Tubman 200
INTRODUCTION BY JANELL HOBSON, GUEST EDITOR
T
WO HUNDRED YEARS ago, a child was born into chattel slavery. She grew
up to become a liberator. Abolitionist. Diviner. Healer. Nurse. Naturalist. Freedom fighter. Military raid leader. Spy. Scout. Suffragist.
Daughter. Sister. Wife. Mother. Aunt. Friend. National icon. This is the legacy of Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross around 1822, nick- named “Minty” in her youth and her- alded as “Moses” in her extraordinary adult years of emancipatory action. The Harriet Tubman Bicentennial
Project launched in February on Ms.’ online platform (
msmagazine.com /tubman200), culminating on March 10—the anniversary of Tubman’s death in 1913. The project sought to honor one of America’s greatest fem- inist heroes by teaching about her vi- brant, complex and complicated life. Few know Tubman beyond her sta-
tus as an Underground Railroad con- ductor who self-liberated from slavery in 1849 before freeing others during the decade of the 1850s. Fewer still know the conditions of enslavement that she sought to flee. Or that she continued liberating others during the U.S. Civil War, when she worked as a nurse, cook, spy and scout. Or that she devoted her later years to es- tablish the Home for the Aged. In the interest of public education,
the Tubman 200 Project features a timeline chronicling Tubman’s life; an interactive calculator configuring the amount Tubman is owed for her en- slaved labor; conversations with ex- perts, artists and Tubman’s living descendants; and a series of essays from scholars in diverse fields. Biog- rapher Kate Clifford Larson encour- ages us to discern the distortions and myths from the facts and truth of the historical record. Historians Deirdre
Cooper Owens and Edda L. Fields-Black reveal the lesser- known stories of Tubman, respectively including the impact of her disability on her life and her military-raid leadership on the Combahee River during the Civil War. Tubman’s his- tory is given much more depth that extends her heroism across the length of her 91 years. To that end, archaeologist Douglas V. Armstrong pieces together the life Tubman led in freedom in Auburn, N.Y., through fragments of artifacts un- covered at the site of the Harriet Tubman property, while fashion historian Jonathan Michael Square uses the visual record to comment on Tubman’s styling choices, which re- veal both her femininity and humanity. Still others use provocative frameworks to reinterpret
Tubman’s actions. Ethnomusicologist Maya Cunningham views Tubman’s musical gifts as subversive forms of libera- tion, while cultural studies scholar Michelle D. Commander traces Tubman’s visions, (most likely) stemming from her epileptic seizures, through the lens of Afrofuturism. More- over, astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein proclaims Tubman to be “one of the greatest astronomers in American history” for following the North Star to freedom. Other pieces demonstrate how her iconic status is powerful enough to signal needed social change, whether in the art traditions that Michele Wallace analyzes when commenting on Tubman’s representations in the art of Wallace’s mother, Faith Ringgold, or in the anti-racist and feminist education explored by game design instructors Rebecca Rouse and Amy Corron, who centered Tubman as a heroic avatar in their own classroom. Keisha N. Blain questions the meaning of Tubman’s image on the planned U.S. $20 redesign if eco- nomic justice for Black women as a group is not included in these future plans. As the project tackles these social issues, it also seeks to
inspire through original creative works, including artist Nettrice Gaskins’ digital portrait of Tubman (opposite page) and Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ powerful poem “dark energy.” In this milestone year of the 50th anniversary of
Ms.mag-
azine, we salute a groundbreaking feminist and liberator who never lost sight of freedom. Harriet Tubman has stood the test of time through her incomparable example of brav- ery, fierceness, persistence, faith, self-assurance, compassion and commitment to solidarity. May her memory serve as a guiding light, much like the North Star she followed, steer- ing us all in the right direction at this critical juncture.
JANELL HOBSON is a professor of women’s, gender and sexuali- ty studies at the University at Albany and the author of When God Lost Her Tongue: Historical Consciousness and the Black Feminist Imagination.
SPRING 2022 | 33
BEACON OF HOPE BY NETTRICE GASKINS
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