And exhibits to learn about the life of escaped slave, abolitionist, civil war spy and suffragist Harriet Tubman. Welcome to Harriet Tubman underground state park. My name is ranger crenshaw. She was born three miles east of here in the town of madison and she spent time in this area as well as in bucktown a few miles west of here. It was in this area of Dorchester County she learned the skills that were vital to make her a successful conductor of the underground railroad such as reading the landscape, reading the stars, foraging for food, walking outdoors and being comfortable by herself. This building is lined in cedar which is a reference to her time in the timber fields with her father. The last three buildings are lined in zinc and the idea is that over time it will patina and weather like copper and it will begin to fade and the idea is that after you visit our come through our Visitor Center your ignorance about Harriet Tubmans life and the underground railroad will fade as well. We have a number of green features, we have a vegetative roof on the flat surfaces, you can see one on the far south there, that helps us keep the Visitors Center warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We also have rain barrels to collect the excess water and then we use that to water our vegetation and we have photovoltaic lights. Id like to highlight those because we can turn them completely off at night and do Night Sky Program and it cuts down on light pollution. The light is filtered downward as opposed to upward so you can enjoy the night sky which wassive y was pivotal to Harriet Tubman. We have a large portion of the park that is in a critical area. Id like to highlight the view north, which was our design plan. When you entered the park you came in to the south and then you walk north to begin your experience, you walk into our Visitor Center and you head north, just like harriet tub man did. And this area opens up to our Legacy Garden and highlights the view north. During tubmans time north represented openness, the north was free but the south was closed and encumbered. Many the next phase of the park, well have a statue of Harriet Tubman standing there pointing north towards freedom and there will be four figures in the distance heading towards their freedom. When you enter the Visitors Center, you enter in the south and if you look north you can see its open, its very bright and thats thanks to our wall there. When youre done with your experience in the north room portion of the Visitors Center, it will be very enclosed and dark and we did that on purpose to represent the south being encumbered in slavery and the north being open and free. The landscape is very important to us. Its our most important interpretive tool. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad state park is 17 acres but were surrounded by Blackwater National wild riefug over 20,000 acres. They preserve this landscape that you see. So when you look around and see pines and cedars, right over there you can see the Blackwater River and the forest of this area which is also preserved. When you drove down here you probably took route 16 and 335, those were old native american roads, also known as the highway to freedom. Multiple escapes occurred along route 16, that helps us to preserve the landscape. When you came down here, you probably saw korb fields, soy, milo, sorgham and timber in various stages of growth. That landscape is very important. So the landscape is very similar to the way it would have looked in Harriet Tubmans time. So if you placed her here and gave her orientation and told her that was north, thats south, thats east and thats west shed be able to navigate this area because it looks so similar. This is a map of the byway, its over 30 sites and includes maine, delaware and pennsylvania. We are meant to be the hub right here of the byway so you come here and learn about Harriet Tubmans life. And id like for you to meet our bust of Harriet Tubman, a very important part of this bust is that it is indeed life size. Harriet tubman was about five feet tall in real life and this bust is also five feet tall. It was made by mr. Brendan oneil, this is a bronze bust and theres a lot of symbolism. You can see her name is at the bottom, along the back there are some chains and the chains are broken to represent the bonds of slavery that ms. Tubman broke along the underground railroad. You can also see some scarring on her back which were scars from the floggings she received in her life. She was very strong. She bragged she could do the work of a man so her scapulas are also visible showing her musculature. The bust is sitting on a piece of the y oak, the y oak stood for about 650 years before it fell down. And this is a piece of cedar that was chosen because it has the spiral texture and shows texture and strength and its also a reference to her time in the timber fields with her father. As i mentioned outside, the first building of the Visitor Center is lined in cedar as well and you notice she is facing north looking towards freedom and her head is lifted slightly but she is also very approachable. So well begin our tour right now. Were starting in the south and heading towards the north just like Harriet Tubman did on her journeys on the underground railroad. Youll notice the ceiling and the floor and the siding also makes you look from south to north. Its very symbolic here. This wood is reclaimed barn wood from the