On this edition of ST, we speak with Kristen T. Oertel, the Barnard Associate Professor of 19th Century American History here at TU. On Thursday the 4th, the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities and TU's Department of History will co-present a book launch for Oertel's latest book, which is "Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the Nineteenth Century." This event is free to the public, and it will begin at 7pm in Tyrrell Hall on the TU campus; the evening will include a reading, signing, discussion, and book sale. As Oertel tells us, her book is meant to serve as a brief, up-to-date, and readable account of Tubman's justly celebrated life, and one that might be ideally suited for college freshmen. As noted on the book's back cover: "Escaped slave, Civil War spy, scout, and nurse, and champion of women's suffrage, Harriet Tubman is an icon of heroism. Perhaps most famous for leading enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad, Tubman was dubbed 'Moses' by followers. But abolition and the close of the Civil War were far from the end of her remarkable career. Tubman continued to fight for black civil rights, and campaign fiercely for women’s suffrage, throughout her life. In this vivid, concise narrative supplemented by primary documents, Kristen T. Oertel introduces readers to Tubman’s extraordinary life, from the trauma of her childhood slavery to her civil rights activism in the late nineteenth century, and in the process reveals a nation’s struggle over its most central injustices."
"Harriet Tubman: Slavery, the Civil War, and Civil Rights in the Nineteenth Century"
