Us up to speed and uptodate on that. [applause] face is due tos grace the front of the 20 bill soon. Our speaker is going to talk about that. [applause] she is one of the people that helped to put her there. Harriet tubman is an appropriate subject for her. Will tell you about her she grew up in kansas city, missouri. She received her undergraduate from harvard university. She specializes in American History with an emphasis on the American South in the civil war as well as american women and african American History. She is held academic positions that countless institutions. She is been at the university of richmond, visited l, the citadel, the university of texas at san antonio. As a consulting scholar on a number of documentaries and feature films, including Steven Spielbergs l incoln. She also wrote a wellreceived Childrens Book about Harriet Tubman which she will be selling at signing after the lecture. Please help me welcome Catherine Clinton. [applause] thank you so much. Many thanks for this return to fredericksburg. Thatparticularly heightens both the lecture series and my biography of Harriet Tubman got launched in the same year. It is a testament to the well told story of the life. Since 2004eased that there have been more than half a dozen excellent studies of Harriet Tubman and be underground railroad, including a book called gateway to freedom. That was a bestseller, which shows there is a real hunger about the underground railroad. During the intervening years, the university of Mary Washington has supported the plutarch award. It is a great time to be celebrating great lives. The remarkable accomplishment of Harriet Tubman as an intrepid conductor on the underground railroad were widely acknowledged at the dawn of this century. What of her role in the american in the postwar reforms she supported. Womens suffrage, black civil rights, africanamerican philanthropy. Convictionms from a that scholarly works were in short supply. Work ins one authorized 1859, just after the civil war. Another by a man published in the middle of world war ii. When i was invited to write an encyclopedia entry on Harriet Tubman when i was teaching at harvard, i discovered there were only a handful of scholarly articles. Since there had been a trade biography of her. Languishedtubman confined to the childrens shelf. There are over 300 Catherine Clinton listed on amazon, including my own. I kept getting invited to read manuscripts. Bookwrote a childs published in 2007. My road to Harriet Tubman coincided with important changes in womens contribution to our past. Doc for a degree in American History, it was an uphill climb. I had major in american studies. For my masters i had done africanamerican studies. And ian ardent feminist wanted to see women included in the landscape of American History. The reading list for my doctoral theifying exams included foundational text the age of jackson. Little did i imagine that that book would give way to a new era of Harriet Tubman. My princeton mentor was a pioneer. Many of you might know battle cry of freedom. He was a pioneer of africanAmerican History. He published a collection and 19 five called, the negro civil war. The revolution was under way to showcase africanamerican contributions to the battle to end slavery and the consequent freedom struggle for equal opportunity which continue. Womens history has not yet cracked the graduate curriculum by 1976. The double burden of trying to expand social history and tell stories from the bottom up was a great challenge. My generation of feminist historians felt we had our work cut out for us. In narratives which did mention Harriet Tubman she was always heralded as an underground railroad contributor. This was always for granted. The remarkable story deserves our attention. She made significant attributions as a scout, a spy for the union, a nurse, and she was working closely with the military behind enemy lines. After 1855, she had a strong record in agitating for womens suffrage while establishing her charity. Home, itopened this was the only charity home open to african in all of new york outside of manhattan. For more than a halfcentury following the abolition of slavery until her death in 1913 remains a neglected. Of her life. Seem ready to include her in the framework of africanamerican freedom struggles. Image hasbmans adorned dozens of book covers, logos, websites. She has a symbolic utility for many academic audiences. She is black and a woman. Academy seems ready to embrace her in a long line of heroes who have been there all along. She managed a brilliant career hidden in plain sight. She has had a remarkable historical comeback within the last few years which i will return to later. There are many controversial aspects of her life. And particularly her legacy. One dispute is the date of her birth. Year as theer birth one she put down on multiple government pensions. Others suggested that she might have lied about her age. As a subject of my most recent biography, first lady mary we know that Harriet Tubman appeared in the 1820s. I suggest that she was born in 1825 to enslave parents on the islands Eastern Shore. Lamented that, i grew up like a neglected we. Liberty, having no experience of it. She let a harsh life, being put out to work at the age of six. Being harassed by overseers. Witnessing siblings disappearing. Growing into a young woman, she preferred labor in the field rather than its mother or of domestic house service. She married a free black man herd tubman, but live where master soffit. In 1849 when she heard a rumor that her owner was planning to sell her down the river, many family and neighbors had already been exiled into the deep south. She decided to make an escape. She wanted to make her own journey to freedom. In doing so, she was leaving behind parents and siblings. She would assume her mothers name, harriet. To convince her husband to go with her, but he was not convinced. She took his name, tubman, with her. The infamous runaway advertisement has never been located. Maryland native moved to bucktown, maryland to settle on slaveowning property his owners had once lived on. He helped to create a tourist site. This store was the place where a young Harriet Tubman once ran ahead to warn a slave that the overseer was pursuing him. Came between the enraged overseer and the playing an iron weight was wrong. The store is one of relatively few documented sites from Harriet Tubmans years in maryland. 