![]() ![]() She was also so selfless, she just kept giving and giving and giving. Hill: Tubman became a mother figure to so many of her own nieces and nephews. Hobson: We rarely hear these kinds of stories about Harriet Tubman, about her life in Auburn. Photograph of Harriet Tubman (seated, center, in white shawl), with caretakers at the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged, circa 1911. She thought it was important that she provided free healthcare to Blacks and whites. That’s why she made sure she built an infirmary. It had huge consequences, life outcome consequences. But Tubman understood the weaving of the generations into family life was important to the health of the individual and communities.ĪARP ought to be lifting up Tubman as the symbol of the senior movement, as someone who made a difference when she was providing shelter so that seniors could age with dignity and grace with the Home for the Aged, because African Americans were not welcome at the Home for the Aged that existed in the area, and she understood that one’s personal health was really important. Now with families so dispersed, the pandemic has been really hard on families. She also understood that African Americans were culturally driven to have multiple generations living together and how that has been foundational in our history and that this is a good thing. She understood why it was important for women to be able to acquire credit, why it was important to have home ownership. The financial services industry needs to promote her as a model for women and credit, women and home ownership. Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig could do a whole campaign called “Do It Like Harriet”! She even understood that eating the strawberries from a nice container or goblet-she liked these little nice fancy goblets-made a difference. Her favorite dessert was eating strawberries that was her sugar. This woman who everybody saw as a plain woman was just so much more, she was deep. Hill: She was incredibly aware of what she put into her body. Hobson: Could you say more about these life lessons? Harriet Tubman “understood why it was important for women to be able to acquire credit, why it was important to have home ownership,” said Karen V. To me that’s just startling, that this place in Maryland where she had been treated so harshly, she was able to separate the brutality of slavery from how she loved the land. Where did she learn the life lessons about what is good to put in your body and what you should stay away from? I think more work needs to be done on how she developed that kind of appreciation. She chose property that would give her that kind of sensibility, just her profound respect for what is natural. Despite the cruelty of her experience in that place, she tried to recreate and replicate that landscape. ![]() She loved the beauty she loved the quiet. I mean that’s who she was, that’s where she felt comfortable. She did not try to urbanize her life the landscapes in Maryland where Tubman grew up are very similar to where she chose to live in Auburn. Hill: If you’ve never been along the Eastern Shore of Maryland, then Auburn in central New York shows you that Tubman truly loved pastoral landscapes. ![]() Janell Hobson: For visitors who were to come to the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, what new information would they actually learn about Harriet Tubman that they might not know? Ms.’s Janell Hobson interviewed Hill over Zoom. The Harriet Tubman National Historical Park has the only extant resources related to the life and work of Harriet Tubman. In her leadership role, Hill has successfully pursued federal legislation to have Harriet Tubman’s homestead become one of the newest units of the National Park Service. ![]() in Auburn, N.Y., and is overseeing a series of local programs relating to Harriet Tubman’s Bicentennial this year. Hill is president and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. Explore the interactive groundbreaking site here. 1, and culminating on March 10, the Harriet Tubman Bicentennial Project pays tribute to this feminist icon with a special commemorative issue through Ms. ![]()
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