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| Photo courtesy of Swann Galleries |
When I first saw this newly discovered photo of a 40
something Harriet Tubman, tears sprang to my eyes. As a black woman, the photo held a particular
resonance for me.
Tubman is casually seated, with her arm resting on the back
of a chair, wearing a dark shirtwaist and light patterned skirt, her hair
neatly parted down the middle and drawn back in a style popular during the 1800s.
She wears the face of defiance, pride, strength, and
resilience, but there is an unmistakable beauty to this image, that despite
everything that her oppressors threw at her, she was HERE.
The photo shows Tubman closer to the age that she would have been when she led enslaved families and friends north to freedom on the Underground Railroad, and served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The photo is said to have probably been taken when Tubman
was living in Auburn, New York where she had purchased land from then Senator
William H. Seward. The photo comes from
an album owned by abolitionist Emily Howland, friend of Tubman and source of the iconic
photo of the freedom fighter in a black gown standing next to a rocking chair.
The photo goes up for auction March 30 by New York City
auction house Swann Galleries.
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