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Harriet Tubman > An American Icon
An American Icon
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(Collections of Seward
House)
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Tubman's name recognition is exceptionally high,
due in part to the abundance of children's literature which features
her. Remarkably, there were only two published adult biographies
of Harriet Tubman until 2003 (Bradford:1869; Conrad:1943). Recent publications by
Humez: 2003; Larson: 2003; and Clinton: 2004, contain substantial new research on the life of Harriet Tubman. The phenomenon of
the legend outstripping the historical figure has led at least one
scholar to investigate the subject. Historian Milton Sernett is
writing a book tentatively titled Harriet Tubman: The Forging
of an American Icon. The text below was written by him for
this special resource study.
"Harriet Tubman's name graces scores of public
institutions, voluntary organizations, good causes, and, most fittingly,
two memorial postage stamps. Each year thousands of visitors, some
on pilgrimages from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, come to the Harriet
Tubman Home in Auburn, New York, where they encounter busloads of
school children who have grown up on stories of 'the Moses of her
People' written specifically for them. In short, Harriet Tubman
is an American icon. Curiously, Earl Conrad's 1943 biography, General
Harriet Tubman, remains the most recent attempt at a comprehensive
biography of Tubman."
Scholarly research is only now beginning to catch
up with the work that has gone into the making of an American legend.
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