Where did Harriet Tubman go on the Underground Railroad?
- An actress dressed as Tubman reveals the wetlands along the Underground Railroad. (© 2005 Dorchester County Tourism. Photograph by Melissa Grimes Guy) An actress dressed as Tubman runs through the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Tubman won her freedom in 1849 by slipping over the Mason-Dixon line.
What was the journey like on the Underground Railroad?
Traveling along the Underground Railroad was a long a perilous journey for fugitive slaves to reach their freedom. Runaway slaves had to travel great distances, many times on foot, in a short amount of time. They did this with little or no food and no protection from the slave catchers chasing them.
What challenges did Harriet Tubman face on the Underground Railroad?
A runaway slave, Harriet Tubman faced the prospect of imprisonment and re-enslavement. Tubman risked her life each time she ventured back south to
What difficulties did Harriet Tubman carry out in 1849?
What difficult decision did Harriet Tubman carry out in 1849? A difficult decision Harriet had to carry out was to flee Maryland and leave behind all her husbands.
Did Harriet Tubman travel at night?
Harriet Tubman traveled at night so that she would not be seen by slave catchers. Just as other fugitives, such as Frederick Douglass, she followed the North Star that guided her north.
How long did the Underground Railroad take to travel?
The journey would take him 800 miles and six weeks, on a route winding through Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York, tracing the byways that fugitive slaves took to Canada and freedom.
Why did Harriet Tubman wear a bandana?
As was the custom on all plantations, when she turned eleven, she started wearing a bright cotton bandana around her head indicating she was no longer a child. She was also no longer known by her “basket name”, Araminta. Now she would be called Harriet, after her mother.
How old would Harriet Tubman be today?
Harriet Tubman’s exact age would be 201 years 10 months 28 days old if alive. Total 73,747 days. Harriet Tubman was a social life and political activist known for her difficult life and plenty of work directed on promoting the ideas of slavery abolishment.
Why did Harriet Tubman escape?
Following a bout of illness and the death of her owner, Tubman decided to escape slavery in Maryland for Philadelphia. She feared that her family would be further severed and was concerned for her own fate as a sickly slave of low economic value.
How long was Harriet Tubman in the Underground Railroad?
Harriet Tubman is perhaps the most well-known of all the Underground Railroad’s “conductors.” During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she “never lost a single passenger.”
Does the Underground Railroad still exist?
It includes four buildings, two of which were used by Harriet Tubman. Ashtabula County had over thirty known Underground Railroad stations, or safehouses, and many more conductors. Nearly two-thirds of those sites still stand today.
How many slaves escaped on the Underground Railroad?
The total number of runaways who used the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom is not known, but some estimates exceed 100,000 freed slaves during the antebellum period.
Was there really an underground railway?
Nope! Despite its name, the Underground Railroad wasn’t a railroad in the way Amtrak or commuter rail is. It wasn’t even a real railroad. The Underground Railroad of history was simply a loose network of safe houses and top secret routes to states where slavery was banned.
Is Gertie Davis died?
Why does Harriet Tubman plan the escapes for Saturday night? She wants to gain more time before being pursued.
What month did Harriet escape?
Harriet Tubman: Underground Railroad On September 17, 1849, Harriet, Ben and Henry escaped their Maryland plantation.
Harriet Tubman used weather to help increase success rate of her Underground Railroad trips
ORCHESTER COUNTY, MARYLAND (WJZ) – The effectiveness of Harriet Tubman’s attempts to free enslaved people through the Underground Railroad was heavily influenced by the weather conditions at the time. It is located in Dorchester County, Maryland, the county where Harriet Tubman was born, and is known as the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park. The exhibit demonstrates to tourists how Tubman took use of the weather and surrounding surroundings. According to her biography, she returned to the South 19 times to assist groups of enslaved individuals on their journey to freedom.
This assisted in avoiding temperature extremes, but more crucially, it provided the escapees with more nighttime to make their way out.
and would not rise until nearly 7 a.m.
“You’ll be traveling for a considerably longer period of time.
