Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and child abuse.

Harriet Tubman is the subject of this biography and its protagonist. Born Araminta Ross, sometime in 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, she was affectionately called “Minty” by her family. Harriet was a Black woman, and, like her family and several generations of ancestors, she was enslaved during a time when slavery was legal in the United States. Throughout Freedom Train, she is referred to by the name she took after her marriage, “Harriet Tubman.” Freedom Train focuses on the difficulties of Harriet’s childhood, the circumstances that led her to decide to seek her freedom by secretly traveling north, and her subsequent life as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and soldier in the Union Army during the US Civil War.

Sterling’s biography portrays Harriet as a dignified, loving, self-sacrificing, and courageous person willing to take great risks to secure both her own freedom and the freedom of others. From childhood, Harriet is unwilling to comply with white expectations that she be cheerfully obedient and show extreme deference to white people at all times. She believes in her own personhood and her right to freedom.