December 3, 2024 • 32 mins
What was the Underground Railroad, really? Beyond the imagery of secret routes and hidden safe houses, it was a complex network of people, places, and powerful codes—codes in words, songs, and even the stars. Join us in today's episode at the Harriet Tubman Museum and Education Center in Cambridge, MD.
🌊 Moses of Her People 💪🏾
In this episode, we delve into the stories of Harriet Tubman, known as the Moses of her people, and explore how faith, resilience, and ingenuity helped guide countless individuals to freedom. We'll uncover the meaning behind songs like "Go Down Moses" and "Follow the Drinking Gourd", the significance of safe house signals, and the inspiring legacy of a woman whose courage knew no bounds.
🔗 Episode Links:
Harriet Tubman Museum and Education Center:
www.harriettubmanmuseumcenter.org
Curator's Choice - A podcast for history nerds and museum lovers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sometimes, every now and again, there's a person born
in this life to do incrediblethings, and she was that person.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, I'm Ayla Sparks and this is Curator's Choice, a
podcast for history nerds andmuseum lovers.
From ancient relics to modernmarvels, each episode of this
show features a new museum and acurator's choice of some
amazing artifacts housed there.
These guardians of history willshare insights, anecdotes and
the often untold stories thatbreathe life into the artifacts
(00:33):
they protect.
Thanks for tuning in to thisMighty Oak Media production and
enjoy the show.
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of Curator's Choice.
Today on the show, we're lookingat the Underground Railroad.
Beyond the imagery of secretroutes and hidden safe houses,
it was a complex network ofpeople, places and very powerful
(00:55):
codes Codes in words, codes insongs and even codes in the
stars.
In this episode, we delve intothe stories of Harriet Tubman,
known as the Moses of her people, and explore how faith,
resilience and ingenuity helpedguide countless individuals to
(01:15):
freedom.
With Linda as our guide at theHarriet Tubman Museum and
Education Center in Cambridge,maryland, she shares with us the
incredible story of HarrietTubman.
So, without further ado, let'sjump right in, with Linda At its
core.
What was the UndergroundRailroad?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
The Underground Railroad was a network of people
, locations and code.
So what do I mean by code?
Code is the way they spoke,those that could write the way
they wrote and those that couldsing.
It's the songs that they sangto signal folks that were
getting ready to get on theUnderground Railroad that it was
(01:57):
time to come Harriet Tubman.
So she was referred to as theMoses of her people.
So this Underground Railroadwent as far south as Mexico, as
far north as Canada and westUtah, and we're finding more
areas all throughout the UnitedStates because this is a real
hot topic and archaeologists aredigging in to get the history.
(02:18):
Harriet Tubman, when she wascoming back, she made her first
walk in 1849 using this network.
When I say people, 50% of theAfrican Americans living in
Maryland at the time were free.
They were very instrumental inhelping the movement of people.
So you had the free AfricanAmericans, you had her father,
benjamin Ross, samuel Green.
(02:39):
They were station managers.
They were enslaved people.
They were double agents.
Thompson's Plant plantation wasa station stop along the
Underground Railroad.
The stops would be houses,barns, churches, all those
instrumental in helping themovement of people.
Harriet Tubman was consideredthe Moses of her people.
She did her first walk in 1849.
(03:01):
She comes back her first timein 1850.
There's all this chatter aboutHarriet Tubman Born Araminta
Ross.
She changed her name.
So Go Down Moses was a songthat was sung in the fields.
The enslaved were just singingthese songs, but in fact it was
code.
May I sing one of the songs?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Go down Moses way down in Egypt land.
Tell old Pharaoh to let mypeople go.
When Moses went to Egypt land,let my people go.
He made old Pharaoh understand.
Let my people go.
Egypt was the plantation.
(03:42):
Pharaoh was the enslaver, moseswas.
You know, we know Moses fromthe Bible.
Let my people go.
That was Harriet's job.
Let my people go.
My people are going up north.
They're going to go above theMason-Dixon line to find freedom
.
So it was code.
