She also led an armed expedition in South Carolina that liberated more than 700 slaves. (State Dept./Astrid Riecken)ĭuring the 1861–1865 American Civil War, Tubman served as a scout, spy and nurse. She was almost killed and suffered from the severe head injury for the rest of her life. She was apparently proof against all adversaries.” The Bucktown Village Store is where Tubman was struck by a weight thrown by a slave owner that missed the intended slave. The idea of being captured by slave hunters or slaveholders, seemed never to enter her mind. But “she seemed wholly devoid of personal fear. In his memoirs, Still wrote that many of Tubman’s contemporaries feared for Tubman’s safety as her journeys took her away for weeks at a time.
#SLAVE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STORY FREE#
Many passengers made their way to William Still, a free black man in Philadelphia who was one of the Underground Railroad’s most important conductors. “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say: ‘I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger,’” Tubman once said. Working on the Underground Railroad was one of the first forms of civil disobedience in the United States.Ĭhurch Creek, Maryland: The area around the Little Choptank River was familiar to escaping slaves who launched boats here. By using railway terms like “stations” and “conductors” they were able to maintain secrecy. Their “railroad without tracks” was run by a network of sympathetic blacks and whites who broke the law to help and hide fleeing slaves. Throughout their journey, they were pursued by slave catchers and others who hoped to collect cash rewards offered for their capture. Runaways were smuggled in hidden compartments of carriages and met in deserted places like cemeteries. They used a boat when they could, to prevent dogs from picking up their scent. Runaway slaves traveled in the woods, at night, navigating by the North Star. (State Dept./Astrid Riecken)īut there was no real train. Born into slavery in Maryland in 1820, Tubman escaped in 1849. The park attracts visitors from all parts of the globe who are curious about Tubman and the legendary Underground Railroad - a network of secret routes, passageways and safe houses used by slaves seeking freedom.Īngela Crenshaw, the park’s assistant manager, said visitors who are unfamiliar with the history will ask her questions like ‘Where is the station?’ and ‘Where are the tracks?’ Bucktown, Maryland: A pathway leads into the land where Harriet Tubman worked as a slave. Her story as a “conductor” during the 19th century on the “Underground Railroad” is already well known to Americans and is being circulated anew thanks to a historical park that opened in 2017 in the part of rural Maryland where Tubman was born and raised. (State Dept./Astrid Riecken)Īnti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman, who herself escaped brutal slave owners in 1849, will become the first woman and first African American to be featured on a U.S. A photograph of Harriet Tubman is seen at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park's Visitor Center in Church Creek, Maryland.
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