2003, it was heard that they were filling up a dumpster. He asked if he might take a look at what was being thrown out. Granted permission, he and his gloves, on the rubber put on old close, and dug in. They unearth a copy of the cameras democrat containing cambridge democrat containing an advertisement for the runaway. The First Published piece of evidence that has documented her flight that is always eluded scholars. I wont say never pass up a dumpster, but it is sometimes tempting. Arrived inlive pennsylvania, she launched on illustrious career as a member of the underground railroad. By all rights, Harriet Tubman was the great emancipator, leading scores of africanamericans to freedom in the north, at times even to canada. Scholars may disagree over the numbers she led to freedom, but we all agreed that she sacrificed comfort and safety to liberate others. Blackrked in concert with publishing this in philadelphia abolitionists in philadelphia and delaware. Of a time atstory night when three companions moved. Accompaniedures who her and never been on the road before, the path to freedom. More than the autumn chill in the air content to shiver as they moved as quickly and silently as possible. They hoped to reach their next stop before dawn. If cloudy skies of secured the moon, their god was able to guide ableguy to direct them. Moonlit track, Harriet Tubman decided to move across the field. She faced an unfamiliar river. She walked along the banks to see if there might be a bridge or a boat to get to the other side area after a fruitless search, she insisted they would have to cross on foot. The men refused bering that they would drown. Breath,han waste her she waited across alone. After she made it to the other side, the two men followed. They came to an isolated cap where they could take shelter. They mated it to freedom a few days later. It was incredibly dangerous to assist you to tears on the road. Suspects were thrown in jail with the flimsiest of evidence. A free black minister in Dorchester County was investigated by authorities. He was expected of having harboring a group involved in a massive escape. Searched by the local constable, but yielded no acriminating evidence except copy of uncle toms cabin. Law, possession of this by an africanamerican was illegal. He was prosecuted, convicted, and because of his high profile within the community, he was given 10 years in jail. This punishment was meant to send a message to those who would dare harbor fugitives. They would be prosecuted and there would be no mercy. Harriet tubman crafted her expeditions with extreme care. Woman reported that the would use music and spiritualist to signal to fugitives hidden along the road. She directed them by her songs. No one would know this but with some by an old woman as she trudged along the road. Once when she passed through a town near her maryland home she walked the streets with a hat over her face. Spotted one of her former masters approaching, she made the chickens flap and she avoided eye contact and tended to her birds and passed inches from the former master. Her steel nerves and her ingenuity combined to make her one of the most intrepid workers within the underground railroad. She was always prepared with a change of costume or other diversion. She confided to her colleagues in 1904, i can say what most conductors cannot say, i never ran my train off the track and i never lost the passenger. There were only a handful of conductors who gains notoriety before Harriet Tubman came onto the scene. All of them were white men and most of them were known as abductors who traveled into the south to assist fugitives. They specialized in dangerous business. The reasons these white man became identified as abductors is because they were caught, which in all but one case curtailed their underground railroad activities. Massachusetts sea captain was detained offshore in florida with a boatload of fugitives. He was caught in the act of assisting runaways as he used the open seas as his escape route. He was convicted and locked into a pillar in where he was pelted with rocks in a. That he was given excessive fines and forced to serve a year in jail before antislavery friends could raise enough cash to secure his release. Before he was released and sent on his way, he received a punishment which would become infamous. He was branded on his hand i a. S. Marshall with the mark ss for slave stealer. A home was composed which ended with the verse, then let that manley righthand bold. Prophecypalm shall salvation for the slaves. He was there all along the road to freedom along with Harriet Tubman. Topics for you students out there. Of aield was born the son slaveholder but pronounced his birthright to spend his time and energy liberating slaves, assisting them all the way to canada. Educated minister who resigned his post that a church in providence in 1838 to become involved in the underground railroad. He was caught transporting a slave family out of virginia in 1843. He was sentenced to six years hard labor in the maryland penitentiary. Andied while