this even if she hadn't consented.
>> Once, to free a condemned former slave captured in Troy, New York (not far from her hometown of Auburn, NY), she dressed up as an elderly scrubwoman and snuck into the courtroom. She whirled out of her shawl, grabbed the man, wrenched him free, and dragged him down the stairs into the waiting arms of comrades assembled below. She was repeatedly beaten over the head with clubs by policemen, but she never released her hold until he escaped. He did escape, but was caught right across the river. Undaunted, Harriet rallied up some women and stormed the judge's office where he was held, dragged him out, and put him on a wagon headed out west. One more time for the people in the back: BAD. ASS.
>> For instance, at the age of five, she was responsible for caring for a baby AND simultaneously doing household chores--completely alone.
>> When her mother (whose real name was Harriet, nicknamed Rit) learned that their slaveowner wanted to sell one of her sons to a visiting buyer, she hid him in the woods for over a month. When he went to Rit's cabin to demand to see the boy, she threatened "The first man that comes into my house, I will split his head open." The buyer got tired of waiting around and left, and Rit's son (Harriet Tubman's brother) returned home. The slaveowner then admitted that he was "exceedingly glad she hid the boy, so that he couldn't sell him." Tl;dr, Harriet's mother was a badass who didn't take shit from anyone, consequences be damned.
>> Harriet's mother Rit was probably half-white, possibly the daughter of her owner.
>> Harriet and Frederick Douglass had several connections. For one, they both knew a slaveowner named Stewart; Harriet worked for him (hired out by her slaveowner) and Douglass's mother was likewise hired out to Stewart. Though let's not pretend any slaveowners can be decent, both noted that Stewart was a better man than most slaveowners; he allowed Harriet to save money from the extra work she did, and with it she bought herself a pair of steers. Harriet's father (a free black man) worked for Stewart and managed his business, "a relatively enlightened relationship" considering race relations in Maryland at the time.
>> Harriet regularly prayed that her slaveowner (who, unlike Harriet, was not a religious person) would convert to Christianity and see the error of his ways. When Harriet heard a rumor her slaveowner was considering selling her and her brothers, she changed her strategy: "I changed my prayer, and I said, 'Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way, so he won't do no mischief." It worked.
>> I like this passage about Harriet's escape. She was young, she was alone, and her husband, whom she seemed to love deeply, refused to come with her. But she was Harriet Tubman. "When Araminta escaped the hell of slavery for the 'heaven' of liberty, she had 'crossed the line of which she had so long been dreaming' and was reborn as Harriet. Her escape was remarkable. For one thing, the overwhelming majority of successful fugitives were men. But here was a girl in her twenties, venturing out of her home county for the first time, hoping to make it to freedom on her own. That she made this treacherous and unknown journey shows the nerve and resourcefulness that would become her trademark."
>> She was a master of disguise. Once, in her former town, she walked down the street incognito, with a bonnet pulled over her face and two live chickens. When she was approached by one of her former masters (she had lots as her former slaveowner hired her out often), she tugged the strings on the legs of her chickens so that they began to flap and squawk, giving her an excuse to tend to them and avoid contact with the former master, who passed just inches away.
Another time, seeing yet another former master nearby, she whipped out a newspaper. Because as a slave she'd been illiterate, the man never realized she was the same woman he'd known. Basically, she was always prepared with a change of costume or a diversion.
>> She was tough. Carried a pistol and wasn't afraid to use it. When one member of a party she was shepherding north decided he couldn't go on with the hard journey and would turn himself in, Harriet told him that wasn't an option; it would compromise the whole operation, which they all knew to be gin with. She aimed a revolver at his head and said "Move, or die!" (He moved.)
>> She's usually thought to be childless, but this author makes a good argument that she did have one child. On one of her journeys south, Harriet essentially kidnapped a little 8 year old girl named Margaret (later claiming the girl was her niece) and raised her as her own. A number of people noted that Margaret was the spitting image of Harriet, except for the fact that she was light-skinned. Pointing out that kidnapping a child from her parents was incredibly out of character for Harriet, the author builds a good argument that Margaret was actually Harriet's daughter, and that perhaps this was the reason that Harriet's first husband, John Tubman, refused to come north with her. Margaret, who would have been born shortly before the time Harriet left, could easily have been the result of the rape of Harriet by a white man, possibly her owner, and John could have been angry about this even if she hadn't consented.
