House . You should really check it out on one of their volunteer days. These are folks after the uprising, after the murder of freddie gray took over a house in west baltimore. They took over house, turned it ao community center, neighborhod in winchester what people had very little if anything and the Community Came together to take Something Back for themselves. They have set schooley the house had to be demolished but if taken over multiple lots in the area. They have chickens and farms. They have this amazing Youth Program going on. Its a center of hope for a neighborhood that needs it. And they did all that under the name of tubman house because a story of Harriet Tubman was one that inspires people to think that date and to think that bold. Im super excited that Erica Armstrong dunbar has created this book. Its incredibly accessible, incredibly engaging introduction to Harriet Tubman life. They can help a whole new folks get to knowo this story and i think thats a story that is really worth knowing and equip more people are going to know it thanks to this book. So please join me in welcoming Erica Armstrong dunbar. [applause] thank you. Its so perfect to be here in maryland talking about tubman, right . Where else should we be talking about tubman . So thanks for t giving me the opportunity to beer. And im actually, this is sort of a sneak peek regarding the book because the book doesnt technically come out until tuesday. Thates also means that if you wt to buy a book you will be getting the first copies of them. Thats my little plug for, you knew, we are authors but we are also booksellers and editors and pr people. So i want to shout out to all the authors in the audience who are doing allth that work. What i thought i would do today is talk a little bit, to read a little bit about tubman about the book, to read from the book and then we have time for q a at the end. Its a special moment in part because of the National Release of the book, of the film yesterday. Ion wide so tens of thousands of people have gone to see this portrayal of tubman. It is sort of a Perfect Moment for her. After the book. I will talk a little bit and then we will have some time for q and a. Death can be a good think. For the enslaved, the death of an owner, can end a decades long reign of terror. Indent owner could no longer use the web to split open the flesh of its human property. Nor could he violate the bodies of his enslaved women and children. Sometimes, the enslaved prayed or begged for death. Garamond toronto, found herself doing this very think. During the early weeks since 1849, airman top, also called minty, began a prayer vigil. Praying for the souls of the man she called her master. She did not believe that edward roden was a christian. And she pleaded with her weve god for his conversion. She knew that if cronus accepted weve god into his heart, he would repent for his sins. Perhaps, become a better man. Maybe even see his way to offering freedom to her mother. If not herself. But in the midst of her prayer visuals, and mento, would have to change course. She would continue to prayer great and they would check themselves and rumors spread that her owner was deep in debt. In any plan to sell her and some of her brothers. To the lower south. A land scape painted black and white by the expansion of black slavery and white cotton blossoms era meant that said she change her prayer and she said lord if you are ever going to change his heart, kill him. And take him out of the way. So that he wont do no more mischief. By march of 1849, he was dead. But its his death could mean ruin. For a Small Community of an enslaved man and women on the Eastern Shore of maryland. They had worked their owners land in dorchester county, calling his farm, their home. But every enslaved person everywhere, understood the agility of their circumstance. The most fortunate of the enslaved remained close to family members and kinfolk. The unlucky ones, found themselves ripped from all they knew. And they were sold south and it with the threat of never seeing their loved ones again airman test, was considered one of the fortunate. And off of her 27 years on earth had been challenging in more ways than imaginable. Era mento, experience the comfort of growing up with two parents most of her eight siblings and a new husband. The crevice of happiness carved out by araminta and her family was soon to be erased. By the death of her owner and his unpaid debts and financial hard times, to the farm, the widow would need to raise her name quickly. And there was only one commodity that would guarantee a windfall of cash in them slaves. Araminta and watch her parents deal with the pain of losing three daughters, linda, mariah, and individually sold to the highest bidder. Her family was ruptured and she knew the Auction Block was in her near future. Araminta continued to pray. Now she begged her weve god to help her find a way to freedom, to reinforce her nerve vinaigrette in her strength and her physical stamina. In september 1849, araminta and her brothers, ben and henry, escaped from the plantation. And by october, the widow, have placed an advertisement in the newspaper for the trace. Offering a reward of up to of of 2100 for the runaways. Join fear sank into the hearts of her brothers, he made the decision to return home. They all but dragged their sister back to the farm. We dont know the exact moment but in honor of her mother, araminta change her name to harriet. And she took her husband news last name of tubman. Harriet tubman would become one of americas most wanted fugitives, the woman who risked her live. To rescue her family, dozens of friends, all from the clutches of southern slavery. And every time tubman traveled on a rescue message to maryland, she went with one primary reason. To save lives. She came to see. And miss tubman played no games. And while tubman very well known, very few know the sort of intimate details of her live. The perilous journey, she traveled to save yourself and many others from the lifetime of slavery. Most readers are familiar with tubman tying her as a conductor on an underground railroad. She was much more textured sort of nuance 19th century