CHARLESTON, S.C. — Under a full moon very early on a Tuesday morning 162 years ago, Harriet Tubman, already sweating in the South Carolina late spring humidity, prepared her troops to attack the Confederacy. Picturing Freedom: Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid at the Gibbes Museum of Art celebrates the freedom fighter’s story without over-mythologizing her. The exhibition was organized by guest curator Vanessa Thaxton-Ward and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edda Fields-Black to accompany the recently published COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom during the Civil War (2024). Upon entering the gallery, we are greeted by Faith Ringgold’s portrait of Tubman, “Coming to Jones Road Tanka #1, Harriet Tubman” (2010). Installation view of Picturing Freedom: Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid, featuring a work by Stephen Towns on the leftAt the end of the gallery, we are greeted by three works: Kevin Pullen’s “Can you break a Harriet?” (2024), J Henry Fair’s “Moonrise Over the Combahee River” (2022), and Aaron Douglas’s “Harriet Tubman” (1931) along the back wall of the gallery.