Who Was Harriet Tubman? I thought I knew, until December of 1982 when I began to seriously study her life. Before then my knowledge of Harriet Tubman consisted of the popularly accepted beliefs that she was an American Negro slave born in Dorchester County, Maryland, around the year 1820. While she was a young lady she received a head injury that caused her to frequently, without warning, fall into deep "sleeps." This affliction would remain with her throughout her life.

After she recovered from her injury, Harriet escaped from slavery and made her home in the North. Her biographers reported that she would return to slavery 19 times and rescue 300 other slaves, and during the Civil War she would serve with the Union Army as a Nurse, Scout and Spy. After the war, she would settle in Auburn, New York. She died in 1913, and was buried with full military honors.

That, in a nutshell, was all I knew about Harriet Tubman. In 1981, when I began to study her life I soon realized that was all most people knew about Harriet Tubman, and a great deal of that was either inaccurate or simply not true. So in 1993 I wrote and published the Harriet Tubman Journal. The purpose of the Journal was two-fold. The first was to try to reconstruct the life of Harriet Tubman in the light of a more critical approach to what had been written about her. The second was to invite contributions to the Journal from writers, historians, scholars and lay persons with the aim toward presenting a more realistic view of her life based on factual information.

The first Journal appeared in October, 1993. It was introductory. I followed with full-length critiques of four books about Harriet Tubman: Scenes In The Life of Harriet Tubman, and Harriet Tubman the Moses of Her People, both by Sarah Bradford, A Clouded Star by Anne Parrish, and A Woman Called Moses by Marcy Heidish. I were to follow these with full length critiques of Earl Conrad's Harriet Tubman, and Hldegarde Hoyt Swift's book, The Railroad to Freedom. However, ill-health and personal problems prohibited me from continuing. Now with the aid of computer technology, the Harriet Tubman Journal can continue as a website, and the invitation to writers, historians, scholars and lay persons to contribute is still open.

Sarah Bradford

She was born Sarah Elizabeth Hopkins, in Mount Morris, New York, August 20, 1818, the youngest of seven children, three boys and four girls. When she was 2 or 3 years old, her family relocated to Albany, New York, where they lived until 1810, when her father bought property on the Genesse River and moved the family there. It is reported that Sarah Hopkins moved to Geneva in 1832 and lived at 229 Main Street B where she would one day meet Harriet Tubman. On May 15, 1839, Sarah Hopkins married John Melancthon Bradford, a lawyer from Albany, New York. They had six children, three boys and three girls.

Sarah Bradford's father, Samuel Miles Hopkins, was a judge, lawyer and congressman. One of her brothers, Samuel Miles Hopkins Jr., was a distinguished presbyterian clergyman; a graduate of Auburn Theological Seminary, he also completed courses at Princeton Theological Seminary. At Auburn he was the author of Manual of Church Polity; Liturgy and Book of Common Prayer, and he was professor of Ecclesiastical History and The Ancient Languages. He was the grandfather of the noted writer Samuel Hopkins Adams. He wrote the introduction to Sarah Bradford's first book about Harriet, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman.1

The book was written for the purpose of helping Harriet raise money to administer to the aid of her aged parents, as well as to pay the mortgage on a home she bought from Secretary of State William H. Seward.2 Payment for the publication of the book was made, according to Mrs Bradford, ". . .through the liberality of abolitionists Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips, and prominent men of Auburn. . ."3 The book was printed by William John Moses, a small printer in Auburn. Mrs. Bradford gave the entire proceeds from the book, $1200, to Harriet.4

Mrs Bradford began writing the book about June, 1868, and the book was published in 1869. Seventeen years later, in 1886, Mrs. Bradford would write a second edition of the book, renaming it, Harriet Tubman, the Moses of Her People.5

After the Civil War a number of books were written by and about the women who participated. In 1864 and 1865, for example, two biographies of Pauline Cushman were published. Cushman, a Creole and an actress was born Harriet Wood in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in Michigan. She decided to use her acting ability to successfully spy for the Union cause. She was eventually discovered by the Confederates and was sentenced to be hanged, but before the sentence could be carried out Union troops invaded the region and the Confederates fled, abandoning Cushman.6

In 1865 W. S. Williams & Company published Nurse And Spy in the Union Army: The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle Fields, the memoirs of S. Emma E. Edmonds, a white woman. Edmonds' "adventures and experiences" were spectacular. She, not only disguised herself as a man, calling herself, Franklin (AKA "Frank") Thompson, but "she used silver nitrate to darken her skin. . .donned men's clothing along with a black minstrel wig -- chose the assumed name of "Cuff" B and departed on her first mission [as] a Negro."7 Emma Edmond's book became very popular, selling thousands of copies. She gave all of her profits from the book to the U.S. war relief fund.8

Although there is no evidence that Harriet Tubman ever heard of Pauline Cushman or Emma Edmonds there is reason to believe they were probably brought to her attention. So it was more than likely suggested to Harriet to write her own story, particularly since she had done as much, and more, as any other woman who served in the Civil War. If there were money to be made from a book, to Harriet it would serve a different, but just as worthy, purpose: to pay off the mortgage on the home she bought from Secretary of State William H. Seward, and use that home to house and feed the poor and homeless Negroes of Auburn, which may have prompted the following statement by the Freedman's Record in their March 1865 issue:

She [Harriet] says: when the war is over, she will learn to read and write and then will write her own life. The trouble in her head prevents her from applying closely to a book. It is the strong desire of all her friends that she should tell her story in her own way at some future time. . . .

Unfortunately, however, Harriet Tubman never learned to read or write. Enter Sarah Bradford.

In his book, Harriet Tubman, Earl Conrad states that It was in May or June of 1868...that Sarah Bradford began the important job of writing Harriet’s story "...Mrs. Bradford was no practiced writer," said Conrad. "She did an authentic work, even if it was all too brief."9

This writer is not quite sure what Earl Conrad means when he says Sarah Bradford "was no practiced writer." If he means that she had not written before, he was mistaken.

The earliest of Sarah Bradford’s known writings, Stories for Juveniles, appeared in 1852. In 1860, appeared The Linton Family, or The Fashion of this World. She also wrote a history of Columbus and a history of Peter the Great, Czar of Russia. She wrote poetry and songs and was a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers, the most noted being an account to the Geneva Gazette of her voyage aboard the steamship, Anglia, when, during what seemed like endless days of "terrific gales," one of the ship’s cylinders exploded, causing it to wallow helplessly at sea.

Sarah Bradford’s oldest daughter, Mary, was also a writer and had at least ten books published. She married Admiral Schuyler Crowninshield and wrote under the name, Mrs. Schuyler Crowninshield. One of her books, Latitude Nineteen, has been described as Aa lurid tale of the days of the Haitian Dictator, Christophe.

So Sarah Bradford was not only a published author, but writing was something of a tradition in her family. Her father, her brothers, her daughter and her nephew, were all writers, but other than her two books about Harriet Tubman, few of Sarah Bradford’s works are available now. Mildred Jennings, writing in the Geneva Daily Times, 1957, said that "[Sarah Bradford] did not care to preserve copies of what she had written. And her historical papers have not been found." However, this writer was able to acquire a copy of Sarah Bradford’s History Of Geneva through the services of Muriel Hodge, Archivist at Hobart & William Smith Colleges, in Geneva, New York.

