alternative communication that was required to replace written words in the pursuit of safety and
freedom:
[I]n a world of suspicious whites, a letter could elicit unwanted attention. Like the heavily
coded spirituals Tubman would later use to guide fugitive slaves north, a look, a glance, a
movement, a shift of the foot, or a wave of a hand could be invisible to the white master, yet
speak louder than words to fellow blacks, passing messages in times of need, when the stakes
were life or death. (65–6) 6
Tubman’s unrecorded words belong to a genre that will never receive its due credit or
validation—hidden communication—though the genre continues to be integral for all societal
progressions. Each new decade and generation must find new ways and new language mediums
to pay tribute to Tubman. When, as Frederick Douglass wrote to Tubman in 1868, only "[t]he
midnight sky and silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and your
heroism," (qtd. in Bradford), it is up to today's scholars to find alternative witnesses and
standards to validate hidden communication, even if that communication will remain forever
unwritten.
(Un)Written Words: Letters between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok
Eighty-four years after Tubman's first rescue mission through Baltimore, another one of
America's most recognized figures sent her own secret messages through the city. Unlike
Tubman, however, this woman's written words were housed inside paper envelopes and the
safety of a federal postal system which prohibited interception. This woman was also functioning
under a completely different set of American standards, due to her race, class, education, and the
position of her marriage to the President. Additionally, unlike Tubman's (un)written words,
produced for the desire for freedom, this woman's written words took cover due to their content,
which expressed a desire for female intimacy. These words were mailed to the Lord Baltimore
Hotel, located at 20 West Baltimore Street, one of many hidden communication hubs of Eleanor
Roosevelt's and Lorena Hickok's intimate correspondence.
6
The Archives of Maryland states that “[i]n 1835 or 1836, [Brodess] managed to hire [Tubman] to John
Stewart, a large plantation owner and business man who lived in the Tobacco Stock area of Dorchester County . . .
The community supported a vital communication network among Chesapeake African-Americans, which [Tubman]
would use extensively in her future rescues. The move also allowed [Tubman] to be closer to her father, and
eventually led her to John Tubman, a free black man working in the same neighborhood” (“Harriet Ross Tubman
Davis”).
36