re: The Harriet Tubman legend is literally a myth invented by 2 Communist writers

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Here is what AI had to say:

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Never allow AI to draw conclusions for you.

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abolitionist Thomas Garrett estimated she freed only 60 to 80 people over 13 trips.

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Only...

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Most of what you know about Tubman never happened, and Harriet never claimed it happened

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I've read the original book, long ago.

I'm unsure how later claims change the original recollections in a way where she isn't an inspiring American.

I've never seen the modern movies, so I'm unsure what stupid embellishments were added or why.

But the core of the story was most definitely not invented by communists.

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Too much of it was… far too much to be taught as “history”.

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She was a black slave woman who escaped and then went back to help others to escape.

That's quite heroic.

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The original book is also in question, I believe for lack of corroboration, sloppy writing and author-admitted embellishments.

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Consider the topic, of course there is going to be a lack of corroboration. This is the 1850s and many of them went to Canada, never to be seen again.

We can't expect facebook level corroboration for what was basically covert theft and escape.

This is how 1619 attacks American history, filling in the silence in the historical record with their view of what happened.

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Mix enough lies in with the truth, no one is going to believe any of it.

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Examples? Like what part has to do with the fundamental truth?

Was she a slave?
Did she escape?
Did she go back multiple times to free others?
Did she have a bounty on her head?
Did she not work to support the Union Army?

Are any of those facts debatable?

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What I do know is that I *did* believe everything I learned about Harriet Tubman growing up. I also know now that what I learned wasn’t all factual. Now I have to relearn it if I want to know something resembling the true history.

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Much of the history we learn in school, especially elementary school history, is mythologized and that’s true of basically all nations, all eras, and all moral exemplars. It’s not a secret expose; it’s a developmental choice (children's cognition is different than teens is different from adults, which shapes the pedagogy). Where I get uneasy is when “these stories were simplified” (you can think of elementary school history as "myths as training wheels) quietly slides into “therefore the values they point toward are suspect”. We do this with Washington and the cherry tree, with Lincoln, with Joan of Arc, with national founding myths everywhere. We don’t usually conclude from that that honesty, emancipation, or resistance to unjust law were mistakenly taught to us.

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At this point, I don’t know. I will have to further research it.

What I do know is that I *did* believe everything I learned about Harriet Tubman growing up. I also know now that what I learned wasn’t all factual. Now I have to relearn it if I want to know something resembling the true history.

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I think you will find out she was still a very brave and a strong Christian.

She was illiterate, a slave, and a woman in the 1850s, and she was courageous, a woman of great faith.

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I believed the Rosa Parks bullshite too growing up- now I know better.

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Yea, not going to defend that one.

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The more I relearn “black history” the more I realize it’s more mythology with kernels of facts sprinkled here and there. I don’t take ANY of it at face value anymore.

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Early Abolitionism was about Christianity, the great early African American leaders were strong Christians. Frederick Douglass, Booker T Washington, George Washington Carver were all strong Christians.

W. E. B. Du Bois was when a anti-christian movement made it's way into the Civil Rights movement.

You can see why that history has been removed from the story.

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Early Abolitionism was about Christianity, the great early African American leaders were strong Christians. Frederick Douglass, Booker T Washington, George Washington Carver were all strong Christians. W. E. B. Du Bois was when a anti-christian movement made it's way into the Civil Rights movement. You can see why that history has been removed from the story.

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Fair enough. I was coming at this from an annoyed position. Maybe throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't the most sensible approach.

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Fair enough. I was coming at this from an annoyed position. Maybe throwing the baby out with the bathwater isn't the most sensible approach.

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Totally agreed, it's hard in this era of rewriting history for political purpose to not be jaded.

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Another poster pointed out that many/most of BHM figures are activists. That made sense to me. There have to be more inspiring figures out there though

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Why is that not inspiring? The context of Black political activism took place within the context of a brutal campaign of repression. It took a great deal of bravery to be an activist during that era and most of all, those activists were fighting to ensure they were considered Americans, not second-class citizens. The literature from the period was also superb and the tradition of African-American literature is an excellent source for what people of that era experienced.

He is breaking down all the lies.
Slavery white an bad when it's actually black an that sued and court for it.

Lies that Washington got his slave pregnant.

Yeah he is breaking down all the fraud lies in history

Even broke down the Rosa parks bs.

What? Why don't you elaborate about what you know about Rosa Parks, because thus far that by itself is a terrible answer, especially if you want to know the 'real history' as you claim to profess in this very thread.

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Where I get uneasy is when “these stories were simplified” (you can think of elementary school history as "myths as training wheels) quietly slides into “therefore the values they point toward are suspect”.

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Of course, don’t mind that the same “training wheels” are in many respects designed to lead us straight into collectivist servitude — just focus on how they’ve been “simplified” to uphold the State as the unquestioned wellspring of human existence itself.

Three Myths of the Great Depression…