Another code song, real quickly.
She had to follow the NorthStar.
(04:04):
In the North American sky inthe winter, the two most
prevalent constellations,especially here is the Big
Dipper and the Little Dipper.
At the base of those twoconstellations is Polaris or the
North Star.
Another code song, not used somuch here on the eastern shore,
but certainly along theUnderground Railroad,
particularly in the far south.
(04:25):
It was follow the drinkinggourd.
The next time you go out, lookup at the muntra sky and outline
it with your finger.
It comes down, it goes under.
There's the North Star back up,while the constellation it
resembles a drinking gourd or aladle.
Follow the drinking gourd.
Come on and follow the drinkinggourd, for the old man is
(04:46):
waiting just to carry you tofreedom.
Follow the drinking gourd.
When the sun comes back and thefirst quell calls follow the
drinking gourd, for the old manis waiting just to carry you to
freedom.
Follow the drinking gourd.
There's a lot of singing goingon because it was a way of
(05:07):
dealing with the horrificconditions of slavery.
It brought an enormous amountof hope where most were in
despair, but singing and knowingthat freedom would be yours.
So there's many examples of howthey traversed it, but that's
when it was a network andHarriet Tubman was the best
network.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It makes a lot of sense when you think about it
because, however annoying it maybe, when you hear a jingle, it
sticks in your head and youremember it, even if you don't
want to.
So encoding in a song is thebest way to make sure that
everybody can remember theinstructions.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Absolutely, and they were so skillful, so incredibly
smart to have created this code,this way of communicating to
get to freedom.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I do have a question.
So I feel like this might beone of those things that's kind
of an urban legend at this point, but I've heard many times that
the quilts on barns wereoriginally used as codes for the
Underground Railroad.
As codes for the UndergroundRailroad, the quilts were more.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You heard more about that in the South than you did
here.
All this, although they canrefer to Maryland as Little
Mississippi, but it was moreSouth Carolina, north Carolina,
florida, that you heard that.
Now historians have dispelledthat.
That was even possible.
I read a passage where theywould put the quilt out.
They'd hang it on a line andput it out for two to three
weeks and as the enslaved peoplewere walking by they would see
(06:28):
the coats, they'd see the bearclaw, but historians have not
been able to verify that.
But similarly, the drinkinggourd.
I get into debates with reallyaccomplished, credentialed
historians who fight with me allthe time.
Drinking gourd was copyrightedin 1928, and then again in 1948.
Absolutely, they werecopyrighted long after slavery.
The enslaved people had no ideaabout reducing songs to a music
(06:52):
sheet with bars and lines andstaffs.
They didn't know that.
So it's my contention thatthese rhythms, these cadences
were stolen and they weren'tgiven credit for it.
So if I talk to people who haveties to their history in the
South, they stand by the quilt,by the oral history, by the
folklore.
(07:12):
And who are we to really dispelany of it?
Because we weren't there andneither were the historians.
I'm more inclined to listen toSarah Bradford who interviewed
Harriet Tubman.
I'm sticking with her.
I've talked to many historianswho say Sarah, embellish the
story to sell books.
They weren't there.
It would make sense that thequilts could be.
(07:33):
These are symbols that werebelieved to have been brought
from the west coast of Africa,but I'm thinking unlikely that
they would be able to hang aquilt for two to three weeks
while enslaved people arewalking by to understand what
was going on.
The songs, though?
The songs I am so committed tobecause these are rhythms that
they sang or hummed at the bellyof those slave ships.
(07:55):
I know that to be true.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
What were some of the other things that were signals
to signal like a safe house?
You've heard carvings on thedoor or things that you can only
see in a certain light Lanterna lit lantern.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
We're in Dorchester County where she was born.
Her father was enslaved inCaroline County.
In Caroline County right nowthe Historical Society has
restored 50 of the original safehouses, either barns or
churches.
Wow, the signal was a litlantern.
The Quakers were veryinstrumental in helping the
movement of people.
