Have you heard of Harriet Tubman?

[Pickles89]

It's in the news that she's going to be on $20 bills. I'm ashamed to say I've only just learned about her! I knew the name from an American picture book I had when I was little, but all I knew was that she 'helped to free the slaves'. Then at Christmas just gone I watched the film 'Harriet' (I recommend it!) and although I don't know how much of the movie was artistic license, the facts of her story I know to be true are amazing.

Do you know about her? If so, how? Were you taught at school?

Yes

I am a tutor, I have just done a Harriet Tubman piece with my kids.
I do it every year.
I love it, it is such a powerful story!

I only heard about her recently from a book I bough my daughters 'Great Women who Made History. Highly recommend it together with Fantastically great Women who changed teh World - both by Kate Pankhurst.

Yes, but not through school. I was never taught any black history.

I used to belong to a US-based forum as a teenager and found out about her through discussions on there.

Yes, but not sure how. Certainly not school.

I mentioned her on Facebook a while back and was a bit surprised at how many people didn't know who she was, and then had a word with myself given that I wasn't even sure how I knew.

She's in a lot of DD's books but I knew of her before that.

Sojourner Truth is another fascinating woman well worth looking up if you haven't heard of her.

Yes, but not in school. I was an avid reader as a child of anything to do with history.

I learned about her when I listened to the Harriet Tubman episode of a podcast called “you’re dead to me” on bbc sounds.

As a child I had the book 'Underground to Canada' which is about the underground railroad.

It was amazing, and I have never forgotten it.

I have known about her since I was around 15-16. A guess. Don’t think younger. Definitely by time I was late teens. In my 50s.

I know about her from dd's book about great women in history. Dd thinks she is amazing!

@Pickles89

This is the film I watched.

www.amazon.co.uk/Harriet-Joe-Alwyn/dp/B081FZN6LJ/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=harriet&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1611684330&sr=8-3

Although I had it for years on good old fashioned DVD, just never got round to watching it before! I really recommend you DON'T watch the trailer, as that's just the whole darn film condensed - just take my word for it that it's worth paying for if you can't find it free online. Incredible woman.

Great thank you

I knew about her.

Yes, from a reading book at primary school.

Because of Family Guy. She's mentioned a couple of times so I looked her up so I could understand the references. I do that sort of thing all the time though and end up down a rabbit hole reading different things for hours.

Yes & yes.

Thkight she may have been in lyrics of The Crown - Gary Byrd (what a song). No.
BUT she’s in Black Man Stevie Wonder 1976. Songs in the Key of Life. Listened to that a lot.

I have heard of her. Not sure where but I suspect form reading stories about inspirational women with my daughter 20 years ago. I hope she gets on the note o

Yes, and we recently bought DD the Little People Big Dreams book about her.

Yes. I'm Canadian and we studied her life and achievements while I was in school. We even had a field trip to one of the areas (there were several) where the underground railway road was. I was fortunate to learn a lot about that time in history.

There were some amazing women from that period in time. Another interesting woman was Laura Secord she was active during the war of 1812. (very different to the American civil war and in no way am I comparing her to Harriet Tubman) Worth a Google.

I have, but she definitely wasn’t covered in school.

Yes, but I am American!

As an aside, I asked my very bright, history loving year 9 ds yesterday to guess how many people died in 1918 flu epidemic. His answer: the what?
He had never heard of it.

( It's 50-100 million if anyone doesn't know)

Bloody hell hennybeans thank god for all sorts of medical advances including flu vaccine.
Makes you think about the numbers who still die of eg malaria as we speak. (Not sure if numbers but know it horrendous).

Yes, from Horrible Histories.

I didn't but there was a dance on dance moms (yes I know!) and I researched her.

She did a lot of good.

Great podcast (in general) but episode about Harriet: pca.st/episode/e41980b0-53fd-41d0-8ab9-a82b80eee4de