2019's Harriet marks the first feature film about Harriet Tubman.
While great care was taken to present the real Tubman, a few creative liberties were
taken, to better illustrate her world and the values she stood for.
Here are some of the things Harriet got wrong about Harriet Tubman's life.
When Harriet opens, we are introduced to a young woman named "Minty," short for Araminta
Ross.
Fiery and fearless, it quickly becomes apparent that this is the woman who will become known
as Harriet Tubman.
Minty's first major action in the film is escaping her master's plantation.
When she ends the harrowing journey, arriving in Pennsylvania as a free woman, she marks
the occasion by adopting a new name: Harriet, the first name of her mother, and Tubman,
the surname of her husband whom she had to leave behind.
The film uses this scene to emphasize Tubman's commitment to her family, and also introduce
audiences to William Still, a black abolitionist and colleague of Tubman's, who records the
name change.
This was a real, important ritual carried out by many former slaves, later being revived
by activists such as Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X.
"Would you like to pick a new name to mark your freedom?
Most ex-slaves do.
Any name you want."
But the powerful scene never actually happened.
While Tubman and Still did really work together, their relationship likely began after Tubman
had become a conductor on the Underground Railroad.
Additionally, the Harriet Tubman Historical Society says Minty was already going by "Harriet
Tubman" by the time she escaped to freedom.
Little is known about the real John Tubman, or his five-year marriage to Harriet.
But it's not likely that he was as supportive of the real Harriet as the fictional version
is.
In an early biography about Harriet, written by Sarah Hopkins Bradford, John is painted
in a less-than flattering light, condescending and dismissive of his wife, even personally
capturing her during an attempted escape.
Later biographers, like Kate Clifford Larson, have challenged Bradford's depiction claiming
him instead to be a lovestruck and devoted man who may have even been saving to buy his
wife's freedom.
But whoever John was, the truth is he was never supportive of Harriet's decision to
escape, and in fact threatened to turn Harriet in, likely fearful his involvement in her
escape would jeopardize his own freedom and livelihood.
Family meant everything to Harriet Tubman, who was willing to risk so much to ensure
their comfort and safety.
But in Harriet, the real history has been altered to direct her affections more toward
her husband John.
After arriving in Pennsylvania, Tubman lamented that there was no one to welcome her to the
land of freedom, with her family remaining in captivity in Maryland.
In Harriet, she specifically yearns for her husband, and is inspired to become a conductor
on the Underground Railroad to go back and get him.
But the Harriet Tubman Historical Society says her first return was actually to save
her niece and her niece's two children from being sold further south.
Tubman's first rescue was a resounding success, and fortified her determination to free more
and more people.
By the time Harriet conducted her last mission, at the onset of the Civil War, nearly all
of her family had been successfully freed.
Among writer/director Kasi Lemmons' goals in creating Harriet was a desire to fully
realize the less-considered elements of the world in which Harriet Tubman lived.
One such element that is well-known to historians but not always addressed in films is the degree
to which slavery contributed to the livelihood of individual families.
Not long into Harriet, we learn that the Brodess estate is in great financial trouble, and
that the family must weigh the option of selling some of their slaves or risk losing their
property altogether.
When he inherits the estate from his late father, Gideon Brodess makes the decision
to sell Minty for extra money.
The plot line develops Minty and Gideon's relationship, and introduces the cat and mouse
narrative that is constant in Tubman's life.
But while the Brodess' financial woes were reportedly real, there's no reason to believe
that Tubman was tipped off, let alone directly told about about the family's plan to sell
her further south.
After the death of her owner Edward Brodess made it clear that her life would once again
most likely be upset by change, Tubman would commit herself to escape, altering the course
of her life, as well as that of American history.
At the age of 12, while intervening in a conflict between a slave and their master, Tubman was
struck in the skull with a weight, fracturing her skull and giving her permanent brain damage.
A deeply religious person, when Tubman began experiencing hallucinations as a result of
her injury, she attributed them to God, interpreting them as warnings.
In Harriet, Tubman's visions are treated as a completely real ability, a gift of supernatural
foresight which she uses to evade slave catchers and plot her rescue missions.
In reality, Tubman's injury probably did more harm than good, and certainly wasn't what
carried her along on her many dangerous journeys.
According to the Harriet Tubman Historical Society, once she was old enough to work,
Tubman did everything in her power to avoid domestic chores and being around white women.
Working outside in the fields was harsh and labor-intensive, but in her years spent outdoors,
Tubman developed an intimate connection with the natural world.
The Brodess family also frequently lent and rented their slaves out to neighbors and paying
strangers within the area, further expanding Tubman's awareness of the topography of Maryland.
Contemporaries of Tubman, as well as present day historians, often marvel at the immense
feats Tubman carried out, first by finding her own way to freedom, and then by aiding
the escape of many others.
But while Tubman herself would undoubtedly claim her abilities were aided by her celestial
visions, her knowledge and instincts were probably much more helpful in her long and
amazing career as an Underground Railroad conductor.
