harriet tubman and the underground railroad story

#HARRIET TUBMAN AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STORY HOW TO#

They paid tribute to Black Marylanders who had been Tubman’s neighbors, but never joined her freedom train.

Among the weathered markers were those that dated back to Tubman’s days on the Eastern Shore. Pinder’s own family graveyard and then discovered why he sent me there. Still worried about trespassing, I confirmed that it was indeed Mr. Set on land long tilled by Black farmers, a cluster of headstones was visible from the narrow country road. Though a city person, I mustered enough trust to follow his directions to Fork Neck Cemetery. Pinder encouraged me to get outdoors to better imagine the trials Tubman faced as she steered loved ones across the rugged landscape and out of bondage.

#HARRIET TUBMAN AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STORY HOW TO#

Her epic rescues of scores of enslaved people were possible because Tubman knew how to navigate the region’s contours and trails, depths and denseness, flora and fauna, the seasons, sun and stars. To introduce guests to Tubman’s life and work on the Eastern Shore, the visitor center invites them to discover how she knew intimately the land that is today the Blackwater refuge and its environs. Nearby, the story of Tubman’s life and times is recounted at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, opened in 2017, and operated by a partnership between the National Park Service and the Maryland Park Service. Fish & Wildlife Service tells her story through its 28,000 acres of wetlands, forest and open fields. At the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1933, the U.S. In Dorchester, Tubman’s story is told on the walls of two visitor centers, each structure designed to blend into the grays and browns of the natural landscape. Her life centered in Dorchester County, where slaveholders shuttled a young Tubman between work in fields, waterways, yards and homes, often separated from her family. No place better remembers Tubman than her birthplace, which sits on the Delmarva Peninsula (that’s short for Delaware-Maryland-Virginia). I then headed a short way south on two-lane roads to Tubman’s native Dorchester County, winding past small farms, jagged waterways and modest Main Streets. From the state capital of Annapolis, I drove across the four-mile-long, low-slung Chesapeake Bay Bridge that carries visitors from the mainland, across the open jaw of the bay, to the Eastern Shore. In March, I decided to make a pilgrimage to the place where Tubman’s life began. Tubman never wholly retired and, amid early 20th-century Black struggles against segregation and lynching, she promoted efforts to win votes for Black and white women up until her death. Settling in upstate Auburn, N.Y., Tubman established a home for aging and indigent Black Americans, many of whom, like her, had little means of support during their last years. Her service as a nurse, a relief worker among enslaved refugees, a scout and a spy was partly rewarded decades later with a pension. Legally still enslaved, Tubman risked capture by joining the Union’s front lines to defeat Confederate rebels and win slavery’s abolition. Her reputation for heroism in challenging slavery was already well-established when the Civil War broke out in 1861. When she was not yet 30, she launched her career as a conductor of loved ones, freedom seekers, along treacherous routes. While no precise record of Tubman’s birth survives, historians and the National Park Service say that she was born Araminta Ross, likely in March 1822. Until her death in 1913, Tubman committed to securing America’s best ideals - freedom, dignity, equality - in the face of its worst sins, including slavery and racism.

Harriet tubman and the underground railroad story