53 pages • 1-hour read
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad is a key symbol used in more than one way during the course of the novel. Initially, Harriet’s work on the Underground Railroad symbolizes her individual strength and resilience but also the strength and resilience of African Americans writ large. Although Darnell is familiar with the “greatest hits” of Black history, hearing Harriet’s story firsthand gives him a much better sense of the difficulty that she and other conductors experienced as they guided their friends and family to freedom.
A large part of this realization for him is that, as a contemporary man without first-hand knowledge of what life was like for the enslaved, he will never truly be able to grasp their experiences. He decides that because he cannot get “inside” of what life must have been like for them, he must show people like Harriet the respect of holding space for their stories and listening more than he speaks. As such, the Underground Railroad symbolizes both strength and the respect that younger generations should show to their elders and ancestors.
It also comes to represent freedom in a more metaphorical sense, the “freedom” that Harriet argues Darnell has never truly experienced. It is on the course of their journey back up North—and this is not a coincidence, as the author argues through this scene that Harriet is “conducting” Darnell on a freedom journey of his own—that Harriet informs Darnell it is obvious to her that past experiences, limiting beliefs, and fear are keeping him in a state of metaphorical bondage. During the group’s trip back up to New York, Darnell admits the shame he feels about his sexuality and the fact that, because he is queer, he has never felt truly accepted in Black communities, the music industry, or even the United States as a whole.
This more metaphorical trip on Harriet’s modern-day “Underground Railroad” helps Darnell to find first acceptance within the group, and then self-acceptance. The broader message at stake here is that freedom can take many forms, and self-love, self-acceptance, and openness represent freedom to Darnell.
The Bible
The Bible is a shifting symbol that helps the author explore The Multi-Faceted Nature of Black American Identity. One of this novel’s key messages is that African American identity is not a monolith and that, in spite of Darnell’s fears, there are many ways to “be Black.” Religion is one of several aspects of Black identity that this novel wrestles with, and each character approaches it differently.
Harriet is a devout Christian whose nickname “Moses” speaks to the kinship she feels with an Old Testament figure associated with freedom and liberation. She prays often and feels that the Holy Spirit is particularly active within her during one of her many narcoleptic spells. She experiences Christianity as a unifying force between herself and other Black Christians throughout history, and even insists that the group reserve Sundays, the Christian Sabbath, for rest. For Harriet, the Bible is the word of God.
Buck’s attitude is markedly different. In his estimation, Christianity was a tool employed by enslavers to oppress enslaved men and women. He recalls being taught scripture that highlighted the importance of docility, servitude, and obedience. For Buck, Christianity has no place in Black identity. Since DJ Quakes is Quaker, a group with faith in God but without a hierarchical appreciation for clergy or strict church services, the Bible’s role in African American identity is murkier. Darnell has long suspected Buck’s beliefs of being true. He is not personally interested in reading the Bible, but understands that Christianity is part of his familial identity and a belief system that ties him to the culture in which he was raised.
This is a tricky conversation for the author to engage in, as Christianity is a large part of many Black communities, and his assertion that it has been used as a tool of oppression has the potential to offend. His broader point in engaging with such a fraught topic is to suggest that Black identity is multifaceted, and that there is space within the idea of “Blackness” for both religiosity and doubt.
Harriet and the Freemans’ Album
The album that Harriet, her band, and Darnell produce symbolizes Hip-Hop and the Power of Storytelling for both personal and cultural liberation. She is a powerfully insightful figure who understands that the cause of Black liberation is a work in progress and that there are actually many ways that her historical experience can speak to the present moment. She draws multiple points of connection between her struggles as both an enslaved woman and an abolitionist and various contemporary social and racial justice movements. She realizes that the best way to clarify these connections for contemporary audiences is to speak to them using an art form that resonates with who they are and what their specific experiences of Black culture have been.
Harriet hopes that her album will empower an entirely new generation to become agents of change. Harriet also recognizes the power that her album will have to metaphorically liberate the men and women who work on it. Telling her story—not on an abolitionist circuit for the edification of white people and to raise fundraising dollars, but for herself—is cathartic. She emphasizes this on multiple occasions, pointing out that she hopes to help Darnell in particular. She wants her story to speak to the millions that will become her audience, but she also wants Darnell to hear her words and understand how they can help him to reshape the parameters of his own life. Everything she tells him moves him to look at both history and himself in a new light, and by the time the album is completed, he feels “at home” in his identity as a queer, Black man for the first time ever.
Unlock the meaning behind every key symbol & motif
See how recurring imagery, objects, and ideas shape the narrative.
- Explore how the author builds meaning through symbolism
- Understand what symbols & motifs represent in the text
- Connect recurring ideas to themes, characters, and events