Why Sarah Bradford was chosen to write the first biography of a woman who is unarguably the greatest African American woman of the 19th century is, to this writer, a great mystery, particularly when there were so many others who were more qualified? In spite of being from a family of writers, and herself having had her works published, it is my opinion that Sarah Bradford was not qualified to write Harriet Tubman's life story, for two reasons: The first is that there is no evidence she was ever interested in any of the issues that dominated Harriet Tubman's life -- the abolition of slavery and the Underground Railroad -- or that she ever participated in any of the activities or organizations related to those issues. To understand the real gravity of this failing in Sarah Bradford, and its subsequent negative effect on her two biographies of Harriet Tubman, we need to have some knowledge of the history of the area in which both Harriet Tubman and Sarah Bradford lived -- the "Finger Lakes District" and Upper New York State.

Located in Cayuga County, the five Finger Lakes stretch southward like fingers on a giant hand. The lakes lie on the road between New York City and Niagara Falls and, of course, Niagara Falls B the last stopping place in the United States for runaway slaves before attaining freedom in Canada. Auburn and Geneva -- where Harriet Tubman and Sarah Bradford lived, respectively -- are among the numerous cities located in the Finger Lakes District. In Upper New York are Syracuse, Troy, Ithaca, Utica, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo and to the West, Jamestown. During the 19th century, the Finger Lakes and Upper New York region was a hotbed of anti-slavery sentiment and Underground Railroad activity -- among other things.10 For example, in that region lived Martha Wright, sister of the outstanding abolitionist, Lucretia Mott; William Lloyd Garrison Jr., son of one of the most notable voices of the anti-slavery movement, and his wife, Ellen Wright Garrison; Gerit Smith, the wealthy anti-slavery philanthropist, and in North Elba, the anti-slavery militant, John Brown. The most prominent anti-slavery advocate of that region was president Abraham Lincoln's secretary of State, William H. Seward. UGRR historian, Charles Blockson, lists David Barker, Amos Tyron and Thomas Root as UGRR agents in Niagara Falls. He also list a number of homes and African American churches in the region that were active UGRR stations. Among the homes was that of the outstanding temperance and women's rights advocate, Susan B. Anthony. "When Harriet Tubman was not staying with the Frederick Douglass family or with the African Methodist Episcopal Church at Spring and Favor Streets," writes Blockson, "she stayed with the Anthonys and in other abolitionist homes."11 Most likely one of those homes was that of the Quakers, Isaac and Amy Post. "Their home at 35 Sophia Street (now N. Plymouth Avenue), Rochester, was an active stop on the Underground Railroad. The Posts were instrumental in encouraging Frederick Douglass to settle in Rochester."12

Among the many black abolitionists in the Upper New York region were Jermain Loguen of Syracuse, Frederick Douglass of Rochester, Stephen Meyers and Nathan Paul of Albany, Samuel Perry of Ithaca, Catherine Harris of Jamestown, and William Wells Brown of Buffalo.

So the Finger Lakes and Upper New York region consisted of men and women who were of a liberal frame of mind and with a staunch intolerance of slavery. Yet we find no evidence that Sarah Bradford, who lived there most of her life, was ever involved in, or supported any of these organizations and individuals. We find no evidence that this woman, from a prominent New York family, had any first-hand contact with slavery, or the anti-slavery movement. She was not a member of the Rochester Ladies Anti-slavery Society, nor of the Western New York Anti-slavery Society, two organizations who were outstanding in their opposition to slavery in that region. We find no evidence that she had ever been further South than her native New York, or that she ever hid a runaway slave in her home. We ask then, How can one write convincingly about a subject without having some interest or concern in the matters that dominate that subject's life? Indeed, as one critically reads Sarah Bradford's two books about Harriet Tubman, we find that on many occasion she seemed not even interested in Harriet Tubman! But we're getting ahead of our story.

Secondly, in spite of her already mentioned writings (poems, songs, stories for juveniles) Sarah Bradford seems to have had a serious deficiency when it came to writing about people and places, in short, about reality. Since she ". . .did not care to preserve copies of what she had written, and her historical papers have not been found," we have only the following review of her History of Geneva, New York, by Malcolm Sanders Johnston upon which to base our premise: In a 2-part article in the Geneva Daily Times, October, 2nd, 3rd, 1944, Mr. Johnston reports the following:

• She [Sarah Bradford] begins her story by overestimating the number of people living in the village of Geneva proper, mistakenly including the inhabitants of the town and county of Seneca.
• She translated the name Kanadesaga as "beautiful water," while later writers declared that to the Indians the word meant "A place for a new settlement" or "New settlement village."
• She drew heavily on Orsamus Turner's History of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase for her facts, but she also passed along Turner's error that it was Charles Williamson who named the village Geneva, while others had proven that the village was called Geneva years before Williamson arrived.
• Continuing to make use of Turner's work as her authority, though, "not at once bringing in his name," she dated the building of the Geneva Hotel as 1794 while later writers found it to be 1796.
• The book was published by A. Delancey Brigham, whose Editor was Edgar Parker. In his forward, Parker claimed the book to be "the first directory of the place ever issued," "strangely forgetting," that another directory was published, earlier, in 1857."
• She passed on misinformation in the material she received; She wrote without receiving important documenting information, She created a general mystery about some things by presenting insufficient data."13

Yet Johnston found room to forgive! "These items do not condemn Mrs. Bradford," he said,

On the contrary, with their context they show that Mrs. Bradford made exceptionally good use of the best sources which were then available. She was not to blame that these "authorities" were faulty. She was hampered in her studies of Geneva’s past by second growth tradition, which already had sprung up to spoil the view. As a factual historian she did a fine job in clearing away some of that underbrush. She seems never to sacrifice truth to be clever. She is very convincing.14

All of this is fine except that Johnston then goes on to point out further deficiencies in Sarah Bradford’s writing. For example, her consistent misspelling of someone’s name and her insertion of the letter "L" as a middle initial when the middle name was Seldon. As Sarah Bradford included very little of the part Geneva played in the Civil War, Johnston offers and excuse for her. He writes:

The last page of her history, as it was printed, seems to indicate that Mrs Bradford was not given as much time as she wished, or was forced to cut down her manuscript. There was hardly more then a glance at the part Geneva was playing in the war of 1861; [There was also a] concluding paragraph explaining why she had not mentioned more persons who were then living.15

Johnston then goes on to quote the following apology by Sarah Bradford which she offered at the end of the history:

Note - The writer of the above little History feels that an apology is due to those interested in the subject, for the hasty manner in which such facts as could be gathered have been thrown together. Many omissions and deficiencies will, doubtless, be detected by those better acquainted with the past history of the place than she is herself, but, as in the absence of records, there was nothing in many cases to depend upon but the memory of others, such deficiencies were unavoidable.16

Unfortunately, Mr. Johnston’s defense of Sarah Bradford’s History of Geneva, New York, or of Sarah Bradford as a "factual historian," simply does not sound convincing. And neither does Sarah Bradford for, as I shall point out later, her explanations of omissions and apologies for deficiencies actually carried over into her two biographies of Harriet Tubman and had negative effects on later stories about Harriet Tubman’s life. Until recently, most of Harriet Tubman’s later biographers B especially those who wrote fictionalized accounts -- either uncritically accepted Sarah Bradford’s writings about Harriet Tubman or, as in the case of Malcolm Johnston and, as we shall see, Earl Conrad, found reason to excuse, ignore or overlook her writing deficiencies. The result is that most of those who fictionalized Harriet Tubman's life, each tell a different story, compounded by faulty reporting, exaggerations, sensationalism and, in some cases, out-and-out distortions. The sad part of this is that, most of these fictionalized accounts are written for young adults; the very population we need in order to carry on our history.