>> Once, to free a condemned former slave captured in Troy, New York (not far from her hometown of Auburn, NY), she dressed up as an elderly scrubwoman and snuck into the courtroom. She whirled out of her shawl, grabbed the man, wrenched him free, and dragged him down the stairs into the waiting arms of comrades assembled below. She was repeatedly beaten over the head with clubs by policemen, but she never released her hold until he escaped. He did escape, but was caught right across the river. Undaunted, Harriet rallied up some women and stormed the judge's office where he was held, dragged him out, and put him on a wagon headed out west. One more time for the people in the back: BAD. ASS.
March 1, 2021
This was a heart wrenching, eye opening read. It’s chilling that the events of slavery happened not that long ago and in a sense the black community and POC communities are still trying to get from underneath of.
Harriet Tubman’s story of perseverance, determination & courageous efforts is one to take dearly and to be honoured and remembered forever throughout history.
Harriet Tubman’s story of perseverance, determination & courageous efforts is one to take dearly and to be honoured and remembered forever throughout history.
April 8, 2020
This was a fantastic read! It is amazing the tenacity and fearlessness of this Patriot. The movie, Harriet, was very good; the book is even better. It provides details you didn't get in the movie. She should be just as revered as the Founding Fathers.
March 8, 2020
It really is sad how little is known about one of the most historical figures ever! This was very informative
April 6, 2023
Review will follow!
May 18, 2016
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
(UPDATE: Since writing this review, I've learned that US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew specifically mentioned this book as one of the big reasons his department chose Tubman for the new face of the twenty-dollar bill, high praise indeed for this decade-plus-old volume.)
Like many Americans, when it was announced this year that Harriet Tubman would be the new face of the twenty-dollar bill, I realized with a bit of shame that I didn't actually know anything about Harriet Tubman, minus the half a day in fourth grade when we learned in public school that she had had something to do with the Civil War; and so to rectify this fact before the release of the new currency, I recently picked up Catherine Clinton's 2004 biography of Tubman (amazingly, one of the only Tubman bios expressly for grown-ups ever written in the entirety of history), where I learned that Harriet Tubman was actually a badass who more than earned her right to be on the twenty-dollar bill, especially poignant because she so thoroughly embodies the stubborn, resilient, libertarian mythos of America that Americans so enjoy projecting onto ourselves.
Born a slave in the deep South in the 1820s, Tubman essentially ran away to freedom in her twenties, but this wasn't enough for her; she eventually became one of the only black women ever involved with the famed "Underground Railroad" of the pre-Civil War era, a guerrilla fighter who made rescue missions back into the South at least once a year all the way until the Emancipation Proclamation, doing such smart things as scheduling her raids in the middle of the winter so that as few of the fat, lazy racists down there would want to bother chasing her, and starting fugitive slave flights on Saturday nights, since at the time it was a law that slaves got Sundays off to go to church, which meant that masters would not realize the slaves were missing until Monday morning, and so were not able to get a notice in the local paper about it until Tuesday morning, long after Tubman and her party were gone. This made her singlehandedly responsible for rescuing literally hundreds of former slaves in the years before the Civil War; then when the war actually happened, she became a secret freaking agent for the Union army, using her skills in stealth and intel gathering to give detailed reports to generals about the size and location of Confederate troops they were about to launch attacks on, turning all the battles she was a part of into routs which Union forces overwhelming won with almost no casualties at all. And all of this, mind you, happened before Tubman had even turned forty; then she managed to live for another half-century after all this, becoming the revered civil-rights leader and national hero that she deserved to be honored as.