Eastern Shore of maryland, again, a reference to her time in the timber fields. This first section of the tour highlights the juxtaposition of tubmans life. The images here you see show the beauty of the Chop Tank River region as well as the ugliness of slavery. So Harriet Tubman was born in this region and this is where she learned the skills necessary to become a successful conductor on the underground railroad. This section is supposed to immerse you into a day in Harriet Tubmans life. The quote says slavery is the next thing to hell. If a person would send another person into bondage, he would send them to held if he could. And these are images of the river region and this is our wall of tubman. This next section shows the ugliness of slavery. This is the image of the Dorchester County courthouse and it shows a mother being sold away from her child and husband. Tubmans Three Sisters were sold into slavery very early in her life and it broke her family apart. They were sold to a chain gang down south and never heard from again and tubman remembers their wails and cries and they were sold from her family and Harriet Tubmans mother never recovered from that. This is a good section to highlight the way our exhibits are laid out. Most have a quote from Harriet Tubman or someone who knew her at the top. A little text and then a tactile panel. This tactile panel is meant to be touched and felt so you can see and touch what youre reading. So this quote says i grew up like a me getted weed, ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it and i was not happy or contended. And it shows enslaved children with no shoes, very little clothing doing farm work. It highlights the fact that fishing, oystering, timber and corn were the crops in the Chop Tank River region. This next section talks about tubmans earliest memory. The first thing i recall is lying in a cradle my father made. When a child was born, a sweet gum tree was chopped down, hollowed out and you put down a foot board and head board and it was called a gum and that was the childs cradle. This shows a young Harriet Tubman taking care of her little brother moses. So a very young tubman about four years old. Harriet has fond memories of this but i cant imagine the worry of a mother knowing how her baby was taking care of another baby. Tubman told us the baby was crying and she put a slab of pork in the babys mouth but when the mother came back she thought that she had killed the baby. This next section talks about tubmans early life and the quote says every time i saw a white man i was afraid of being carried away. I had two sisters carried away in a chain gang, one of them left two children, we were always uneasy. So this highlights the fact that they were sold away to a chain gang and never seen again and this tactile panel again shows the young tubman and her little broth brother. And this shows Dorchester County, you probably crossed the Chop Tank River and down to church creektank river and down church creek tubman was born here in madison. During her time that was known as tobacco stick so this image shows the road that she was born on. The next section id like to highlight is Harriet Tubman at work. This shows her at a very young age checking muskrat traps. Muskrats are rodents that are common in this area. Most muskrat traps were checked in the late fall or early winter when their pelts with for thickest. They were caught for their pelts so this shows Harriet Tubman and the muskrat and you can see shes ankle deep in water, not wearing shoes or a hat and shes wearing rags, shes miserable. And the quote says i used to sleep on the floor and cry and cry and cry. If i could only get home and get my n my mothers bed. So that drive to go home and be with her family members was within young tubman from a very early age. And the next section is the Bucktown Village store incident. When tubman was about a teenager she went to the Bucktown Village store with the plantation cook and an angry overseer was there. Tubman walked in and there was a runaway slave so the overseer said grab that slave and tubman said no. So he picked up a twopound weight and threw it, meaning to hit the slave. Instead he hit Harriet Tubman above her eye and knocked her out. She said the last thing she remembers was him raising his hand with the weight in it. She received no medical care, she was taken from the store and sat on a loom next door where she bled and bled. Her owner even made her go to work the next day but she said she tried to work but couldnt because there was so much blood and sweat dripping down into her eyes so her mother tried to help her recuperate and mend her but then her owner decided, you know, shes not doing any work, im going to try to sell her. So he brought people in to poke and prod at her while she was trying to recover and when she couldnt be sold he said youre not even worth a six pence. So after that time, that was a horrific physical injury for young Harriet Tubman but it opened up a new world. We think she got temporal lobe epilepsy which allowed her to have amazing visions and a direct connection to god. She heard voices, she heard people singing, she saw Amazing Things and had vivid dreams so it was terrible on the physical side but amazing for her faith. This section here talks about Harriet Tubmans faith. A man said i had never met any person who had more confidence in the voice of god. So for a white male, land owning quaker to say that about