Harriet Tubman Brought to Life
Known as “The Moses of her People,” Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and made it her life’s mission to help rescue others from the same fate.
After her own successful escape in 1849 from Maryland to the free state of Pennsylvania, she would return at least 13 times to rescue other enslaved people, including her siblings and parents. She became one of the most famous conductors of the Underground Railroad, the network of free people, both black and white, who were working in secret to guide enslaved black Americans to freedom. Harriet rescued between 70 and 300 people during her life. Later, she would go on to aid the Union in the Civil War, providing intelligence and even leading a successful armed mission. She was also an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and other causes.
I’ve brought Harriet Tubman to life from this 1868 photograph, which was just discovered a few years ago. Before this portrait’s discovery, we only had photographs of an elderly Tubman. In this image she would be in her mid-forties, and looks every bit the middle-class free black woman she was by this time, with her face full of determination.
A brutal head injury suffered at the age of 12 caused Harriet frequent bouts of narcolepsy, vivid dreams, and hallucinations, which she described as signs from God. You can see it affected her face a little bit. In every photograph she has a slightly bulging / lazy right eye, and a downturned lip on the same side. I had a wonderful time researching Harriet’s story and bringing her to life in these images.
There are some bonus re-creations in the full YouTube video if you’d like to check that out as well.