Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: How Daring Slaves and Free Blacks Spied for the Union During the Civil War

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Synopsis

Harriet Tubman is well-known for being an escaped slave who risked her life countless times to help other slaves escape via the Underground Railroad. But what many don't know is that during the Civil War, she acted as a spy, gathering intelligence and passing it on to the Union. She didn't act alone, though, but instead was part of a network of African Americans who used slave songs and coded messages to pass along information that was crucial to helping the Union win the war. Many African Americans who'd escaped slavery also joined the Union as soldiers and sailors fighting for the cause, and although she wasn't officially a soldier, Harriet Tubman acted in that capacity on occasion as well. Most of her activities of this nature were kept under tight wraps, but in her twilight years, she relayed some stories about this part of her life to her biographer, and now with the help of that book as well as that of intelligence archives, military records, and many other documents, author Thomas B. Allen brings this little know part of history to life.

Review

Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent is part history, part biography that centers around African Americans, both enslaved and free, who spied for the Union during the Civil War. It begins with some background information on Harriet Tubman, touching briefly on her birth, enslavement, and eventual escape to freedom, as well as her work on the Underground Railroad. It also sets the groundwork for the Civil War, starting with slave revolts in Haiti and then going on to detail John Brown's violent abolitionist efforts, his arrest at Harper's Ferry, and untimely execution. Harriet and Brown had met and supported each other's efforts at ending slavery. As it happens, Brown seemed to very much admire Harriet and thought of her as a general in this effort. From there, it moves into the Civil War and the role that African Americans played, both as spies for the Union and as enlisted soldiers and sailors in the Union army and navy, periodically coming back to Harriet's various roles during the war. It concludes with a brief epilogue regarding Harriet playing most of her former spy work close to the vest, but revealing a few things to her biographer and family members before her death.

This book is probably best-suited for older elementary and middle grade readers. Out of all the kid-oriented biographies available on Harriet Tubman, I chose this one to start with because it seemed like it would cover a part of her life, that of a secret agent, which isn't something I'd really heard or learned about before. However, that's not exactly what I got. Despite this book begin titled Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent, there is at least one chapter where Harriet isn't mentioned at all and several others where she barely factors into the narrative. The book begins and ends with bits of her life and she's basically the thin line of glue that holds the rest of it together, but I couldn't help feeling that for a book with her name in the title, she didn't play nearly as strong of a role as I would have expected. I will admit that I learned some things I didn't know about how important African American spies were to the Union cause in the Civil War, so that was a plus and why I was still able to give it 3.5 stars. However, I felt like the execution was lacking. Not only does Harriet Tubman, the ostensible subject of the book, not appear nearly often enough, there were simply too many players. It made the story feel like a game of chess with too many movable parts, and it was hard to keep track of them all. IMHO, this also caused the story to lack a cohesive flow and be a bit dry. I really wanted to love this book and while there were some interesting bits, the disconnected nature of Harriet's role and my other aforementioned critiques often left my mind wandering and prevented it from becoming a keeper. I can't help thinking that if I, as a adult, had a hard time following it, that kids certainly will too and might easily become bored by the lack of an exciting narrative.

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Thomas B. Allen 

Carla Bauer