'Harriet' is in theaters. Here's where you can learn about Harriet Tubman in real life

#CynthiaErivo #HarrietTubman #UndergroundRailroad #Slavery #CivilWar

One can learn a great deal about Tubman, as portrayed by Cynthia Erivo, by watching the film. Historian Kate Clifford Larson, who worked on the film, told USA TODAY that she thinks the movie is accurate, though there are some discrepancies.

"It is true to Tubman: Who she was, her character, her deep faith, her love for her family," Larson says. Tubman escaped slavery and helped roughly 70 others who were enslaved reach freedom through a network of safe houses dubbed the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. And during the Civil War, she liberated more than 750 enslaved people, when she led a battalion of over 150 black soldiers during the Combahee River Raid.

The film is informative about Tubman and her heroic feats, but there is plenty more to learn by visiting museums and destinations in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. areas.

Maryland
Tubman was born into slavery and lived for the first part of her life in Dorchester County, Maryland, before escaping to freedom. She returned to the area later, time and time again, to rescue family members and friends. There are museums and memorials to Tubman throughout the state.

"You can go to Maryland and see the places where all of this took place in real life," Larson says.

One way to walk in Tubman's footsteps while learning about her heroism and her life is by taking a driving tour along the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway.

The Tubman Byway is a self-guided, 125-mile route from Maryland into Delaware and Philadelphia, which was Tubman's destination on the journey to freedom. There are 36 suggested stops on the Byway in Maryland.

Audio guides and downloadable PDFs are available to guide interested visitors on the Byway website. Guided tours can also be arranged.

Also be sure to check out the mural of Tubman reaching out her hand Shortly after it was completed this year, a photo of a little girl reaching out to touch Tubman's hand went viral.

The mural is painted on the side of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, Maryland, which is a stop on the Tubman Byway.

New York
Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn, New York, includes the home where Tubman, along with her parents, settled in 1859 when then-U.S. Senator William H. Seward offered her a house and small slice of property for $1,200, to be paid overtime. This is where the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church — which accepted Tubman's donation of her property in 1903 — opened the Harriet Tubman Home for the Elderly in 1908.

This is also where Tubman died in penury of pneumonia on March 10, 1913, at an age somewhere between 88 and 98 years old (records are unclear). She is buried at the Fort Hill Cemetery, just a mile and a half away.

The site was established as a national park in 2017.

A low-slung visitor center holds a displayed timeline of Tubman's life and a few artifacts exhumed by Syracuse University students from grounds near the demolished infirmary, John Brown Hall. Tubman's former brick residence, on the north edge of the property, is gutted, undergoing renovations.

A little more than a mile away, the Thompson AME Zion Church where Tubman worshiped and where her funeral services were held, and the parsonage beside it on Parker Street, are both undergoing renovations by the National Park Service.

More:Harriet Tubman's final home a work in progress after congregation keeps flame alight

Washington, D.C.
While Larson says that Tubman didn't spend much time in Washington, D.C., during her life, apart from a stint helping out at an orphanage in Georgetown, the nation's capital is rich in resources for learning about Tubman.

The Library of Congress houses multiple portraits of Tubman in their collection, along with books, manuscripts and a research guide.

"Harriet Tubman’s life was so complex that it is helpful to have multiple images, made at different times, to help visualize her as a living, active person," Beverly Brannan, Library of Congress curator of photography told USA TODAY.

In the Library's earliest portrait of Tubman, created in the 1860s, she is in her mid-40s and dressed fashionably in a dark blouse and light skirt.

"One can imagine her being courageous and vigorously leading people through dangerous situations at night," Brannan adds. "That is close to how she looked in the most physically challenging time of her life."

By Morgan Hines - usatoday.com

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