Let us take a look at Sarah Bradford’s first book about Harriet Tubman:

Scenes in the life of Harriet Tubman is a small book of 132 pages. In preparation for the book, Sarah Bradford wrote to the men who knew Harriet Tubman, personally, and asked for their reminiscences about her. It is significant to note that all of these men, with the exception of Frederick Douglass, were prominent White men, in spite of the existence of numerous other Black men who knew Harriet Tubman, personally, and were involved with her on many of her Underground Railroad activities. For example, Black Underground Railroad worker, William Still's home and office in North Philadelphia served as a place of succor for thousands of runaways. As chairman of a four-man Acting Committee of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, Still's responsibility was to attend to every case that might require the Society's assistance. Still's specific duty, however, was to keep a record of every runaway that came to the Committee for assistance. This brought him into personal contact with more runaway slaves than perhaps any person on the Eastern Line of the Underground Railroad. This included Harriet Tubman, who sought Still's assistance on many (if not most) of her rescue journeys, and Still recorded several of them in his post war book -- The Underground Railroad.

Black abolitionist, Jermain Loguen, provided his home in Syracuse as a shelter for many of the runaways Harriet rescued from slavery on their way to Canada, and so did Frederick Douglass when they reached his home in Rochester. According to historian, Benjamin Quarles, the Buffalo home of the ex-slave, William Wells Brown, was also a station on the Underground Railroad. "Brown himself conducted sixty-nine runaways to Canada over a period of seven months in 1842," writes Quarles.17 Brown also personally interviewed many of those Negroes Harriet rescued from slavery and who served with her during the Civil War for his book. The Rising Sun; or The Antecedents And Advancement of the Colored Race. All of these Black men, including Henry Highland Garnet and Charles Ray of New York, at one time or another had personal contact with Harriet Tubman, particularly during her Underground Railroad activities. However, with the exception of Frederick Douglass, none of the personal experiences these Black men had with Harriet Tubman appear in either of Sarah Bradford's books. Nor is there evidence that Sarah Bradford ever sought testimonies from women who knew Harriet Tubman, and Harriet knew quite a few prominent ones, especially those who fought for women's rights, most notably Elizabeth Cady Stanton, leader of the Woman's Suffrage Movement, and Martha Wright, sister of the staunch Quaker abolitionist, Lucretia Mott. Mrs. Wright was one of Harriet's greatest supporters in Auburn. There too was Ida Husted Harper, the official reporter and historian of the National American Woman Suffrage Association; Emily Howland, who Adedicated her life to educating and assisting the freed Black people. "The Howland household. . .[in Cayuga County] was a known station on the Underground Railroad,"18 Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of the wealthy abolitionist, Gerrit Smith, a devoted friend who supported Harriet's UGRR activities, financially, and was a member of the so-called "Secret Six," who supported John Brown's violent anti-slavery campaign. In that region was another famous suffragist, Susan B. Anthony. All of these women, prominent and well-educated, knew Harriet Tubman, personally, and apparently thought highly of her. Many years later, in describing a gathering at the home of Eliza Wright Osborne, Susan B. Anthony would write

"This most wonderful woman - Harriet Tubman - is still alive. I saw her but the other day at the beautiful home of Eliza Wright Osborne, the daughter of Martha C. Wright, in company with Elizabeth Smith Miller, the only daughter of Gerrit Smith, Miss Emily Howland, Rev. Anna H. Shaw and Mrs. Ella Wright Garrison, the daughter of Martha C. Wright and the wife of William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. All o, us were visiting at the Osbornes, a real love feast of the few that are left and here came Harriet Tubman!

Susan B. Anthony
17 Madison Street :
Rochester, N. Y.
Jan. 1, 190319

In this first book, there is a four-to-five page reminiscence from the Wilmington, Delaware, abolitionist and Underground Railroad worker, Thomas Garrett; a two page reminiscence from New England author, Journalist and philanthropist, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn; eight pages of letters and testimonials, a two page list of subscribers, and the words of songs. Twenty pages of the book are taken up by an article by Sanborn from the Boston Commonwealth. Other than the few personal comments Mrs. Bradford makes about this article, it totally upstages her own book in that it tells a more complete and consistent story of Harriet Tubman's life than she does!

Another eleven and a half pages consist of an article from the Troy Whig and a testimony from Martin Townsend, Esq, about Harriet Tubman's sensational rescue of runaway slave, Charles Nalle. There is a six and a half page Appendix followed by a thirteen-page "Essay on Women-Whipping." At the very end is a list of 34 subscribers to the "publishing fund" for the book, each contributing between five and twenty-five dollars. Summing up, Sarah Bradford's own contribution to the book amounts to approximately fifty-seven pages.

Writing in the same frame of mind as Malcolm Johnston, Earl Conrad offers an excuse for Sarah Bradford. "The biographer [Sarah Bradford] decided on a literary policy, chiefly, of allowing others to tell Harriet’s story and of permitting them to appraise her," he says. But that does not seem to be what Sarah Bradford’s intention was at all. By her own admission, she said the book was put together in a hurry. "There was a pressing need for the book," she wrote. "Hence it was written with the greatest possible haste, while preparing for a trip to Europe." On the contrary, one gets the impression that rather than deciding to allow others to tell Harriet’s story as a "literary policy," Sarah Bradford (or the printer) found it convenient to include their testimonies as well as her "Essay on Women-Whipping" to pad the book, to make it appear as if she wrote more about Harriet Tubman than she actually did. If we simply listen to what she and her brother said, we can infer that she had to do this in order not to miss her boat to Europe.

There is also indication that, in soliciting contributions from men who knew Harriet Tubman personally Sarah Bradford did not even write to Frederick Douglass. For example, In a letter dated Springfield, July 7, 1868, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn wrote to C. W. Slick requesting him to send copies of articles from various newspapers which contain information about Harriet Tubman to Sarah Bradford.20

In a letter dated August 18. 1868, Sarah Bradford wrote to Secretary of State, William H. Seward, saying she and her daughter were sailing for Europe on September 2nd of that year and wished a letter of introduction from him to a gentleman in London.21 So then, with Sarah Bradford planning to sail for Europe it was now left to Harriet Tubman to finish collecting material for the book. In the book we find a letter dated August 29, 1868 from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman. It is significant to note that Douglass' letter is the only letter in the book addressed to Harriet Tubman instead of to Sarah Bradford. From the letter's date, we notice that it was written just 4 days before Sarah Bradford was to leave for Europe, and that it is dated later than any other letter in the book. The inference we draw from these facts is that it was Harriet herself who asked Douglass for the letter, not Sarah Bradford. And that, in preparation for her trip to Europe, Sarah Bradford probably never seen Douglass' letter until the book was printed.

Two weeks later, as Sarah Bradford was on her way to Europe, we find Harriet Tubman still collecting material for her book. On September 11th, Martha Wright wrote to Anna and Patti Lord saying that Harriet had paid a visit and informed Mrs. Wright she had two letters for the book, one from Thomas Garrett, and one from Gerrit Smith. She now wished Mrs. Wright to ask her sister, Lucretia Mott, to also write a letter. Harriet explained that Mr. and Mrs. Mott came to see her in Philadelphia and had assisted her.22 In a letter dated October 8, 1868, Martha Wright stated that she had received a response from the Motts. Harriet asked Mrs. Wright to read the letter to her. Afterwards Harriet said that the letter should be in the book, for the Mott's stood by them when there was no one else. Unfortunately, the Mott's letter never appeared in the book.

Sarah Bradford's brother, Rev. Samuel Miles Hopkins, perhaps realizing that she had abandoned her responsibility toward the book, offered an excuse. On December 1, 1868, while Sarah Bradford was indeed in Europe, he wrote the Introduction to the book and said. "The narrative was prepared on the eve of the author's departure for Europe, where she remains"(Italics my own). Did he mean that she put the entire book together the night before!? In the very next sentence Rev. Hopkins apparently recognized that the book was also lacking in other respects for he writes, "It [the book] makes no claim for literary merit."23 How true.

