In Harriet Tubman I helped hundreds to freedom.

Born in Washington, D.C., Elizabeth Catlett graduated in 1937 from Howard University, where she became acquainted with African art and the work of Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera. She received an MFA in sculpture from the University of Iowa in 1940. Grant Wood, with whom she studied in Iowa, urged Catlett to make art about what she knew best, which for her was the African American experience. After a visit to Mexico in 1946, she established permanent residence in Mexico City in 1947.

Motivated by the socialist ideals of a world free of class oppression and racial injustice, many African American artists–such as Hale Woodruff, Charles White, Samella Sanders Lewis, and John Biggers–followed the example of the Mexican muralists. In their art they expressed a sense of pride in their African American heritage and identity, and they, like Catlett, were inspired by the social commitment, accessible style, subject matter, and choice of media of the Mexican muralists. Prints were a logical medium because they were inexpensive, could be mass-produced, and, therefore, could be widely disseminated. Working in the Taller de Gráfica Popular (Workshop of Popular Graphics), Catlett adopted the strategy of artists working there—creating an art for the people that conveyed a conscious political strategy, celebrated courageous acts, and depicted the tragic martyrdom of ordinary workers.

In her first major work at the Taller, a series of fifteen linocuts titled The Negro Woman (the Brooks owns the complete series), Catlett created small, powerful prints depicting the historic oppression, resistance, and survival of African American women. Before the Civil War, Harriet Tubman had fled slavery and then, for more than a decade, led runaway slaves to freedom in the North. Tubman is depicted in monumental scale towering over the weary travelers who, under the protection and guidance of her extended arm, carry their babies and worldly possessions to a life free from bondage. The thickly incised lines of her dress, arms, and face create energetic swirls of movement as they are repeated in the clothing of the background figures. In Harriet Tubman I helped hundreds to freedom is a dynamic image, revealing the passion and courage of its heroine.