Harriet Tubman; Road to Freedom

A Summary of Harriet Tubman; The Road to Freedom

My Thoughts

Books Cover

Catherine Clinton

The Author

Interesting Facts I found in my Reading

1.

Harriet Tubman; The Road to Freedom is a biography of Harriet Tubman's life. The book starts at the very beginning, where Tubman was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in the 1820's. It tells stories of Tubman's adolescents. These stories tell of her everyday life of being a slave. One story tells of how Tubman received a severe head injury when her master became very angry. It is said that she stepped between her master and another slave to take the blow of a lead weight. Though she lived she suffered from hallucinations for the rest of her life. Then in her early 20s Tubman left all she knew. She left her husband and her family to travel north alone. It was only a year before she headed back south and became the worst enemy of all slaveholders. This was the time she started saving family members and friends up for auction and became the only black woman conductor in the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War began she was the only woman who led men into battle, She acted as a spy and scout for the South Carolina Union Army. After the war she remarried and settled down with her husband and adopted daughter until her death 1913 from pneumonia.

Harriet Tubman

Road to Freedom

What I really enjoyed about this book is that it had a lot of interesting material. It told the background of someone who is only known for one part of her life. I found out so much about Harriet Tubman that is hidden behind her reputation of being a fearless woman conductor of the underground railroad.. What I didn't really enjoy about the book was that it was really slow paced. You had to read several pages of mediocre facts before you got to wowing moments in the book. That made the book difficult and not as enjoyable to read. I think the people who would take away the most from this book are people interested in southern history and older than a high schooler. What I learned about writing a good non-fiction book is to keep it interesting. Don't dull the reader with ordinary facts. The beginning of a person's life may start a little slow but you have to dig deep into there lives and find the rare interesting treasures that made them the great person they become at the end of the book. I think the theme of a non-fiction book is very important to get across to the reader. In his book it was very obvious that the theme was never giving up and no matter your background you can do amazing things.

Catherine Clinton is the author of Harriet Tubman; Road to freedom. She is a history professor at Queen's University Belfast. Clinton is very knowledgeable in southern history. She studied sociology and African-American history at Harvard and then received her Ph. D from Princeton University. Clinton is well known for her knowledge of history and has held many academic appointments. She has written for History and been included on projects for WBGH. She has authored, edited, co-authored, and co-edited 20 books. She has been the adviser to many documentaries including Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. She is very capable of writing this book because of all her experience in the field of black history.

Interesting Facts I learned in my reading

1. Like most slaves she didn't have an exact birthdate

2. Her nickname was Moses. Which was her brothers name. It also was the code name slaves used to tell each other that she was coming.

3. Her real name was Araminta Ross.

4. She played a huge role in woman's suffrage.

5. Harriet had one daughter named Gertie who she and her second husband adopted after the Civil War.

6. Harriet was only 5 feet tall and considered disabled by her owners. None of them ever dreamed she was behind all the slaves disappearances.