Harriet Tubman
The Road to Freedom
The woman behind the icon: escapee, Underground Railroad conductor, and Union Army scout.
Catherine Clinton separates Harriet Tubman from the schoolroom version, tracing her escape from Maryland in 1849, the roughly thirteen return trips she made to bring others out, her work as a scout and spy for the Union Army during the Combahee River Raid, and the decades of poverty afterwards while she petitioned for a pension she was owed. It draws on the archive rather than the legend, and the woman who emerges is harder and more political.
Recommended by 1 Person
Susan Page
This is the definitive portrait of a legendary figure. Tubman escaped slavery and broke the rules of race, gender, and the legal system to lead enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad. She was also a scout and spy for the Union Army.
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