"I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven"
About this Quote
Then she floods the scene with radiance. “Glory” isn’t decorative language; it’s a psychological counterweight to a life engineered for deprivation. The natural world becomes a witness that refuses the slave system’s definitions. The sun “like gold through the trees” reads as more than pretty imagery: it reframes value. Under slavery, Black bodies were treated as capital; here, gold is reassigned to light, to atmosphere, to a morning that belongs to nobody. It’s an economy of perception replacing an economy of ownership.
“I felt like I was in heaven” can sound like simple relief until you remember the stakes: Tubman lived in a culture where religion was used to discipline the enslaved, promising reward later while demanding submission now. Her line steals that language back. Heaven isn’t deferred; it’s briefly experienced on earth, in motion, under threat, at sunrise. The subtext is defiant: freedom is not abstract. It’s sensory, immediate, and so overwhelming it makes the self feel newly minted.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Tubman, Harriet. (2026, January 15). I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-looked-at-my-hands-to-see-if-i-was-the-same-148409/
Chicago Style
Tubman, Harriet. "I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-looked-at-my-hands-to-see-if-i-was-the-same-148409/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-looked-at-my-hands-to-see-if-i-was-the-same-148409/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.




