First published 2021
Dorothy Wickenden chronicles how three women from vastly different backgrounds united to challenge slavery and fight for equal rights in mid-nineteenth century America. Harriet Tubman, an illiterate escaped slave, conducted dangerous rescue missions in Eastern Maryland. Her courage inspired Martha Wright, a middle-class Quaker mother of seven, and Frances Seward, the aristocratic wife of Lincoln's future Secretary of State, to transform their Auburn, New York basement kitchens into Underground Railroad stations. All three women refused to accept laws that granted rights only to white men. The narrative spans decades, opening when Tubman remains enslaved and Wright and Seward chafe against traditional female roles. It concludes after their sons and Tubman herself participate in pivotal Civil War battles. Wickenden reconstructs their story through letters, diaries, and public records, revealing their interactions with Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Tubman eventually settles in Auburn, where she spends her later years embraced by the radical reform network of western New York State.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, 20th-century, american, african-american, biographical-fiction, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, social-justice
Setting: Auburn, Eastern Maryland, New York, Western New York State
Period: 19th-Century, Civil-War
1 pages · Audio CD · Simon & Schuster Audio and Blackstone Publishing
Content warnings: slavery