Who2 Editorial Blog

Notes and Commentary from the Editors

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Harriet Tubman's Biblical Last Words

To the clergyman she said "Give my love to all the churches" and after a severe coughing spell she blurted out in a thick voice this farewell passage which she had learned from Matthew: "I go away to prepare a place for you, and where I am ye may be also."

So says the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, quoting an obituary in the Auburn (NY) Citizen.

It's true that in those days, newspapers were willing to print grandiose last words for any famous person who died, even if those words were a little too perfect for someone in a near-coma.

But Harriet Tubman was known to be a spiritual woman, and in this case the story seems to be pretty straight. As the Citizen noted in the not-color-blind argot of the times, "Those present when she died included Rev. and Mrs. Smith and Miss Ridgeway, the colored nurse."

Labels: Harriet Tubman, Last Words