Civil war. Next karen hill of the Harriet Tubman house talks about her lesser known role as an activist in the women suffrage movement. The Woodrow Wilson house in washington, d. C. Hosted this as part of a series commemorating the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. Welcome. Good evening. Im the executive director here at the Woodrow Wilson house. And it is really truly my pleasure to well you to the first of a series of speaking events that were going to have on a suffrage series. So the wilson house if you havent been here before its part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Wilson and his wifeedeth lived in this house and edith turned it over to the National Trust upon her death and its been lovingly cared for until tonight. I wanted to tell you about this speaker series. Said to me this summer when i first started there is a commission on the suffrage and i think we should go to that meeting. It is the womens Suffrage Centennial commission, and i said, okay, im going to go with you. And so we went down to the library of congress and we sat at a big table and there were about 20 women in the room. It was a big square table and there were about 20 women on the telephone. And everyone goes around and theyre introducing themselves and theyre from the alice paul house and from this commission and that commission. And, you know, from the National Portrait gallery, all these places and it comes around to us and i introduce myself. Im from the Woodrow Wilson house, and there was a collective sigh. And not to mention maybe one or two cases of whiplash. There was no oxygen left in the room. They all turned to look to us and say did you know where you are, what are you doing here, and i said yes. And i said who are these crazy women attending this meeting and i said were not crazy, were passionate. Were passionate about telling stories. Were passionate about telling inclusive diverse stories in this house. And so thats how this all formulated. So it is my pleasure to have you here to start this with us. This is really where were embarking on something were very excited about. So with that i will introduce you and im thrilled that karen is here and thank you. So the womens suffrage sentenial commission was created by congress in 2017 to ensure suitable observe bs of the centennial of passage and ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution of the United States providing for women suffrage. Its led by chairwoman susan combes and a Bipartisan Group of leaders and they have truly welcome us and embraced us helping to commemorate history, celebrate the story and educate future generations of learners and readers. So karen hill is here tonight. Shes the president and ceo of the Harriet Tubman home and National Historic park which is or was established to manage and operate the homestead of Harriet Tubman. In her role at the tubman home she shares the core values with visitors that tour the property. She was also influential in establishing tubmans home as a National Historic park. So with that please help me with a warmup for karen hill. Good evening, everyone. Thank you again for coming tonight. Its such a pleasure to see you all in attendance tonight. I want to thank ms. Karen hill for gracing us with a third attendance and look forward to the conversation. As elizabeth said i am the curator of the house here at Woodrow Wilsons final home after the presidency. He moved directly into this home from the white house in march of 1921 and lived here until 1924. We two years ago with the leadership of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in concert with the leadership here at the Woodrow Wilson house decide it was extremely important and urgent to address Woodrow Wilsons legacy on race by exploring more africanAmerican History of the era, and that era which proceeded wilsons presidency and also to highlight womens history in particular because Woodrow Wilson was in office when the 19th amendment was ratified. So this first series is starting to look back at the beginnings of the movement. And you might think what is the connection between Woodrow Wilson and Harriet Tubman. Tonight we want to explore the life and work of Harriet Tubman. Shes obviously one of the most famous women people, africanamericans in u. S. History, but we thought it would be interesting to explore one of her lesser known legacies which her role not just for women suffrage and supporting that movement but also for womens rights more broadly. So well get into conversation about that. So ill start first, ms. Hill, and your mic should be on. Most of us are familiar with Harriet Tubman, the leader of the underground railroad, she brought enslaved people from the south to the north seeking freedom and emancipated herself. But looking back to the Womens Suffrage Movement and understanding that the Seneca Falls Convention happened in 1948. Harriet tubman was still enslaved in maryland. However, after the war Harriet Tubman would aid the cause of womens suffrage with the very liters that convened at seneca falls as well as with africanamerican womens clubs with the National Association of colored women. Considering her obviously amazing story from enslaved to free and also the racial divide that was within the movement what was tubmans stance over womens suffrage and how did she articulate her position . Thats a great question, and good evening, everybody. Glad to be here. Let me tell you a little about tubman first and then i think its easier to kind of back into where she stood on