Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People (Significations)

ISBN: 0593491181

Author: Miles, Tiya

Condition: New

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography A Washington Post Notable Book Finalist for the PEN America Literary Award One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best History Books of the Year One of AAIHS's Best Black History Books of 2024Though broad strokes of Tubmans story are widely known, Miles probes deeper, examining her inner life, faith and relationships with other enslaved Black women to paint a deeper, more vibrant portrait of a historical figure whose mythic status can sometimes overshadow her humanity. -The New York TimesFrom the National Book Award-winning author of All That She Carried, an intimate and revelatory reckoning with the myth and the truth behind an American everyone knows and few really understandHarriet Tubman is among the most famous Americans ever born and soon to be the face of the twenty-dollar bill. Yet often shes a figure more out of myth than history, almost a comic-book superhero. Despite being barely five feet tall, unable to read, and suffering from a brain injury, she managed to escape from her own enslavement, return again and again to lead others north to freedom without loss of life, speak out powerfully against slavery, and then become the first American woman in history to lead a military raid, freeing some seven hundred people. You could almost say shes Americas Robin Hood, a miraculous vision, often rightly celebrated but seldom understood.Tiya Miless extraordinary Night Flyer changes all that. With her characteristic tenderness and imaginative genius, Miles explores beyond the stock historical grid to weave Tubmans life into the fabric of her world. She probes the ecological reality of Tubmans surroundings and examines her kinship with other enslaved women who similarly passed through a spiritual wilderness and recorded those travels in profound and moving memoirs. What emerges, uncannily, is a human being whose mysticism becomes more palpable the more we understand it-a story that offers us powerful inspiration for our own time of troubles. Harriet Tubman traversed many boundaries, inner and outer. Now, thanks to Tiya Miles, she becomes an even clearer and sharper signal from the past, one that can help us to echolocate a more just and sustainable path.