this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
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Illustrations of history
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This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!
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Artistic license, I believe. It's very common for Harriet Tubman to be depicted with a long gun, but historically I believe she only carried a pistol and sabre.
I was looking into this after commenting. I think historically she did carry a rifle at times, and was also historically depicted in period carrying a rifle:
https://archive.org/details/scenesinlifeofha1869brad/page/n9/mode/2up
Page 9 or so.
Another edit: The rifle or long gun depicted doesn't look period appropriate. Looks more like a cartridge shot gun, where in the biography it is clear some manner of carbine.
That's the important part, really. Mythology takes on a life of its own, and that's not always bad. Tote that gun, General Tubman!
Now that's even more badass. Of course, I have her pictured in my head killing confederates with a sword in one hand and pistol on the other like she's a space marine.
"only"