Make no mistake, Tubman suffered the kinds of Reconstruction-era indignities that all black people did in the years after the war, including it taking literally decades to get the proper compensation from the US government for her wartime activities that she had earned (and had deferred at the time so that the army could buy more supplies and medicine); and her life was not without its own controversies either, including a mysterious young woman in her life who may or may not have been an illegitimate daughter sired from a white father, her public snubbing of Abraham Lincoln during the war for being "soft on abolition," as well as Tubman's full public embrace of avowed terrorist John Brown, to the extent of Brown eventually referring to her as "General Tubman" in his talks about his coming war against the US government. But all that said, it's hard to imagine a more apt person to be brought to the forefront of the US consciousness right now in this newest low point of race relations, a woman who is well worth taking the time to know and understand. This bio is a great place to start, and it comes recommended to those like me who barely know anything about who Tubman was or why you're going to be seeing a lot more of her starting next year.
(UPDATE: Since writing this review, I've learned that US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew specifically mentioned this book as one of the big reasons his department chose Tubman for the new face of the twenty-dollar bill, high praise indeed for this decade-plus-old volume.)
Like many Americans, when it was announced this year that Harriet Tubman would be the new face of the twenty-dollar bill, I realized with a bit of shame that I didn't actually know anything about Harriet Tubman, minus the half a day in fourth grade when we learned in public school that she had had something to do with the Civil War; and so to rectify this fact before the release of the new currency, I recently picked up Catherine Clinton's 2004 biography of Tubman (amazingly, one of the only Tubman bios expressly for grown-ups ever written in the entirety of history), where I learned that Harriet Tubman was actually a badass who more than earned her right to be on the twenty-dollar bill, especially poignant because she so thoroughly embodies the stubborn, resilient, libertarian mythos of America that Americans so enjoy projecting onto ourselves.
Born a slave in the deep South in the 1820s, Tubman essentially ran away to freedom in her twenties, but this wasn't enough for her; she eventually became one of the only black women ever involved with the famed "Underground Railroad" of the pre-Civil War era, a guerrilla fighter who made rescue missions back into the South at least once a year all the way until the Emancipation Proclamation, doing such smart things as scheduling her raids in the middle of the winter so that as few of the fat, lazy racists down there would want to bother chasing her, and starting fugitive slave flights on Saturday nights, since at the time it was a law that slaves got Sundays off to go to church, which meant that masters would not realize the slaves were missing until Monday morning, and so were not able to get a notice in the local paper about it until Tuesday morning, long after Tubman and her party were gone. This made her singlehandedly responsible for rescuing literally hundreds of former slaves in the years before the Civil War; then when the war actually happened, she became a secret freaking agent for the Union army, using her skills in stealth and intel gathering to give detailed reports to generals about the size and location of Confederate troops they were about to launch attacks on, turning all the battles she was a part of into routs which Union forces overwhelming won with almost no casualties at all. And all of this, mind you, happened before Tubman had even turned forty; then she managed to live for another half-century after all this, becoming the revered civil-rights leader and national hero that she deserved to be honored as.
Make no mistake, Tubman suffered the kinds of Reconstruction-era indignities that all black people did in the years after the war, including it taking literally decades to get the proper compensation from the US government for her wartime activities that she had earned (and had deferred at the time so that the army could buy more supplies and medicine); and her life was not without its own controversies either, including a mysterious young woman in her life who may or may not have been an illegitimate daughter sired from a white father, her public snubbing of Abraham Lincoln during the war for being "soft on abolition," as well as Tubman's full public embrace of avowed terrorist John Brown, to the extent of Brown eventually referring to her as "General Tubman" in his talks about his coming war against the US government. But all that said, it's hard to imagine a more apt person to be brought to the forefront of the US consciousness right now in this newest low point of race relations, a woman who is well worth taking the time to know and understand. This bio is a great place to start, and it comes recommended to those like me who barely know anything about who Tubman was or why you're going to be seeing a lot more of her starting next year.
February 19, 2016
Non-Fiction - February, Black History Month read
Excellent biography of Harriet Tubman, born into slavery in the U.S. In approximately 1825, in her early 20's, she left her family and husband in Maryland, to seek freedom in the North.
