What Is the True Story Behind Harriet?

July 20, 2024

Trigger Warning: The following references physical abuse.

The Big Picture

Harriet attempts to portray the remarkable life of Harriet Tubman, but falls short in immersing the audience in her story.
The film highlights the physical abuse and trauma Tubman faced as a slave, but fails to evoke the emotional depth of her pain.
While Harriet acknowledges Tubman's escape attempts and her role in the Civil War, it underrepresents the magnitude of her contributions.

Kasi Lemmons's biopic, Harriet, is based on one of the most iconic abolitionists: the indefatigable Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman's story is a testament to courage, resilience, and an unwavering fight for freedom. Harriet attempts to paint this picture on the silver screen, but it falls short by a mile. While the film does a decent job of retelling the well-known elements of Tubman's life, it fails to immerse the audience in the real Harriet Tubman's story. As you may already know, Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in the South to the North, after which she risked her own life returning to the South, becoming a "conductor on the Underground Railroad" where she rescued dozens of other enslaved people. What you may or may not know is that her birth name was Araminta Ross, and she was pet-named "Minty", which is highlighted in the film.

Like many born in slavery, Harriet Tubman's childhood was marked by trauma. She endured physical abuse, was separated from her family, and was forced to care for her master's children. Some may also know that she played a significant role in the American Civil War. Yes, Lemmons' Harriet spotlights all these, but if you are seeking an intense film that engrosses you into Harriet Tubman's world, Harriet will probably disappoint you. With the material she had, the brightest light in the film is Cynthia Erivo's portrayal of Harriet Tubman, for which she garnered an Oscar nomination. Despite her nomination, one could argue that the film itself cost Erivo an Oscar because Harriet Tubman's story was much more than what is depicted in Harriet.

Harriet

PG-13BiographyDramaHistory

The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes, whose courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

Release Date November 1, 2019 Runtime 125 Main Genre Biography Director Kasi Lemmons Cast Cynthia Erivo , Leslie Odom Jr. , Joe Alwyn , Janelle Monae Tagline Be free or die Expand

As a Slave, Harriet Tubman Was Brutally Abused

According to Kate Larson's biography, Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, Harriet Tubman was born in March 1822 (although the exact date is unknown). Her parents were slaves on the Brodess plantation in Maryland, on which she was also forced to work freely for much of her youth life. Born into the shackles of bondage, Harriet Tubman's early years were marred by the brutality and degradation of slavery. She was beaten and whipped by her enslavers. At five or six years old, her master, Mrs. Brodess, hired her out to another woman where she was charged with rocking the cradle of the woman's baby. In one instance, she recalled, while tending to her enslaver's sleeping baby, she was flogged when the baby woke up crying.

Harriet Tubman did not take violence submissively. She resisted, including by wearing layers of clothes to reduce the impact of the beatings and, sometimes, by fighting back. Such physical abuse was a common occurrence for slaves, and one inspired Antoine Fuqua's Emancipation, starring Will Smith. Like Peter's story in Emancipation, Harriet Tubman carried those physical and emotional scars for the rest of her life. Another barbaric incident changed her life forever. When she had just turned into a teenager, a supervisor at the plantation she and other slaves were working on threw a heavy metal at another slave, but the metal hit her instead, breaking her skull. From then till her death, she experienced headaches, dizziness, hypersomnia, and seizures. Some historians have argued that the seizures were due to epilepsy. In the film, Minty, Harriet Tubman's character drawn from her affectionate childhood name, experiences most of these. However, Harriet doesn't build Minty to the point that you can walk in and feel her painful shoes like you do in Chiwetel Ejiofor's portrayal of Solomon Northup or Lupita Nyongo's Patsey in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave.

According to Larson, as if the physical abuse wasn't enough, Harriet Tubman was subjected to the added trauma of having three of her sisters sold away by her father's master, Edward Brodess. This event left an indelible mark on her young psyche. While this significant episode is depicted in Harriet, it comes across as more of a "tell-and-don't-show" narrative, leaving the audience as mere spectators rather than experiencing the emotional depth of Harriet's pain. Further compounding her hardships, Harriet Tubman was once again sent away to work for another planter named James Cook, a condition she later said made her go through acute homesickness. During this time, she contracted a severe case of measles, and she was returned to Brodess. Throughout her early life, she was hired out by other enslavers. This particular chapter of her life is not explored in Harriet.

