Study Guide For Teachers
Gwendolyn Briley-Strand
In
Harriet Tubman:
The Chosen One
Presented by:
Young Audiences
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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
This dynamic one-woman performance takes students on one of the 19 journeys Harriet Tubman took through
the Underground Railroad. With music, props, costumes, and outstanding acting, Gwendolyn Briley-Strand
portrays the strength, courage, faith, and steadfastness of this remarkable American – once a slave herself –
who led more than 300 other slaves to freedom.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS
Slavery, the buying and selling of human flesh, was a big business In America between the late 1600’s and the 1800’s.
By 1835, there were over two million black men, women and children in America who were forced to work as slaves.
These people had been kidnapped from their homes in Africa and the Caribbean. They had no rights. They were forced
to work for long hours, six days a week and received no payment for their labor. They lived in terrible conditions with no
privacy and no property. Many slaves were chained up at night so that they could not escape.
Their masters (owners) could sell them at any time. This meant that mothers could suddenly be separated from their
children and husbands could be torn away from their families at any moment. Often some masters beat their slaves
mercilessly. Many slaves tried to escape their terrible fate. Some were successful in finding their way to freedom –
others were not. One of the most extraordinary women who found her way to freedom was Harriet Ross Tubman.
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery as Araminta Ross, around 1820 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Harriet was
one of eleven children born to Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross. She and her whole family belonged to Edward
Brodas, a Maryland planter. Brodas raised apples, wheat, rye and corn. And, like many slave owners in the upper
south, Edward Brodas bred and raised black people as a cash crop.
Harriet Tubman had a hard childhood and youth, filled with many trials and tribulations. But, all of those hardships were
necessary to make her the woman she needed to become. She developed extraordinary physical endurance and
muscular strength, as well as mental fortitude. William Still, in his book The Underground Railroad, describes her as “a
woman of no pretension, an ordinary specimen of humanity.”
Many people called Harriet Tubman “The Chosen One”. They believed she was chosen by a divine spirit to lead over
three hundred people bound by slavery into the promised land of freedom. Her strength, courage, faith and
steadfastness are still inspiring Americans over ninety years after her death.
VOCABULARY WORDS
Quarter – The area on the plantation where the slaves lived
The Big House – Where the plantation owner and his family lived
Fugitive – A runaway slave
Patterollers - Patrols which were organized groups of three to six white men who hunted down runaway
slaves for a bounty and enforced discipline upon black slaves during the antebellum in U.S. southern
states.
Manumission – the formal act of freeing from slavery
The Underground Railroad – A loose network of people willing to hide runaway slaves
The Philadelphia Vigilance Committee – An organization, formed to assist fugitive slaves. It was
managed by two of the Underground Railroad’s busiest “station masters” – white clergyman James Miller
McKim and William Still, a freeborn black Pennsylvanian.
ARTIST INFORMATION
Gwendolyn Briley-Strand is the founder, President and CEO of See The Fruits Inc. a company which uses
the Arts to teach American History. She is originally from Mt Vernon, New York, and she is a member of
Actor's Equity Association (AEA), American Federation of Television and Radio Artist (AFTRA) and Screen
Actors Guild (SAG). Ms. Briley-Strand has been delighting audiences on stage, radio, television and in
movie theatres for over twenty years. Her television and movie credits are extensive.
Gwendolyn Briley-Strand has been touring her one-woman show "Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One",
since 1993. The Chosen One has been presented to hundreds of schools and organizations nationally and
internationally. The Chosen One has also been presented at the J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts in Washington DC, The Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC, The
New York State Museum in Albany NY just to name a few. In 1991 and 1992 Ms. Briley-Strand was
invited to bring the character of Harriet Tubman to the White House for the 4th of July celebration.
RESOURCES
A Picture Book of Harriet Tubman by David A. Adler (New York Holiday House, 1992.)
Harriet Tubman – The Road to Freedom by Rae Bains ( Mahway, NJ: Toll Associates 1982.)
Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold (New York: Crown 1993.)
The Story of the Underground Railroad by Conrad R. Stein (Chicago: Children’s Press, 1981.)
Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter (New York Dragonfly Books, 1988.)