social justice advocate. And with the release of the film, i think as well as the release of she came to sleep. Viewers and readers are introduced to a young woman. He lived and loved on the trauma of enslavement. We meet a woman who escaped from slavery and return to the Eastern Shores as well is to baltimore. In at least 13 times. In order to save her family and friends and never once losing a person sick slave catchers. Think about that. Thirteen times. Traveling uber 100 miles. On her own. To save up to 60 and 70 people. Tubman news victories are in full display but one of the things that we must also engage is her personal loss. The violence of slavery forced tubman to leave behind husband, and upon her return trip to maryland, her worst fear was confirmed that she had been replaced. She experienced the loss of slip billings be the Auction Block and natural deaths and she was intimately connected to countless stories of the trauma of slavery. So i begin she became a slave is sort of a different. With tubman. Most folks sort of think about tubman or at least begin her story in 1822 around the time in which we believe tubman was born. But i wanted to connect tubman to the story of african slavery. It began with her earliest traceable descendent. And i was her grandmother. Toward the end of the 18th century tubman news grandmother crossed the Atlantic Ocean via the passage. And she arrived on the Eastern Shore of maryland. She was given the name modesty. And would eventually give birth to tubman news mother, who would become known or would be known as harriet green. Im going to read briefly. From the book. It was a sort of moment that we begin the story. With harriets good mother. Lying in the belly of a wooden vessel, trying to remember join she had last seen her family. She tried to make sense of the nightmare of her live. It was as if she had to stumbled, into another world. Her eyes never adjusted to the complete darkness. In the hold of the ship. The smell of stale urine and feces, and rancid vomit swallowed up the breathable air. Leaving her nauseated and short of breath. She grew sick, dysentery and smallpox were in the air. And claimed the lives of the men and women all around her. There dead or dying bodies were dragged to the top neck. And carelessly thrown overboard. Their limbs and torsos would serve as a shark bait. The sheep managed to escape death, she grew weaker. Rations were limited. So she ate stingy fortunes of the food often stocked for the enslaved. Peas and yams, corn, rice, meat and fish were in short supply and only eaten by the white men who spoke and moved with rage. Modesty, was struck by her own transformation. Her legs in particular for week. So weak she wondered if theyd even be able to carry her weight or if they would snap and break like dry timber. The moment she tried to walk with purpose. If there was one Silver Lining to her dramatic weight loss, it was that it plays less rain on her aching knees and feet. Join she was forced to exercise on the top deck, the less joe making dancing on demand, she had to do a better. It was useless to try and count how much time had passed so she waited and waited for death. Or deliverance. Not knowing if they were one and the same. Join the ship finally dropped anchor, she disembarked from her voyage. She was looking like a different person. Her thin and sickly skeletal frame, was hard in more ways than one. Her eyes met with foreign land filled with strange sites and unfamiliar faces. The pale faced man, who tortured her and her shipmates and those who survived and those who jumped overboard, are not so insignificant act of rebellion. They spoke a language that was rough to her ears. She would have to learn this new tone. And she would need to learn it quickly. Having arrived in the colony of maryland, like hundreds of thousands of other men and women and children, she was old to fuel the engine of american slavery. Her slavery was a man named pattison. And once he concluded his purchase, took her to his farm. He would name her modesty. Maybe it was in the blink of weve god news eye and maybe it took a lifetime but eventually she came to understand that she would never again see her homeland. Marla points. She didnt succumb to whatever grief that knowledge produced. Modesty would do join millions of other enslaved africans taught to do. She survived. Her strength and will were inheritable traits passed down to her descendents who not only survived but also managed to free themselves from slavery by script. Modesty would not live long enough to witness her granddaughter. Armenta. Grow tired of slavery news cruelty. She would never know the little mentee would become an american gladiator. Who fought and slaved the lion known as slavery. Modesty would not live to see her granddaughter change her name and become the moses of her people. She would never know the name of Harriet Tubman would bring hope and strength to the enslaved and raging fury to their enslavers. This african woman planted a seed of resilience in her progeny. And that would blossom even in her absence. And so i began that the book really locating tubman sort of a heritable trait, a strength from her grandmother and her grandmother gave birth to her mother, harriet green, and armenta news father, was a man named ben ross. Benjamin ross. Alongside his wife, raised eight children. Including tubman. And while tubman its been most of her childhood with her parents she was often hired out to different farms. The passage that began join she was five to six years old. Until the start of think about this. This typical, we think about tubman it, or she is presented to us in history textbooks, sort of as an older woman. That his head covered, hands clasped slightly bent uber. It tubman didnt just sort of appear as an older woman. Like the one we see in our textbook. She began her live enslaved as a child. In many ways her childhood with very similar to other enslaved children in maryland and other colonies estates. They kept alive the institution of slavery. The shore of maryland, there wasnt enough need for farms to host hundreds of enslaved people and for that reason, armenta was hired out. She is five or six