On Wednesday, March 18, several members of the Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association (SISCA) gathered to listen to Ms. Glennette Tilley Turner’s presentation. She was our Monthly Zoom Presenter for March.
Ms. Turner, who is 92, recently published The Gift of Freedom: How Harriet Tubman Rescued Her Brothers. This children’s book, illustrated by Laura Freeman, tells the story of how on Christmas Day 1854 Harriet Tubman led three of her brothers to freedom. Ms. Turner was inspired to tell this little-known story about Tubman after interviewing one of Tubman’s last surviving relatives.
I’d met Ms. Turner and her husband Al in 2018 when she accompanied Elaine Nichols, who was the Supervisory Curator of Culture at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, to Texas. Ms. Nichols had come to interview Mr. William “Dub” Warrior and his wife Ethel. After eating dinner in Del Rio, we drove to Brackettville, specifically to the Camp located on Fort Clark, where my aunt Gigi Pines and I listened in while Mr. and Mrs. Warrior, Thomi Perryman, and Frank and Irene Garcia were interviewed.
The results of that trip became A Man Called Horse, which was published in 2021 by Abrams Books for Young Readers. Ms. Turner wrote about John Horse, who was the leader of the Black Seminoles. He rose to prominence during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), and led his people, the Black Seminoles (along with Wild Cat who led the Seminoles), to Mexico after realizing that Oklahoma wasn’t safe for them. The 700-mile journey took a year to complete. The two groups left in 1849 and arrived in Mexico in 1850.
In 2010, Ms. Turner’s Fort Mose and the Story of the Man Who Built the First Free Black Settlement in Colonial America was published. This book details the founding of Fort Mose and Francisco Menendez.
During her presentation, Ms. Turner talked about her childhood and how that led to her interest in the Underground Railroad and the important figures who shaped it. She has been writing about this important aspect of Black history for forty years. Her first book, The Underground Railroad in Dupage County, Illinois, was published in 1986. She’s written six Underground Railroad-themed books for children and adults.
From her bio:
“Turner has a master’s degree in history and children’s literature, as well as an honorary doctorate from DePaul University, and she taught in the Chicago city and suburban school systems for many years. Her numerous awards include the Wilbur H. Siebert Award for Outstanding Contributions to the field of the Underground Railroad, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois State Historical Society, and her induction into the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent at the Gwendolyn Brooks Center of Chicago State University.
