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Title details for Night Flyer by Tiya Miles - Wait list

Night Flyer

Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People

by Tiya Miles
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
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From the National Book Award–winning author of All That She Carried, an intimate and revelatory reckoning with the myth and the truth behind an American everyone knows and few really understand
Harriet Tubman is among the most famous Americans ever born and soon to be the face of the twenty-dollar bill. Yet often she’s a figure more out of myth than history, almost a comic-book superhero. Despite being barely five feet tall, unable to read, and suffering from a brain injury, she managed to escape from her own enslavement, return again and again to lead others north to freedom without loss of life, speak out powerfully against slavery, and then become the first American woman in history to lead a military raid, freeing some seven hundred people. You could almost say she’s America’s Robin Hood, a miraculous vision, often rightly celebrated but seldom understood.
Tiya Miles’s extraordinary Night Flyer changes all that. With her characteristic tenderness and imaginative genius, Miles explores beyond the stock historical grid to weave Tubman’s life into the fabric of her world. She probes the ecological reality of Tubman’s surroundings and examines her kinship with other enslaved women who similarly passed through a spiritual wilderness and recorded those travels in profound and moving memoirs. What emerges, uncannily, is a human being whose mysticism becomes more palpable the more we understand it—a story that offers us powerful inspiration for our own time of troubles. Harriet Tubman traversed many boundaries, inner and outer. Now, thanks to Tiya Miles, she becomes an even clearer and sharper signal from the past, one that can help us to echolocate a more just and sustainable path.
© 2024 Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

  • Creators

  • Series

    Significations

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 18, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593864401
      • File size: 175310 KB
      • Duration: 06:05:13

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from December 6, 2024

      In this first entry in the "Significations" series edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., National Book Award winner Miles (history, Harvard Univ.; All That She Carried) explores the faith and devotion of abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman. Tubman was born into enslavement in 1822 as Araminta "Minty" Ross. As a child, she suffered a severe head injury when an overseer threw a lead weight at her, leaving her with lifelong seizures, pain, and episodes of unconsciousness. Vivid dreams and visions instilled within her a spiritual awareness and a steadfast devotion to God. Tubman's connection to the natural world and unwavering faith made her an extraordinary guide for people seeking freedom. She was comfortable in nature, and her confident navigation and belief in a higher power helped her lead herself and others from bondage. Following the end of the Civil War, Tubman devoted her life to caring for those less fortunate. Janina Edwards's narration is pitch-perfect, and her clear passion for her subject enhances Miles's gorgeously written account. Listeners will be rapt, hanging on every word about this remarkable woman. VERDICT A rigorously researched and exceptionally narrated biography revealing the complexity of a storied U.S. icon.--Christa Van Herreweghe

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Janina Edwards gives an exceptional presentation of this biographical examination of Harriet Tubman. This audiobook compares the work of Tubman and other known civil rights activists in the pre-Civil War period. Edwards effectively delivers the vignettes of Tubman's life, complete with Southern accents and the local vernacular of the era. Tubman endured more physical abuse and mental hardships in her lifetime than any other activist. Most did not physically help hundreds of slaves gain their freedom. Edwards creates a realistic portrait of the woman, her life and loves, and what drove her into action. There is new information embedded in this portrait that will amaze most listeners. Edwards's clear admiration for this hero resonates in her voice and performance. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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