On the same land that once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, author and historian Catherine Clinton discussed the life and times of Harriet Tubman on Friday.
The speech on Tubman, the ex-slave who led hundreds of escaped slaves to the north, was part of the Friends of Tufts' Libraries Authors Talk Series and kicked off Tisch Library's exhibit, "Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation."
Clinton spoke about her 2004 book, "Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom."
She told several stories of Tubman's accomplishments and testimonies of her character. "[Tubman] snatched slaves south of the Mason-Dixon Line and smuggled them north," Clinton said.
Tubman did more than just talk about the issue of slavery, Clinton said. Once the Civil War began, Tubman made it her "personal struggle to destroy slavery," Clinton said.
Clinton also spoke about the lesser known aspects of Tubman's life. "She remained illiterate for the rest of her life, but knew how to read people," Clinton said. Tubman also suffered from what was then called "losing time." Although undiagnosed, Tubman's symptoms were typical of epilepsy or narcolepsy.
After the Civil War, Clinton said, Tubman opened a charity home in her house and supported women's suffrage. "[She] devoted herself to benevolence," Clinton said.
In some images, Tubman has been depicted carrying a rifle, a depiction that conflicts with Tubman's image of a heroine for elementary school students, Clinton said.
The images of Tubman with a weapon are a "pinnacle of conflicted symbolism," Clinton said, and viewers of the images should consider Tubman's era and circumstances.
Clinton said documenting Tubman's life was both a joy and a challenge. While there were plenty of secondary sources, Clinton said, little of the actual documentation has been recovered.
By studying the area where Tubman was born and lived in Maryland, though, Clinton was able to uncover more information. "One doesn't always find everything in the documents," Clinton said.
After the talk, people were able to purchase Clinton's book and have her sign it. Several people stayed to get their copies autographed and talk to the author about Tubman's life.
Clinton's next book will be a children's book for five to eight-year-olds, entitled "When Harriet Met Sojourner." It will give biographies of both Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and detail the meeting of the two abolitionists.