Illiterate, but deeply religious, and very smart, once she was in the North, she thought she would find freedom. Instead she learned of Southern slave hunters, who would track down escaped slaves for money, return them to the slave owner, often to be whipped, branded on the face, or worse. She realized the only real freedom at that time was in Canada.
Tubman was a major force behind the Underground Rail Road, a vast collection of safe houses over various routes for slaves fleeing to the North. She met and became lifelong allies and friends with abolitionist whites and blacks. Over the decades, Harriet Tubman made constant trips from her safe haven in Canada to guide thousands of slaves to that same freedom.
"The price on Tubman's head was anywhere from $12,000 ... upward to $40,000 (reputedly the total of all rewards put forward to capture her." (page 142)
Tubman worked closely with Union soldiers during the Civil War. Her name and legend allowed her to obtain information from black slaves in the South to pass along to the Union. In just one example, under cover of darkness she contacted Southern slaves and obtained the locations of mines prior to Union soldiers advancing into that area.
Tubman's entire adult life was spent fighting slavery. There was very strong anti-slavery sentiment in the North, and whites not only provided shelter, transportation, food and clothing to slaves travelling on the Underground Rail Road, many whites fought the Southern "slavecatchers" alongside her. In one instance, a former slave was in shackles, in a judge's office, having just been sentenced to be taken back on the next boat South with the slavecatcher. Tubman and a large group of anti-slavery whites crashed into the judge's chambers, rescued the man, and all got away from the judicial staff and slavecatcher.
The author reveals early on that there remains very little documentation to substantiate exact dates, and other details. White or black, anyone involved in freeing slaves realized that keeping a written record of anything could result in a trip to the gallows.
Parts of the book were hard to read. Slaves were, of course, considered the property of the slave owner. Families being torn apart when slave owners sold children, and/or one parent or both was the rule, not the exception.
One anecdote was particularly heartwrenching. A white man had attacked a black man, and during the fight, the white man was killed. The only witness was the black man's 13 year old son. The jury deliberated ten minutes, and the black man was hanged.
Through the last half of the book, I thought many times, sadly, that some things hadn't changed much since Tubman's time. Some things, fortunately, yes (Barak Obama being elected President), but racism is sadly alive and well in 2016 in the United States.
One book leads to others:
1. Read Uncle Tom's Cabin
2. Read about the U.S./Mexican war (1846-1848) "America's aggression toward Mexico"
Excellent biography of Harriet Tubman, born into slavery in the U.S. In approximately 1825, in her early 20's, she left her family and husband in Maryland, to seek freedom in the North.
Illiterate, but deeply religious, and very smart, once she was in the North, she thought she would find freedom. Instead she learned of Southern slave hunters, who would track down escaped slaves for money, return them to the slave owner, often to be whipped, branded on the face, or worse. She realized the only real freedom at that time was in Canada.
Tubman was a major force behind the Underground Rail Road, a vast collection of safe houses over various routes for slaves fleeing to the North. She met and became lifelong allies and friends with abolitionist whites and blacks. Over the decades, Harriet Tubman made constant trips from her safe haven in Canada to guide thousands of slaves to that same freedom.
"The price on Tubman's head was anywhere from $12,000 ... upward to $40,000 (reputedly the total of all rewards put forward to capture her." (page 142)
Tubman worked closely with Union soldiers during the Civil War. Her name and legend allowed her to obtain information from black slaves in the South to pass along to the Union. In just one example, under cover of darkness she contacted Southern slaves and obtained the locations of mines prior to Union soldiers advancing into that area.
Tubman's entire adult life was spent fighting slavery. There was very strong anti-slavery sentiment in the North, and whites not only provided shelter, transportation, food and clothing to slaves travelling on the Underground Rail Road, many whites fought the Southern "slavecatchers" alongside her. In one instance, a former slave was in shackles, in a judge's office, having just been sentenced to be taken back on the next boat South with the slavecatcher. Tubman and a large group of anti-slavery whites crashed into the judge's chambers, rescued the man, and all got away from the judicial staff and slavecatcher.
