“I’d Rather Die Than Be a Slave”: 6 Thoughts From the Movie “Harriet”

When I learned there was a movie to be made about Harriet Tubman, I had two concerning thoughts. The first was, not another slave movie. My second thought was, Ms. Harriet Tubman’s story- wow, she deserves this honor. However, what I saw in the movie, Harriet, was nothing I expected.

The movie, Harriet, is a motivational, feel-good movie that has us cheering and talking to the screen. We have heard, Harriet Tubman’s name tossed around in our history classes, but we never knew how strong her faith was and her why. Every action has a why and she was UNAPOLOGETIC about who was leading her and why she wanted to free the slaves. She stood in rooms full of people and reminded them that she knew what slavery felt like and that distance was not going to stop her freeing slaves. During the movie, there were six things that stood out to me.

1. Sometimes going back is not for the thing you thought you were going back for. In the movie Harriet, Harriet, went back for what she thought God was telling her to go back for but then she realized there was a higher calling for her. Love brought her back and love kept her risking her life.

2. Let your light shine so bright that even your enemies want to know about your God. There is a part in the movie when her adversary asked her to introduce him to her God. He had seen her walking with God and how she relied on HIM.

3. Be so in tuned with God that people think you are crazy but still follow you. Sometimes your faith will have you taking a different path than you had planned because God saw the danger ahead. Liberty or Death!

4. You can’t save everybody. There are people in your life that you want more for, but they are not ready to take that next step. No matter how you have shown them how you have overcome. You have to just leave them there because they don’t want to leave what is there.

5. When people see you making moves, they want to join in and help. When you take a leap of faith, God will send people to help you along your way. First, you have to take the first step. No one can do it for you.

6. Things are not always what it looks like. There will be times in your life when people will think you are dead but God… You will survive to tell the story. The news will spread that of your near death, that is ok. It is all purposeful.

Harriet gets 5 out of 5 stars from me. I left the theater ready to do more, be more, and create my own lane than ever before. I left out proud to have seen a Woman, a Black woman, beat the odds over and over again to rescue people she didn’t even know because she knew the struggle they had been going through. Harriet knew who she was and was assured of it. She held her head high and anyone who told her she couldn’t she made them eat those words. This is not the Harriet that we learned about in history class. The Harriet that was depicted is VALIANT and TRIUMPHANT. We saw her heart, not just her journey.

“Well behaved women, seldom make history.” – Author Unknown

About Arnya T.M. Davis

Arnya T.M. Davis has been in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex for 20 years from New Orleans. She is a creative mixed with a nerd and loves helping push people to their goals. She is SwagHer Magazine’s manager and co-hostess of Theories & Thoughts podcast.