Beyond Heroic Legend: The Lives of Harriet Tubman

Catherine Clinton. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2004. xiii + 272 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $27.95 (cloth); $14.95 (paper).

Jean M. Humez.Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories.Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. xii + 471 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $45.00.

Kate Clifford Larson.Bound for the Promises Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004. xxi + 410 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. $26.95.

Because Harriet Tubman's name is so familiar to us it seems incredible that there has been no major biography of this extraordinary woman since 1943. Yet, despite this lack of serious scholarly attention, Tubman has remained an iconic figure largely in the realm of juvenile literature of which there is no shortage. Catherine Clinton, Kate Larson, and Jean Humez gracefully exercise the art of biography by going beyond a synopsis of Tubman's life to present the complexities and motivations of a remarkable black southern woman, who not only escaped the bonds of slavery but also became a leading figure in the Underground Railroad movement and an activist for both abolitionism and women's rights.

Three prominent white northerners published accounts of Tubman during her own lifetime. The first was a biographical sketch published by antislavery activist Franklin D. Sanborn. This 1863 account of Tubman's role in a daring raid into Civil War-torn South Carolina catapulted the ex-slave into the international spotlight. The second biography, penned by transcendentalist reformer Ednah Cheney, appeared two years later. Drawing heavily on Sanborn's work, Cheney also drew on her own conversations with Tubman. These first two publications were brief and written for a self-selected audience of anti-slavery readers. The first biography of any depth was Sarah Hopkins Bradford's 1869 Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, largely based upon personal interviews conducted with Tubman. Bradford revised her book twice, in 1886 and again in1901, making this the text upon which almost all subsequent biographies have depended. In 1943, journalist and labor activist Earl Conrad published General Harriet Tubman, a biography strongly influenced by his own political agenda. In Tubman, Conrad found the ideal subject to convey the contributions of black Americans. He therefore, focused on her military efforts, while downplaying her spiritual side. Now, more than sixty years later, three compelling books more than compensate for this scholarly neglect

While all three authors under consideration share a common commitment to giving Tubman her due as the subject of serious scholarship, and all three are similarly limited by the paucity of sources, they each bring a different approach to the table. Clinton and Larson present us with largely traditional biographies that chronicle Tubman's life and briefly discuss her legacy. Clinton claims that historians have consistently failed to examine "the underlying causes that make her [Tubman's] legacy so powerful" (Clinton, p. xiii). Larson asserts that this new biography not only adds depth to Tubman's story but also exposes "patterns of neglect and complacency expressed in the racial stereotypes that have minimized, if not erased, her many contributions" (Larson, p. xx). Humez's focus is soundly grounded in literary criticism. Her aim is to illustrate Tubman's agency is shaping her own legacy and discover her "own storytelling voice" (Humez, p. 7).

Clinton and Larson offer us biographies that follow a standard chronological narrative. Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross (she took the name Harriet after her escape) in Dorchester County, Maryland, around 1820. By the time she was five years old, this daughter of enslaved parents already shouldered a heavy workload and had full responsibility for her mistress's baby. By the age of twelve, Tubman had graduated to field labor and during her adolescence developed a fierce stamina as well as an intense Christian faith. Although she was valued as a hard worker, around this...