The author reveals early on that there remains very little documentation to substantiate exact dates, and other details. White or black, anyone involved in freeing slaves realized that keeping a written record of anything could result in a trip to the gallows.
Parts of the book were hard to read. Slaves were, of course, considered the property of the slave owner. Families being torn apart when slave owners sold children, and/or one parent or both was the rule, not the exception.
One anecdote was particularly heartwrenching. A white man had attacked a black man, and during the fight, the white man was killed. The only witness was the black man's 13 year old son. The jury deliberated ten minutes, and the black man was hanged.
Through the last half of the book, I thought many times, sadly, that some things hadn't changed much since Tubman's time. Some things, fortunately, yes (Barak Obama being elected President), but racism is sadly alive and well in 2016 in the United States.
One book leads to others:
1. Read Uncle Tom's Cabin
2. Read about the U.S./Mexican war (1846-1848) "America's aggression toward Mexico"
November 6, 2019
There are many biographies of Harriet Tubman for children and young adults, but not many for adult readers. When I read an interview with this author in the Washington Post after the announcement that Tubman would be on the $20 bill ("You have no idea how hardcore Harriet Tubman really was"), I was intrigued.
The biography tells the story of Tubman's early life in slavery, how she liberated herself, and then made a series of trips back into smuggling her family and many others to freedom as part of the Underground Railroad.
While she was credited with leading 300 slaves to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, those she freed during her service in South Carolina during the Civil War (more than 750 in the Combahee River Raid alone) were not well known. In the Civil War, she served as a nurse and a scout and spy.
Tubman saw herself as an instrument of God. Throughout the remainder of her life, she opened her home to people in need, and gave sacrificially. She was determined to open a charity home for "aged and indigent colored people" and didn't stop until that dream became a reality. She also was devoted to working for women's rights.
It's ironic that after 30 years of trying to get a pension for her service in the war, she was finally granted a pension of $20 a month, which was the first time in her life she had a steady income.
I appreciated the epilogue on Harriet Tubman's legacy, which puts her life and legacy into perspective and inspires readers to "keep going."
The biography tells the story of Tubman's early life in slavery, how she liberated herself, and then made a series of trips back into smuggling her family and many others to freedom as part of the Underground Railroad.
While she was credited with leading 300 slaves to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, those she freed during her service in South Carolina during the Civil War (more than 750 in the Combahee River Raid alone) were not well known. In the Civil War, she served as a nurse and a scout and spy.
Tubman saw herself as an instrument of God. Throughout the remainder of her life, she opened her home to people in need, and gave sacrificially. She was determined to open a charity home for "aged and indigent colored people" and didn't stop until that dream became a reality. She also was devoted to working for women's rights.
It's ironic that after 30 years of trying to get a pension for her service in the war, she was finally granted a pension of $20 a month, which was the first time in her life she had a steady income.
I appreciated the epilogue on Harriet Tubman's legacy, which puts her life and legacy into perspective and inspires readers to "keep going."
September 10, 2017
Well crafted slice of American history during the time of Harriet Tubman; a fitting tribute to her courage, intelligence, and strength. Many elements reminded me that governments are often slower than its people in terms of social evolution. Ill-led government, then as now, caters to a populations lowest whims and ignorance until courageous people stand up. It is important to remember the struggles of the past and honor its visionaries. Otherwise, one can despair the future.
December 24, 2019
More like 3.5 stars, but I'm rounding up in lieu of rounding down. Tubman is a shadowy figure in American History for a several reasons: born into slavery, illiterate, the clandestine nature of her work on the Underground Railroad, her lifetime of dedicated/selfless service, racism and sexism - all of this adds up to not very much being truly "known" about her life, especially the early years. For that reason the first half of this book spends a lot of time talking about politics and social history of the pre-Civil War era in which Tubman would have been operating in more so than Tubman herself.
Where the book picked up considerably for me was once the Civil War hits - because there's much more Tubman to be found in the historical ledgers. Working as a spy and nurse for the Union cause. Her fight for the US government to give her her rightful pension, her nearly 20-year-marriage and charity work in Auburn, NY prior to her death.
