I was driving 7-year-old Quinn to gymnastics. She was in the back seat, looking at a book about Harriet Tubman when I heard her ask a question.
"Quinn, did you just ask if Harriet Tubman wanted black and white people to get along?"
"Yes," she replied.
"Harriet Tubman absolutely did want black and white people to get along," I said.
I told her that Harriet Tubman's white friend Lucretia Mott and other white and black women had started an anti-slavery organization. That many white people helped her as she led slaves to freedom. That during the Civil War she served with white soldiers as a spy, a cook, and a nurse. That she got the name "General" after she led white soldiers on a raid that freed many slaves. That after the war, she joined her friend Susan B. Anthony, a famous leader, and other white women suffragists who were fighting for the right to vote. That year after year she went to meetings where Susan B. Anthony would hold her hand and introduce her to the audience. That her white friend William Seward provided a house for her parents. That even though it was illegal to sell land to a black person he sold land with a house to her so she had a place to live. That there is a statue of Harriet Tubman and William Seward, standing side by side in Schenectady, New York.
That, yes, Quinn, Harriet Tubman wanted black and white people to get along.
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