- In addition, the terrain over which the evacuees had to travel was less difficult to manage in the fall and early winter months.
- As a result of the summertime abundance of mosquitoes, chiggers, and other biting insects, “it is impossible to enjoy the outdoors without being bothered by them.” However, if they wait too long and the cold of winter has already set in, the ground may get frozen as a result.
- It would be really beneficial to have a clear sky in addition to the temperatures and duration of the night before embarking on the journey.
- The North Star was the most precise navigational beacon that could be found at the time.
- He positioned the North Star in the skies for everybody to see.
- He was implying that I should be liberated “In a statement, Tubman was reported as stating It was decided that stained-glass windows symbolizing the seasons would be put in the park because they played such a significant part in Tubman’s liberation trips.
6 Strategies Harriet Tubman and Others Used to Escape Along the Underground Railroad
Despite the horrors of slavery, the decision to run was not an easy one. Sometimes escaping meant leaving behind family and embarking on an adventure into the unknown, where harsh weather and a shortage of food may be on the horizon. Then there was the continual fear of being apprehended. On both sides of the Mason-Dixon line, so-called slave catchers and their hounds were on the prowl, apprehending runaways — and occasionally free Black individuals likeSolomon Northup — and taking them back to the plantation where they would be flogged, tortured, branded, or murdered.
In total, close to 100,000 Black individuals were able to flee slavery in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Some fled to Mexico or Spanish-controlled Florida, while others chose to remain in the wilderness. The majority, on the other hand, chose to go to the Northern free states or Canada.
1: Getting Help
Harriet Tubman, maybe around the 1860s. The Library of Congress is a federal government institution that collects and organizes information. No matter how brave or brilliant they were, few enslaved individuals were able to free themselves without the assistance of others. Even the smallest amount of assistance, such as hidden instructions on how to get away and who to trust, may make a significant difference. The most fortunate, on the other hand, were those who followed so-called “conductors,” like as Harriet Tubman, who, after escaping slavery in 1849, devoted her life to the Underground Railroad.
Tubman, like her other conductors, built a network of accomplices, including so-called “stationmasters,” who helped her hide her charges in barns and other safe havens along the road.
She was aware of which government officials were receptive to bribery.
Among other things, she would sing particular tunes or impersonate an owl to indicate when it was time to flee or when it was too hazardous to come out of hiding.
2: Timing
Tubman developed a number of other methods during the course of her career to keep her pursuers at arm’s length. For starters, she preferred to operate during the winter months when the longer evenings allowed her to cover more land. Also, she wanted to go on Saturday because she knew that no announcements about runaways would appear in the papers until the following Monday (since there was no paper on Sunday.) Tubman carried a handgun, both for safety and to scare people under her care who were contemplating retreating back to civilization.
The railroad engineer would subsequently claim that “I never drove my train off the track” and that he “never lost a passenger.” Tubman frequently disguised herself in order to return to Maryland on a regular basis, appearing as a male, an old lady, or a middle-class free black, depending on the occasion.
- They may, for example, approach a plantation under the guise of a slave in order to apprehend a gang of escaped slaves.
- Some of the sartorial efforts were close to brilliance.
- They traveled openly by rail and boat, surviving numerous near calls along the way and eventually making it to the North.
- After dressing as a sailor and getting aboard the train, he tried to trick the conductor by flashing his sailor’s protection pass, which he had obtained from an accomplice.
Enslaved women have hidden in attics and crawlspaces for as long as seven years in order to evade their master’s unwelcome sexual approaches. Another confined himself to a wooden container and transported himself from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, where abolitionists were gathered.
4: Codes, Secret Pathways
Circa 1887, Harriet Tubman (far left) is shown with her family and neighbors at her home in Auburn, New York. Photograph courtesy of MPI/Getty Images The Underground Railroad was almost non-existent in the Deep South, where only a small number of slaves were able to flee. While there was less pro-slavery attitude in the Border States, individuals who assisted enslaved persons there still faced the continual fear of being ratted out by their neighbors and punished by the law enforcement authorities.
