Rita Daniels was in elementary school when she learned that she is a great-great-great grandniece of Harriet Tubman. The abolitionist who helped free hundreds of men and women is now an icon in American History.
Tubman grew up enslaved on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. As a free woman, she spent the last 50 years of her life in Auburn, N.Y., where Daniels was raised.
Daniels currently lives in metro Atlanta and is co-author of a new book on her aunt, “Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary.”
Daniels and co-author Jean Marie Wiesen trace Tubman’s heritage from her grandmother Modesty’s roots in Ghana, to Tubman’s legacy as an abolitionist, human rights activist and suffragette.
Modesty was brought from Ghana in bondage across the Atlantic Ocean to the Eastern Shore.
Below on Let’s Start Healing Podcast, Daniels shares her reaction to learning that she is a relative of Harriet Tubman.
Tubman carried out her calling despite the fact that she couldn’t read, experienced a head injury, and is believed to have suffered narcolepsy. About the age of 13, Harriet was hit in the head with a large object. Daniels said a block of weight was thrown by a “slavemaster” who was trying to stop a young boy running away. That incident is believed to have caused Harriet’s narcolepsy and resulted in frequent dreams in which she would receive messages from God to guide her on escape routes, Daniels said.
“I look at the strength that she had,” Daniels said. “She passed away at [age] 92… She was a fighter, and she didn’t take no as an answer.”
Daniels said during her own difficult times in life, her mother would remind her “how Harriet Tubman always got up and kept going.”
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