Using rhetorical analysis as a research method, I analyze the 2019 film Harriet, which tells the story of Harriet Tubman’s life and depicts the hegemonic system of slavery in the United States during 1849. I apply Blair, Dickinson, and Ott’s (2010) six assumptions of public memory to the film to examine the public memory of American slavery and how this public memory connects to present-day issues concerning systematic racism.