Not Nazi or Antifa related, but FB have fact checked a thing I posted, saying:
An image
shared on Facebook claimed that abolitionist Harriet Tubman said, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
“Harriet Said It Best!!” the caption proclaims.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that Tubman ever said this remark.
Fact Check:
While
Tubman was renowned for her work in leading slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad, she did not actually make this statement. Rapper Kanye West also
attributed the quote to her in 2018 and was
criticized for it.
There is no historical record of Tubman ever saying or writing this. The image did not provide a year or source, but according to etymologist
Barry Popik, the quote only first began to appear in print in the 1990s.
“This quote, all of it, is bogus,”
Milton Sernett, professor emeritus at Syracuse University and author of “
Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory and History,” told The Daily Caller in an email. “Has been floating around the Internet, but is in none of the primary sources.”
“From my research this is not an accurate quote and one that surfaced only recently,” Professor
Kasi Lemmons, who is directing a
biopic on Tubman, told the Caller.
While it’s
commonly said that Tubman helped free around
300 slaves, American historian
Kate Larson puts the number closer to 70. “We can name practically every person Tubman helped,” she wrote in a blog post. “In addition to the family and friends, Tubman also gave instruction to another 70 or so freedom seekers from the Eastern Shore who found their way to freedom on their own.”
Trouble is, I didn’t post anything like that. I posted two pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton being held aloft in sedan chairs by colonised folk, with the caption, Bring Forth The Guillotine. Dunno how to appeal it. Weird though innit