Not great, but good and Clinton makes the most out of the bread crumbs left behind in the historical record.
Where the book picked up considerably for me was once the Civil War hits - because there's much more Tubman to be found in the historical ledgers. Working as a spy and nurse for the Union cause. Her fight for the US government to give her her rightful pension, her nearly 20-year-marriage and charity work in Auburn, NY prior to her death.
Not great, but good and Clinton makes the most out of the bread crumbs left behind in the historical record.
June 13, 2023
This was an interesting biography of a person whose name is well known, but the details of her life may not be. Catherine Clinton is an accomplished historian and author who makes the dry facts of Tubman’s life easy to read. Obviously there are gaps in the story that have to filled with some speculation - Tubman herself was illiterate so she could not provide any written documents, and her work demanded secrecy, so it was safer not to write down details that could fall into the wrong hands - but the extensive bibliography and endnotes shows the depth of research undertaken by the author.
I was not aware of the large number of slaves that Ms. Tubman brought to freedom and I did not know of her tireless work during the Civil War.
What an amazing woman she was!
I was not aware of the large number of slaves that Ms. Tubman brought to freedom and I did not know of her tireless work during the Civil War.
What an amazing woman she was!
December 30, 2024
Everyone knows about Harriet Tubman's role as a conductor in the Underground Railroad. One figure of the numbers freed by that route is 300, but according to the National Park Service, that's a myth. By her own account, she rescued about 70 people via the Underground Railroad, but she freed several hundred during her wartime service in South Carolina, more than 750 in the Combahee River Raid alone. She was also a skilled seamstress and excellent nurse, who had extensive knowledge of herbal remedies at a time when medicine could often do very little for seriously ill people. She began working as a slave at the age of 5 when she was charged with caring for the newborn of a white family. If the baby cried and woke his parents, she would be whipped. One of her mistresses would whip her every day. She would put on all the thick clothes she had to cushion the blows and wail as if they hurt, then remove the clothes. Through such ruses, she managed to survive the brutality of slavery. She was also a spy for the Union, getting vital information about Rebel troops and locations. This was some trick, given that she was illiterate and had to memorize everything. She was incredibly generous, always taking in people who were infirm or dependent. Despite the cruelty inflicted on her when she was enslaved (an overseer fractured her skull), and the illnesses she endured, she lived to be 91 years old. Clinton is an excellent writer and this is an amazing story. Part of the problem is that many facts about enslaved people were never recorded; Tubman's date of birth is only estimated, for example. When she tried to get a widow's benefit after her second husband, a soldier, died, it was very difficult because he, like many slaves, was known by several different names. The marriages of enslaved people were not official, and a master could impose a marriage or break one up, often by selling one or both of the couple. We all know of the cruelties inflicted by whippings and breaking up families, but one might not think of the harms caused by being illiterate. For example, Harriet didn't have papers that entitled her to benefits after the war, because she had lost them, which could have been due to not being able to read. Fortunately, she ultimately received compensation for her splendid service to the United States. She's up there with Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Frederick Douglass in the pantheon of heroes who fought for justice.
February 10, 2020
This is a tricky book to review. Harriet Tubman was an amazing person, and this book deepened my appreciation for her suffering and her brave work to liberate slaves. The book mostly did this by describing the conditions in places that Tubman lived, including corrupt legal systems, sadistic plantation systems, and groups of fugitive slave hunters. Tubman’s life is well worth studying.
As Catherine Clinton points out in her opening, there have been very few biographies of Tubman. What she doesn’t say is this is partially because we have so few first- or second-hand records of Tubman’s life. She was born to slaves who naturally kept no records, and there were scant records by any of her owners. When she became a fugitive and hero, she mostly was in hiding and so there are minimal state records, and most of the people she worked with her illiterate and so didn't write down much either. As important as she was and still is, there isn't a wealth of data about her the way there are for Frederick Douglass or Malcolm X.
