ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits the icon of Harriet Tubman, a historical figure who – far from forgotten or marginalized within American, African American, and women’s histories – is nonetheless obscured and confined to narratives that foreclose on certain heroic portraits. I examine her life story alongside how she is remembered in contemporary narratives, including art, literature, and popular culture. I also juxtapose Tubman’s history alongside a more obscure figure from the past – Sarah Forbes Bonetta – a Nigerian woman who became the goddaughter to Queen Victoria and whose photographic portrait was recycled on the Internet and subsequently mislabeled “Young Harriet Tubman.” This photographic error, done in part to contest certain portrayals of Tubman once the U.S. Treasury Department announced plans in 2016 to place her on the $20 paper currency, revealed tensions and anxieties around the Black female historical subject. In these contemporaneous presentations, I assess Tubman’s place in national memory.