After the material was collected the next task was to find a publisher. To undertake this task, Harriet's Auburn friends came to her aid. Foremost was William G. Wise, an official of the Auburn Woolen Company who had business dealings with the Seward family.24 According to Earl Conrad, "Wise was the organizing force in back of the book." Wise originally tried to get Ticknor and Fields, publishers of the popular Atlantic Monthly Magazine to publish the book.25 However, he ended up with William John Moses, a young printer who had settled in Auburn in 1845.26

Although "Moses was active in various aspects of printing, publishing, and newspaper editing in Auburn for half a century," he did not become a publisher until the 1850s. Until then he was a "Job Printer," one who simply took whatever material that was presented to him, put it together, typeset it, bound it, and printed the number of copies requested.27 It was as a Job Printer that Moses worked for A. Delancey Brigham, the company for whom Sarah Bradford had written her History of Geneva, New York.28 As a publisher, however, Moses' responsibility would be far more extensive. He would have to insure that the book was properly edited; that its contents was consistent and coherent. After reading the prepared manuscript (if there was one), he would send it to the typesetter with his specifications as to the kind of type, as well as the letter and word-spacing. After the type setter had set the type, the publisher would proof-read the work, that is, he would check and re-check the work for typographical errors. He would then send the work back to the typesetter to make the corrections. He would then check again to verify that they were properly made and, If necessary, go through another round of corrections and checking. All this to ensure that his specifications have been followed not to introduce changes. Paper texture and weight are other important considerations with which the publisher would be concerned.

The question is, In what capacity was Moses acting, publisher or job printer, when he received Sara Bradford's collection of information about Harriet Tubman? It takes only a cursory glance at the slipshod manner in which the information is presented in the book to lead us to infer that Moses was most likely acting as a job printer, not a publisher. He apparently took no responsibility or concern for the content or manner in which the book was finally prepared. And this collection of material, thrown together, and given the title, Scenes In The Life of Harriet Tubman, became the first biography of a woman considered to be one of the greatest African Americans to ever live. Unfortunately, in 1886, when Harriet Tubman was again in need of money, she approached Sarah Bradford to write another edition of her book. Sarah Bradford agreed, and that's when the trouble really begins.

In an attempt to amend the substandard work she did on the first book, Sarah Bradford made many significant changes in the second book. For one thing, she sensationalized some of the stories in the second book. Following, are three stories she tells in both the first and second editions. (Herein, I will refer to Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman as "Scenes" and Harriet Tubman, the Moses of Her People as "Moses").

In this first story, Mrs. Bradford tells us about a reward offered for Joe Bailey, a runaway slave whom Harriet rescued.

Scenes:

The rewards posted up everywhere had been at first five hundred dollars for Joe, if taken within the limits of the United States; then a thousand, and then fifteen hundred dollars,'an' all expenses clar an' clean for his body in Easton jail.29

Moses

...For Joe in particular the reward was very high. First a thousand dollars then fifteen hundred, and then two thousand, 'an' all expenses clar an' clean for his body in Easton jail.30

The differences between the two sets of prices quoted seem hardly a mistake or an oversight. The price differential is $500 in both accounts. In Scenes it is $500-$1000-$1500, in Moses it is $1000-$1500-$2000. Such consistency is not in the nature of an oversight or a mistake, but a deliberate and conscious change of the information. This is reinforced by the last clause--"all expenses clar an' clean for his body in Easton jail"--which Sarah Bradford quotes word for word, dialect and all! In other words, it is obvious that Sarah Bradford deliberately changed the reward prices, making them proportionally higher all around.

The next story is about the number of slaves the Quaker abolitionist Thomas Garrett helped to escape.

Scenes:

Thomas Garrett is a Quaker, and a man of a wonderfully large and generous heart, through whose hands, Harriet tells me, two thousand self-emancipated slaves passed on their way to freedom.31

Moses:

This man, whose name was Thomas Garrett, and who was well-known in those days to the friends of the slaves, was a man of a wonderfully large and generous heart, through whose hands during those days of distress and horror, no less than three thousand self-emancipated men, women and children passed on their way to freedom.32

In Scenes, Sarah Bradford says Harriet told her that Garrett helped "two thousand". In Moses however, she increases the number to "no less than three thousand."

In the following story about Joe Bailey, Sarah Bradford increases the reward again, this time to the price that Oliver Johnson said Joe had on his head:

Scenes:

And so they made their way to New York. When they entered the anti-slavery office there, Joe was recognized at once by the description in the advertisement. "Well", said Mr. Oliver Johnson, "I'm glad to see the man whose head is worth fifteen hundred dollars."33

Moses:

As they entered the anti-slavery office in New York, Mr. Oliver Johnson rose up and exclaimed, "Well, Joe, I am glad to see the man who is worth $2,000 to his master.34

This next story concerns Harriet Tubman's escape to freedom. In Scenes, Sarah Bradford tells the story with a minimum of dialect. Dialect, as we know, when used skillfully, gives color and life to the character, it makes the character real to the reader. In Scenes, Sarah Bradford doesn't seem concerned with that. She seems concerned with simply telling the incident and, with the exception of three words in the final sentence, the Harriet Tubman who speaks here speaks without dialect.

I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home, after all was down in Maryland; because my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters were there. But I was free. I would make a home in the North and bring them there, God helping me. Oh, how I prayed then, she said; I said to the Lord, "I'm gwine hole stiddy on to you, an' I know you'll see me through."35

Note the change in the second edition, Moses

I was a stranger in a strange land, and home, after all, was down in the old cabin quarter, wid de ole folks, and my brudders and sisters. But to dis solemn resolution I came; I was free and dey should be free also; I would make a home for dem in de North, and de Lord helping me, I would bring dem all dere. Oh, how I prayed den, lying all alone on de cold, damp ground; 'Oh, dear Lord, 'I said, "I haint got no friend but you. Come to my help, Lord, for I'm in trouble!36

Sarah Bradford not only adds dialect, she adds more information: "Oh, dear Lord...I haint got no friend but you. Come to my help, Lord, for I'm in trouble." Why did the "cold, damp ground" suddenly appear in the second edition when it's not in the first? And why is it that Harriet is suddenly humble and prostrate in the second edition but not in the first? Obviously, both of these additions, along with the dialect, were added to make the story more dramatic and sensational.

Harriet Tubman Escapes from Slavery

Here, as Harriet's friend and Underground Railroad agent, Thomas Garrett put it, Harriet Tubman "began her labors." It was one of the most significant events in her life. Unfortunately, in retelling this event, Sarah Bradford tells two entirely different stories.

Scenes

One Saturday it was whispered in the quarters that two of Harriet's sisters had been sent off with the chain-gang. That morning she started, having persuaded three of her brothers to accompany her, but they had not come far when the brothers, appalled by the dangers before and behind them, determined to go back, and in spite of her remonstrances dragged her with them. In fear and terror, she remained over Sunday, and on Monday night a negro from another part of the plantation came privately to tell Harriet that herself and brothers were to be carried off that night.37

Moses

No one knew how it had come out, but some one had heard that Harriet and two of her brothers were very soon, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, to be sent far South with a gang, brought up for plantation work. Harriet was about twenty or twenty-five years old at this time, and the constantly recurring idea of escape at something, took sudden form that day, and with her usual promptitude of action she was ready to start at once.

She held a hurried conversation with her brothers, in which she so wrought upon their fears that they expressed themselves as willing to start with her that very night, for that far North, where, could they reach it in safety, freedom awaited them...

The brothers started with her, but the way was strange, the north was far away, and all unknown, the masters would pursue and recapture them and their fate would be worse than ever before; and so they broke away from her, and bidding her goodbye, they hastened back to the known horrors of slavery, and the dread of that which was worse.