In the case of an approaching fugitive, for example, the stationmaster may get a letter referring to them as “bundles of wood” or “parcels.” The terms “French leave” and “patter roller” denoted a quick departure, whilst “slave hunter” denoted a slave hunter.
5: Buying Freedom
The Underground Railroad, on the other hand, functioned openly and shamelessly for long of its duration, despite the passing of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which prescribed heavy fines for anybody proven to have helped runaways. Stationmasters in the United States claimed to have sheltered thousands of escaped slaves, and their activities were well documented. A former enslaved man who became a stationmaster in Syracuse, New York, even referred to himself in writing as the “keeper of the Underground Railroad depot” in his hometown of Syracuse, New York.
At times, abolitionists would simply purchase the freedom of an enslaved individual, as they did in the case of Sojourner Truth.
Besides that, they worked to sway public opinion by funding talks by Truth and other former slaves to convey the miseries of bondage to public attention.
6. Fighting
The Underground Railroad volunteers would occasionally band together in large crowds to violently rescue fleeing slaves from captivity and terrify slave catchers into going home empty-handed if all else failed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, John Brown was one among those who advocated for the use of brutal force. Abolitionist leader John Brown led a gang of armed abolitionists into Missouri before leading a failed uprising in Harpers Ferry, where they rescued 11 enslaved individuals and murdered an enslaver.
Brown was followed by pro-slavery troops throughout the voyage.
Weather Critical in Success of Underground Railroad
Harriet Tubman” data-image-caption=”Harriet Tubman (Library of Congress)” data-image-caption=”Harriet Tubman (Library of Congress)” data-medium-file=”ssl=1″ data-medium-file=”ssl=1″ data-large-file=”ssl=1″ data-large-file=”ssl=1″ data-lazy-srcset=”ssl=1 600w,ssl=1 300w,ssl=1 150w” data-lazy-sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px” data-lazy-srcset=”ssl=1 600w,ssl=1 300w,ssl=1 150w” data-lazy-src=” ssl=1 is-pending-load=1″ srcset=”data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAP/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7″ data-lazy-src=” ssl=1 is-pending-load=1″ data-lazy-src=” ssl=1 is- Harriet Tubman is a historical figure (Library of Congress) Harriet Tubman was a heroic woman who, as recounted throughout the pages of African American and women’s history, worked tirelessly to secure the freedom of scores of slaves through the Underground Railroad.
- Tubman, who was given the moniker “Moses,” was able to achieve success due of her fortitude and tenacity.
- Monica Danielle, a senior producer at AccuWeather, points out that the success of the Underground Railroad was largely dependent on the meteorological conditions at the time.
- In most cases, Tubman’s journey carried her along Maryland’s Eastern Seaboard before taking her through Delaware and into Pennsylvania, where slavery was banned.
- “She could’ve traveled by boat as well as wagon, so it was a mixture — whatever method she could travel, she did,” Angela Crenshaw said.
- Those seeking refuge from their pursuers would frequently travel to Canada from the United States.
- Danielle went on to say that the capacity of a freedom seeker to navigate was frequently a matter of life and death.
- He provided me with the ability to move my limbs.
Because the sun sets at 3:30 in the winter and doesn’t rise until 6 or 7 in the spring, she says it takes significantly longer to travel in the winter.
According to Crenshaw, the voyage was dangerous no matter what time of year it was.
As a comparison, consider the harshness of winter: “During the winter, the earth is frozen firm, yet it might also give way beneath your feet,” Crenshaw said to Danielle.
Their gaze would travel across the sky with the Big Dipper until they came to the North Star, which they would then follow.
Remember the story of the drinking gourd and those early Americans who risked their lives on the promise of a star the next time you look up at the night sky.” To read the whole AccuWeather report, visit their website.
Opportunities for news coverage on television. Stacy M. Brown has written more on this.
