American people” (3). The same parallel can be said of any city in America. For example, “[b]y
learning about Harriet Tubman and her place in [Baltimore] memory . . . we learn about
ourselves as [Baltimoreans]” (Sernett). Both Tubman's hidden routes and hidden communication
are in need of validation in order to fully appreciate today's geographical and societal landscapes.
Additionally, Sernett admits the constantly shifting public perception of society toward its
historical figures, explaining that “[t]he intersubjective process by which certain personalities
from the past gain and lose stature in the American memory is convoluted and often clouded by
the interjection of myth” (3). Tubman’s (un)written status, therefore, encourages historically pro-
slavery cities, such as Baltimore, to gather myth and history into a blurry map, which Sernett
calls a “distilled” and “inherited” American memory of Tubman.
Sernett solves the dilemma of having to locate a singular Tubman within this distillation by
presenting two separate Tubmans and “chronicles the life history of the commemorated Tubman
(the symbol) in relation to the historical Tubman (the life)” (9). Ser