Growing up in Maryland, author Ta-Nehisi Coates was enthralled by stories of Harriet Tubman, the 19th century abolitionist who operated the Underground Railroad on the state’s Eastern Shore. He read about Tubman’s efforts to lead enslaved people to freedom, and was struck by the surreal qualities of her story.
“It just seemed wild,” he says. “Who is this person who has fainting spells and yet has never lost a passenger? Who is this black woman in the 19th century who, when somebody is scared and wants to turn back pulls out a gun and made threats, ‘You ain’t turning back!’? Who is this person who just strides through history?”
Coates read one biography of Tubman in which the biographer admitted that historians aren’t quite sure how she managed to lead so many people to freedom. “Whenever I hear, 'We don’t know how this happens,’ my mind starts turning, you know? I start imagining things,” he says.
Coates had always been a fan of comic books and pulpy adventure stories, and he began to imagine the Underground Railroad through fantastical eyes. His debut novel, The Water Dancer, is set in slave times and centers on Hiram, a man born into slavery who meets Tubman, and learns that they share a magical power to teleport enslaved people to freedom.
“I did a considerable amount of research, and when you look at how African Americans described themselves during that period, and when you look at how they talk about their own escapes from slavery, magic is often very much a part [of it],” he says. “The Water Dancer … tries to take a somewhat forgotten tradition in African American resistance and render it seriously.”
Ms. Harriet Tubman has an astonishing legacy: a leader of enslaved people to freedom, a nurse, spy, and cook in the Civil War, a caretaker for the sick and elderly, and a suffragist. Her actions have touched generations of people looking to improve the quality of the human condition. Proof of her reach can be seen in the art created by those inspired by her extraordinary life.
Visual Art
In this portrait, painted by William H. Johnson, Ms. Tubman stands before a day and night connected by a railroad passing by her feet. She is tall, taller than everything else, and is wearing a bonnet that evokes a Christ-like halo – she is “the Moses of her people,” after all.
American folk music icon Woody Guthrie wrote the biographical tune “Harriet Tubman’s Ballad” in celebration of her life. The most powerful line of the song?
To Abe Lincoln this I said: You’ve just crippled that snake of slavery We’ve got to fight to kill him dead.
While this poem by Eloise Greenfield includes a few exaggerations about Ms. Tubman’s life, the beauty in her journey remains: her determination, selflessness, and courage ensured that she and those she led to freedom “wasn’t going to stay [a slave] either.”
Harriet Tubman by Eloise Greenfield
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff Wasn’t scared of nothing neither Didn’t come in this world to be no slave And wasn’t going to stay one either
“Farewell!” she sang to her friends one night She was mighty sad to leave ‘em But she ran away that dark, hot night Ran looking for her freedom
She ran to the woods and she ran through the woods With the slave catchers right behind her And she kept on going ‘til she got to the North Where those mean men couldn’t find her
Nineteen times she went back to the South To get three hundred others She ran for her freedom nineteen times To save Black sisters and brothers
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff Wasn’t scared of nothing neither Didn’t come in this world to be no slave And didn’t stay one either
And didn’t stay one either
This December, we will be releasing our newest book, Harriet Tubman For Beginners by Annette Alston and illustrated by Lynsey Hutchinson. Follow this blog to learn more about Harriet’s life and legacy as we lead up to the release.
Ms. Harriet Tubman has an astonishing legacy: a leader of enslaved people to freedom, a nurse, spy, and cook in the Civil War, a caretaker for the sick and elderly, and a suffragist. Her actions have touched generations of people looking to improve the quality of the human condition. Proof of her reach can be seen in the art created by those inspired by her extraordinary life.
Visual Art
In this portrait, painted by William H. Johnson, Ms. Tubman stands before a day and night connected by a railroad passing by her feet. She is tall, taller than everything else, and is wearing a bonnet that evokes a Christ-like halo – she is “the Moses of her people,” after all.
American folk music icon Woody Guthrie wrote the biographical tune “Harriet Tubman’s Ballad” in celebration of her life. The most powerful line of the song?
To Abe Lincoln this I said: You’ve just crippled that snake of slavery We’ve got to fight to kill him dead.
While this poem by Eloise Greenfield includes a few exaggerations about Ms. Tubman’s life, the beauty in her journey remains: her determination, selflessness, and courage ensured that she and those she led to freedom “wasn’t going to stay [a slave] either.”
Harriet Tubman by Eloise Greenfield
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff Wasn’t scared of nothing neither Didn’t come in this world to be no slave And wasn’t going to stay one either
“Farewell!” she sang to her friends one night She was mighty sad to leave ‘em But she ran away that dark, hot night Ran looking for her freedom
She ran to the woods and she ran through the woods With the slave catchers right behind her And she kept on going ‘til she got to the North Where those mean men couldn’t find her
Nineteen times she went back to the South To get three hundred others She ran for her freedom nineteen times To save Black sisters and brothers
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff Wasn’t scared of nothing neither Didn’t come in this world to be no slave And didn’t stay one either
And didn’t stay one either
This December, we will be releasing our newest book, Harriet Tubman For Beginners by Annette Alston and illustrated by Lynsey Hutchinson. Follow this blog to learn more about Harriet’s life and legacy as we lead up to the release.
Ms. Harriet Tubman has an astonishing legacy: a leader of enslaved people to freedom, a nurse, spy, and cook in the Civil War, a caretaker for the sick and elderly, and a suffragist. Her actions have touched generations of people looking to improve the quality of the human condition. Proof of her reach can be seen in the art created by those inspired by her extraordinary life.