Climate change threatens Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park
Over the course of more than two decades, the African American Heritage Preservation Foundation (AAHPF) has worked to protect and preserve African American cultural and historical landmarks throughout the United States. It was E. Renee Ingram’s personal motivation to rescue her family cemetery, the historic Stanton Family Cemetery, in Central Virginia, from being demolished as part of a state highway construction project that would have negatively damaged the property. Her family was successful in preserving the 49 burial sites and convincing the state highway agency to realign their repair plans as a result of their collaboration with local and state officials.
- Now, the African American Historic Preservation Foundation (AAHPF) locates, records, and disseminates information in order to save as many noteworthy threatened African American historic sites as possible.
- WILLIAMSBURG, Va.
- It has been discovered in Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum in Virginia that continues to cope with its past narrative about the country’s origins and the role of Black Americans.
- Hundreds of free and enslaved Black people came together to join the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia in 1776.
- By 1818, the church had constructed its first structure in what was then known as the colonial capital.
- ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND — As the water poured near the graves, Rita Coates struggled against a sense of impending doom.
- Coates has been a member of the Brewer Hill Cemetery Association for over 20 years.
- ‘There were several burial monuments that were so destroyed or screwed up that it was impossible to identify what the names were on them,’ says the author.
- It contains the bones of more than 7,000 slaves and liberated African Americans who were denied the right to be buried alongside white people during the Civil War.
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
Background During the first half of the nineteenth century, the size and popularity of the railroad system in the United States contributed to the code names slaves and abolitionists used to describe the operations of the Underground Railroad, such as “passenger,” “cargo,” “station,” “depot,” “stockholder,” and “conductor,” which were used to describe the operations of the Underground Railroad. Because many slaves and abolitionists were well-versed in the bible, they often employed religious code phrases, such as “River Jordan,” “Heaven,” “Promised Land,” and “Moses,” to communicate their intentions.
The Underground Railroad’s facilitators, or conductors, were typically free black people in the North, formerly escaped slaves, and a Even though slaves had a more difficult time fleeing from the most southern states—such as Alabama and Mississippi—because they were surrounded by other slave-holding states, practically every state had some level of Underground Railroad activity throughout the period.
- To find out if there is a historic Underground Railway station near you, see this list of historic Underground Railway stations.
- Fugitive, escapee, and runaway are all phrases that imply that the individual who is fleeing forced labor is somehow at fault for seeking freedom from captivity or slavery.
- These and other vocabulary phrases, such as personal liberty statutes, redemption, and manumission, may be found on the National Park Service’s “Language of Slavery” webpage, which can be accessed by clicking here.
- To analyze how the importance of people and groups’ activities varies over time and is formed by the historical context, use questions produced about them to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is impacted by the historical context.
- North Carolina Standards for Secondary School History 12.9-12.
- The NCSS.D2.His.14.9-12 standard requires students to analyze many and complex causes and consequences of events that have occurred in the past.
- When creating a historical argument, it is important to distinguish between long-term causes and triggering events.
- Integrate evidence from numerous relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.
Students could also look into the following persons and important words throughout these crucial years:
- Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1794
- The Slave Trade Ban was implemented in 1808
- Vestal and Levi Coffin established an escape route for slaves in 1820
- The Missouri Compromise was implemented in 1820
- Denmark Vesey founded Charleston in 1822
- Nat Turner founded Philadelphia in 1831
- The American Anti-Slavery Society was established in Philadelphia in 1833
- The Mexican-American War was implemented in 1846-1848
- Harriet Tubman founded Harpers Ferry in 1859
The Underground Railroad’s conductors were well-versed in how to take advantage of any and all available opportunities. Freedom-seekers rested during the day and traveled the majority of their long-distance (5-10 mile) journeys at night, when they were less likely to be seen. Whenever it was necessary to travel during the day on the train, passengers took on errands and activities to give the impression that they were employed by someone in the vicinity. In spite of the fact that fleeing during the winter may be risky due to the severely cold environment of the northern hemisphere, the winter provided significantly longer periods of darkness under which to seek refuge.
- The Underground Railroad, on the other hand, has spawned a great deal of legend surrounding the signals that comrades would transmit to one another.
