I think Tubman’s Christianity was much different than her admirers and her biographers. According to the book, “Most nineteenth-century Christians believed in the power of prayer. It was a form of talking to God” (pg.137). In the African American Christian culture, God would talk back. Many of the ways that God would talk back was through dreams and visions, and this fact was what many of Tubman’s early white supporters couldn’t wrap their mind around.
Some of Tubman’s biographers downplayed her “mystic” religious abilities that helped her get through her life. Bradford’s religion saw God as being more two sided. One side was “the kind savior who welcomed the good into heaven, and the stern, intimidating judge who who would ultimately punish evildoers” (138). Tubman’s view of God was an approachable unfailing supportable God for those who were righting wrongs. Bradford participated in silencing some of Tubman’s religious abilities when it came to Franklin B. Sanborn’s letter. Bradford thought that Sanborn gave wonderful instances of Harriet’s dreams and visions but she did not include them into her book because she “thought best not to insert anything which, with any, might bring discredit upon the story” (136). Bradford, however, still capitalized on Tubman being a saint and seer for the sake of women suffrage.
Sanborn, in his article for Commonwealth in July 1863, tried to explain Harriet’s seer like abilities. He said that her ability to always escape while operating the Undergroung Railroad was because of her “quick wit” and her “warnings’ from Heaven”. According to Sanborn’s account, Tubman inherited her psychic powers from her dad. He said that her knowledge of the future came to her in dreams and the only thing strange about this is that she remembers the places that she’s gone to and the people she’s met, in reality, from her dreams.
Rosa Bell Holt also wrote about Harriet Tubman’s religious side in an article in the Chautauquan in1896. Holt compared Tubman to Joan of Arc because of the women believed in their visions from God and lead people because of these visions.
Earl Conrad, another major biographer for Tubman, tried to credit Tubman’s visions to her narcolepsy. He felt that the deep sleeps that Tubman fell into were the reason for her visionary dreams. He sought several consults from prominent hospitals and research centers, but did not get back the results that he wanted. He could accept the fact that Tubman suffered from narcolepsy, but he could not accept the suggestions that Tubman had mental disorders. In the end, Conrad did not include the references he got for Tubman’s dreams. He did still include her religion because he knew that black Americans found the religion of Southern folk culture important. He still felt that the religious factor of Tubman “was by no means the important thing” in relation to her achievements. He felt like if he attributed her deeds to God than she wouldn’t receive the credit that she deserved.
Harriet has been perceived as a Christian, but her early supporters could not begin to fathom her beliefs in Christianity. They believed in the same God, but Tubman’s God performed in very different ways than what they were used to.