March 10th is celebrated as Harriet Tubman Day. I thought that it only be fitting to devote March to Harriet Tubman and locations along the Tubman Byway.
The Tubman Byway is a self-guided driving tour of 45 designated sites that winds for 125 miles through Maryland’s Eastern Shore counties of Dorchester and Caroline, then continues for 98 miles through Delaware, Kent and New Castle Counties, before ending in Philadelphia. More on the tour can be found at harriettubmanbyway.org/
Harriet Tubman was born Araminta “Minty” Ross into slavery in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her birth date is unknown although believed to be around 1822. She was one of nine children born between 1808 and 1832 to enslaved parents. Her mother, Harriet “Rit” Green, was owned by Mary Pattison Brodess. Her father, Ben Ross, who was owned by Anthony Thompson. She died on March 10, 1913.
As an escaped slaves she continued to return to slave states on thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends. During the civil war she worked for the union army to rescue more slaves. She has become an icon of American courage and freedom.
A number of locations in Cambridge, Maryland are officially the beginning of the By-way. However, I have decided to have the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitors Center, stop #13 on the By-way tour, as the first of these four photo-essays. Next week’s piece will be about stops in Cambridge.
The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, managed by Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources, opened on Harriet Tubman Day in 2017. Currently it is open Thursday-Sunday, 10am-4pm – by appointment only. (Reserve here or call 410-221-2291.)
On March 7, 2020 I visited the center and was amazed at what I saw there. These photos are just a small part of what the center offers visually.
A nearby neighbor to the center is Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (Stop #14 on the tour). The forests, marshes, and waterways of the 28,000-acre refuge are largely unchanged from the time that Harriet Tubman was in Dorchester County.
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This is the first of a 4 part series of photo-essays on the Harriet Tubman Byway
The second – Stops in Cambridge, MD
The third – Crossing the Mason-Dixon into Delaware
The fourth – Choptank River
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Photographs by ShoreToBeFun Photography – SG (Steve) Atkinson