While Harriet and her mother were slaves for the Brodess family in real time, there is
no record of the family having a child by the name of Gideon.
Many other facts about the family, from the patriarch's death to their eventual decline
in status and wealth necessitating them to sell off their slaves, starting with Harriet's
sisters, are true, though no figure in the family matters to the film more than the fictionalized
Gideon.
"Whoa, easy now.
You can come on back, and I won't hurt you bad."
Gideon is arguably the film's avatar for the sins of slavery distilled into one person.
He is horrible to Harriet and her family; an early scene shows Gideon sees Harriet as
nothing more than a piece of property, comparing her to owning a pig.
Once Harriet escapes, it is Gideon who pursues her endlessly, obsessed with salvaging what
is, in his mind, rightfully his.
Like many of the characters created for the film, Gideon serves an important purpose:
he pushes Harriet's story along and gives more focus to her story, which in reality
was broader and more complicated than the movie suggests.
In the film, William Still takes Harriet directly from the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society
to the home of Marie Buchanon.
While she runs a house for newly-freed women like Harriet, Marie herself was born and raised
a free woman in Philadelphia.
As such, Marie is a successful business owner.
The home she operates provides shelter to those looking for a new life, but she also
helps them find paying jobs and helps to create a community for those braving the new world
alone.
While screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard says it's highly likely that women like Marie Buchanon
existed, and may have even helped runaway slaves like Harriet, the Marie Buchanon character
and the interactions she has with Harriet are entirely fictionalized.
In reality, little is known about how Tubman lived once she arrived in Pennsylvania.
Much of her history revolves around her journey and experiences with the Underground Railroad,
but not where she lived or who exactly helped her when she first reached freedom.
It's likely Marie Buchanon is a cipher for someone who may have existed and been able
to help Tubman, alone and afraid, find her footing.
Marie is everything Harriet wants to be: poised, confident, and very sure that no person should
ever belong to anyone but themselves.
Marie's support helps validate Harriet's decision to go back to Maryland, and Marie's gun gives
her the means to do so with some protection.
Regardless of its accuracy, it's an effective storytelling choice that helps flesh out the
world around Harriet while giving her a worthy ally.
In the film, Harriet's first trip back to the farm sees her freeing not only her own
brothers, but several others who have heard of her return and are eager to seek freedom
themselves.
In total, Harriet escorts nine people back to Pennsylvania, but not without getting noticed
along the way.
Gideon, furious at the thought of losing even more slaves, hires a local bounty hunter named
Bigger Long, a black man who hunts and captures runaway slaves for a hefty fee.
While Slate reports it's been widely speculated that black bounty hunters like Bigger Long
likely existed, there's no historical record of anyone by that name operating in Maryland
at the time of Tubman's escape.
Bounty hunters like Bigger Long, often referred to as "Slave Catchers," were often simply
mercenaries were hired by wealthy slave owners to reclaim what was seen as "stolen property"
whenever a slave would run away.
At various points in history these figures were actually law enforcement officials whose
official duties included tracking and returning fugitive slaves.
In the film, Bigger Long is depicted as using a wolf-like dog to help track the slaves;
in reality, many mercenaries used bloodhounds and other highly-trained dogs in their own
pursuits.
There are some records that seem to indicate that black headhunters like Bigger Long may
have existed in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but the names are few and far between.
By the time the Fugitive Slave Act is passed in the film, Harriet has already successfully
completed so many trips back and forth between Maryland and Pennsylvania that she's become
one of the most successful conductors the Underground Railroad has ever seen.
She's so effective, she's even earned a reputation: posters all over the South search for the
man named Moses, the one setting all of the slaves free.
While it makes for an impressive movie montage, in reality the Harriet Tubman Historical Society
says she would have only completed one, maybe two trips before the Fugitive Slave Act was
enacted in 1850.
As is shown in the film, the biggest impact of the Act was the distance slaves would have
to travel in order to obtain freedom.
Prior to its passing, slaves only needed to reach states where slavery was already abolished,
such as the safe-haven that was Pennsylvania.
"They're getting frustrated with the amount of runaways.
Federal judges, marshalls, and slave catchers are working together.
Even Congress is threatening to pass laws to appease the South."
The Fugitive Slave Act was also known as the Compromise of 1850, as it sought to appease
the slave owners of the South by allowing them to recapture people who fled their custody
no matter where in the US they may have ended up.
As a result, those seeking asylum were forced to push further North, all the way to Canada.
This extended Tubman's journey by hundreds of miles, increasing the risk of capture,
but also increasing the likelihood that something else could go wrong on the journey.
Slaves navigated a complicated landscape full of thick forests, rushing rivers, and a scarcity
of food.
A longer trip meant more risks, and potential for complications as a result of food or water
shortages along the way.
As is shown in the film, Harriet is determined in the face of such challenges.
It may have made her harrowing journeys all the more impressive had the film stuck to
the original timeline, and showed her running people all the way to Canada, like she did
in real life.
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