- For further information on more songs from this era, please see the Music in African American History lesson on EDSITEment’s website.
- While historians are divided on whether or not songs and textiles may have been used to transmit secret messages in the Underground Railroad system, they remain vital components of African American culture in the nineteenth century, regardless of whether they were utilized to do so.
- For a more detailed account of an Underground Railroad site financed by the National Endowment for the Humanities, see The President of the Underground Railroad (also known as the Underground Railroad President).
- Activities for the Lesson
Activity 1. The Life of Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (Araminta Ross) was born in March 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, to Harriet Tubman’s parents. Her grandmother, Modesty, was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the United States. Three sisters were sold out of Tubman’s total of eight siblings. The responsibilities she carried out as a slave included caring for small children and putting animal traps in the fields, among other things. In one instance during Harriet’s childhood, a slave manager hurled a 2 pound metal weight at another slave, but the weight struck Harriet’s head instead.
- In this family photograph, Harriet Tubman may be seen standing at the far left.
- When her owner passed away, she and two of her brothers, Ben and Henry, ran to a more open area of land.
- Tubman eventually sought freedom once more, this time with the assistance of Quakers from Maryland, and crossed the Choptank River into Pennsylvania to do it.
- As Harriet herself stated, she never had a problem with losing a passenger.
- Because many who knew Tubman considered her to be illiterate, she would conceal herself behind a newspaper or a book whenever she was in danger of being detected by them.
- Take a look at some of the pieces from Chronicling America, this BackStory interview withRochelle Bush, a trustee and historian of Salem Chapel Church in St.
Catherines, Ontario, and thisBiography film to learn more about Harriet Tubman’s life and times. During their study of Tubman, students may want to think on the following questions:
- What attributes or abilities did Tubman possess that distinguished her as an especially effective leader on the Underground Railroad
- And In what ways did Tubman’s allies assist her, and who were they? Why should Harriet Tubman be regarded as a significant figure in the history of the United States
- Why
Activity 2. Conducting the Underground Railroad
Students can work in pairs or small groups to evaluate primary materials and reply to the questions that have been set forth by the instructor. All of the letters and papers that were utilized during this activity may be used into the mapping activity and evaluation process as well.
Group 1.
After reading this letter from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman, take some time to discuss the following questions.
- What, according to Douglass, is the fundamental difference between himself and Tubman
- Was there anything in Douglass’s letter that revealed what he thought of Tubman’s deed? What is it that Douglass wants Tubman to be recognized for?
Group 2.
After reading this letter from Thomas Garrett to Harriet Tubman, take some time to discuss the following questions.
- What does Garrett have to say about Tubman’s personality
- What kind of knowledge does Garrett have regarding assisting freedom-seekers in their attempts to elude slavery? When it comes to Tubman, how does Garrett feel? Look for proof as well as inferences from his tone of voice
Group 3.
After reading about Harriet Tubman’s role in the Civil War and subsequently the records relating to her fight to collect recompense for her efforts, discuss the following questions with your classmates.
- Describe the roles that Tubman played throughout the Civil War. How did her previous experience as a conductor on the Underground Railroad benefit her
- What did she want to do when she finished her military service? What obstacles did Tubman have to overcome in order to receive what she requested
- In the end, what was the result of this conflict
- What was it about Tubman that caused him to have such difficulties? Is there anything that can be done to rectify the situation?
Activity 3. Mapping the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad produced a large number of lines that went in practically every direction. Some were more successful than others in their endeavors. Detail one route of the Underground Railroad and offer information about that route, using the resources listed below and the handout provided. Include the following information:
- States that are free and/or slave along the path
- During the winter months, the weather varies from state to state. Terrain (mountains, hills, lakes, rivers, and other natural features)
- How many miles does it take to get from point A to point B? If relevant, notable cities should be included.
In addition to utilizing Google maps to locate the Underground Railroad, students should examine the Historic Hudson’s People Not Property website to learn more about the railroad. This interactive website describes what it was like to be enslaved and how it felt, as well as the implications and trade-offs that enslaved people were forced to make on a regular basis in their efforts to oppose tyranny and emancipation. Lesson Extensions includes a list of maintained Underground Railroad locations in each state, which may be found farther down on this page.
