As a way to help middle school students further understand who Harriet Tubman was and her significance to history, a diverse group of 33 Hardeeville-Ridgeland Middle School students attended a special screening of the movie “Harriet” this fall in Bluffton.
“Harriet Tubman is one of our focal points for eighth-grade South Carolina history and so this movie and experience was absolutely impeccable,” said SaCole Williams, an eighth-grade social studies teacher and the school’s social studies chair. “It oozed with many emotions, leaving me wanting to know more about her.” The story captured in the movie is of Harriet Tubman, who helped free hundreds of slaves from the South after escaping from slavery herself in 1849.
Williams took the class to see the movie, which was a private pre-release screening for 150 students from several counties, including Jasper, Beaufort, Hampton and Colleton. The event was hosted by the Harriet Tubman Monument Fund.
“The movie was very good because it had a lots of great plot twists,” Heather Aguilar, one of the HRMS students, said after the movie. Belinda Ortiz, another HRMS student, said there was a lot of information she and her fellow students can use in their social studies class. “This movie showed how slaves were really treated,” she said. Another student viewing the film, Amiya Richardson, said she enjoyed the movie and it made her want to research Tubman to find out more about her.
The students were one of the first groups to see the movie before it made its debut nationwide in November. The event was hosted by Jasiya “Jojo” Green, host of Jojo’s PersonaliTV. Students received a keepsake movie poster and a panel discussion was held with the group immediately following the movie.
Tabernacle Baptist Church has launched a campaign to honor Harriet Tubman with a monument for her role in the Combahee River Raid and for her services rendered in Beaufort during the Civil War. Tubman lived in Beaufort near Tabernacle Baptist Church during the early 1860s for approximately three years. The memorial will sit next to the 156-year-old church on Craven Street in downtown Beaufort.
SOURCE: https://www.blufftontoday.com/news/20191231/students-experience-harriet-tubman-film