Much of this biography is actually reportage on the climate of the times and places we know Tubman was at. Sometimes Clinton reaches, filling in an otherwise Tubman-free section by speculating that she must have felt a certain way based on what was happening. Given we have so little to go on, it makes sense, and Clinton does a fine job spinning a narrative out of context in the absence of specific content. But that makes much of this book a Tubman-themed history, and gives a frustrating sense that we’ll never get a fuller picture.
As Catherine Clinton points out in her opening, there have been very few biographies of Tubman. What she doesn’t say is this is partially because we have so few first- or second-hand records of Tubman’s life. She was born to slaves who naturally kept no records, and there were scant records by any of her owners. When she became a fugitive and hero, she mostly was in hiding and so there are minimal state records, and most of the people she worked with her illiterate and so didn't write down much either. As important as she was and still is, there isn't a wealth of data about her the way there are for Frederick Douglass or Malcolm X.
Much of this biography is actually reportage on the climate of the times and places we know Tubman was at. Sometimes Clinton reaches, filling in an otherwise Tubman-free section by speculating that she must have felt a certain way based on what was happening. Given we have so little to go on, it makes sense, and Clinton does a fine job spinning a narrative out of context in the absence of specific content. But that makes much of this book a Tubman-themed history, and gives a frustrating sense that we’ll never get a fuller picture.
February 16, 2015
It is not easy to find reliable information about nineteenth century slaves. Fortunately, Harriet Tubman lived long enough to be questioned by biographers. Still, gaps remain. Pieces of the puzzle are missing. Catherine Clinton has uncovered about all that can be known for sure about this American hero. She supplements the facts with speculations and details about the history of slavery. Don’t expect wall-to-wall coverage of Harriet Tubman here. There are lots of digressions, some of them lengthy, but don’t let them deter you if you are interested in slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the Civil War. There are sketchy details about Harriet Tubman’s two marriages, her aged parents, whom she rescued to Canada, her siblings, and her presumed niece. Clinton’s scholarship is good, given the circumstances, though she places the battle of Shiloh in Virginia. An index and an impressive bibliography are provided.
Also included is a selection of photos of the great conductor, whose striking face tells a compelling story of triumph over suffering. A “neglected weed” as a child, Harriet Tubman overcame childhood frailty and abuse to become, said abolitionist John Brown, “one of the best and bravest persons on this continent.” And one of the most interesting to read about. Would that more details were available. Because Tubman was not only a “Moses” to her people, but a strong, no-nonsense, self-liberated woman who beat overwhelming odds.
Also included is a selection of photos of the great conductor, whose striking face tells a compelling story of triumph over suffering. A “neglected weed” as a child, Harriet Tubman overcame childhood frailty and abuse to become, said abolitionist John Brown, “one of the best and bravest persons on this continent.” And one of the most interesting to read about. Would that more details were available. Because Tubman was not only a “Moses” to her people, but a strong, no-nonsense, self-liberated woman who beat overwhelming odds.
May 12, 2023
Harriet Tubman has been one of my greatest heroes from the time my mom read me her story as a kid. Her shrewdness, resilience, bravery, faith and careful planning all make her one of the most iconic people in American history.
This book was a much longer and less interesting telling of the inspiring story than any of the books I read on her as a child.
I would rate the actual telling of the main story higher than two stars; however, The author chases many tangents from General so-and-so’s life story, “maybe Harriet would have done this,” and here is another person’s story—maybe Harriet’s life was like that.
In the end, the author seemed to be really wanting to write a book about Tubman’s incredible life, but was unable to add to the scholarship on the topic without wandering farther afield.
I strongly recommend people read the story of Harriet Tubman, but maybe try to find a more interesting book than this one.
This book was a much longer and less interesting telling of the inspiring story than any of the books I read on her as a child.
I would rate the actual telling of the main story higher than two stars; however, The author chases many tangents from General so-and-so’s life story, “maybe Harriet would have done this,” and here is another person’s story—maybe Harriet’s life was like that.
In the end, the author seemed to be really wanting to write a book about Tubman’s incredible life, but was unable to add to the scholarship on the topic without wandering farther afield.
I strongly recommend people read the story of Harriet Tubman, but maybe try to find a more interesting book than this one.
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