Poplar Neck - Bringing Her Parents Out

A stop on Harriet Tubman, a free self-guided tour.

At this causeway over Marsh Creek you stand at the edge of Poplar Neck, once the 2,200-acre timber plantation of Dr. Anthony C. Thompson, son of the man who had enslaved Tubman's father. Ben Ross, free by then, worked these woods, and in 1855 he paid Brodess's widow twenty dollars for his wife, Rit. The land is private; read the byway marker from the roadside.

On Christmas Day 1854 Tubman's brothers Robert, Ben and Henry, with several others, hid in a corncrib by their parents' cabin until dark, then followed her north to Canada.

In March 1857, after the Dover Eight escape, Ben Ross fell under suspicion. Tubman hurried back, put together a rough one-axle wagon and a horse with a straw collar, and drove her aging parents toward Delaware, then on to St. Catharines, Canada.

Her story did not end here. She served the Union as a scout and nurse, and in 1863 helped lead the Combahee River raid that freed more than 700 people. She spent her last decades in Auburn, New York, and died there in 1913.

Getting here: From the landing, drive a few hundred yards up Poplar Neck Road to the causeway over Marsh Creek; the byway marker is on the northwest side of the bridge.

Did you know?: Because Rit was about 55 when Ben bought her, Maryland law would not let him formally free her, but she lived with him as his wife from then on and went north with him in 1857.

Photo op: From the marker, look out over Marsh Creek toward the woods of Poplar Neck, the view her parents left behind.

Nearby: None at the marker; the seasonal restrooms at Choptank Landing are just back down the road.

More on Wikipedia: Harriet Tubman · Dover Eight · Raid on Combahee Ferry · Harriet Tubman National Historical Park

Poplar Neck - Bringing Her Parents Out

Stops on this tour