Visual Art
In this portrait, painted by William H. Johnson, Ms. Tubman stands before a day and night connected by a railroad passing by her feet. She is tall, taller than everything else, and is wearing a bonnet that evokes a Christ-like halo – she is “the Moses of her people,” after all.
American folk music icon Woody Guthrie wrote the biographical tune “Harriet Tubman’s Ballad” in celebration of her life. The most powerful line of the song?
To Abe Lincoln this I said: You’ve just crippled that snake of slavery We’ve got to fight to kill him dead.
While this poem by Eloise Greenfield includes a few exaggerations about Ms. Tubman’s life, the beauty in her journey remains: her determination, selflessness, and courage ensured that she and those she led to freedom “wasn’t going to stay [a slave] either.”
Harriet Tubman by Eloise Greenfield
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff Wasn’t scared of nothing neither Didn’t come in this world to be no slave And wasn’t going to stay one either
“Farewell!” she sang to her friends one night She was mighty sad to leave ‘em But she ran away that dark, hot night Ran looking for her freedom
She ran to the woods and she ran through the woods With the slave catchers right behind her And she kept on going ‘til she got to the North Where those mean men couldn’t find her
Nineteen times she went back to the South To get three hundred others She ran for her freedom nineteen times To save Black sisters and brothers
Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff Wasn’t scared of nothing neither Didn’t come in this world to be no slave And didn’t stay one either
And didn’t stay one either
This December, we will be releasing our newest book, Harriet Tubman For Beginners by Annette Alston and illustrated by Lynsey Hutchinson. Follow this blog to learn more about Harriet’s life and legacy as we lead up to the release.
Harriet Tubman is known to all as a conductor of the Underground Railroad who led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom. It is for this legacy that her stoic, weathered face was elected by popular vote to grace the $20 bill in 2020. (However, the Treasury Secretary may not go forward with this decision made during the Obama Administration, an infuriating announcement you can read more about here.)
Her extraordinary life, far-reaching actions, and immeasurable impact on those she knew have elevated her to a myth-like status in American history. But Harriet was a real, flesh-and-blood woman who spent her life fighting for a better life for African Americans. To understand her life in full, here are five important things to know about Harriet Tubman:
Harriet Tubman is known to all as a conductor of the Underground Railroad who led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom. It is for this legacy that her stoic, weathered face was elected by popular vote to grace the $20 bill in 2020. (However, the Treasury Secretary may not go forward with this decision made during the Obama Administration, an infuriating announcement you can read more about here.)
Her extraordinary life, far-reaching actions, and immeasurable impact on those she knew have elevated her to a myth-like status in American history. But Harriet was a real, flesh-and-blood woman who spent her life fighting for a better life for African Americans. To understand her life in full, here are five important things to know about Harriet Tubman:
1. Harriet Tubman wasn’t always, well, Harriet Tubman. She went by an assortment of names and nicknames, each denoting a different stage of her life and what she represented to her fellow African Americans. Born Araminta “Minty” Ross, she changed her name to Harriet Tubman after marrying John Tubman. (Her choice of first name is possibly in homage to her mother.) As a leader of the enslaved to freedom, she was the Moses of Her People. As a pre-war abolitionist, she was General Tubman. As a nurse in the Civil War, she was Black Moses. As an outspoken suffragist, she was Mother Tubman. And in her post-war years, she was, simply, Aunt Harriet.
2. In her tireless quest for black liberation, Harriet was an armed spy and scout for the Union during the Civil War. Her most notable accomplishment is her pivotal role in the Combahee River Raid. Under Colonel Montgomery, Harriet helped lead Union ships into the South Carolina harbor through mine-filled waters. Once they arrived, Union soldiers stole Confederate supplies and set fire to plantations. Amidst this chaos, 750 enslaved were freed and carried to the North in Union ships. The Moses of Her People once again led the slaves out of Egypt.
3. Post-war, Harriet used her seemingly boundless energy to support women’s suffrage. She was a member of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, founded by famous suffragette Susan B. Anthony, a fugitive slave harborer for the Underground Railroad and a wartime abolitionist. Later, put off by the racism of Southern suffragettes who were not inclusive of black women, she joined the National Association of Colored Women, where she was the keynote speaker at their inaugural meeting (as well as the oldest woman in attendance).
4. Always looking for ways to help others, Harriet long dreamed of opening a house for elderly and disabled blacks. Even after her own home caught fire (and she and her second husband, Nelson Charles Davis, rebuilt it literally brick by brick, as he was a brick-maker), Harriet was intent on seeing her dream realized. After years of mortgages, reconstruction, and debt, the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Infirmed Negroes (later shortened to the Harriet Tubman Home) opened in 1908.
5. After everything she had done for the Union, from spying and scouting to nursing and cooking, Harriet was never paid for her work in the War. Deeply unsatisfied with this injustice, Harriet spent the remainder of her life arguing for full compensation. It wasn’t until 2003 that the government corrected its wrongdoing when Hillary Clinton introduced a bill to pay Harriet’s pension, a total of $11,750, to the Harriet Tubman Home.
This December, we will be releasing our newest book, Harriet Tubman For Beginners by Annette Alston and illustrated by Lynsey Hutchinson. Alston delves into Tubman’s achievements, hardships, and faith while Hutchinson’s artwork punctuates the pages. Follow this blog to learn more about Harriet’s life and legacy.