Assessment The students will write a proposal to Congress in order to synthesize the information they have learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
Among the options include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The depiction of Harriet Tubman on U.S. banknotes
- Considering naming a highway or other public place in her name
- Erecting a statue or monument in her honor The declaration of a national holiday every year
Students will argue for Tubman’s significance in history, what sort of recognition she should get, and why a certain day, location, and media was chosen. Students will use primary materials to support their arguments. Their submission should be backed with a prototype, mock-up, or simulation that will provide Congress an idea of what they would be receiving as an award. Students can submit their recommendations to their representatives once they have been reviewed by a teacher. Extensions to the Lesson
Historic Underground Railroad Sites
In collaboration with the National Park Service, a list of historic places believed to have served as stations or major meeting spots on the Underground Railroad has been created. If you were unaware that the network went all the way to Hawaii and the United States Virgin Islands, you would be shocked!
Enter your state or region to see photographs, videos, and educational material about your state or territory, including information regarding student visits. A few sites also provide lesson ideas for students in grades K-12.
National Archival Collections
The National Park Service has put up a guide on using source documents (spirituals, almanacs, diaries, gazettes, calendars, maps, and so on) in the process of researching and interpreting the Underground Railroad (An extensive research guide on Harriet Tubman’s life and times has been compiled by the Library of Congress for additional examination. Featuring Eric Foner, author of Gateway to Freedom; Edna Greene Medford, professor of history at Howard University; and Adam Rothman, the National Archives’ documentary ” Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad ” was released in October 2012.
Regional Archival Collections
This is a small selection of institutions, humanities centers, and historical societies that make digitized photographs and information about things associated to the Underground Railroad available to the general public. For information on this period of American history in your region of the country, check with your local libraries, museums, and other comparable institutions. Delaware Florida Illinois Massachusetts New York is the capital of the United States. OhioPennsylvania Encyclopedias supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and State Humanities Councils
Aboard the Underground Railroad- Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged
Images of the Harriet Tubman Home for theAged, Harriet TubmanNationalHistoric Landmarks photographs |
Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), a renowned leader in the UndergroundRailroad movement, established the Home for the Aged in 1908. Born into slaveryin Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman gained her freedom in 1849 when she escapedto Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, Tubman made connections and found support among other white and black abolitionists. Although Harriet Tubman found her freedom, she was separated from her family. Between 1850 and 1860, Tubman returned to the Eastern Shore of Maryland 13 times and freed more than 70 people, who were her family and friends so they can all be free together as a family.Maryland planters offered a $100 rewardfor Tubman’s capture at one point during her time as an Underground Railroad conductor.Active during the Civil War, Tubman assisted the Union Army as a spy, nurse, cook,and guide.
From Port Royal, South Carolina, in June of 1863, she aided a detachmentof 150 African Americans in a raid up the Combahee River, destroying Confederatemines, storehouses and crops, and liberating about 800 slaves.Dedicating herlife after the Civil War to helping former slaves, especially children and theelderly, Tubman also became active in the women’s rights movement and the AMEZion Church.
Seward in Auburn, New York, for which she had lenient terms of repayment.
After the war she returned toher home in Auburn and began what was to be her life-long work of caring for agedand indigent African Americans.
In1896, Harriet purchased 25 adjoining acres to her home on which stood the buildingnow known as the Home for Aged.
Tubman continued to live at her home,until her own health deterioted and she was cared for at the Home for the Aged.She died there in 1913 at the age of 92 or 93 and was laid in state at the ThompsonAME Zion Church.
The Home for the Aged and Tubman’s home are owned by theAME Zion Church, the Home for the Aged is open to the public by appointment (visitfor more information).The Thompson AME Zion Church is currently closed and undergoing a historic structure study and report.
The Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged is a partner park. Also of interest,The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Parkis located in MarylandPrevious |List of Sites|Home|Next