If the lantern was not lit,keep going, but if it was a lit
(08:33):
candle it was safe to stop, sothat we know was a signal.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Well, and I think whenever you're thinking about
the Underground Railroad as well, you have to realize it's not
just this linear single trail.
It was an incredibly complexorganization.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And the people made itsuccessful, all those who helped
, who put their lives on theline, who put their properties
up to be safe houses.
Each route was different.
They were covert operations andhad to elude the enslavers who
really, by the way, just weren'tas smart as they were.
(09:09):
I mean for people to have comehere, to have been captured, put
on slave ships, made to endurethat middle passage that took
three to five months, sometimescome to a land they'd never seen
, climate that they'd never hadto deal with, language they
never heard to be able to endurepretty brilliant human beings
(09:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And speaking of brilliant people, harriet Tubman
yes, I want to know more aboutwhat was her life like when she
was enslaved.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Her grandmother was brought here from the west coast
of Africa Some books say Ghana,some say Senegal 1750-ish
captured, put at the belly ofthat ship and made to endure
that middle passage and broughthere to Long Wharf, which is
right down the street from wherewe are.
Harriet Tubman had the benefitwhen she was on that slave ship.
She was pregnant with HarrietTubman's mother, harriet Tubman,
(10:03):
our Harriet, and I've got alittle rendering of what we
thought things she looked like,at age 13, was born.
Her given name was AramintaRoss.
So when modesty was broughthere and purchased by the Patson
family, she was pregnant andshe eventually bore Harriet Ritt
or Harriet Green, old Ritt,when Old Ritt had her children
(10:23):
at least, and through tubman,and tubman was the fifth of nine
children.
I'm not sure that the youngerbrothers got to know their
grandmother, but harriet knewher grandmother and her
grandmother would tell her thatshe came here free.
This system that you're in istemporary.
If you have faith, if she camefrom either Senegal or Ghana,
their connection to their faithwas huge, deep, very intense.
(10:48):
She would share with Harrietthat if you have faith you will
find freedom.
So Harriet, or Menti, froze upwith this idea of freedom, this
horrific condition of slavery.
She was treated very badlybecause she was very obstinate.
She was always questioning thissystem of slavery because she
is living in Dorchester County,where 50% of the African
(11:10):
Americans are free.
So imagine working plantationsbeing rented out.
That was a big industry here onthe Eastern Shore.
They would rent their enslavedpeople out.
She is meeting and talking withpeople that look just like her
that are free.
She's always questioning thiswhy are you free and I am not?
So as a consequence of herquestioning her understanding
(11:34):
who, she understood, where she,who she was and where she came
from, she was constantly beat,you know, as a little girl.
One of her early jobs, aboutfive years old now.
Harriet only grew to be fivefeet tall as an adult.
So she was a tiny, petitelittle girl.
One of her early jobs, aboutfive years old Now, harriet only
grew to be five feet tall as anadult.
So she was a tiny, petitelittle girl left largely alone
because she was a middle child,so middle children.
Growing up.
(11:54):
I had to kind of figure outlife because I had my older
brothers and my older sistersand here I am in the middle and
no one's really paying attentionto me.
So Harriet Tubman spent anawful lot of time alone figuring
things out, having hergrandmother in her ear and just
kind of observing hersurroundings.
Her father, benjamin Ross, wasa boat builder and navigator, so
(12:15):
he's in her ear when he couldand so she grows up with a whole
different way of seeing theworld and in her mind, based
upon what her grandmother said,she's supposed to be free.
One of her jobs very early andshe was very, very defiant, very
obstinate.
She's five years old One of herjobs was to go into the icy
Blackwater River and check thetraps of muskrat.
(12:36):
Muskrat was big, they sold thefur.
If she would go in and checkthe trap and there were no
muskrat there, and if she didfind them there half dead,
imagine the trauma of a littlefive-year-old seeing a half dead
big old furry rat with a longtail and sharp teeth.
But anyway, if she'd go checkthe trap and there were no
muskrat, she'd be severelybeaten.
