Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People
Tiya Miles
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People
Tiya Miles
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Using these facts as a trellis, Miles tries to coax out Tubman’s personality.
The genius of Night Flyer is interdisciplinary. Along with maps showing Tubman’s routes from slavery to freedom, it adds poetry, historical visual representations, and historical and contemporary photographs, exceeding the archival photographic portraits of Tubman in youth and maturity that one would expect to find in a conventional biography.
By elucidating Tubman’s Christian faith and close relationship with her natural environs, Miles succeeds in bringing Tubman’s larger-than-life "magical" persona back down to earth and situate her as a woman of her time.
Miles places Tubman in an important Black faith continuum.
The lack of writings left by Tubman gives rise to some speculation throughout, or at least educated guesses.
In her trademark deeply researched, thoughtful and exquisite prose, Miles successfully avoids popular depictions of Tubman as a superwoman.
Miles’ thoughtful engagement with Tubman’s contemporaries allows her to place the icon within a proud lineage of Black female mystics and preachers. Bridging theology, environmental writing, and history, Miles leaves readers with a truly unique analysis of how Tubman positioned herself within the world..
The author shades Tubman’s early life with rich details about the distinct shape of slavery and the labor market in Maryland.