Fairfield Reporter

Hear the sounds Tubman experienced and the songs she sang through an audio odyssey into the Underground Railroad

Phantom Power — a podcast that dives deep into the world of sound to ask provocative questions that resonate across the human experience — celebrates Black History Month with “The Sound World of Harriet Tubman.” 

Listeners will experience the sounds Tubman experienced and the songs she sang through a "sensory history” that brings this compelling story to life.

In this episode, ethnomusicologist and activist Maya Cunningham, draws on historical and musical research to embark on a sonic journey with the Underground Railroad conductor. Cunningham is currently a doctoral candidate at the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

“Focusing on written accounts of sound, listening, and music can put us in better touch with what everyday life was really like for enslaved people,” said Phantom Power host Mack Hagood, Miami University associate professor of Media and Communication. “The work of scholars like Maya Cunningham also shows how the sounds and music of African American people were suppressed by white enslavers, and how the skillful use of sound and music were central to their resistance, escape, and spreading of awareness in the North.”

Expertly produced by Ravi Krishnaswami, a doctoral candidate in Musicology & Ethnomusicology at Brown University, this episode explores:

• The secret gatherings called Hush Arbor meetings, where enslaved Black people would use a thick grove of trees to muffle the sound of their Christian worship and feed their resistance against enslavement.
• How Harriet Tubman used her singing voice to facilitate escapes – starting with her own – by using songs such as “Bound for the Promised Land” as encrypted messages to family and friends.
• The code songs and hymns that replaced written messages and verbal directions to stealthily warn and guide freedom travelers along the Underground Railroad, and more.

“The Sound World of Harriet Tubman” is also available now at phantompod.org, and wherever podcasts are found. 

Original source can be found here.