Harriet Tubman
Photo: Benjamin F. Powelson, public domain (cropped)
Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross, called Minty, about 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland. She spent nearly 27 years enslaved in these marshes, woods and farm fields, escaped in 1849, and came back about 13 times to lead family and others north.
This self-guided drive covers 14 stops, mostly on the official Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway. It starts at the Harriet Tubman Museum on Race Street in Cambridge, where four stops lie within a short walk or drive, then heads south and west to her birthplace country, the state and national park visitor center, Blackwater refuge and Bucktown, and ends north in Caroline County at Preston and Poplar Neck. Plan on about seven hours by car, with about 20 minutes at each stop.
Many sites are roadside markers on private land: please view them from the road and never walk onto farms or church grounds. Keep the visitor center hours handy (check nps.gov/hatu) and fill your tank in Cambridge; services are thin in the marsh country.
14 stops on this tour:
Harriet Tubman Museum - Take My Hand
Dorchester County Courthouse - The Auction That Failed
Long Wharf - Portal to Slavery, Gateway to Freedom
Bethel AME Church - Pine Street's Anchor
Malone's Church - Where Minty Was Born
Stewart's Canal - Waterways and Watermen
Tubman Visitor Center - Her Whole Life in View
Blackwater Refuge - The Land She Learned to Read
Brodess Farm - A Childhood Hired Out
Bucktown Village Store - The Blow That Changed Her
Scott's Chapel - Faith on Both Sides of the Road
Leverton House - Quaker Shelter at Preston
Choptank Landing - The River North
Poplar Neck - Bringing Her Parents Out
Plan your visit
- Route: 14 stops · self-drive
- Time: about 7 hours with stops
- Start: Harriet Tubman Museum (directions)
- Cost: free tour
Stops on this tour
- Harriet Tubman Museum - Take My Hand
- Dorchester County Courthouse - The Auction That Failed
- Long Wharf - Portal to Slavery, Gateway to Freedom
- Bethel AME Church - Pine Street's Anchor
- Malone's Church - Where Minty Was Born
- Stewart's Canal - Waterways and Watermen
- Tubman Visitor Center - Her Whole Life in View
- Blackwater Refuge - The Land She Learned to Read
- Brodess Farm - A Childhood Hired Out
- Bucktown Village Store - The Blow That Changed Her
- Scott's Chapel - Faith on Both Sides of the Road
- Leverton House - Quaker Shelter at Preston
- Choptank Landing - The River North
- Poplar Neck - Bringing Her Parents Out
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