so she is forced to leave the home that she has with her mother. She is sent away to work on another forum. Lets think about this. This typical kindergartner. Someone who did not yet have her adult teeth. She sent away to work on various forms. And she later on tells the story about how terrible and tragic this moment was. She had a bed and she was forced to do some of the most difficult work imaginable and one of her earliest response abilities would be to empty the muskrat traps of her new owner. And along this sort of marshy Eastern Shores, imagine, a five yearold attempting to open the trap and release the dead rodent. And bring them back to her owner for the help help. She was also responsible for doing domestic learning to e. She of course had to take care of the owners babies. She was so small, she had to sit on the floor chatted sam. Can stay on and hold the baby. In a night join the baby would wait, and armenta couldnt put the child back to sleep quickly. The new owners wife would reach for her with it armenta on her neck and head. Making her part of why its the baby. This was the childhood into which armenta was brought in warm and join that was symbolic enslaved children from very early edge, tubman learned how to take care herself. She didnt know it, but she was a warrior in training and is tubman grew older, she eventually perfected the most difficult labor often outperforming her male counterpart. Her small 5foot tall frame harness the power of the tallest of men. She was also faced with this sort of compromising health situation. Sometime between 18341936, she is asked or told to go down to the sort of local general store for some errands and she thinks is going to be sort of a trip quiktrip. She was the star and well its en route to the store and other sort of situation happening. An enslaved man and you dont know whether hes running away our farm. Cost and trouble but he was running an overseer was in hot pursuit and everyone aromatic, sees this runaway and the overseer they all sort of come together in this general store in the same time. In the overseer demands era metta to help them. And he tells her to help grab this roadway. Airmen that refuses to do so. She is the teenager. Shes 13 or 14 years old. And join she refuses, this runaway, he gets out of the door of the store, and the overseer is so furious. Then he picks up a 2pound middleweight on the counter. And he hurls it we believe in the direction of the runaways. But it collides with a armenta news. It fractures for school. Shes unconscious, she is bleeding. Shes taken from the store, she does name have a bed. She doesnt have a bed to lay in. He lay her on the seat of a weaving loom. And she is forced actually to go back to work. Two agricultural work. Quickly. And she remembers she does us later on in her live that she could barely see the well have wasnt tripping into her eyes. It was from this moment on, she would struggle with a health condition. We dont often see great tubman in the lens of a disability or having a disability. She did. She would struggle with really what would be a neurological condition after being hit with this white in the head. The rest of her live. She often slipped in and out of narcolepsy transits, a sort of slipping spells. For those of you have seen the film, harriet is sort of a featured in the film and the passage she would fall asleep that went out warning. And people learned her family and friends learned that they had simply wait for her to browse. And eventually she would. And so imagine, she lived with us for the entirety of her live. Thus remember tubman lives for almost 91 years. So this was sort of an impediment, and physical impediment she live with but it also brought about something else. The blow to her soul brought about vision and dreams in a tool that tubman would later on argue and comment upon and see that this was literally a gift from weve god. That these visions would allow her to leave herself out of slavery as well as many others. Uber the years era meant and began to work in the fields harvesting flak and working other kinds of agriculture and it was backbreaking work. She preferred it to the combine confines of working in the house. Always sort of on the microscopic i of her owner. The house proved hazardous. In ways that the fields did not. Aaron minton became appointed with nature. And she actually learned to love it. She became very familiar with the herbs need it for the healing of wounds for finding of illness. And medical assistance was rarely given to enslaved people but became a very valuable skill set. She also learned the geography of the Eastern Shore of maryland. Her strength and success, and agricultural work allowed her to hie herself out so eventually, estimate sort of moved into a young adulthood, she sort of strikes a deal with their owner. And he had agrees to let her hire herself out. To do this agricultural work and she paced him 50 to 60. A lot of her name. That was in the 19th century. Anything else that she earned, she could keep. And so we think about this sort of active autonomy and figuring out a time he was in the institution of slavery and what to do with that her name she was able to save from working other farms. It is kind of unimaginable. She actually saved that her na name. And she hired a lawyer. This is an enslaved black woman. And who is the 1840s, from the Eastern Shore of maryland raise enough her name, five to 7, in order to pay an attorney. So why would she want to hire a lawyer. She had heard, rumors that there had been some funny business regarding enslavement, the will of one of our former owners. So she made this attorney to find out exactly what the legal scotus was of her family. And the attorney returns after some scaring whatever legal documents were available, and he informs his client she was right. That there had been some funny business. Basically, harriet smothers former owner had agreed to free her mother at the edge of 45. And not only was her mother to be free to 45, any of her children were to be freed as well. This was an odd Eastern Shore of maryland. Join we think about it, theres a significant number of free blocks and insulin people sort of leaving