Information about her Canadian connections is the key contribution of this new book about Harriet Tubman. Researched and written by Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society and author of several books on black leaders, Tubman describes the life and times of the woman popularly known as the Moses of the 19th-century North American Underground Railroad movement.

Harriet Tubman’s achievements are particularly noteworthy given the overwhelming disadvantages of birth, gender, slavery, poverty, illness, and lack of education she faced. During her life, she worked as slave, housekeeper, cook, laundress, Underground Railroad conductor, political activist, nurse, scout, commander, and Civil War spy. Her efforts brought both infamy and fame. In the late 1850s, the Society of Slaveholders posted a reward equivalent to more than $500,000 in today’s money for Tubman’s capture. In the late 1890s, she received an invitation to and attended Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee celebration in England. Sadlier proudly points out that Tubman was the first and only woman in American history to lead a military assault.

This book distinguishes itself from other biographies of Tubman with its coverage of the eight years when she led 11 of her 19 known rescue trips from a base in St. Catharines, Ontario. Sadlier devotes two of the book’s six chapters to the Canadian connection. The remaining chapters provide background on the Underground Railroad, slavery in North America, Tubman’s early years, and her later life. The text also includes a preface, introduction, chronology, reading lists for young and more advanced readers, and an index with helpful directions to such specific items as maps, pictures, and quotes.

Tubman has a lot of heart and a good cover. Aspects of its editing and layout, however, suggest it had a small budget: uncredited quotations, repetitive text, photo duplication, incomplete sentences, missing words, incorrect word use, and improper punctuation. While the sum of the oversights doesn’t negate the book’s overall value, the shortcomings are regrettable. Also, an excerpt from Harriet Tubman’s funeral eulogy is buried behind the index, where there is a good chance readers will miss it.

Tubman is worth noting for the Canadian coverage it provides and the strong commitment Rosemary Sadlier brings to her subject. With targeted promotion, it’s a book that will appeal to those interested in American, Canadian, and black history, biography, true adventure, and female role models.