Harriet was now left alone, but after watching the retreating forms of her brothers, she turned her face toward the north, and fixing her eyes on the guiding star, and committing her way unto the Lord, she started again upon her long lonely journey.38

One does not need to be a Sherlock Holmes to see that there are two entirely different stories about this same incident. In Scenes, Sarah Bradford writes that Harriet decided to escape because she received the news that two of her sisters had been sent off with a chain-gang. In Moses, she writes that Harriet decided to escape because she received the news that she and two of her brothers were to be sent far South with a gang brought up for plantation work. In Scenes, Sarah Bradford says that Harriet Tubman escaped with three of her brothers. In Moses, Sarah Bradford writes that Harriet escaped with two of her brothers! In Scenes, Sarah Bradford writes that Harriet Tubman was "dragged" back into slavery by her brothers against her will. In Moses, she tells us that Harriet's brothers simply bid their sister goodby and went willingly back into slavery by themselves. It challenges the imagination to believe that one writer wrote both incidents about the same woman! Yet there's more:

There were times when Sarah Bradford seemed to flatly deny the veracity of Harriet’s stories! For example, it was Sarah Bradford who made the statement that "according to the reckoning of her friends," Harriet Tubman made nineteen trips into slave territory to rescue slaves, but Harriet Tubman never confirmed that statement. She told Sarah Bradford that she remembered only making eleven trips to Canada, of the other journeys she kept no reckoning.39 In other words, Sarah Bradford would have her readers believe that Harriet Tubman’s friends knew more about the number of trips Harriet Tubman made than Harriet did. Today, more than one hundred years later, most of Harriet Tubman’s biographers believe Sarah Bradford, not Harriet Tubman. They say Harriet Tubman made 19 trips.

Harriet Tubman related to Sarah Bradford that she had heard someone read from one newspaper that a reward of $12,000 was being offered for her capture. Sarah Bradford did not believe this. She said that the price was "much higher." To support her position, she quoted an article from another newspaper stating that "Forty thousand dollars was not too great a reward for the Maryland slave-holders to offer for [Harriet Tubman].40 The "article" Sarah Brad ford quoted is actually a letter to Gerrit Smith from abolitionist Sallie Holly. Sallie Holly, however, gave no documentation for the figure, "forty thousand dollars," which raises the question whether Holly's statement was a personal comment about Harriet Tubman's worth or a statement of fact. Therefore, Sarah Bradford, as Malcolm Johnston observed, "wrote without receiving important documenting information."41 And look what has happened. Today, more than one hundred and thirty years later, most of Harriet Tubman’s biographers, all of whom claim to have read Sarah Bradford’s books, believe Sarah Bradford, not Harriet Tubman. They say forty thousand dollars was the reward, except Anne Parrish, who says $80,000!

But perhaps the most telling of Sarah Bradford's inability - or unwillingness - to believe Harriet Tubman is in Harriet Tubman's rescue of runaway slave, Charles Nalle. This most dramatic and sensational slave rescue was pulled off almost single-handedly by Harriet Tubman in the presence of thousands of witnesses. It was reported by the local paper, The Troy Whig, and an account of it was given by MartinTownsend, lawyer for Charles Nalle

When Nalle was brought from Commissioner Beach's office into the streets, Harriet Tubman, who had been standing with the excited crowd, rushed amongst the foremost to Nalle, and running one of her arms around his manacled arm, held onto him without ever loosening her hold through the more than half-hour's struggle to Judge Gould's office, and from Judge Gould's office to the dock, where Nalle's liberation was accomplished. In the melee, she was repeatedly beaten over the head with policemen's clubs, but she never for a moment released her hold, but cheered Nalle and his friends with her voice, and struggled with the officers until they were literally worn out with their exertions, and Nalle was separated from them.

True, she had strong and earnest helpers in her struggle, some of whom had white faces as well as human hearts, and are now in Heaven. But she exposed herself to the fury of the sympathizers with slavery, without fear, and suffered their blows without flinching. Harriet crossed the river with the crowd, in the ferry-boat, and when the men who led the assault upon the door of Judge Stewart's office, were stricken down, Harriet and a number of colored women rushed over their bodies, brought Nalle out, and putting him in the first wagon passing, started him for the West.

A livery team, driven by a colored man, was immediately sent on to relieve the other, and Nalle was seen about Troy no more until he returned a free man by purchase from his master. Harriet also disappeared, and the crowd dispersed. How she came to be in Troy that day, is entirely unknown to our citizens; and where she hid herself after the rescue, is equally a mystery. But her struggle was in the sight of a thousand, perhaps of five thousand spectators.42

Thousands of people witnessed it, newspapers reported it, yet Sarah Bradford didn't believe it. She sent Henry Fowler to Troy to check up on it. She wrote:

This is the story Harriet told to this writer. By some persons it seemed too wonderful for belief, and an attempt was made to corroborate it. Rev. Henry Fowler, who was at the time at Saratoga, kindly volunteered to go to Troy and ascertain the facts. His report was, that he had a long interview with Mr. Townsend, who acted during the trial as counsel for the slave, that he had given him a "rich narration," which he would write out the next week for this little book. But before he was to begin his generous labor, and while engaged in some kind efforts for the prisoners at Auburn, he was stricken down by the heat of the sun, and is for a long time debarred from labor.

So either Sarah Bradford, or the printer, simply the newspaper account in the book.43

And what about Harriet Tubman's participation in the Civil War? We get very little of that important aspect of Harriet's life in either of Sarah Bradford's books. In a footnote to his biography of Harriet, Earl Conrad apologizes for this omission. He writes:

Sarah Bradford, in writing her book, did not take the word of Harriet Tubman. She checked up on every story that Harriet related and used only that material which she could verity through the written correspondence of others, or the printed page. It was a sound approach. Mrs. Bradford said, on page 47 of her Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, that Mr. Charles P. Wood [an Auburn Banker] was to write for that book an account of Harriet's war services, but the Wood record was not published in that or any of the subsequent Bradford books. Mr. Wood did write a history of Harriet's war service on June 1, 1868, but it was used as evidence in Harriet's claim for a pension. As a result, when the Bradford biography appeared it gave only scant attention to the war period.44

But that's a poor excuse. It suggests that Charles P. Wood could give a better account of Harriet's participation in the Civil War than Harriet! In other words, if Sarah Bradford really wanted to know about Harriet's participation in the Civil War all she had to do was to ask Harriet. We're back to square one, in which Sarah Bradford, and now Earl Conrad, believes everybody knows more about Harriet Tubman's life then Harriet Tubman!

And what about Harriet Tubman's relationship with the fiery abolitionist, John Brown? Historians agree that John Brown relied heavily on Harriet Tubman to help him succeed in his war on slavery. Fortunately - or unfortunately - Harriet was sick and unable to join Brown in his failed attempt to capture the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. However, the most information we get of the relationship between Harriet Tubman and John Brown comes, not from Sarah Bradford, but from Franklin Sanbor''s article in the Boston Commonwealth of 1863, which he sent to Bradford and she inserted it in her books. He writes:

He [Brown] is supposed to have communicated his plans to her and to have been aided by her in obtaining recruits and money among her people. At any rate, he always spoke of her with the greatest respect, and declared that 'General Tubman,' as he styled her, was a better officer then most he had seen, and could command an army as successfully as she had led her small parties of fugitives.

