Faculty Research & Scholarly Work
Historian Illuminates Crucial Chapter of Harriet Tubman’s Legacy
Edda Fields-Black , a professor in the Department of History and director of The Humanities Center, illuminates a crucial chapter of Harriet Tubman’s legacy through a new, award-winning book, “COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War.” During the Civil War, the governor of Massachusetts sent Tubman to gather intelligence for the U.S. Army Department of the South. Throughout the planning and execution of the raid, Tubman and 300 formerly enslaved Black soldiers risked their own freedom to help others secure it. The book recounts the story of the raid from the perspectives of Harriet Tubman and the previously enslaved people who liberated themselves in the raid. While conducting research, Fields-Black digitized Civil War pension files to uncover new information about formerly enslaved ancestors.
READ FIELDS-BLACK’S NEW YORK TIMES GUEST ESSAY: “BLACK FAMILIES CAN NOW RECOVER MORE OF THEIR LOST HISTORIES.”
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences | Carnegie Mellon University 26
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