Harriet Tubman could not read or write, yet she used the strength of the oral tradition to make sure that history lived on for generation after generation. Over a hundred years after her death, we know many details of her life because she told them to audiences, friends, family and biographers.
Harriet Tubman was one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. There is argument about the number of trips she made south and the number of slaves she personally brought to freedom. But whatever the number, her achievements were remarkable, and there is no doubt that she planned and directed the escapes of hundreds of enslaved people.
Although her work on the Underground Railroad is well known, not so many people know that Harriet Tubman was an accomplished storyteller. She told the story of her life, performing in the salons of supporters and anti-slavery activists, and the halls of women’s rights activists. She was reported to hold her listeners spellbound with the tales of her life in slavery, her escape, the trips she took back to the south to guide other escapees to freedom, and her work as a nurse, spy and fighter in the American Civil War. Her storytelling came from the tradition of the African-American subculture, taking elements from her African ancestry, integrated into the clandestine passing of information that was born from the experience of slavery. She was a strong singer and this, too, was part of her storytelling, and her life story.
In describing her memories of Tubman, her grand-niece, Alice Clifford Larson, said Tubman’s stories never varied in the details. She was passing on an oral history – it had to be right.
Tubman’s story has often been told but, in my telling, I highlight aspects of her story that have been neglected. I do not attempt to capture the accent and phrasing of Harriet Tubman in this rendition of her story, but my aim is to capture her voice through the spirit of her powerful personality and how it was expressed in the achievements of her deeds.
That is fascinating and I did not know that about Harriet Tubman.