In September we heard Ta-Nehisi Coates in conversation with Oprah Winfrey at the Apollo in NYC. The topic was his first novel The Water Dancer and the ticket price included a copy of the book.

The conversation was interesting – Oprah is really good at this kind of thing and she clearly loved the book. And so did I.

It’s the story of Hiram Walker, born into bondage – one of the “tasked”  – and the son of a Virginia plantation owner. His mother is sold away when he is a child and he has no memory of her. But he does have a powerful gift of factual recall and a strange and magical power.

The novel is the story of his flight from the decaying, hollow grandeur of the plantation and the application of those gifts in the service of freedom.

It’s a powerful and emotionally complex, history-rich story of love, betrayal and transformation that is personal to Hiram yet draws on the extraordinary narratives of the times. People really did those things – and we have the records to show it. Any time I delve into this particular strand of history, or read a book as gripping as The Water Dancer,  I am possessed of a kind of borrowed rage and I think: Why on earth would any African American ever be civil to any white person ever? But – fortunately most are, and that is some kind of miracle and magic of its own. And I am grateful for it. But I digress.

The novel is not about Harriet Tubman but it is about the Underground Railroad and she does appear as a significant presence. How could she not? 

And yesterday we went to see the a really wonderful film: Harriet. Do go and see it if you can. You can watch the trailer below. And don’t be afraid – it’s not one of those earnest good-for-you films. It’s both of those, but it’s also an engrossing film full of dramatic tension and urgency – a compelling, fast-paced, action story of great moral and emotional depth. And there are so many parallels and points of comparison between Coates’ novel and the film. Each enriches the other.

Cynthia Erivo plays Tubman as a fierce and fearless moral leader. It’s the story of how Aramintha Ross became Harriet Tubman and then “Moses” – a savior of her people and an icon of courage and determination. After her epic flight and her hundred mile journey to Philadelphia, she meets William Still and her transition from escaped fugitive to underground railroad conductor, change agent, activist, Union spy, legendary leader begins.

Harriet is a film for our times. It provides inspiration, hope and a sense of our history in a well-told story of moral clarity and fearless leadership. We need that in these dark days. 

The story of the fictional Hiram Walker and the story of the very real Harriet Tubman both draw their power from on the history of the times, including the slave narratives that William Still recorded as the fugitives passed through the Anti-Slavery Society office in Philadelphia.

And you can read his record here.

Go Through Or Die

The film shows Tubman’s incredible physical courage, her fierce resolution, her indifference to danger. These are qualities that Stillman recorded at the time. Read his description of her character and her rigid rule of law for those she conducted north to freedom – there was no turning back. When she said to them that “a live runaway could do great harm by going back, but that a dead one could tell no secrets,” she was sure to have obedience.

“MOSES” ARRIVES WITH SIX PASSENGERS.

“NOT ALLOWED TO SEEK A MASTER;”—”VERY DEVILISH;”—FATHER “LEAVES TWO LITTLE SONS;”—”USED HARD;”—”FEARED FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF YOUNG HEIRS,” ETC. JOHN CHASE, ALIAS DANIEL FLOYD; BENJAMIN ROSS, ALIAS JAMES STEWART; HENRY ROSS, ALIAS LEVIN STEWART; PETER JACKSON, ALIAS STAUNCH TILGHMAN; JANE KANE, ALIAS CATHARINE KANE, AND ROBERT ROSS.

The coming of these passengers was heralded by Thomas Garrett as follows:

THOMAS GARRETT’S LETTER.

WILMINGTON, 12 mo. 29th, 1854.

ESTEEMED FRIEND, J. MILLER MCKIM:—We made arrangements last night, and sent away Harriet Tubman, with six men and one woman to Allen Agnew’s, to be forwarded across the country to the city. Harriet, and one of the men had worn their shoes off their feet, and I gave them two dollars to help fit them out, and directed a carriage to be hired at my expense, to take them out, but do not yet know the expense. I now have two more from the lowest county in Maryland, on the Peninsula, upwards of one hundred miles. I will try to get one of our trusty colored men to take them to-morrow morning to the Anti-slavery office. You can then pass them on.

THOMAS GARRETT.

HARRIET TUBMAN had been their “Moses,” but not in the sense that Andrew Johnson was the “Moses of the colored people.” She had faithfully gone down into Egypt, and had delivered these six bondmen by her own heroism. Harriet was a woman of no pretensions, indeed, a more ordinary specimen of humanity could hardly be found among the most unfortunate-looking farm hands of the South. Yet, in point of courage, shrewdness and disinterested exertions to rescue her fellow-men, by making personal visits to Maryland among the slaves, she was without her equal.

Her success was wonderful. Time and again she made successful visits to Maryland on the Underground Rail Road, and would be absent for weeks, at a time, running daily risks while making preparations for herself and passengers. Great fears were entertained for her safety, but she seemed wholly devoid of personal fear. The idea of being captured by slave-hunters or slave-holders, seemed never to enter her mind. She was apparently proof against all adversaries. While she thus manifested such utter personal indifference, she was much more watchful with regard to those she was piloting. Half of her time, she had the appearance of one asleep, and would actually sit down by the road-side and go fast asleep when on her errands of mercy through the South, yet, she would not suffer one of her party to whimper once, about “giving out and going back,” however wearied they might be from hard travel day and night. She had a very short and pointed rule or law of her own, which implied death to any who talked of giving out and going back. Thus, in an emergency she would give all to understand that “times were very critical and therefore no foolishness would be indulged in on the road.” That several who were rather weak-kneed and faint-hearted were greatly invigorated by Harriet’s blunt and positive manner and threat of extreme measures, there could be no doubt.

After having once enlisted, “they had to go through or die.” Of course Harriet was supreme, and her followers generally had full faith in her, and would back up any word she might utter. So when she said to them that “a live runaway could do great harm by going back, but that a dead one could tell no secrets,” she was sure to have obedience. Therefore, none had to die as traitors on the “middle passage.” It is obvious enough, however, that her success in going into Maryland as she did, was attributable to her adventurous spirit and utter disregard of consequences. Her like it is probable was never known before or since. On examining the six passengers who came by this arrival they were thus recorded https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15263/15263-h/15263-h.htm#sevarrv10

“Her like it is probable was never known before or since”

So wrote William Stillman in his record. And so – as a fitting tribute to an extraordinary iconically American life of transformation, leadership, persistence, courage, vision – there was a plan in place in 2016 to put her likeness on the new $20 bill. 

When one of the first acts of the Trump administration was to cancel that plan, it was a clear signal that we were dealing with a deeply racist agenda at highest level of government. And so it has been. Trump declared Andrew Jackson his favorite past president and the racist die was cast.

To the white supremacists that Trump favors, Tubman is no hero. She remains the runaway fugitive thief who stole their property and helped to ruin them. The very idea that a woman, a black woman, a former slave, an abolitionist, a stealer of property, a known criminal would appear on an American banknote in place of the Trail of Tears and Dred Scott era president … – not permissible. 

May the reversal of that decision be one of the first acts of the new administration in Washington in 2021.

Watch the trailer. Go see the film: