American Legends: The Life of Harriet Tubman

ISBN: 9781492706007
$6.99

Harriet Tubman is one of the most famous women in American history, and from an early age every American learns of her contributions to abolition and the Underground Railroad. The woman who became known as the Moses of her people personally led more than 13 expeditions to free slaves in the South, and she was so integral in helping escaped slaves achieve freedom that her name is practically synonymous with the Underground Railroad today.

If anything, the central role she played in the Underground Railroad has become so ingrained among subsequent generations that Tubman's life has been shrouded in legend, and other important aspects have been overlooked. In order to fully appreciate and understand both Harriet Tubman's life and the important role she played in the abolitionist movement, it is necessary to examine the circumstances in which she was raised and what events drove her to the path she chose. Anthropologist Douglas Armstrong notes "[s]o little information about Tubman has been based on fact and so much based on myth and created history" that it has only been recently that historians have "come to the point where we can recognize her true contributions."

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