Harriet Tubman as city dweller

After her initial escape in 1849 from Maryland, her home state, Harriet Tubman arrived  in Philadelphia, the fourth largest city in the United States. Although the accounts of her life do not make much of it, an urbanizing America likely helped shaped the meaning of freedom for her. The isolation many city-dwellers felt certainly figured into her psyche. She realized immediately how much she missed her family and how much she felt alone, saying, "There was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land." She decided to return to slave territory and help free her family and numerous others. 


"A Woman Called Moses," one imagined work starring Cicely Tyson, invites us to think about the multi-layered meaning of freedom for Tubman - especially when ones sees Tubman  in Philadelphia 1:36:57 into this 1978 made for television movie. The ending scene, which takes place on a train, a form of transportation that contributed to the rise of an urbanizing and industrializing America, does the same.

Thank you, Harriet (a.k.a. Minty), for your courage. Happy Black History Month. And in the spirit of being inclusive, Happy Black History Year.