She developed a real resistanceto being beaten and it made her
(12:57):
very strong and her faith wasvery strong because her
grandmother told her if youbelieve, if you have faith, if
you're connected to this beingGod, call it what you want up in
heaven.
If you're obedient there, youwill find freedom.
So that's how she grew up andthat's what made her who she was
.
She resisted the system ofslavery.
(13:22):
She wanted to be like the freeAfrican Americans that she had
come to know, and she justplodded her way till she got
there.
I'm sitting inside of my museum.
I had this mural painted inFebruary of this year and it's
the Bucktown store.
I do walking tours.
I've walked the UndergroundRoad.
I've walked from Broadus toPhiladelphia three times.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I walked from Auburn, new York, to Canada once and
then I walked from Charlestoninto Beaufort once, so I'm kind
of covering the path that shetook In this Bucktown store.
The other thing that reallysolidifies who she becomes is
what happens here in the store.
She'd been rented out.
She's 13 years old by the timeshe's 13,.
She's seen all the wars ofslavery.
(14:01):
She's been beaten.
She tells Sarah Brathwaiteabout her body.
She's got lashes and marks frombeing beaten.
All the time she sees othersbeing beaten.
Brodus was an especially harshenslaver because of his
upbringing.
She knows what she's dealingwith.
She's 13, but probably hermaturity level is 30.
(14:22):
She goes.
She's been rented out.
She comes to this Buckhoundstore.
She comes to this Bugtown store.
She's coming into the frontdoor.
I just love this.
This room is amazing.
She's coming in the front door.
You see, samuel, there's a youngslave boy, samuel thinking
about eight years old.
He has left his plantation andhe's running down Best Pitch
Ferry Road.
He runs to the back of thestore.
(14:42):
Harriet's coming in the front.
I'm looking at the back door.
He runs in the back and Harrietsees what's happening.
This is considered her firstact of defiance, so he's being
pursued by the overseer namedBarnett.
Barnett runs in the back doorand he calls out to Harriet
because he sees her at the frontand he says grab him.
Harriet doesn't do that.
She puts out her hand andpushes Samuel out the door.
(15:04):
He picks up a two-pound weightand throws it in the little
boy's direction, but it hitsHarry in the head instead,
cracks her skull.
She falls out.
Blood streams down her face,soils her garment.
She's eventually picked up andtaken back to the plantation
that she had been rented and isallowed to rest for the night.
But that morning she's got toget up and work.
(15:24):
Blood's still on her face,garments in her hair.
She says that the reason thatblow didn't kill her she told
Sarah Bradford I hadn't killedmy hair until I was 18.
So she had thick, full hairuntamed and she had had it
wrapped in cloth made offlaxseed.
That was a crop that was grownhere.
You take the shell of theflaxseed and you can strip it
and eventually get thread andthen you get this linen.
(15:46):
So it was wrapped in linencloth and that cushioned the
blow, but it didn't stop thattwo-pound weight from cracking
her skull.
Imagine she was a handicappedAmerican who did amazing things.
After this hit to her head thecracked skull, she has this
frontal lobe damage andeventually has epilepsy,
narcolepsy, sleeping disease,call it what you want.
(16:08):
But she'd frequently be workingin the fields and she'd have
these epileptic attacks two,three times a day.
The enslavers, and even herfellow african-americans and the
people that she worked with,thought she was a little nutsy.
She'd go into a catatonic state.
They thought it was voodoo orwitchcraft.
They would just watch do thisand then she'd finally regain
consciousness.
But when she did, she began tohave these visions.
(16:31):
These are the visions that hergrandmother told her, visions of
freedom.
She embraced that and went onto be this amazing woman, the
mother of the UndergroundRailroad.
Not only did she get herself tofreedom above the Mason-Dixon
line, what makes her so amazingis she came back to get other
people.
So that's our Harriet.
(16:52):
The store still exists.
It's still out on Bucktown Road.
It's been there since 1820.
The Meredith family still ownthe Bucktown store and I delight
in taking people there and, asyou can see, I'm very animated
and I tell this story and peopleare really pulled into who
Harriet Tubman was.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I think one of the things that made me admire her
the most is when she escaped,then decided to come back and
run the chances of reliving thisto even a worse extent because
she was helping others escape.
