Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
By: Carole B. Weatherford
Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson
ISBN-13: 9780786851751

Harriet Tubman is a heroic and historical figure throughout the period of slavery. She is a woman who fought against the issues of slavery in the hopes of becoming free. This text takes you through her adventure of escaping slavery in the mid-19th century. She is led by her faith to not only free herself and her family, but other slaves through the use of the Underground Railroad. She rises above all her doubts and fears of getting caught as she has the strength of God behind her the whole way. Through her journey she receives help from farmers and their wives, and boatmen although always thinking in the back of her mind that they are going to turn her in. As her adventure continues of becoming free she decides through her faith in God that it is her duty to not only free herself but many others; through the text it states “Save all you can, daughter” in the words of her spiritual being and she proceeds to do just that because there is nothing else in the world she wants but Freedom!
This text includes a Foreword about the statistics of slavery and an Author’s Note about Harriet Tubman’s life.

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom is a notable and award-winning picture book that takes you through the fictitious biographic journey and life of the heroic Harriet Tubman. The text has a rhythmic and lyrical tone as it goes through her spiritual journey of breaking free from her slavery duties and overcoming the fears the come along with this adventurous expedition. The author puts a unique spin on this biography as she takes the reader through the thoughts and feelings Harriet Tubman experienced in escaping slavery and discovering freedom. The text is set up to show the different conversations she has with God through the historical events that she went through by fleeing to the North. Harriet’s thoughts and feelings are italicized while God’s words of wisdom and strength are in different color and capitalized font; this text is also free-flowing through the pages to give a new feel to the reader.
The illustrations captivate the reader through the realistic feel of Tubman’s journey through this time. The artwork is extended on both pages and they are nothing short of amazing. They are clear, vivid depictions that collaborate with the text in showing both expression and emotion. Even though most of the illustrations use many dark colors it still bring much light into the book through Tubmans everlasting hope and faith in discovering freedom for not only herself but for many others as well.
Reading this text for the first time, it took me through the adventure of breaking free from slavery by traveling through the fears of being captured while ultimately uncovering the elements of freedom altogether. For me, it wasn’t just learning about Harriet Tubman’s life and adventure through the Underground Railroad, it was about taking me through the thoughts and feelings while using her spiritual strength of God to get her through such terrifying times. The text and illustration combination is an amazing portrayal in educating all readers not just about the historical feel, but how life was really like for the slaves in the mid-19th century. For my future classroom library, I will be sure to include this piece in my set but make sure to educate my students before giving this portrayal of slavery. Through much of the text, Harriet goes through dangerous circumstances and I believe that my students will need to understand the difficulties that slaves faced during this time period to show their troubling times and conditions. The only concern I would have placing it into a public set would be the many references to God, but I believe that it gives a strong and factual touch to how Harriet Tubman’s spiritual element got her through this time thus creating a heroic and historical figure of our past. Overall, I really enjoyed this piece of historical picture book and it gave me a sense of not only what journey she went through but who she was and the life of slavery through both the Foreword and Author’s note throughout the book.

I chose this book through a insiders view because Carole Weatherford describes Harriet Tubman as being one of her heroes since childhood. She is able to identify with Harriet Tubman because Weatherford has roots in Dorchester County in Maryland where Harriet was born a slave and from which she eventually fled. She chose to do the spiritual side of Harriet Tubmans journey because Weatherford is both a wife and daughter of ministers and she wanted to touch on that spirituality in her writing. She feels she is able to relate to Harriet Tubman on the spiritual being of the book because the trust they both instill in God and the strength he gives both of them; she felt that this was a necessary touch to the story and where she was really able to let her voice and knowledge shine in as well.



Weatherford, Carole B. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 2006.