Harriet Tubman－The Road to Freedom

『Harriet Tubman－The Road to Freedom』
Catherine Clinton（historian）
Back Bay Books（2005）

　I read "Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom" by Catherine Clinton because I was interested in Harriet Tubman, and I had already read "Mrs. Lincoln" by Catherine Clinton.
　Clinton, a historian about Afro-American Studies, wrote Tubman's biography for adults. Though, Tubman was very famous in elementary schools and there were a lot of Tubman's biographies for children, but there little for adults.
　Tubman was born as a slave in South, then escape to the North, and became a conductor of "the Underground Railroad", she liberated several hundred slaves from the South. In the Civil War, she was active as a spy, she informed Confederate army's formation accurately.
　This book is a biography of Tubman, but this has a lot of background history. So this book deals with Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton and Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and telling the fight at Fort Wagner 54th Massachusetts Infantry's in detail.
　Colonel Shaw, the white colonel who led a black regiment, was buried with his black soldiers as an insult. I did not understand why this was an insult, but I learned it from this book. It was because the bodies of all the other officers that were killed were returned to the North. This meant Shaw was one of the black soldiers, so didn't need to return his body.
　Tubman served meals for Shaw and 54th just before this battle. The white woundeds at this battle were evacuated to the place of Clara Barton, and the black woundeds were evacuated to the place of Harriet Tubman.
　The most astonishing story was that Tubman might have her child. The writer said her niece Margaret was her daughter actually. Margaret was one of her evacuees, but Tubman evacuated only Margaret, not her family.
　It was said the characteristics of Margaret were similar to Harriet. Harriet formed an attachment to Margaret. Margaret was born in 1850 and had a light skin. So the writer said Margaret might be a child between Harriet and white. For that reason, Harriet and her husband John were estranged from each other. There might have been the tragedy of slavery.
（Lang-8's friends, thank you for your cooperation!）
（ハリエット・タブマン: 自由への道）

タグ：Harriet Tubman