this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 14 hours ago (5 children)

Am I the only one who doesn't know who Harriet Tubman is?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 minutes ago

Never be afraid to ask a question to rectify a lack of knowledge.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 hours ago

TL;DR, she was an insanely brave black woman who helped a metric fuck ton of slaves escape the south.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Probably not, but she's an important figure of the American history. The real question, though, is who will know about Harriet Tubman in a few years, once she gets erased from American history books.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

At least people will be able to remember she looked like Julia Roberts

[–] [email protected] 18 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Elon Musk will build The Above Ground Railroad to save white South African immigrants from the tyranny of paying taxes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Relevant picture

[–] [email protected] 17 points 14 hours ago (4 children)

Does the phrase "underground railroad" mean anything to you?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

Not everyone is from North America. That is like me asking you, does "Dr. Kwame Nkrumah" mean anything to you?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago

Tbh, it should. American educations don’t touch Africa barring a dip into Egypt, which usually compresses the dynasties in a way that does nothing for a deeper understanding. Even as someone with a BA in history, that watched the course listing like a hawk for “history of the Sahel” or “history of the Mali empire” or some lovely 3000-4000 course - nothing.

I should have been taught who Nkrumah was. And Léopold Senghor, and Kenyatta…

Instead, I lean on The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith. Which is a good book, but by a journalist, not a historian.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 hours ago

does “Dr. Kwame Nkrumah” mean anything to you?

C'mon, there are lots of NBA fans outside of the United States.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

If only that question was a direct response to someone talking about an American historical figure by name.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

We call it the subway or the metro nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 13 hours ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Okay, Harriet Tubman, born into slavery in the early 1800s, escaped slavery, probably best known today for making 13 trips to the South and guiding 70 slaves on their escape to free states via a system of secret routes, sympathizers and safe houses referred to as The Underground Railroad. Tubman went on to serve as a spy for the Union army during the American civil war, and was a figure in the women's suffrage movement, surviving into the 20th century.

So, the fact that she was a black woman is kind of important to Harriet Tubman's lore, and casting Julia Roberts in the role is rather inappropriate.

The Underground Railroad had nothing to do with actual trains, but they used a lot of railroad related terminology as code speak. Trail guides were referred to as "conductors," safe houses were "stations," etc. Very little of it was actually underground; I'm sure a few slaves hid in root cellars or caves along the way, but there were no tunnels. Escapees were sometimes carried by boat or train but most traveled on foot and/or by wagon. There's a sort of folklore image of slaves traveling at night under the cover of darkness, navigating by the North Star. Allegedly, the song "Follow The Drinkin' Gourd" was a slave song that contained coded instructions for navigating along the Underground Railroad by landmarks along the trail and by using Merak and Dubhe in Ursa Major to identify Polaris...I'm pretty sure this is 20th century embellishment to the story but it's a prominent visual, kind of like Johnny Appleseed's pot hat.

This bit of history is taught so widely in American schools that the term "underground railroad" has just become our word for a secret, grassroots network of routes, safe houses and guides for transporting refugees out of danger.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Here you go. She was a pretty amazing person. If you're from the US and didn't learn about her in school, your school failed you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

Congrats on being one of the lucky 10,000 learning something new, especially about a genuine hero!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 13 hours ago

Like the Eurostar