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America’s hero…

Author:  Erica Armstrong Dunbar

She Came to Slay coverShe’s obviously a household name, but there’s a lot about Harriet Tubman that I didn’t know.  While she’s acclaimed as one of the primary forces behind the Underground Railroad, she was also a sought-after orator, abolitionist, suffragist, business woman and nursing home founder.  She even devised military strategy for the Union forces during the Civil War.  Hers was a remarkable life packed with courage and intrigue and award-winning historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar captures it all in She Came to Slay.

Harriet Tubman photo

Harriet Tubman, circa 1870.

Starting with her life as a enslaved youngster in Eastern Shore Maryland, the author details Tubman’s travails and suffering at the hands of various rural slave owners, until the fateful day in 1849 when the diminutive 27 year-old set out alone, fleeing to freedom in Philadelphia.  She soon returned to help those she had left behind join her in the north, often heading all the way to Ontario.  Over the ensuing years, during repeated trips, she helped dozens of enslaved individuals find freedom, establishing herself as one of America’s greatest heroes.

But Tubman was just getting started.  Despite the bounty on her head, she eagerly sought out other injustices to conquer, bravely facing the danger that fugitive slave hunters might capture her at any time.  Dunbar effectively exposes the harsh realities of the woman’s life in vivid detail and with true passion.

Tubman $20 bill

Postponed indefinitely?

Looking to reboot Tubman’s story a bit, Dunbar frequently brings a modern perspective to it, making her achievements more accessible to the 21st century reader.   As she did in Never Caught, the author also excels at putting the reader in the protagonist’s shoes, capturing the energy of the unstoppable and indefatigable heroine.  The book is laid out in a simplified and approachable format that’s ideal for younger readers and is accompanied by many compelling photographs from the woman’s life.

Sure to teach you something you didn’t know about one of the 19th century’s most remarkable individuals, She Came to Slay makes for thoroughly entertaining and informative reading.   The book presents all that’s necessary to justify featuring Tubman’s face on the next generation of US $20 bills, replacing Andrew Jackson’s.  It’s a no brainer and is long overdue.

— D. Driftless

Other reviews of books about slavery and fugitive slaves:  Barracoon   /   The War Before the War   /      The Slave Ship   /   The Wanderer   /   The Half Has Never Been Told   /   Twelve Years a Slave

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