logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2019
46m 14s

Harriet Tubman

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

We are heading down to the Underground Railroad to discover the incredible life of American hero and abolitionist Harriet Tubman. From a torturous childhood to surgery without anaesthetic, get ready to understand true bravery as we uncover the events which made Harriet Tubman a phenomenal force for change. Greg Jenner is joined by comedian, actor and writer Desiree Burch and historian Dr Michell Chresfield from the University of Birmingham. It’s history for people who don’t like history!

This episode was produced by Dan Morelle, scripted by Greg Jenner and researched by Emma Nagouse.

Up next
Yesterday
The Terracotta Army (Radio Edit)
Greg Jenner is joined in Ancient China by Professor Julia Lovell and special guest Phil Wang for a close look at The Terracotta Army.In 1974, a family of farmers made arguably the greatest archaeological discovery of all time when they uncovered arrowheads and fragments of terrac ... Show More
28m 4s
Apr 17
Medieval Irish Folklore (Radio Edit)
In this special live episode, recorded at the 2023 Hay Festival, Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Gillian Kenny and comedian Seán Burke to learn about medieval Irish folklore.Greg and his guests discuss the lore and stories from Gaelic Irish culture. Gaelic culture remained the domina ... Show More
28m 10s
Apr 10
El Cid: the life and legend of a medieval Spanish warrior
Greg Jenner is joined in medieval Spain by historian Professor Nora Berend and comedian Toussaint Douglass to learn about the colourful life and afterlife of the warrior known as El Cid. El Cid – real name Rodrigo Díaz – was a mercenary in eleventh-century Spain who fought for bo ... Show More
58m 16s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2019
Harriet Tubman
Born into slavery during the early 1800s in Maryland, she survived a tragic, violent childhood before ultimately escaping and gaining her own freedom. Unsatisfied, Harriet Tubman embarked on a mission of liberation, freeing slaves and shepherding them to the North via the Undergr ... Show More
48m 27s
Dec 2023
Comediennes: Minne Pearl
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon (1912-1996) was better known by her alter ego, Minnie Pearl — a radio, television, and stage personality known as the queen of country comedy. She performed for fifty years in her trademark thrift store dresses and straw hat as a member of The Grand Ol ... Show More
6m 55s
Jan 2019
Harriet Tubman
Most grade school kids will tell you that Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave and conductor on the Underground Railroad which is a great start--but she was so much more! A nurse, a spy, a military leader, a public speaker, a humanitarian, a wife and mother who did everything in h ... Show More
1h 45m
Aug 2014
Women's lives on the Home Front
Woman's Hour goes behind the scenes at new Radio 4 drama Home Front, as it begins its four-year run. Actor Harriet Walter talks about her cameo role as Emmeline Pankhurst, and we hear from the writers about the opportunity to dramatise the domestic lives of people whose stories a ... Show More
18m 31s
Mar 2024
The Underground Railroad | Harriet Tubman’s Goodbye Song | 5
<p>In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped her enslaver in Maryland and freed herself. Over the next several years she took great personal risks, traveling back below the Mason-Dixon line at least a dozen times to free family and friends as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Today, ... Show More
38m 57s
Apr 2023
Six wives | 2. Anne Boleyn
Harlot, feminist, witch, backstabber, icon, powerplayer, victim – in the centuries since her execution, Anne Boleyn has been branded all of these. But what do we know about the real Anne and her story? In episode two of our new series on the dramatic marital history of England’s ... Show More
1h 1m
Jul 2022
Formidable Heroines of History
<p>From the notorious thief Mary Frith in the seventeenth century to industrialist and LGBT trailblazer Anne Lister in the nineteenth, these heroines redefined what a woman could be and what she could do in pre-twentieth-century Britain.</p><br><p>Holly Kyte, author and literary ... Show More
26m 13s
Dec 2022
Life in Tudor England
<p>What was life really like in Tudor England? This was a society where monarchy was under strain, the church was in crisis and contending with war, rebellion, plague and poverty was a fact of daily life. Yet it was also an age rich in ideas and ideals, where women asserted their ... Show More
49m 46s
May 2020
Florence Nightingale
Join Greg Jenner for a fun homeschool history lesson on the woman who changed the face of healthcare forever, Florence Nightingale. Learn about how she forged her own path to become a nurse, the obstacles she had to overcome to care for troops overseas and how she continued to fi ... Show More
14m 25s