Her own veneration for Captain Brown has always been profound, and since his murder, has taken the form of a religion.45

The Boston-born orator, reformer, and anti-slavery advocate, Wendell Phillips, also wrote of John Brown's adoration of Harriet Tubman, saying to Bradford:

The last time I ever saw John Brown was under my own roof, as he brought Harriet Tubman to me saying: 'Mr. Phillips I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent B General Tubman, as we call her.'"46

By her own admission, Sarah Bradford states the obvious, that is, she never really met Harriet Tubman until she was asked to write her biography.47 Perhaps this may explain why she seemed unaware (or maybe not caring) of the historical significance of the material Harriet had in her possession. For example, she decided which of the many letters, testimonials and passes given to her by Harriet should or should not go in her books. In Scenes she wrote:

Of the many letters, testimonials and passes placed in the hands of the writer by Harriet, the following are selected for insertion in this book, and are quite sufficient to verify her statements. .48

In Moses: she wrote:

Many incidents quite as wonderful as those related in the story, I have rejected because I had no way of finding the persons who could speak to their truth49 (Italics my own)

But we have to ask, What did she do with those "wonderful incidents" she rejected!? Here is Sarah Bradford, a writer with a history of passing on misinformation in the material she receives; writing without receiving important documenting information, and creating a general mystery about some things by presenting insufficient data, telling us that she had to reject "wonderful incidents" in Harriet Tubman's life because she had no way of finding the persons who could speak to their truth." How much of Harriet Tubman's life story has she deprived us!?"

At any rate, the very fact that Sarah Bradford was constantly seeking corroboration, or the "truth," of Harriet's stories, suggest that she never believed Harriet in the first place. For example, in several of the testimonies in her books the contributors are consistently making one same convincing statement regarding Harriet Tubman's veracity: that is, that she is truthful. For example, In the first edition (Scenes) Franklin Sanborn wrote:

I never had reason to doubt the truth of what Harriet said in regard to her own career, for I found her singularly truthful.

Gerrit Smith wrote:

I have often listened to her, in her visits to my family, and I am confident that she is not only truthful, but that she has a rare discernment, and a deep and sublime philanthropy

William H. Seward wrote:

I have known he long, and a nobler, higher spirit, or truer, seldom dwells in the human form.

In the second addition (Moses) Oliver Johnson wrote:

No one who listened to her could doubt her perfect truthfulness' and integrity. (p. 7)

Question: Why are these prominent men, all who knew Harriet Tubman, personally, feel the need to vouch for Harriet's truthfulness to Sarah Bradford? The answer: Because in her letters to them Sarah Bradford is obviously asking, "Should I believe her? Is all this true?" Did she really do all those things?" And that furthers suggests, as she admits, she never really knew Harriet Tubman, which begs the question: How can one, living in that region, not know of Harriet Tubman when she was one of the most popular people in that region; known and admired by some of the most prominent men and women in that region; a region well-known for its strong anti-slavery sentiment and UGRR activity; two subjects which dominated Harriet Tubman's life? And that further reinforces our assertion that Sarah Bradford was not involved or interested in those significant elements of Harriet Tubman's life. And that further reinforces our premise that Sarah Bradford was therefore not qualified to write Harriet Tubman's life story. But she did, and for over a hundred and thirty years we have paid the price. Since the publication of Sarah Bradford's two biographies, there have been at least a hundred biographies of Harriet Tubman. These include newspaper and magazine articles, children's books, plays and musicals, all taking their basic information from one or both of Sarah Bradford's books. We can only speculate what motivated these writers, other than the fact that Harriet Tubman's extraordinary personality and the sensational events of her life would be enough to interest any writer to do her story. Whatever the case, up until recently, most of the biographies that followed were filled with the same inaccuracies, inconsistences and sensationalism copied uncritically from Sarah Bradford's two books. Some are radical departures. Others are outrageous and deliberate distortions. I will review and summarize them, shortly. In the meantime,

Where Was Frederick Douglass?

Born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland, "Douglass educated himself, escaped, and made himself one of the greatest leaders in American history."50 He became an eloquent orator, writer, publisher and editor of the North Star; the 19th century voice of the Negro people? Certainly he could have written Harriet Tubman's first biography. Harriet communicated with him for the purpose of getting some kind of personal view of her life for Sarah Bradford's book. Douglass responded with words of praise comparing Harriet's contributions to his own, saying

You ask for what you do not need when you call upon me for a word of commendation. I need such words from you far more than you can need them from me, especially where your superior labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our land are known as I know them. The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day- you in the night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom yon have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt " God bless you " has been your only reward..51

These words of Douglass's are quoted often and seem to sing high praise for Harriet Tubman. But as we shall see they are, in reality, a good old-fashioned "cop out." Sarah Bradford's two books about Harriet Tubman were padded, not only with Douglass' letter but with articles, testimonials, letters and passes from other people. Douglass' letter, however, is the only one addressed directly to Harriet Tubman, whom he knew could neither read or write. By contrast, when the Quaker UGRR worker, Thomas Garrett, was asked to make a contribution to the book, he got up from his sick bed to respond, and he wasn't half the writer Frederick Douglass was!

It is this writer's opinion that Frederick Douglass might have made a greater contribution to Sarah Bradford's book, if not write the book, himself. Being a slave on a plantation only about 20 miles from where Harriet Tubman was a slave, and at approximately the same time, he more than likely knew what cruelty she had experienced. He had escaped from slavery himself, approximately four years before she did, so he must have realized what she went through during her escape. He had first hand experience with Underground Railroad activities, while Sarah Bradford, a woman born and raised in the North, and from a prominent northern family, did not. After his escape from slavery, Frederick Douglass eventually made his home in Rochester, New York, a station on the Underground Railroad. In his autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, he wrote:

"...my prominence as an abolitionist, and...editor of an anti-slavery newspaper, naturally made me the station master and conductor of the underground railroad passing through this goodly city [Rochester]".52

When Harriet Tubman rescued a sister and that sister's baby from slavery, she took them to Canada. When she rescued two of her brothers from slavery she took them to Canada, also. In 1857, she went to Canada with her mother and father. Indeed, Harriet Tubman told Sarah Bradford that she remembered making as many as eleven trips to Canada with runaway slaves. Since Frederick Douglass' "prominence as an abolitionist, and . . .editor of an anti-slavery newspaper, naturally made [him] the station master and conductor of the Underground Railroad passing through [Rochester]," we can be reasonably sure that all of Harriet's family and at least some of the other slaves she rescued stopped at Douglass' house. Douglass never mentioned this in anything he wrote. On one occasion Douglass wrote:

I had eleven fugitives at the same time under my roof, and it was necessary for them to remain with me until I could collect sufficient money to get them to Canada. It was the largest number I ever had at any one time, and I had some difficulty in providing so many with food and shelter...

Douglass never mentions, however, that the leader of that party of eleven fugitives was none other than Harriet Tubman!

In Life and Times, Douglass mentions all of the "important" Underground Railroad agents in Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and St. Catharine's, Canada. He names some thirteen persons in all, but does not mention Harriet Tubman, in spite of the fact that every one of the cities he lists are stops Harriet Tubman frequently used during her own Underground Railroad rescue work. How is it possible for Douglass, or anyone, to write about the Underground Railroad and never mention Harriet Tubman!? That, to this writer, is like writing about Muhammad Ali and never mentioning boxing.

