Elizabeth Catlett
Harriet

• Try to pose like the figure in the foreground of this print. How does it feel to stand this way? How would you describe her stance? What do you think she is pointing towards?

Harriet Tubman, the central figure in this print, escaped from slavery in 1849. She became a “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, a covert system used to transport enslaved people in the South to freedom in the North. Wielding a gun and directing others to freedom, Tubman’s powerful gesture and larger-than life scale underscore her heroic status in the American consciousness.

Working to improve the lives of African Americans on multiple fronts, artist Elizabeth Catlett depicts a historical figure who fought to do the same thing in her own era. Catlett’s bold and expressive style shows the influence of her time in Mexico. The artist, who initially visited Mexico City on a fellowship in 1946, lived and worked in that country for the rest of her life. Catlett felt a kinship with Mexican artists, such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, who critiqued social and political inequality in their work.

• What do we think about the “heroes” of American history? What do we think about their legacy? What is a legacy? How does time change our understanding of someone’s legacy?
• What freedoms did African Americans hold in 1849, when Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery? In 1975, when Elizabeth Catlett created this work?  
• What can the past teach us about the present?