Harriet Tubman was born enslaved in the state of Maryland. Tubman escaped to freedom in the North in 1849 to become the most famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. Tubman risked her life to lead hundreds of family members and other slaves from the plantation system to freedom on this elaborate secret network of safe houses. Her story is beyond remarkable and recently they made a movie about her called “Harriet.”

Before seeing the movie, I felt a way about the leading actress being from the UK after statements she had made about Black Americans and what Spike Lee brought to the conversation in S2 of “She’s Got to Have It.” He brought up that they are starting to use actors that aren’t descendants of slaves so that it’s easier to tell the story bc there is no trauma there because it is not their history. Emotionally driven breaks are dollars.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Overall, the movie was powerful. Tubman’s story is one that only God could write and I enjoyed seeing it actualized. I felt the way they showed her hearing God, however, was over dramatized and they should have rethought the way that would look. The movie seemed a bit rushed (I wanted to see a bit more storyline… especially how she heard from God).

Sidenote: I was also confused for a second as to why it came out now instead of when Tubman’s $20 bill comes out soon BUT I read a NYT article saying that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has delayed the process of the $20 bill.

Also, people in the theater were laughing, however, nothing in that movie should have been funny. Slavery was not a funny time and I doubt Harriet was laughing when she was trying to get to freedom. I do not agree with adding subtle comedy (people were laughing when she got her niece, set her family free and another time I can’t recall) in the movie. Especially given its context. I’d rate this movie 6.5/10.

Although, this movie was also very thought provoking. I left asking myself a few questions. Such as:

Why are some Black Americans scared of dogs? Could the trauma from dogs being used to first catch us when our ancestors were going to freedom + the way dogs were used against us in the civil rights movement be a reason? Is there generational trauma there? Just a thought.

Maybe why we didn’t find natural hair acceptable is bc we weren’t able to do hair truly when we were enslaved? Our hair had to be natural. So when it came to freedom we associated straight hair to freedom because those that were always free wore their hair like that. Possibly directly related to how those that had oppressed us wore their hair.

[Mo]views: Harriet Movie

morgan@joyday.org