Douglass spoke glowingly of the men and women who were his friends in the anti-slavery cause. He names over seventy people. Of the women, he wrote:

When the true history of the anti-slavery cause shall be written, women will occupy a large space in its pages, for the cause of the slave has been peculiarly woman's cause. Her heart and her conscience have supplied in large degree its motive and mainspring. Her skill, industry, patience and perseverance have been wonderfully manifest in every trial hour. Not only did her feet run on "willing errands", and her fingers do the work which in large degree supplied the sinews of war, but her deep moral convictions and her tender human sensibilities, found convincing and persuasive expression by her pen and her voice.53

But Harriet Tubman's entire life transcended Douglass' eloquent description of "women's cause in the anti-slavery movement". She supplied more than her "heart" and her "conscience", she supplied her "wit", her "cunning", her "courage", her "daring", her muscles and her very body to ensure that men, women and children who were slaves were set free. Harriet Tubman did more than "run on willing errands", she went on unbelievable "missions of mercy" into the heart of slave territory and snatched slaves right out from under the noses of the slave masters. In September of 1850, when the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, thousands of black men and women in the North began to flee to Canada to avoid being dragged back into slavery. Hundreds of black anti-slavery advocates and abolitionists either went into hiding or fled to Canada. And what about Harriet Tubman, the most wanted of all fugitive slaves? The answer: Two months after the law was passed she went right back into slave territory and rescued her sister and her sister's two children.54 After John Brown's unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry a United States Senate Investigating Committee sought all those suspected of being Brown's accomplices. Most of Brown's backers left the country. Franklin Sanborn went to Canada, Samuel Howe went to Canada, Frederick Douglass went to Canada,55 and Gerrit Smith went crazy.56 Where did Harriet Tubman go? The answer: In December of the following year, while Sanborn, Douglass, Howe and hundreds of others were safely out of the country, Harriet boldly defied the Senate Investigating Committee and went right back into the heart of slave territory to bring seven more slaves to freedom.57

In a letter to this writer, historian Philip S. Foner refers to an 1858 letter Douglass wrote to the Ladies' Irish Anti-Slavery Association in which Douglass refers to

One coloured woman, who escaped from Slavery eight years ago, has made several returns at great risk, and has brought out, since obtaining her freedom, fifty others from the house of bondage. She has been spending a short time with us since the holidays. She possess great courage and shrewdness, and may yet render even more important service to the cause.58

It is Foner's opinion that this "coloured woman" referred to by Douglass is Harriet Tubman. She probably is, but Douglass does not name her. In this case it may be argued that Douglass was probably observing his own rule of caution. He believed that it would be a lack of prudence to mention the name of individuals active in UGRR activities because to do so would place them in jeopardy. For example, in a speech in Scotland, on March 4, 1846, he said:

The means of my escape I have never revealed, lest I should disclose to the cruel slaveholder what may be of use to his victims...never will it be said that I have held up the lamp to the tyrant, in order to show the way by which he may overtake those who make their escape from him.

However, In 1881, 16 years after the Civil War had dealt the death blow to slavery, and when there was no longer any danger for the tyrant "to overtake those who escaped from him," Douglass finally told how he escaped. Indeed, he wrote his autobiography three times. What, then, was his excuse for not mentioning Harriet Tubman at that time? He writes of all the women who served in the anti-slavery cause:

Foremost among these noble American women, in point of clearness of vision, breadth of understanding, fullness of knowledge, catholicity of spirit, weight of character, and widespread influence, was Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia"59

To be sure, Lucretia Mott well deserved those accolades, but so did Harriet Tubman.

Frederick Douglass continued singing praise and admiration for the outstanding women of the day. He writes

It is also due to myself to make some more emphatic mention then I have yet done, of the honorable women, who have not only assisted me, but who according to their opportunity and ability, have generously contributed to the abolition of slavery, and the recognition of the equal manhood of the colored race.60

He names Lydia Maria Childs, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, Abby Kelly, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, [?] Gage, Lucy Stone, and others. Never once does he mention Harriet Tubman,.61

John Brown's 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry is considered a major factor contributing to the outbreak of the Civil War. In February of 1858, Brown met with Frederick Douglass at his home in Rochester to discuss his plans for that fateful event. In March of that same year Brown met again with Douglass, along with the out-spoken Negro abolitionist, Henry Highland Garnet, and Underground Railroad agent, William Still, In April, Brown went to Chatham, Canada, to enlist men in his guerilla army. His first recruit there was Harriet Tubman, whose trips to Maryland and Virginia and back to New York, had given her an intimate knowledge of the Allegheny Mountains where Brown planned to establish a station for his guerrillas.62 During his first meeting with John Brown, Douglass wrote of Brown's plans to use the Alleghenies:

He called my attention to a map of the United States, and pointed out to me the far-reaching Alleghenies, which stretch away from the borders of New York into the Southern States. 'These mountains,' he said, 'are the basis of my plan. God has given the strength of the hills to freedom; they were placed here for the emancipation of the negro race. They are full of natural forts where one man for defense will be equal to a hundred for attack; they are full also of good hiding places, where large numbers of brave men could be concealed, and battle and elude pursuit for a long time. I know these mountains well, and could take a body of men into them and keep them there in spite of all efforts of Virginia to dislodge them.'63

Earl Conrad writes

Since [Brown] planned to use the resources of the Underground Railroad, he believed Harriet could help out because of her knowledge of that system. The Underground was heavily entrenched in the Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania region, and if slaves rallied to his side they would have the assistance of the station masters, white and Negro..." To John Brown "The Underground Railroad would. . .be a factor in numerous ways during the deliverance of the slaves. And who knew the Underground Railroad in the East better than Harriet Tubman?64

In his autobiography, Life and Times. . .65 Frederick Douglass writes of meeting John Brown:

I never passed through Springfield without calling on him...and he never came to Rochester without calling on me. He often stopped over night with me, when we talked over the feasibility of his plan for destroying the value of slave property, and the motive for holding slaves in the border states.66

But Brown's plans directly involved Harriet Tubman, and he certainly must have mentioned this to Frederick Douglass, especially as Douglass himself says that Brown talked so much about his plans that he, Douglass, actually got bored.67 Douglass, however, never mentions Harriet Tubman in anything he has ever written about John Brown.

So then, in the light of all I have just presented, let us go back and read between the lines of Frederick Douglass's "eloquent" letter to Harriet Tubman and we will find that, rather then making a contribution to her life and history he is really writing her off! What he is really saying is "You have done more than I have, so you don't need me to write about you. And for the rest of his life, he never did.

And what of William Still?

As Secretary of the Acting Committee of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, this self-educated man, a son of slaves, compiled the greatest body of personal data about runaway slaves and recorded their personal histories in his now-historic book, the Underground Railroad.68 He too was qualified to write Harriet Tubman's biography. He had every opportunity to do so for Harriet Tubman brought runaway slaves directly to his home many times. With the exception of Thomas Garrett, Still is one of the first to give us a first-hand account of Harriet Tubman's character and method of operation during her UGRR activities.69 After receiving Harriet Tubman with six runaways sent to him by Thomas Garrett, William Still gives us an enticing view of her character and method of operation. He writes:

. . .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. Yel, 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 her- self 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 of 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.70

However, Still concluded that, of all the African American women deserving of a biography it was poetess, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper He writes:

The narratives and labors of eminent colored men such as Banneker, Douglass, Brown, Garnet, and others, have been written and sketched very fully for the public, and doubtless with advantage to the cause of freedom. But there is not to be found in any written work portraying the Anti-slavery struggle, (except in the form of narratives) as we are aware of, a sketch of the labors of any eminent colored woman. We feel, therefore, not only glad of the opportunity to present a sketch not merely of the leading colored poet in the United States, but also of one of the most liberal contributors, as well as one of the ablest advocates of the Underground Rail Road and of the slave. No extravagant praise of any kind-only simple facts are needed to portray the noble deeds of this faithful worker.71

And so, as if to remedy this unfair treatment of an "eminent colored woman," Still proceeds, for almost 30 pages, to present the life and contributions of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, three times as much as he gives to any of the other sketches in his book. Granted, Harriet Tubman was no poet, but does William Still really believe that Frances Harper was a more "liberal contributor" and "able advocate of the Underground Rail Road?" And what of William Wells Brown, the first Negro novelist in America; the author of The Black Man and The Negro in the Rebellion? He interviewed several ex-slaves who had escaped with Harriet through the Underground Railroad. He recorded their observations about her. Yet there is no evidence that he ever personally interviewed Harriet, nor apparently thought to do a story of her life.

