Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman

Written by Alan Schroeder, Minty (1996) is the fictional story of Harriet Tubman’s early childhood on a Maryland plantation owned by the Brodas family. While some of the story is invented, many of the basic facts are true. Tubman’s given name was Araminta, and her nickname was Minty. The story offers a portrait of Minty’s resilient spirit and imagines how the terrible succession of cruelties on the plantation fed her unrelenting desire to gain her freedom.

Tubman’s biography, Harriet: The Moses of Her People, by Sarah Hopkins Bradford, helped inform Pinkney’s understanding of Tubman’s character. In addition, Pinkney consulted the expertise of National Park Service curators and historians. He also worked with staff at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Maryland to accurately depict nineteenth-century plantation life.

As Schroeder explains, “For her daring and tireless work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Tubman is remembered as one of the bravest and most admired women in American history.”

This intimate exhibition showcases the work by master watercolorist and internationally renowned illustrator, Jerry Pinkney (1939-2021), whose 100+ books have inspired millions globally.