a black woman in tubmans time speaks volumes about her faith. The next section well highlight is tubman in the timber field. And during Harriet Tubmans time about half of the blacks in Dorchester County were indeed free so this shows Harriet Tubman working in the timber fields and the gentleman over there could be free or enslaved men working. She worked in the timber fields with her father who was a respected timber foreman, ben ross. This shows Harriet Tubman in stewards canal, so what would happen was the timber would be cut and then it would either be dragged through the woods more to this case floated on the canal to shipbuilding towns of madison and church creek where it would be processed and shipped to baltimore or it would be used there. So tub man wman was rented out e took the money aside for herself and purchased two oxen. This allowed her to do more work, to carry more timber from the timber fields of Dorchester County to shipbuilding towns and thiss what this shows right here. Tubman and her oxen and it highlights the importance of tubman being outside. Here is where she learned how to forage for food, how to be comfortable in the woods at night which were skills she needed during the underground railroad. Most escapes were done at night during the fall and winter when the nights were the longest. So this was a very important time for her and she got to workout side with her family and her friends, most likely her brothers and her father. This next section is tubmans selfemancipation. In about 1849 Harriet Tubman got the feeling she was going to be sold and as i mentioned earlier she lost Three Sisters very early to the chain gang and she knew what that was like and she didnt want to be sold so she was about to leave in 1849. This shows Harriet Tubman in poplar neck, Caroline County, and shes opening the gate. As shes going to leave her owner comes home, he rides up on the horse so she starts singing, she opens the gate for him, he rides his horse through, she continues to sing her goodbye song and walks to her freedom. Now thats significant because she was singing a goodbye song so she could say goodbye to her family and friends so they would know she was leaving and not to be worried. After tubman got to freedom she said when i found i had crossed that line i looked at my hands to see if i was the same person. There was such a glory over everything, the sun came like gold through the trees and over the fields and i felt like i was in heaven. So this is tubmans first taste of freedom when she crossed over and she was able to spend time in philadelphia and make money to come back and get her family and friends. The next section well highlight is called the journey and its supposed to show a journey one night on the underground railroad. So the quote over here says i had crossed the line, i was free, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom, i was a stranger in a strange land and my home after all was down in maryland. Because my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters and friends were there. But i was free and they should be free. I would make a home in the north and bring them there. God helping me oh how i prayed then, i said to the lord im going to hold steady on to you and i know youll see me through. That shows once she got to freedom there was no one to welcome her, she didnt feel at home, she was alone because her friends and family were in maryland so she came back 12 times to save her family and friends and loved ones and people she couldnt do without and so the song you hear now is the good old ship of zion and ill talk about that more later. But you can see the names and lists of people she rescued. Over 70 documented rescues including roses moss, peter pennington. And then this section talks about the north star which is what tubman used to navigate. God set the north star in the heavens, he gave me the strength in my limbs and he meant i should be free. And this is a movable piece right here that shows that no matter what season youre in, the north star is steadfast, it stays exactly where it always is at the tip of the little dipper and at the end of the big cup of the big dipper. Harriet tubman rescued over 70 family and friends from slavery and 12 journeys but she was unable to rescue her sister rachel and her children. Unfortunately rachel died in bondage and her children were sold before tubman could rescue her. And this quote says we are much pleased that air y harriet succeeded but her sister was not among the number and thats from abolitionist de collins to Franklin Sanborn who was a friend of tubman. The next section is the emancipation of her brothers. She was illiterate so she had a letter written to Jacob Jackson who lived in Dorchester County, he was a literal man and a veterinarian. She had arranged a code beforehand and so when the letter was written it said read my letter to the old folks and give my love to them and tell my brothers to always be watching unto prayer and when the good old ship of zion comes along, be ready to step aboard. So the story youre hearing is the good old ship of zion so when Jacob Jackson saw that in the letter he knew it was Harriet Tubman telling him to notify her brothers to be ready that she was going to come back and rescue them. Jacob jackson was a known operative on the underground railroad so he wasnt permitted to read his mail so it was very important to have this in coded message so the postmaster as well