Harriet Tubman’s Journey and Legacy with Prof. Lorne Foster

 Recorded interview with Professor Lorne Foster, completed by Blessing Ogunyemi for the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University. 

TRANSCRIPT:

Professor Lorne Foster: I don’t think it’s unusual or necessarily undermining… to undermine the situation, to not know how many people Harriet Tubman has officially brought over to Canada. There’s an element of speculation on the part of every answer to that question, regardless of how well it would be researched, because of the nature of, as I said, of the secretive movement that existed at that time. We know Harriet Tubman is famous for bringing some over, whether it is a hundred or whether it is a thousand, I’m not quite sure that that is crucial to the story, the understanding that correct number. The bravery that was involved, the boldness that was involved, the legacy that she left, the kind of… whether it was a hundred or a thousand, the proliferation of free lives after that sacrifice on her part, is something that we should keep in mind. So that’s how I look at it. I would be a little bit understanding about any kind of disparities between views, or differences between views on how many people Harriet Tubman escorted to Canada, because of the nature of the enterprise of slavery and secrecy that’s necessarily involved in transporting people to freedom.  

Blessing: Thank you very much.