the question of suffrage, and its complicated history. How many of you have seen the movie harriet, a good number of people. So Harriet Tubman had this innate ability to see far beyond her circumstance, far beyond. And she had seven core values, faith, freedom, family, community, social justice, selfdetermination and equality. Those were her touchstones. Even when she was enslaved in maryland. For those of you who saw the movie you know the power of faith. Her faith guided her walk, her steps. Thats what led her to her freedom journey for herself and principly her family and friends. She freed about 70 people from the Eastern Shore of maryland and provided direct instructions for 70 more. But in the quest for her to have a more personal relationship with her god she went deeper, and thats a part of a liberation theology. She was a testament to liberation theology. When you said she was emancipated her coming from the Eastern Shore of maryland up through st. Catherines and as far north as st. Catherines and ultimately settling in auburn, that was an important but only part of her liberation theology. So everyone thinks of harriet, you know, as very familiar with the underground railroad and all that she did not to diminish that because its what provided Frederick Douglas the Empirical Data he needed to have to use his gift of oratory to talk about the importance of the value of freedom. Harriet drew her faith walk knew that was one part of her emancipation. So thats how she got to suffrage because it was becoming free along the Eastern Shore, and then becoming more emancipated as a woman in her own right. If you saw the movie you saw she was always people were always challenging her. You cant do this i can do this. Dont tell me what i cant do. You know, that was very profound. Dont tell me what i cant do. I know what i can do. She was very determined, so she took very good care of her vessel. She lived to be 91 years of age taking good care of her vessel while continuing her work. She was truly a pacifist but she knew there were some just wars, ie, the civil war. So thats why she leapt herself to that journey. And she challenged the u. S. Army. She was a nurse, scout and spy. She actually led the first armed raid by a woman into battle, okay, along the comby river in south carolina. And ive been on the banks when they dedicated it to Harriet Tubman. They dedicated the bridge between the counties, connects them. And when i was doing the research about that i discovered that highway 17 was determined by the department of transportation as one of the most dangerous roads in america. One of the most perilous. And i said how perfect is it that heriot would be a part of the process of adjusting that and bringing people together and connecting people . So, you know, her emancipation continues today. It continues today because we see them everywhere we go we see harriet being depicted. In some places im a little not pleased but depicted nevertheless. So her getting into suffrage and auburn you should know they dont teach geography in school anymore, but seneca falls and auburn are in central new york. Very different from new york city. Its like its two states, central new york, up state new york, down state. People are more familiar with down state. But auburn and seneca falls are maybe 20 miles from each other. Theyre in the same locale. And the Abolitionist Movement was very fervent in auburn. So when she decided to settle in auburn she knew she needed to be at least in an environment politically where the question of free or slave had already been asked and answered but still segregation still existed in auburn. Tubman on her property created nine cottages that were a series of homes. It was a home for the aged and indigent negroes so they could age in grace because auburn still had that home for the aged and at the time blacks were segregated. Blacks were not admitted into the home. She knew that was on unjust but she knew she had an ability to do something about it. Her emancipation, im sorry, i know were going to talk about suffrage but i have to share this. Her emancipation was also economic freedom. And she knew becoming a landowner was a part of that economic freedom. Thats what allowed her to bring her family ultimately up from the Eastern Shore to auburn where they settled. Thats where she was able to as i said earlier create the nine cottages on property where she housed seniors, africanamerican seniors. Thats where she guess what provided Free Universal Health Care to everybody at the john brown hall. This was a woman who just saw freedom through a lot of different lenses. And i feel like we are just now on the cusp of this country of a turning point. Do we want turning point. You see i got you in there, okay . Turning point of how do we go forward with that legacy. So suffrage was really key because what was happening was that Elizabeth Katie stanton and susan b. Anthony and others would get booed out of these halls when they would try to talk about suffrage and there would be black men in the audience because the fact that women were going to get the vote does everybody know what happened . Women got the vote and then states determined to take the vote away from black men that were from black men, africanamerican men through the 15th amendment. States began to pull back. So that was for tubman thats quite a dilemma to advance women getting the vote not including herself and then black men very specifically whose vote their right to vote was going to be a bridge. I mean, it was not going to