'Harriet' Leaves Some of Harriet Tubman's Slavery Escape Attempts Out

Tired of the unending abuse and bondage, Harriet Tubman, who was also deeply religious (the film is even preachier), sought to free herself twice. As per Larson, together with her newly-wedded husband, John Tubman, a free black man in her neighborhood in the South, they had sought legal papers that would have freed her and had their would-be children born free. This is the point at which Lemmons's Harriet opens the story of Harriet Tubman. Larson deduces that it is at this time that she changed her name to Harriet Tubman; after her mother and her husband, respectively. In Harriet, Lemmons takes some creative liberty, delaying the event until after her escape by placing it in the memorable scene where William Steel (Leslie Odom Jr.) tells Minty to choose a new name to commemorate her free-person status as many other former slaves had done. Perhaps Lemmons viewed this as an opportunity to emphasize the new dawn of freedom, and also to explain why former slaves and their descendants changed their names, most famously, in recent times, by Malcolm X. Unfortunately for Harriet Tubman and her husband, and ultimately for their young romance, her master refused to let her go. Harriet Tubman was also faced with the fear of being sold and having her family broken apart. Before Edward Brodess's death, she had been paraded for sale but had survived because she had been sickly, which discouraged suitable slavers. With Gideon Brodess (the son of Edward Brodess) as her new owner, played by Joe Alwyn in Harriet, Harriet Tubman feared that her chances of being sold had increased. Never giving up, and stubborn, as her masters referred to her, Harriet Tubman devised a way to escape. In 1849, she put her plan to the test.

"There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other." These are Harriet Tubman's words, quoted by historian Walter Kerry in his book Harriet Tubman: A Life in American History. And Harriet Tubman's life did reflect those words. Along with her brothers Henry and Ben, Harriet Tubman escaped. At the time, she had been hired out to another enslaver. It is also believed that her brothers had been hired out by the same person and they, particularly Ben, who had a wife and children, second-guessed themselves and returned to slavery, making Harriet Tubman back down too. Because they had been hired out, Mrs. Brodess didn't immediately realize the escape attempt. When she did, she circulated a runaway notice with a reward of up to $100 (equivalent to about $4000 in 2023). But the resilient Harriet Tubman, who had sacrificed for her brothers in the initial attempt, did not give up on her dreams. She escaped again, this time alone and for good. In the film, only the legal request and the final escape attempt are portrayed, and even so, Harriet does not show the extent of difficulty of Harriet Tubman's journey on foot for nearly one hundred miles to her freedom in Philadelphia. Lemmons, while speaking to Collider, has said that Minty's final crossing to freedom was one of the best scenes in the film to shoot.

Which Creative Liberties Did 'Harriet' Take?

Although Harriet strives to stay true to historical facts, the film takes some creative liberties. In Harriet, when Harriet Tubman reaches Philadelphia after her escape, she is welcomed by William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.) who introduces her to her host, Marie Buchanon, portrayed by screen magnet and Glass Onion star Janelle Monáe. In real life, Janelle Monáe's character is a fictional one. William Still, though, was a real-life figure who played a pivotal role in the Underground Railroad, working together with Harriet Tubman and other abolitionists. As per Larson, he aided over 600 slaves in settling in the North following their escape.

Kasi Lemmons's Harriet also gives Harriet Tubman's exploits of returning to Maryland to rescue her family alongside other slaves some creative liberties. When Harriet Tubman went back reportedly thirteen times, earning her the name ''Moses'', as the Biblical figure, she did not meet her husband, who had remarried. Instead, she sent word for him, but he declined to join her, for which she was profoundly upset. In the film, Lemmons treats this incident as if they had an actual meeting between them, even though it captures the essence of the historical situation. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, law enforcement officers were legally obligated to assist in the recapture of escaped slaves wherever they were found within the US, including states that had abandoned slavery. This forced Harriet Tubman to guide many former enslaved people further northwards, ultimately to present-day Canada. This aspect of Tubman's life is depicted in Harriet.

'Harriet' Underrepresents Harriet Tubman's Contribution To the Civil War

As per Dunbar Armstrong's book, She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman, long before the war erupted, Harriet Tubman had crossed paths with John Brown, a radical abolitionist who advocated a slave uprising against their oppressors. Harriet actively participated in Brown's plans for insurrection. To arm the potential rebels, Brown orchestrated a raid on Harper's Ferry, a government armory, to seize weapons. While Harriet was in New York during the raid, it ultimately failed, leading to Brown's execution for treason. This event is widely regarded as a precursor to the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman aligned herself with the Union cause, serving in various capacities within the Union Army. She worked as a cook, a nurse, and a spy. Among her most notable contributions was her role in the Raid on Combahee Ferry, where her intelligence gathering, recruitment of new Union soldiers, and guidance played a crucial role in liberating approximately seven hundred individuals. This remarkable feat earned her the distinction of being the first woman in the US to lead an armed expedition during wartime. Despite her significant role in the war, Harriet gives this historic event little prominence, appearing briefly — more as a footnote in Harriet Tubman's story.

While Harriet effectively recounts the extraordinary life of Harriet Tubman, it falls short of igniting the same level of inspiration in its audience. A figure as monumental as Harriet Tubman warrants a film that not only captures the historical details of her life but also immerses audiences in the complexities that shaped her. Unfortunately, Harriet fails to achieve this depth.

Harriet is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix

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