If these literate people were not moved to write the first biography of Harriet Tubman, all of them certainly must have received copies of it. Could they not see that improvement was necessary? What a revealing first-hand history they could have written about Harriet Tubman! Think of the details William Still could provide about the manners and ways of those who chose to runaway with her; the dangers and perils they faced with her; the treatment they received; the reasons that drove them to take such risks, and of the routes Harriet Tubman used to carry them to freedom had he gone further in his brief narrative. Think of the insights Frederick Douglass could have given us into Harriet Tubman's motives, her aspirations, the meaning of her actions, her profound influence on others. Most of all, think of the substance these writers could have lent to Sarah Bradford's books about Harriet Tubman, books that were so in need of substance! It is incomprehensible to think that these men who felt so responsible for helping the slave, for recording and documenting the history of Black people, did not act to record the life and times of one of the greatest Black persons of that age, a simple and courageous woman who walked among them. Instead they left her history to Sarah Bradford, who left it a mess. Had Frederick Douglass, William Still and others taken responsibility for writing Harriet Tubman's story, they could have successfully slammed the door in the face of later writers who, having seen so many inconsistencies and contradictions in Sarah Bradford's accounts, felt free to take whatever liberties they chose with their own accounts. Among these writers was Hildegard Hoyt Swift, Anne Parrish, and the most arrogant and disrespectful of them all, Marcy Heidish.

The challenge was put to Sarah Bradford to pull together a comprehensive picture of Harriet Tubman while she was still alive and in her prime, and while her deeds were still fresh in the minds of those who knew her. To say that Sarah Bradford failed to meet that challenge is to state the obvious. Her biographies of Harriet Tubman speak for themselves.

1. Sarah H, Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, Auburn NY, W. J. Moses, Printer, 1869, Introduction.
2. Ibid, p.2.
3. It is in her second book, (Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her People), that Sarah Bradford explains the purpose of the first book.
4. Ibid. P. 9.
5. Sarah Bradford, Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her People copyright 1961, Corinth books, Inc., reprint Gloucester MA, Peter Smith 1981, p.9,
6. Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War; Patricia L. Faust, ed. (New York: Harper & Row, Pub. 1986),
7. . Civil War Biographies
8. Ibid
9. Earl Conrad, Harriet Tubman, a Biography; (New York: Paul S. Eriksson, Inc., 2nd pr., 1974), p. 203.
10. The Upper New York, Region was also where the Spiritualism, Temperance, and the Woman's Suffrage movements, began
11. Charles L. Blockson; (NY: Hippocrene Guide to the Underground Railroad, paperback ed, 1995), p. 60-68.
12. Milton C. Sernett; North Star Country, Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom (N.Y.: Syracuse university Press, 2002), p.61.
13. Malcolm Sanders Johnston, (New York: Geneva Daily Times, Monday, October 2nd & Tuesday, October 3rd, 1944), Geneva Historical Society.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid
17. Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolitionists - NY Da Capo Paperback, 1969, p. 149.
18. Milton C. Sernett, op cit, North Star Country, p. 264-5.
19. Earl Conrad, op cit, Harriet Tubman a Biography p. 216, quoted from the Susan B. Anthony Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
20. Kenneth Walter Cameron, Young Reporter of Concord, a checklist of S.B. Sanborn's Letters to Benjamin Smith Lyman, 1853-1857, With Extracts Emphasizing Life and Literary Events in the World of Emerson, Thoreau and Alcott (Hartford, CT: Transcendental books, 1978), p. 17
21. (Sophia Smith Collection)
22. Ibid
23. Sarah Bradford, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman - Introduction.
24. (PC #529)
25. Earl Conrad, op cit, Harriet Tubman a Biography, p.204
26. Karl Sanford Kabelac, Book Publishing in Auburn, New York, 1851-1876, An Introduction and an Imprints Bibliography (Aurora, New York, 1969), p.15
27. Ibid, p.15
28. Ibid, p.16
29. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p. 30
30. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Moses, p.43
31. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p. 30
32. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Moses, p. 44
33. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p.31-32
34. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Moses, p.46
35. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p. 20
36. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Moses, p. 32
37. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p.16
38. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Moses, p. 26-29
39. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p.21
40. Ibid p.22-23
41. Malcolm Johnston, op cit
42. Sarah Bradford, p. 100-103.
43. Sarah Bradford, p. 88-92
44. Earl Conrad, op it, Harriet Tubman, fn, p.203,237
45. Sarah Bradford, Scenes, p.81-82 Brown's failed attempt to capture the arsenal at Harpers Ferry resulted in the death of many of his followers. Brown himself was severely wounded in the fighting and surrendered. He was tried, convicted for treason, and hanged on October 2, 1859. Negroes and Abolitionists, saw Brown as a martyr, not a criminal, and therefore claimed, rather then being hung for treason, he was "murdered."
46. Sarah Bradford, Moses, p.133-134
47. Sarah Bradford, op it, Scenes, p.2-3
48. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes - p.64
49. Sarah Bradford, Moses, p.5
50. Frederick Douglass, Autobiographies: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself [1845]; My Bondage and My Freedom [1855]; Life and Times of Frederick Douglass [1881] (New York: The Library of America, 1968).
51. Sarah Bradford, op cit, Scenes, p.7-8
52. Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself (N.Y: Collier Books, 1962; reprint from rev. ed. Of 1892), p. 265-266
53. Ibid, p.903
54. Sarah Bradford, Scenes, 48-53, Moses, p. 112
55. Douglass wrote that on the 12th of November (1859) he took a boat from Quebec to England. He believed that ". . .in Canada, and under British law, it was not impossible that I might be kidnaped and taken to Virginia." where he was convinced he would be hanged. See Frederick Douglass, Autobiographies - Life and Times, op cit, p.760-761.
56. On November 24, 1859, the National Intelligencer printed a letter from Utica, New York, dated November 11, 1859. The letter stated that ". . .ever since the arrest of John Brown, [Gerrit Smith] was haunted with the idea that he was culpably responsible for all the lives that have and will be sacrificed; and so much have this reflection, and the fear of being called on to answer at the bar of justice preyed upon him, that his mind, never exempt from a tendency to be unhinged, gave way. . ." He was confined to a Lunatic Asylum.
57. Bradford (Moses), p. 119
58. Letter from Phillip Foner, March, 23,1985.
59. Frederick Douglass, op cit., p.903
60. Ibid, p. 903
61. Ibid, 469
62. Ibid, p.717-718
63. Ibid, p.717-718
64. Earl Conrad, p. 114
65. Frederick Douglass, op cit, p.
66. Ibid, p.764
67. Ibid, p.756
68. There were several reprints of William Still' book. The following information was passed on to me by professor Milton Sernett of Dept. of African American History, Syracuse University: AThere was the original 1872 edition, published by Porter & Coates. There was a 1879 second edition of the 1872 volume that was published in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, etc., by People's Publishing Company. Then in 1883, out came the third revised edition that had a 60 page life of Still that wasn't in the earlier ones. Arno Press of New York did a printing of the 1872 edition in 1968, and finally, in 1970 Johnson Publishing Company did a reprint of the 1872 edition. A
69. In several letters to the Edinburgh Ladies Emancipation Society in Scotland, Garrett frequently spoke highly of Harriet Tubman, and often described her and her activities as an UGRR worker. See James A. McGowan, Thomas Garrett's Underground Railroad, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers; 2004), p.
70. William Still, op sit, p. 305-306
71. Still, p.783-812