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On May 5, Fields-Black won the Pulitzer Prize for history.

One week later, the award-winning author and historian joined Hill, president and CEO of the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, for the opening of the three-day Tubman pilgrimage at Auburn Public Theater.

For two hours, Fields-Black explained how she wrote the book about the Combahee River Raid and answered questions from the audience. Tubman led the Civil War military operation that freed 756 enslaved people in South Carolina.

Fields-Black said her initial inspiration for writing the book was the rice fields — the plantations that were targeted during the raid — and the Gullah Geechee people.

"I felt like what had been written about the raid previously didn't cover those aspects, which I thought were essential," she said. "As I got into the story, as I got into the records, I tell people I was minding my business in my rice fields on the ACE Basin in South Carolina and I encountered Harriet Tubman. What was I supposed to do? Just leave her there by herself? I had to write the book."

As Fields-Black conducted research for the book, she found Civil War pension records that motivated her to identify enslaved individuals who were liberated in the raid.

The pension records are important, she explained, because they are a third source historians can use to tell the history of slavery.

"From these over 100,000 pension files, these folks now have millions of descendants," Fields-Black said. "That means millions of African-Americans can identify their enslaved ancestors."

The book was published in 2024, 10 years after Fields-Black began her research and four after she started writing it during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hill recalled watching the presentation of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, which Fields-Black won last year. After the award was presented, Hill said, "She's gonna win the Pulitzer."

That's what happened last week.

"It's an exquisite book," said Hill, who thanked Fields-Black for "doing this important work."

Fields-Black will attend the remaining two days of the Tubman pilgrimage, which includes an event at 6 p.m. Friday at Auburn Public Theater and a service at Tubman's gravesite Saturday morning.

For Fields-Black, it is her first trip to Auburn. She told the audience she intended to visit while researching and writing the book during the pandemic.

"I'm excited to go to Harriet Tubman's home and Harriet Tubman's church and learn and experience her life here in Auburn, New York," she said.