as a few other people had to read his mail before mr. Jackson could so they read it, it made no sense and when he picked it up and looked at it and said this cant be for me, it makes no sense. But he saw that text, the lyrics from the good old ship of zion so he knew to let her brothers know she was coming back for them. So she met her brothers at poplar neck in Caroline County and they hid in a corn crib, this is a recreated corn crib. What happened in the corn crib is they had to hide here and their father put a blindfold on because he knew that somebody would ask him have you seen your children today and if he was wearing a blindfold he could say that no, i have not seen my children. He brought them food and water and he talked to them for a little while but they had to hide in this corn crib because their mother was waiting up for them for christmas, she was cooking food and she prepared her home to see her children and family and friends so they had to hide in here, otherwise if the mother saw them, shed go crazy and be so excited that she would completely give them away so the idea is our visitors can come in here and go inside the corn crib and look through the slats and imagine what it would have been like to say to not be able to say goodbye to your mother and to perhaps have that be the last time you ever saw her. Harriet tubman used a number of disguises, she knew shed be recognized once she got back to maryland so she was disguised as an older woman. She wore a bonnet over her head and she hunched over and she was walking along carrying these chickens and she saw her former master coming towards her so something in her head said pluck the feathers on the chick son she pluck it had feather on the chicken and it started shouting and screaming and squawking so she had to bend over and turn her back to her master who was coming so that he wouldnt recognize her. And other enslaved people would also disguise themselves as men if they were women, as women if they were men and vice versa so she was disguised pretty often. The section right here highlights the emancipation of her parents ben and writ ross. So in the spring of 1857, Harriet Tubman came down from the north to rescue her parents, her father was an underground Railroad Agent and she heard he would probably be sold or punished in some way so she came back to pick them up before that could happen. When she got there, her parents were in their 70s and she knew they couldnt walk north so she basically made a one axle wagon which is what this shows right here. So she got two wheels and an axle and a plank and this would be a place for them to sit and a place for their feet and she tied it to a horse and she emancipated her parents. But her mother wouldnt leave without her prized feather bed and her father would not leave without his priced broad ax and thats what this Beautiful Image courtesy of mark priest is showing. All these columns right here in the middle of the building highlight people that were important to the underground railroad and Harriet Tubmans network. People such as lucretia not, the reverend sam green of east new market, william still, thomas garrett, ann marie douglas, sidney gay and Martha Wright and Frederick Douglass and Henry Highland Garnet is also highlighted. The next section i would like to talk about is tub mans time during the civil war. Harriet tubman was a scout, a spy and a nurse during the civil war and on june 1, 1863 she became the only woman to plan and execute an armed raid so it was Harriet Tubman, colonel James Montgomery and the second South Carolina troops and they took three Steam Powered gun ships and they chugged up the coup cumby river, they flooded rice fields, burned plantations and they emancipated 750 to 800 people which is very significant because in tubmans time people were, of course, property so that was a huge loss for the slave owners down there. Thats what this is showing. Harriet townman in a run about or a smaller boat reaching down to rescue people to their emancipation and it shows women carrying anything they could carry, a basket, chickens and children thats the largest emancipation event in the united states. The quote says i prayed to god to make me strong and able to fight and thats what ive always prayed for ever since. And it shows her dedication to the united states, she was, indeed, a veteran. But it was a massive boon for the union army because ten days later 100 to 110 men signed up for the union army. So Harriet Tubman was a little bit of a rabblerouser. She was complaining that nothing was being done to emancipate people free the slaves so Massachusetts Governor john andrew recruited her to operate behind the confederate lines. So she was given a pass to travel from the north to South Carolina and do her military expedition so she was a scout, a nurse, and a spy and she was able to talk to the enslaved people as well as free people in South Carolina and they were told where the land mines were and they were given insight into that river area which was very similar to the swamps of Dorchester County. Theyre both lowlands, theyre both salt marshes, both dictated by the tides so tub mans kill skills she learned in dorchester were useful in South Carolina as well and everyone knew that so she was sent down there to help and to coordinate and to assist the army. This final section of our Visitors Center talks about tubmans later life, she bought a home in auburn and she also attended