It seems that every year I renew my resolve to read lots of books about Black History during the designated month of February. And as I get closer to the end of the month I feel somewhat guilty that I haven't done better in my reading and in my writing through this blog.
I have books that I haven't yet delved into but one I read last summer while in outport Newfoundland is called Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Miles. The title alone captivated me but this creative biographical book was praised in reviews so I bought it and took it with us on vacation.
I was far from disappointed and there is an almost mystical quality to the way Miles explores the life of Tubman who came into this world as Araminta or "Minty" Ross. Miles maintains that
Harriet Tubman is arguably the most famous Blackwoman ecologist in U.S. history, although she has not traditionally been viewed that way. She was a student of organisms(human and nonhuman), habitats, and inter-relationships. Her sources of strength were as much natural as they were "supernatural." And more than that, her "repeated journeys into slaveholding America" required "ecological confidence" in the words of Kimberly Ruffin. She studied the elements of nature around her, connecting with plants, trees, animals, and stars...
I could quote so much more but the confines of a blog entry limit me. What is astonishing is that while Harriet Tubman was illiterate she had a profound knowledge of scripture and a never-ending sense of God's presence with her, providing the courage to liberate herself from slavery and many others, journeying from the safety of Canada and the free states back into danger in order to do so.
One reviewer desribes the book as brilliant and spectacular and I certainly agree.
I have yet to read another acquistion about Tubman, the Pulitzer Prize winner titled Combee by Edda Fields Black. Sooo many books, so little time...
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