Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero: Amazon.ca: Kate Clifford Larson: Books

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From Publishers Weekly

Few American historical figures are as familiar in legend as Tubman (1822?-1913), and as little known in fact. Although at least 30 juvenile biographies have treated her, Larson's is the first adult biography to appear since Earl Conrad's Harriet Tubman (1943). This pedestrian (in the neutral sense) account presents new investigative sources, utilizing court records and contemporary local newspapers, wills and letters, along with legal and illegal transactions. Larson directs tangled traffic as Tubman and her relatives are "passed down through several generations"; she traces the lives of the white owners as well the black "blended community of free and enslaved people" on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where Tubman grew up in slavery and where she returned time and again to spirit slaves to freedom. In recounting Tubman's routes and ruses, as the figure known as "Moses," Larson freshly identifies many of the escapees as she delineates the solid role of free and enslaved blacks in the Underground Railroad. She identifies Tubman's "sleeping spells, periods of semi-consciousness," as temporal lobe epilepsy. With Tubman's support of John Brown and her activities during the Civil War, Larson arrives where the Tubman legend usually ends with Tubman immortalized "forever as an Underground Railroad Agent and Civil War spy." As in the only other adult biography, Sarah Bradford's Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1869), Larson follows her subject into her post-Civil War life supporting freedmen in the South and tending to a large household, including a young woman Larson speculates may have been Tubman's daughter. While this history is well done, competition will arrive in February, when Little, Brown publishes Catherine Clinton's Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Araminta Ross, better known as Harriet Tubman, was born a slave in 1822 on Maryland's Eastern Shore. In 1849, after hearing that she might be sold to settle her late master's debt, she escaped and began a life of sacrifice to help others escape as well. But Tubman's efforts didn't stop there. She played a vital role in the events of the Civil War and, in her later years, supported the fight for women's rights. Until the end of her life, she fought against the bigotry and injustice faced daily by African Americans. Using a clear writing style, Larson does an excellent job of placing Tubman in the context of her times. After finishing this book, readers will feel a greater appreciation for this woman's accomplishments and awareness that one person really can make a difference.–Peggy Bercher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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First Sentence
WHEN HARRIET TUBMAN FLED HER DEAD MASTER'S FAMILY IN 1849, she was not the only slave from the Eastern Shore of Maryland racing for liberty. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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5.0 out of 5 stars exceptional and well researched, Jun 23 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero (Hardcover)

Kate Larson spent years researching and documenting Harriet Tubman's life to write this book. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak about the book in Cambridge, MD. Mr. Thomas Hall (who reviewed this book below) could have benefited from hearing Mrs. Larson speak. I feel he is not being fair by saying a white person could not write about African American history. At this lecture, which was supported by the Harriet Tubman Society, several of her sources were also in attendance. One gentleman was an African American historian from Dorchester County. I don't doubt for a moment that Mrs. Larson was not as accurate and thorough in her research for this book. It is extremely well written and a fascinating read.

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5.0 out of 5 stars the reviewer below should read the whole book, Jan 14 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero (Hardcover)

as to "questioning" the popular numbers for trips into the slave South and people led to freedom, Larson relies more on Tubman's *own* reports than on the writers (often WHITE by the way!) who had their own rationales for inflating the numbers in service of books sales and other political goals. Larson does not *reduce* Tubman's heroism (indeed the subtitle explicitly calls Tubman a "hero" ) what she does is highlight the fact that whether 70 or 300 were led to freedom by Harriet Tubman she was a hero.

The book is a celebration of an American life that draws on sources black, white, archival, family and tradition. The acknowledgments and the cover blurbs are thanks to a myriad of African Americans of all types. What those people did recognize and this reader below does not is that Larson used the truth and the historical record to make that heroism more than simply a popular opinion but an incontrovertible fact. We honor the past and its heroes by telling the TRUTH about them. Harriet Tubman didn't need myth then and she doesn't need it now. Her life was one of truth and faith, we owe her memory nothing less.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Kate Larson, Jan 12 2004

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Thomas Hall (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero (Hardcover)

In her introduction, Larson says "We all believe we know Harriet Tubman" yet this knowledge is limited to the heroic myth of children's books. Yet in order to tell the true story of Harriet Tubman, Larson often doubts Tubman's own testimony and instead calls for evidence from "white sources" to corroborate Tubman's claims. Larson questions, for example, the fact that Tubman herself stated that she was born in 1825 and instead claims that there is no archival evidence to support this.
She then further questions the number of trips and the number of slaves that Tubman claims she freed.

I have always had my doubts of white scholars doing black history, and Larson's book proves me right. Larson doubts what black people stated, believed, and KNEW through both our own oral culture and history, and then comes along to say that she is going to tell us something more than just myth. If questioning numbers and doubting black historical actors is her version of history, we surely have not made it to the Promised Land.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read
In her introduction, Larson says "We all believe we know Harriet Tubman" yet this knowledge is limited to the heroic myth of children's books. Read more

Published on Jan 1 2004 by AfroAmericanHeritage