“If you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going; if you want to taste freedom, keep going.” Harriet Tubman uttered these words many times throughout her long and courageous life. Those words also appear in Harriet Tubman: Leading the Way to Freedom, a wonderful juvenile biography by Laurie Calkhoven.
Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross around 1822, escaped from slavery and later made some thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved people, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Because of her heroic efforts, she was often called “the Moses of her people.” The author explains that during the American Civil War, Tubman served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army.
The book is full of truly remarkable passages from Tubman’s life. The following is a brief passage that illustrates Tubman’s joy at finding freedom after crossing the Pennsylvania border in 1849. “When I found I had crossed that line,” Tubman later remembered, “I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven.”
Calkhoven’s book includes many illustrations that bring Tubman’s story to life. Many of the images are nineteenth century woodcuts, drawings, and paintings. Although technically a juvenile title, this book is very comprehensive and will certainly satisfy any adult reader wanting to gain knowledge of Harriet Tubman: one of the nineteenth century’s true heroes.