Civil War historian David W. Blight, said "At some point the real stories of fugitive slave escape, as well as the much larger story of those slaves who never could escape, must take over as a teaching priority. It ought to be rooted in real and important aspects of his life and thought, not a piece of folklore largely invented in the 1990s which only reinforces a soft, happier version of the history of slavery that distracts us from facing harsher truths and a more compelling past."
Historian David W. Blight believes that teaching about fugitive slave escapes and the experiences of enslaved people who couldn't escape should be prioritized over romanticized or fictionalized accounts of slavery.