Cynthia Erivo To Portray Harriet Tubman In Forthcoming Biopic

Cynthia Erivo has been cast to portray Harriet Tubman in a biopic centered on the iconic abolitionist.

Erivo, who is best known for her work in the Broadway production of The Color Purple, will serve as the title character in Harriet. In a report from Variety, the biopic "will the portray the life of Tubman as slave, abolitionist, Underground Railroad conductor, nurse, spy and warrior. Producers plan to begin shooting later this year."

Erivo will be performing at this year's Grammy Awards alongside John Legend. The two will be doing a rendition of the Beach Boys classic, "God Only Knows."

Recently, a new photo of Tubman was unearthed. The picture shows the abolitionist and warrior seated, wearing a black blouse with an overlapping white collar and a white patterned skirt, somewhere between the age of 43 and 46 years old.

"What's remarkable about this photograph is that she's so proud and dignified and beautiful. She looks so young," Kate Clifford Larson, a historian an author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, said. "This is the vibrant young Tubman just coming off her work during the Civil War. She's building her life with her family in Auburn."

According to a report from the Auburnpub the photo was taken in Auburn, New York, where Tubman bought land in 1859 from Senator William H. Seward. The photo will be sold on March 30, through New York City auction house Swann Galleries. According to the auction house's website, the unearthed picture is a part of a 44 picture collection that is estimated to sell anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000.

The discovery of the photo could not be any more timely, considering that same plot of land where it was taken was recently named the Harriet Tubman National Park.