This photograph of American leader Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) was only recently uncovered – it was purchased by the Library of Congress at an auction in 2017. Tubman’s skills and accomplishments were truly astonishing – the backbone of the Underground Railroad, Tubman made thirteen missions into the South to liberate enslaved people. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the Civil War, guiding a raid at Combahee Ferry which freed 700 Americans. In the twentieth century, she was active in the women’s suffrage movement. Music like the Negro Spiritual “Wade in the Water,” which was a song many historians believe Tubman sang to warn those fleeing from the captors to get into water to lose their scent and hide their tracks.
Check out “Wade in the Water” performed by the choral group Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Source(s): See _Time_, Olivia Waxman March 2018, “This Photo of Harriet Tubman Was Lost for Close to a Century.” Also see “Singing in Slavery: Songs of Survival, Songs of Freedom,” by Kenyatta D. Berry, 2017 PBS Mercy Street Blog.
