Sarah Bradford

Sarah Elizabeth Hopkins Bradford (* 1818 in Livingston County, New York , † 1912 in Rochester New York) was an American headmistress, writer and biographer. She is best known today for her two biographical sketches of Harriet Tubman , an Afro-American fighter against slavery.

Life

Sarah Bradford was born in 1818, the youngest of seven children of lawyer Samuel Miles Hopkins. When Bradford was 14 years old, her family moved to Geneva, Ontario County, a county known for its abolitionist attitudes. Sarah Bradford joined Geneva's First Presbyterian Church when she was 22. She remained a devout Christian until the end of her life.

On May 15, 1839, she married the lawyer John Melancthon Bradford. The couple had three sons and three daughters. In 1857, John Melancton Bradford left his family and settled in Chicago. To make a living, Sarah Bradford opened Mrs. Bradford's School For Young Ladies and Little Girls in Geneva in her home. The school, in which girls between the ages of three and seventeen were educated, existed until 1869. Sarah Bradford closed the school in 1869 and settled in Europe with her three daughters for eight years. In the United States, Bradford lived in Union Springs for a few years before moving to Rochester with one of her daughters.

Writing activity

Harriet Tubman about 1885

As early as 1855 she published a short story called Poor Nina, the Fugitive , which turned against slavery. Her other publications were written primarily for children and dealt with, for example, the lives of Peter the Great (1858) and Christopher Columbus (1863). Sarah Bradford probably met Harriet Tubman during her visits to Auburn , Tubman's home since her escape from slavery and the home of one of Sarah Bradford's brothers. She wrote her Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman shortly before traveling to Europe with her family. She was inspired to do this by various people who considered Harriet Tubman's life to be exemplary. Reverend Henry Fowler stated to Sarah Bradford in 1868:

"[Tubman's] life is part of the history of this land and the memory of it shouldn't depend on just one [oral] tradition"

It is a loose series of stages in Harriet Tubman's life and also contains letters or other evidence describing Harriet Tubman's story about her life as a slave, her escape to the Northern States and her participation in the Civil War as a scout and spy for the Northern States. These make up 61 pages of the 132-page booklet. Her primary source, however, was Harriet Tubman herself, who was illiterate but who contemporaries say she could have told her own story in a very moving and fascinating way. Historians such as Milton C. Sernett refer to this collection as the most authentic of Bradford's two books on the life of Harriet Tubman.

Bradford's first book was mainly intended to end Harriet Tubman's financially very tight situation. Sarah Bradford was aware that her contemporaries were not ready to grant an African American woman a significant historical role. Harriet Tubman herself wanted the book to be sold at anti-slavery events.

Sarah Bradford's second book on Harriet Tubman, published in 1886, was written mainly to help Harriet Tubman financially. Tubman was busy building a home for destitute elderly African Americans around this time. Bradford's main concern was that potential readers would question Tubman's incredible life story. In the introduction she therefore advises her readers that every detail of the life of her heroin has been confirmed by others.

Publications

• Sarah Bradford (1961): Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People . New York: Corinth Books. LCCN 61-8152, reprint of 1886 edition
• Sarah Bradford (1971): Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman . Freeport: Books for Libraries Press. ISBN 0-8369-8782-9 , reprint of the 1869 edition

supporting documents

literature

• Milton C. Sernett (2007): Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History . Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4073-7

Single receipts

1. ↑ Sernett, p 117
2. ↑ Sernett, p 114
3. ↑ Sernett, p. 125