be there. That put her in a real difficult situation. But susan b. Anthony and Elizabeth Katie stanton and the other women part of the leadership of the movement knew that they needed a speaker like heri harriet. They needed someone with intestinal fortitude to advance the suffrage argument, and tubman knew that if she advanced suffrage as a concept one person, one vote, that was the bigger victory to have and then to still fight on for full enfranchisement of all americans. I mean, she knew that was its amazing that someone born a slave could see beyond their own circumstance because that doesnt happen. Second see beyond her own circumstance and advocate fully for women to get the vote. And its still a real difficult story to tell because there were other women of color who were scholars who wanted to really be a part of this who were really marginalized in the suffrage argument. But tubman stood her ground. And as small in stature as she was, she was twice as large in a room like this. In a room like this youd stand up to hear all she had to say and youd open your pocketbooks. Im not going to ask you for any money, but thats what tubman she had this ability and her faith fueled all of her work. And that was something that people were not comfortable with for a long time. Its only been more recently but the suffragists, you know, particularly amongst the leaders some of them quite frankly were very racist, okay. Elizabeth katie standpointen and Frederick Douglas were great friends. And he took her to task on that but she didnt see anything wrong with it. And she allowed him to stay at her house when he needed to. And he eulogized her. Now, not a lot of people also know that Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglas all come out of a liberation theology of the freedom church, which is the african methodist episcopal zion church, i have a Zion Ministry here with me this evening. So, you know, finding that and in auburn there was a zion church there. Thats where she really felt like it had everything. You know, they had a vibrant abolition it had progressive women and men who believed in suffrage, womens suffrage. And it had most importantly to her the church which is where she was fed and nurtured. I think the argument about tubman and suffrage needs to be talked about a lot more because it really gets into what battle are we willing to take up that will advance society beyond our own personal situation . How many of us can ask what are we doing to make a difference beyond our own personal situation . I think thats one of the lessons of Harriet Tubmans legacy. You talked about obviously you mentioned the choice Harriet Tubman had to make as far as being a black woman in a movement that was quite frankly racist and fought at many times and later those who know the history really well there was a split obviously between the stanton wing who wanted to take the state by state approach to the more radical wing that thought the constitutional amendment was nonnegotiable and should move forward and were more welcoming to africanamerican women. But i want to pick up on that point about that choice. And if you could talk more about Harriet Tubmans role in the beginnings of the Women Movement and the National Association of colored women, these women who history may not mark as suffragists because they did not dedicate exclusively to suffrage but because of the society, this idea that freedom goes beyond my situation. As a black woman i shouldnt be forced to choose between vote for myself or vote against my people. And i want to say that the colored womens club they actually if you ever come to auburn and you see their headstone the empire state chapter actually paid for her headstone thats there today, the original headstone broke many, many, many years ago. And they dedicated the headstone because tubman was one of them, okay . She was one of them. They were hers. I mean, there was no separation, and i think that is the thing that tubman helped people to understand that we can be together and then there are journeys that i have to take that you may not be able to join. It doesnt separate us but im advancing something else. I do believe very strongly that god had predestined tubman to do Amazing Things because time and again she went beyond beyond the average person. When she was she was scheduled to be with john brown at harvards ferry but they kept changing the date and i was like that was only god that had it aligned that they changed the date and then she didnt feel well on the date that it was scheduled. And travel was going to be too much for her. So thats the only reason she was not at Harpers Ferry because god had more work for her to do. Okay . But she saw some people found john brown too zealous because she saw that in all earnestness he understood the struggle and the pain and the angst that africanamericans endured in slavery. She did not see it as because youre white you could not possibly understand what im going through. And that takes a special individual to be able to see life through that lens. In auburn she was the woman she could neither read nor write. Now, how amazing is that . She could not read nor write but she understood god. So theres something that happens on the inside that came out in her walk, her every day walk. This is a woman who could not read or write, but if you came to my park now and i took you to the tubman bedroom you would see her bible, okay. Could not read nor write but her bible is there. Could not read nor write but her hymnal was a part of you