Harriet’s Legacies
Race, Historical Memory, and Futures in Canada
A collection of critical and creative works exploring Black freedom and unfreedom in Canada.
Historic freedom fighter and conductor of the Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman risked her life to ferry enslaved people from America to freedom in Canada. Her legacy instigates and orients this exploration of the history of Black lives and the future of collective struggle in Canada.
Harriet’s Legacies recuperates the significance of Tubman’s time in Canada as more than just an interlude in her American narrative: it is a new point from which to think about Black diasporic mobilities, possibilities, and histories. Through essays and creative works this collection articulates new territory for Tubman in relation to the Black Atlantic archive, connecting her legacies of survival, freedom, and cultural expression within a transnational framework. Contributors take up the question of legacy in ways that remap discourses of genealogy and belonging, positioning Tubman as an important part of today’s freedom struggles. Integrating scholarship with creative and curatorial practices, the volume expands conversations about culture and expression in African Canadian life across art, literature, performance, politics, and public pedagogy.
Considering questions of culture, community, and futures, Harriet’s Legacies explores what happened in the wake of Tubman’s legacy and situates Canada as a key part of that dialogue.
“This volume is timely … as it situates Harriet Tubman as a starting point for a variety of approaches to Black Canada, past and present. The collaborative thinking, affiliative longing, and creative visioning that this volume models and brings together powerfully demonstrate how a nonlinear view of legacy can enrich our turn towards the future even in the face of so much uncertainty.” Canadian Geographer
“This book extends Harriet Tubman’s legacy in Black intellectual, political, and artistic life. In its impressive range across disciplines and fields, Harriet's Legacies asserts Tubman as a still-living presence and inspiration for the work of artists and scholars alike, and it demonstrates how a uniquely Canadian reading of Tubman produces new intellectual paths for our time.” Rinaldo Walcott, University of Toronto and author of The Long Emancipation: Moving toward Black Freedom
“Harriet’s Legacies uses the brief but important residence of Harriet Tubman in southern Ontario (Canada West, to be precise) as a starting point to explore new meanings of the origins, experiences, and trajectory of the Black diaspora in Canada. The book sheds new light on the profound transnational significance of the American cultural figure and activist by moving existing discourses beyond national boundaries in ways that invite us to think more fully about the diasporic dynamics that inform African Canadian life. Adopting a resolutely multidisciplinary approach and gathering the work of various artists and scholars in Black Studies, the 21-chapter volume does not simply look back but sees the impact of Harriet Tubman “as ongoing, collective practices of antiracism and freedom seeking.” In doing so, Harriet’s Legacies provides a renewed vigour for both African Canadian Studies and the pursuit of social justice in our times.” Canadian Studies Network 2023 Best Edited Collection Prize jury
- Winner, Best Edited Collection Prize, Canadian Studies Network 2023