incarcerated became a martyr to the cause. Reverendnfamous, the Calvin Fairbanks learned to hate slavery and Oberlin College in ohio. He began making trips into kentucky to transport slaves into freedom. Over his ears with the underground railroad, he smile smuggled 50 slaves to freedom. He began with a 15yearold girl who he adopted into his family. Fairbanks spirited the girl away from her 80yearold master in Montgomery County kentucky. Great great henddaughter of a slave whom took as his mistress at the age of 14. Now he was expecting to make this girl his mistress. This kind of sensationalism became standard abolitionist there unveiling the evils of slavery. Paintingis anonymous and a slave sale in lexington kentucky. John brown always caused Harriet Tubman general. It signaled his highest theme for her congressman and that she was a warrior. In the wake of john browns death, Harriet Tubman participated in a public rescue in upstate new york. A fugitive slave was being held by authorities in troy, new york. Harriet tubman was visiting a troy relative when fate was being determined in a courtroom. The chamberps into that made her look very innocuous. Harriet tubman was standing at the back of the rome when it was announced that he would be shipped back to virginia. The crowd below disappointed in the verdict, began to swell. Harriet tubman knew she must seize the moment. She would test the good people of troy. With a rise to the occasion . And help her strike a blow for freedom . Shortly after, Harriet Tubman maneuvered herself into position. The frail old woman surprised the guard by wrenching him free and tracking him down the stairs into the waiting arms of comrades. An eyewitness reported she was reportedly beaten over the head with policemans clubs but she never released her goal. Bleeding and half conscious, he was hauled down to the river and sat across the river on a skin. Once he reached the other side, he was taken back into custody and confined to a judges chamber. It was followed by a very good 400 abolitionist anton protecting him. Ralliedriet tubman she followers to storm the building where he was being held. They reached having. Harriet and other women brought him out and put him into the first wagon passing and started him for the west. Lawyers, editors, public man, private individuals have all been rescued. The rankandfile were black. Harriet tubman has earned the name of moses on the underground railroad, but was also a joshua as well. Knew what most americans would soon discover, when john brown had tried to demonstrate a few months before, slavery was war. Harriet tubman symbolizes the most powerful and purest elements of the underground railroad. Right to selfdetermination, defeat of unjust laws through collective resistance. She risked her own life and freedom again and again. Making daring rescues of others. This was undertaken while she suffered a severe disability. She and her friends refer to it as losing time. There are no records, we can only speculate on her medical condition. Perhaps she suffered from narcolepsy. Some suggest she might have had temporal lobe epilepsy. Whatever her disease, she faced it with courage. Without complaint, a hallmark of her career. After the civil war was formally declared, moving her underground struggles above ground, Harriet Tubman joined the federal forces in virginia then South Carolina. She was the plotter behind one of the most airing union rates beat in the heart of dixie. On in june of 18 63, boats moved upriver. The band of soldiers knew that on this mission their fate rested in the hands of their commander and the famous moses. Of colonelicture mcgovern having a bad hair day, quite clearly. He was a ferocious soldier. They followed him probably. A sneak attack in the dead of night to catch slaveholders offguard was vintage Harriet Tubman. She had been given the location of rebel torpedoes which were stationary mines placed below the surface of the water, they did not move. She guided union ships to avoid them. On the dangerous journey, she more than she freed during the underground railroad days. Boatst tubman guided the to designated spots on the shore where fugitives lay hidden. Once the all clear was given, they approached the water line to be loaded on the ship. Slaves were put on to the gunboats that night. Harriet tubmans plan was triumphant. The official confederate report concluded, the enemy seems to have been well posted as to the capacity of our troops. There is small chance of encountering opposition. To have been well guided by persons thoroughly acquainted with the river and the country. O this was a well executed military operation which was celebrated in northern papers. Heriet tubman continued struggle working as a spy and a scout for union generals. Following her retirement from the army in 1865, Harriet Tubman returned to her home in the Finger Lakes Region of upstate new york. She took up the role of activist and philanthropist. See solicited funds. Active in womens suffrage and other important reform crusade. She sought compensation from the government, petitioning it for back wages and then for soldiers pension. This campaign took her over 30 years. At first, Harriet Tubman received eight dollars a month for widows. She had remarried a Union Veteran in 1869. He died in 1888 after a series of petitions, in 1899, she was granted 20 per month. Not the full pension of a soldier, but more than the pension of a nurse. In recognition of her war work. Died on march 10, 1913. Home, aarriet tubman Charitable Institution she had established for the needy within her community. Following her death, race leaders praised Harriet Tubman for her exemplary sacrifice and contribution. Funeralgiven a military in auburn, new york. Also put up aburn plaqu