Clockwise from left: Harriet Tubman sits outside her home in Auburn, N.Y., in 1911, two years before her death; Tubman (at left)
poses with family, friends and neighbors on her porch in the mid- to late 1880s; the founding convention of the National Association of Colored Women in Washington, D.C., July 1896, with Tubman in the third row, seventh from right (wearing a black bonnet).
es in the woods, keep going. If they’re shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.” These and other tropes appear more popular today because of social media. Instead of repeating inaccurate
depictions of Tubman’s achieve- ments, let’s reclaim her story, the one rooted in her own words and well- documented deeds. Let’s demand deeply researched, purposeful and re- spectful interpretation, not “gilded haze,” to reveal the true story of this remarkable woman.
KATE CLIFFORD LARSON is a best- selling author of acclaimed biographies, including Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. Her latest book is Walk With Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer.
www.msmagazine.com
Harriet Tubman’s Disability—and Why It Matters BY DEIRDRE COOPER OWENS
WE OWE TUBMAN THE RESPECT TO ADD THE ADJECTIVE “DISABLED” when listing her identities. Understanding Tubman as a “disabled” figure can
help us to see the powerful intersections between disability and strength. Imagine if we were taught that Tubman was not only a conductor on the Underground Railroad but was a badass, disabled freedom-fighting fugitive, Civil War military veteran, healer, philanthropist and one of the architects of the enduring Black women’s club movement that birthed civic and fraternal organ- izations for Black women all over the United States. Lamentably, most biographies of Tubman do not examine her as a disabled
woman. The silence around Tubman’s disability originates from the limiting language 19th-century physicians used to describe her symptoms. They used terms that did not explain the extent of her disability. Yet Tubman was a woman who spoke freely about the symptoms and pains she experienced due to her head injury (caused by an overseer who threw a 2-pound weight that hit an adolescent Tubman in the head)—painful headaches, disruptive and fright- ening “fits” and what was then described as “somnolency” (when she appeared unconscious). She also experienced out-of-body sensations (perhaps reflected in her visions of flying like a bird) and vivid otherworldly dreams that were hy- perreligious and rife with Christian imagery. In our retellings of American history and our beloved leaders, we must reck- on with how a more holistic and honest rendering of our past can transform
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