Watched the uplifting and depressing movie Harriet last night. Second time I’ve seen it. Fabulous tale about the efforts of Harriet Tubman in liberating herself from slavery, then liberating most of her family, eventually freeing about 70 people from slavery.
(Cross post from Ancient Finances.)
After watching the movie again, wanted to pull together a recap of the posts discussing slavery on my other blog. Most of this discussion is based on Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero, by Kate Clifford Larson, which is the first adult biography of Harriet Tubman published since 1943.
A thin sliver of highlights from the book, primarily about the pricing of slaves:
- Prices of slaves on the Eastern Shore of Maryland before the Civil War – Part 1 – Introduction, why discuss prices, manumission
- Prices of slaves on the Eastern Shore of Maryland before the Civil War – Part 2 – Term slave, status of children
- Prices of slaves on the Eastern Shore of Maryland before the Civil War – Part 3 – Sales prices, hire out
- Prices of slaves on the Eastern Shore of Maryland before the Civil War – Part 4 – Rewards for capture, military pay
- Indicator of soldier’s pay late in the Civil War. Racial disparity in pay rates. – Discussion of race based differences in pay for soldiers from Hymns of the Republic by S. C. Gwynne
There are many painful descriptions of the brutality of slavery in the movie. Those scenes are not over the top visually or verbally. Instead they are modest while providing accurate descriptions of those horrible times.
As I’ve said before, if you want to add another hero to the list of people you admire, check out the life story of Harriet Tubman.