Those who attended in person or streamed live as Dr. Mollie Barnes's explained what she discovered about Charlotte Forten, Harriet Tubman, and the Combahee River Raid by "Reading Between the Lines and Across Rivers" on October 14, 2021 got a real treat.
I live streamed Dr. Barnes's presentation. As you may or may not be aware, Harriet Tubman never learned to read or write. But she could tell stories - and Charlotte Forten knew Harriet Tubman and wrote about Tubman and her knack for storytelling and singing in her journal:
"Saturday, Jan. 31 ... In B[eaufort] we spent nearly all our time at Harriet Tubman's - otherwise "Moses." She is a wonderful woman - a real heroine. Has helped off a large number of slaves, after taking her own freedom...
Forten then recounts the story of Joe, an escaped slave who Tubman was taking to Canada. Throughout the trip he was silent until Tubman told him "'Now we are in Can[ada]" [at which point] he sprang to his feet with a great shout, and sand and clapped his hand [sic] in a perfect delirium of joy. So when they got out, and he first touched free soil, he shouted and hurrahed "as if he were crazy"-- she said. How exciting it was to hear her tell the story. And to hear her sing the very scraps of jubilant hymns that he sang."
I suggest that you borrow a printed copy of
Charlotte Forten's Journal from one of the Local History sections or access a
digital copy of it to read along with Dr. Barnes at key points in her presentation.
I learned from Dr. Barnes lecture about Forten's whereabouts in early June 1863. She was physically at Edingsville Beach in neighboring Colleton District along with some of the Union's many soldiers stationed along the lower South Carolina coast. According to Barnes, though Charlotte makes no explicit mention of the Combahee River Raid, is is clear that she knew of it. Indeed Charlotte Forten's Journal is often used by historians for her observations about military and social actions of key players in the Port Royal Experiment.
The Library has a lot of materials about Charlotte Forten that you can borrow as this flyer indicates:
... and about Harriet Tubman as you can see on this flyer:
We are very grateful to have the Beaufort County Historical Society and the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era as co-sponsors of this particular lecture.
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