Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

Join Robert Kelleman for an online/virtual tour of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad sites in Maryland on Saturday, February 19, 2022 from 10:00 am to 11:30 am. Register here.

Learn how Harriet successfully escaped from slavery and how she then heroically led others to freedom.The program will focus on Harriet Tubman's inspirational life and feature many of the Underground Railroad sites in Maryland associated with her. We'll include an overview of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Park in Church Creek, Maryland, and other historic sites along the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway. This is a livestream version of the full-day Underground Railroad bus tours and will be a combined history talk and travel presentation.

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, c. March 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made several missions to rescue numerous enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.

Born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia in 1849, only to return to Maryland to rescue her family soon after. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives with her out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other enslaved people to freedom. Traveling by night and in extreme secrecy, Tubman (or "Moses", as she was called) "never lost a passenger".

The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early to mid-19th century, and used by enslaved African-Americans to escape into free states and Canada. The scheme was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. Not literally but metaphorically a railroad, the enslaved who risked escape and those who aided them are also collectively referred to as the "Underground Railroad".