Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life
Stories (Wisconsin Studies in
Autobiography) by Jean M. Humez
What A Great Way To Learn U.S. History!
Jean M. Humez’s comprehensive Harriet Tubman is an important
biographical overview based on extensive new research and the complete
texts of the stories Tubman told about her life--a virtual autobiography
culled by Humez from rare early publications and manuscript sources. This
book will become a landmark resource for scholars, historians, and general
readers interested in slavery, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War, and
African American women.
Personal Review: Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories
(Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) by Jean M. Humez
Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories, by Jean M. HumezThis
book is a treasure. Eminently readable, impossible to put down, totally
absorbing, this book will satisfy meticulous scholars and the general public.

What a great way to learn U.S. history! Great quotes, critical appraisal of
the work of earlier historians, new documentation, wonderfully illuminating
photographs. A feast for the curious mind and eye.
I have always wanted to know more about Harriet Tubman and as soon as
I heard this book was out I dived into it. Harriet Tubman's life has been the
subject of several biographers in the past, but in this work Humez
convincingly argues that Harriet Tubman, who could not read or write, was
able to produce a "self-authored life story" by carefully choosing the writers
she collaborated with and exercising control about what stories to tell and
how to tell them. This results in a fascinating and kaleidoscopic
interpretation of Harriet Tubman's life, as seen through different authors
and through Harriet Tubman herself.
In the first section, "The Life," I learned about the salient facts of Harriet
Tubman's life: her years as a slave in Maryland, seeing two of her sisters
sold and carried away in a chain-gang, her successful escape from slavery
in 1849, when she was probably 29 years old, her contacts with the anti-
slavery movement in the North, the mutual admiration of Harriet Tubman
and John Brown who referred to her using the masculine pronoum
("Harriet Tubman hooked on his whole team at once. He is the most of a
man, naturally, that I ever met with"). It is also about the clandestine trips
she made to Maryland to rescue her extended family and others, her
military and nursing work during the civil war and her settling in Auburn,
New York, in poverty, taking care of old and sick people of color and
children-- the John Brown Hall project, as she called it.
Interesting quotes from her dictated letters reveal details that throw light on
her views on other issues, such as women's rights. For instance, in telling
about the successful Combahee River raid in South Carolina, in which she
worked with Col. James Montgomery and a band of 300 black soldiers,
she states after her dress was shred that "...I made up my mind then I
would never wear a long dress on another expedition of the kind, but would
have a bloomer as soon as I could get it..."
It is in the second part, "The Life Stories," that Humez makes the case that
Harriet Tubman's gifts as a story-teller, singer, and performer and her
reputation as an African-American celebrity ensured that her experiences
as a slave and her deep spirituality would be preserved. Here, through a
discussion on the politics of research, the dynamics between a researcher
and her/his subject, and the cultural and social context that influences
much of those dynamics, I felt Harriet Tubman's presence and
resourcefulness vividly, towering above those who tried to capture her
complex story and interpret her life according to their values and the racial
views of their culture.
The third part, "Stories and Sayings," offers a hypothetical version of
Tubman's "autobiography" culled from every individual life history story
Humez was able to locate from the earlier works. While all the stories and

sayings are revealing and offer significant insights my favorite part was the
"Stories of Clever Exploits and Tricks," probably because I always
wondered how she actually carried out her rescue missions. In this section
the intelligence, courage, and humor of Harriet Tubman shines through,
like in the story "Avoiding Capture by Pretending to Read." It says: " At
another time when she heard men talking about her, she pretended to read
a book which she carried. One man remarked. `This can't be the woman.
The one we want can't read or write.' Harriet devoutly hoped this book
was right side up" (Tatlock, 1939a).
The final section, "Documents" is a gift of primary source materials for
future researchers and anybody interested in pursuing an in-depth study of
Harriet Tubman's life.
Read this book. See for yourself how illuminating the past and looking at
history with a fresh eye can instill hope. This book is yes, about Harriet
Tubman, but more fundamentally, it is a book about courage, dignity,
persistence, and solidarity in incredibly harsh circumstances. What a gift
for us all in these troubled times.
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