Harriet Tubman Featured in Maryland Today
October 04, 2022
Harriet Tubman was featured in a Maryland Today article.
Harriet Tubman was featured in a Maryland Today article about an upcoming documentary on her life and legacy.
The following is an excerpt from the article:
"Three University of Maryland faculty helped illuminate the stories behind two 19th-century state icons for a new pair of documentaries premiering on PBS this month. “Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom” debuts at 10 tonight. The films, directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson, include interviews about Tubman with Cheryl LaRoche, associate research professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and the author of “Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance."
"La Roche said Tubman is a fascinating figure because of the leadership she was able to show despite being a diminutive figure barely 5 feet tall who didn’t know how to read or write.
“She doesn’t have the impressive credentials we really associate with (being a leader),” she said. “And yet she is leading men, women, children—sometimes whole families—out of slavery.”
"Tubman developed a strong sense of herself from an upbringing on the Eastern Shore with an intact nuclear family, La Roche said, and her religious faith gave her the confidence and strength to help liberate slaves on the Underground Railroad.
“She did not allow herself to be defined by what the 19th century thought of Black women,” she said. “She transcended all of that.”
You can find the full article here.