Harriet Tubman Network to Freedom 200 Year Anniversary Logo

Two-hundred years ago, in Dorchester County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Araminta Ross was born enslaved, but the woman who would become Harriet Tubman would not be denied liberty. Tubman grew up strong, and though she was not taught to read or write, she learned to read the world around her. Tubman learned skills to survive and succeed in the forests, marshes, bays, and fields of the Eastern Shore and she was accepted into the network of Black mariners who plied the Chesapeake Bay sharing news and information. These skills, developed among family and community, would become the key to unlock the bonds of slavery. In 1849, at the age of 27, Tubman self-liberated, traveling the Underground Railroad nearly 90 miles, alone and on foot, to freedom.

Not content with her own liberation while others still toiled in slavery, Tubman returned to Maryland again and again, leading others to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and earning the title “The Moses of Her People.” During the Civil War, Tubman continued her valiant fight in the name of freedom, serving in the Union Army as a nurse, a spy, and as the first woman to lead American troops in battle. Later, she became a pioneering women’s suffragist and a shining light in the struggle for gender-equity. Truly, few souls have carried themselves with such remarkable moral clarity or stood so fiercely on the side of America’s better angels.

Come see where Harriet Tubman was born and lived, and witness the powerful stories of her inspiring strength, legendary courage, and fierce leadership in pristine natural landscapes little changed from the time when Tubman forged her indelible legacy of freedom.