Distinguished Lecture with Dr. Edda Fields-Black

Harriet Tubman's legendary life is widely known, but a crucial chapter often overlooked is her daring Civil War service as a spy for the U.S. Army. Dr. Edda Fields-Black will discuss her book "COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War," which won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History and the 2025 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.

Fields-Black is a direct descendant of a soldier who fought in the raid. In her book, she unveils Tubman's command of spies, scouts, and pilots and intelligence gathering among freedom seekers, which led to a raid that liberated 756 enslaved people from bondage on seven rice plantations. It was the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history. Through unexamined documents, she brings to life the Combahee River Raid and the untold stories of those freed, their resilience, and the lasting impact of Tubman's heroism.

About the Speaker
Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, teaches history at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as Director of the Dietrich College Humanities Center. She has written extensively about the transnational history of West African rice farmers, including in such works as Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora. She was a co-editor of Rice: Global Networks and New Histories, which was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Fields-Black consulted for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture's permanent exhibit, "Rice Fields in the Low Country of South Carolina." She is the executive producer and librettist of "Unburied, Unmourned, Unmarked: Requiem for Rice," a widely performed original contemporary classical work by celebrated composer John Wineglass.

This event is hosted by MSU African Studies Center and is co-sponsored by MSU College of Music, James Madison College, Department of History, The Graduate School, Office for Inclusive Excellence & Impact and the Department of African American and African Studies.