We Saved this Date for 200-years: Happy Birthday Harriet Tubman

Araminta Ross was born enslaved 200-years ago in Dorchester County, Maryland and it is there she honed the skills she would need to make good her escape. Her fear of being sold and insatiable yearning for freedom instigated her flight in 1849. In 1845 she had taken the last name of her husband, John Tubman, and changed her first name to Harriet to honor her mother and it is as Harriet Tubman that she stepped into history. 

This commemoration of her 200^th birthday provides a unique opportunity for travelers to occupy the spaces that impacted on Harriet’s life and attend special events in authentic locations. Many of the relevant sites are memorialized with only plaques because the structures are no longer there but the terrain is reminiscent of the one that existed in the 1800s. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway connects sixteen Dorchester sites and the driving tour can be accomplished in a single day. The two Maryland sites that I have found tell her story best are the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center and the Bucktown Village Store. 

                  The 10,000-square-foot Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Center is located in the 17-acre park on the trailhead of the 125-mile byway adjacent to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The center is an immersive museum on Harriet’s life from her birth documented through photos, artifacts, and life-sized dioramas. The emphasis is on her humanity and her ability to overcome the obstacles of illiteracy and being handicapped by seizures and chronic pain. 

Bucktown Village General Store is the authentic scene of the 1835 head injury she sustained. This defining moment in Harriet’s life was her first documented act of defiance and one that resulted in an injury that affected her for the remainder of her life. You can vividly trace the entire incident in the original store.

This year Dorchester and Caroline Counties have designed a series of special commemorative activities to take place throughout 2022.  Tubman 200^th Birthday Celebration, the year’s premiere opening event, will take place on March 12-13 at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center. The event will include newly installed exhibits, guest speakers, living history interpretations and musical performances.

Harriet Tubman Tours and Delmarva Birding Weekends offer birding along the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, on selected dates, that follow excellent bird sighting opportunities and interpretations of Harriet’s travels in the area. National Geographic has designated this portion of the Eastern Seaboard as one of this year’s 25 amazing journeys. www.DelmarvaBirding.com

Rooted Wisdom: Nature’s Role in the Underground Railroad will have a virtual premiere on March 11^th at 7 P.M. at Adkins Arboretum. The 75-minute free film requires registration. bit.ly/RootedWisdomPremiere. 

On April 22, 2022 at 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM the UGRR Visitor Center will present a free musical performance of “Not What You Think”. The program revolves around the journey for equality and freedom.

On April 28^th the first of the last weekend of the month walking tours will take place through October. Tours will include walking, sailing and horse and buggy rides. harriettubmanmuseumandeducationalcenter.com

Take a 25 or 43-mile bike ride along the Eastern Shore paralleling Tubman’s freedom journeys. Riders will pause at sites connected with her trips. Proceeds from the October 15^th event will benefit a campaign for a new statue of Harriet set to be unveiled on September 10^th in Cambridge.

When Harriet fled in 1849 she embarked for points north and ultimately her rescues took her through many states and into Canada. Many of her greatest supporters and friends were in Auburn, New York and in 1857 she took up permanent residence there. One year later her parents left Canada and joined her there. She lived in Auburn for more than 50-years and it is there that she wed, died and is buried. Auburn’s commemorative sites are tangible and visitors can celebrate her bicentennial while literally walking in her footsteps. Auburn’s celebratory events are scheduled from February to December. 

Visits should begin in the courtyard of the New York State Equal Rights Heritage Center where a bronze sculpture of Harriet Tubman stands. The center’s exhibits are interactive and use video and audio stations to enhance the experience of learning about people of conscience. The featured exhibit is "Seeing Equal Rights in NYS". https://equalrightsheritage.com

                  

The free Harriet Tubman 200th Birthday Ceremony will be held in the Heritage Center on March 12^th from 11 AM to 1 PM. It is scheduled to include a birthday cake, guest speakers and tours and will be live streamed. 

                  Visitors are invited to follow her path as a free woman in Auburn by following the 

Harriet Tubman Lantern Trail. The trail begins at Heritage Center. https://equalrightsheritage.com/harriets-lantern-trail

                 

 Senator William Seward and his wife were avid abolitionists. Their mansion functioned as an Underground Railroad stop and both Tubman and Douglass were houseguests there. Guided tours of the mansion include the basement kitchen where fugitives were hidden. The area is furnished as it was in the 1850s and explanatory exhibits are in surrounding rooms. Forged in Freedom: The Bond of the Seward Tubman Families exhibit will open on March 1, 2022. https://sewardhouse.org

                  

Harriet resided in Canada but a letter from Seward induced her to return “home” and helped her finance a $1200 plot of land upon which to build a home. Her land now encompasses a Visitor Center, her house and the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged of the Colored Race. Tours include the Home for the Aged, where she passed, and displays her bed and items donated by her family. 

Harriet died of pneumonia in 1913 and was interred in Auburn’s Fort Hill Cemetery with full military honors. On March 10^, 2022 a Harriet Tubman Day Memorial Service will be held from 7 PM to 9 PM. in the Harriet Tubman Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church where her original funeral service was held. 

The traveling exhibit, “Harriet Tubman—The Journey to Freedom”, will be on view from July 1^st to August 31^st. The 9-foot sculpture by Wesley Wofford will be the focus of special programs to be announced.

Throughout the year Auburn will present an evolving series of lectures, activities and commemorative events. Information is available at www.harriettubman200.com/events

 

Harriet Tubman was an abolitionist, lecturer, suffragist, nurse, Union soldier and an example of justice, morality and perseverance. We honor her this year for all she accomplished and her ability to serve as a guiding light for us all.