a church and started a home for indigent and aged africanamericans. She was a suffragette, she fought for womens rights and she had a ship named after her, the s. S. Harriet tubman and thats all highlighted here. And this is the final part of the tour. Id like to highlight that there are stained glass images of Dorchester County in the summer, winter and spring. This image right here shows Harriet Tubman pointing at the north star and emancipate ago number of people but it shows the hazards there were that. It shows a snake with a forked tongue, people carrying food and babies and children and it shows squirrels and owls, it shows the nature of it. Since our building is southfacing when the sun comes through this is absolutely stunning. Also the final section is interactive. Theres a video over here where you can learn about Harriet Tubmans life and legacy and you can sit next to ms. Tubman. This depicts her in her later years and id like to highlight this quote the midnight sky and silent stars have been the witness of your devotion to freedom and your heroism. That was written by Frederick Douglass about Harriet Tubman. Harriet tubman was born in late february, early march of 1822. The records of enslaved peoples birth dates were not kept but there is a receipt from a midwife to help the midwife deliver Harriet Tubman and she died on march 10, 1913 so march 10 is now Harriet Tubman day which is when the Visitor Center was opened. So the Visitors Center is comanaged by the maryland and National Park service. The Visitor Center is located on a maryland state park called Harriet Tubman underground railroad state park. Our Administrative Offices are on the other side of the park and they also house the National Park service and the network to freedom. The National Park service owns 480 acres of land in madison and that land is managed from the Administrative Offices over there so we are a partnership park. I think anyone should visit this center to build a connection to Harriet Tubman and her life. I want people to know that Harriet Tubman was just a normal person, she wasnt a superhero with a cape and these amazing powers, shes a regular woman who was born into slavery. She was she remained illiterate for all of her life but she did Amazing Things for her family and friends. She had everything against her but she lived an amazing life and she made a difference. I want people to know you can make a difference in your normal life no matter who you are. Governors from across the country are gathering in washington, d. C. This weekend for their annual winter meeting. Throughout the day saturday the National Governors association will host discussions on jobs, the Opioid Crisis and the future of agriculture and food availability. Our live coverage starts saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern after washington journal on cspan. Join us saturday at 9 30 a. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan 3 at the American Civil War museum in richmond, virginia, for live coverage of the civil wars impact on americans. Speakers include peter carmichael, director at Gettysburg College civil war institute, james robertson, author of the untold civil war, jane schultz, author of women at the front, and amy morrell taylor, author of the divided family in civil war america. At 8 00 p. M. On lectures in history from the Georgetown University law center, guest speaker thomas west talks about his book the political theory of the american founding. In the republican form of government, namely based on consent, elections, virtue is needed in more than any other form of government because in a republic the people themselves pick the rulers. Sunday at 4 00 p. M. On real america the 1956 film a city decides about the Historic Supreme Court decision brown v. Board of education. Intergroup youth had delegates from all the high schools in st. Louis. Well, all i know is that our school have some kids who dont like colored people. Well some of the kids at our school dont like white people either. Well, i think its the individual that counts. How are you going to get to know a person unless you meet them . When the Supreme Court ruled segregation was illegal, these children were ready. At 6 00 p. M. On american artifacts we look at a selection of Clifford Berrymans popular political cartoons from the early 20th century. He continued to draw for the washington evening star for the next 42 years. His cartoons appeared almost daily, usually on the front page of the paper, very prominently placed. He had quite an illustrious career. Watch American History tv every weekend on cspan 3. Sunday night on after words, author Tara Westover talks about growing up with survivalist parents in the idaho mountains in her book educated, a memoir. A lot of people seem to have taken to hard this idea to learn something you have to have a degree and you have to have a whole institution in place to teach it to you and im grateful to my parents that i was not raised to think that so when i decided i wanted to go to college when i was 16 it felt like something i could do. Not because i had any formal education but okay i need to learn algebra. Ill buy a book and learn it. I didnt do an amazing job. I barely got into the university but i kept going with that and i think my parents took it too far. I arrived at university underprepared. I once raised my hand in a class and asked whathe
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.