Harriet Tubman

This image appears as the frontispiece in Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, a biography written by Sarah H. Bradford in close collaboration with Harriet Tubman (c.1822-1913). Harriet Tubman liberated nearly one hundred enslaved men, women, and children in as many as thirteen trips to the South prior to the Civil War; her skills and celebrity made her a symbol of the Underground Railroad. She continued to put her experience to work during the Civil War; fondly called “General Tubman,” she was a nurse and cook for black soldiers and newly emancipated blacks in South Carolina in 1862. In addition to these more traditional female roles, she also was a scout and spy in the employ of the State of Massachusetts prior to the enlistment of black troops from the North. Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman draws on a rich, though hasty collection of interviews, letters, newspaper articles, and testimonials in order to document Tubman’s extraordinary work and “adventures.” Biographer Bradford also introduces the purpose of the book as a source of income for Tubman as she awaited due pension funds from the government for her service during the Civil War.