But when I found out that shewould pass out, have these fits
in the middle of a rescue.
(17:32):
They would just wait for her toregain consciousness and they
would continue the journey.
I would not be nearly thatstrong as to be like all right,
well, we're going to continuethis life or death journey where
I just passed out for a fewminutes, it's remarkable.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
It is remarkable, and imagine how the people
following her felt.
They thought oh my God, we'rein this.
What's going on here?
What is happening, crazy woman.
Now imagine the enslaved peoplewho were already frightened
about taking this route,frightened about leaving their
plantations and not knowingwhere they were going.
They too had to have anenormous amount of faith,
(18:06):
courage, resilience, persistencejust to embark upon such a
journey At night, in the dark.
They always traveled at night.
The floor of the forest and thewooded area were covered with
sweet gum balls.
Imagine having to walk.
Do you know what a sweet gumball is, having to walk on those
prickly things?
And following this woman whohad these bits?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It's pretty astonishing.
Another reason why I admire heris because her resolve to make
sure that, no matter whathappened, she was going to get
them out safely, whether theyended up wanting it or not.
Well, and you couldn't turnback.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Once you decided everyone at risk everything, and
this mission was bigger thanHarriet and anyone involved.
She would tell them I'll killyou, we're in this and we got to
keep going.
You can't come back.
So yeah, pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, she is absolutely remarkable.
We know that she did all ofthese tricks to save people.
She ended up saving over 70.
And did she never lost anyone?
She never lost anyone andtraveled with babies.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
How did she keep the babies from crying out at night?
Because she knew the land.
She was such a naturalist, anenvironmentalist.
She knew what to use to make asedative and put it on the gums
of the babies so they wouldsleep all night long.
She never got caught and neverlost anyone.
Sometimes, every now and again,there's a person born in this
(19:32):
life to do incredible things,and she was that person.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
What happens to Harriet after she has completed
these rescues?
What does the rest of her lifelook like?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh my God.
So you would think, aftermaking 13 trips, so 1850, now,
while she's making these trips,this is about 11 years before
the Civil War.
So there's grumblings all overthe North, they're wanting to
usher in the IndustrialRevolution.
The South, no, no.
We're making enormous amountsof money we are not going to get
rid of.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Now this thing is working good.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
This relabor.
This is working good for us.
So 1850, they passed theFugitive Slave Act.
They passed one earlier, likein 1830, but it didn't go over
as well.
But this one was real becauseby the time the Civil War broke
out, 100,000 men, women andchildren had found freedom along
the Sunday Brown Railroad.
So they passed the FugitiveSlave Act and that said that
(20:23):
anyone African American,anywhere free or enslaved, could
be captured and sold south,because cotton was king and the
south was becoming insanelywealthy.
I read it was the fourthlargest industry in the world.
Now she does.
You know, she comes back and notall of her first time out is
all walking, subsequent trips.
She had a network of peopleused wagons, horses, boats and
(20:48):
later on, trains.
She makes these trips, 13 ofthem, gets these people out.
Her last trip back was to gether parents and they're in
Canada.
Does she just kind of sit back?
I got everybody out, I'm free,all is good.
I did my work, I can relax andenjoy.
That wasn't part of her DNA.
What happens?
Oh, abe Lincoln, by this timethey've written a lot about
(21:10):
Harriet Tubman.
There's pictures of her.
She is this, you know, biggerthan life, human being, and so
they figure out that well, wecan use this woman.
The Civil War breaks out in 1861.
Let's call Harriet why.
She's a spy, she runsclandestine operations, she
understands the land, she's anurse, she can cook, she can do
(21:31):
everything that we need in thismilitary operation.
So she goes down to Beaufort,south Carolina, and she works
with General Montgomery.
She helps General Montgomeryget 700 enslaved people off
those plantations.
They go down there, the Unionforces go and they burn the
plantations and they get 700people away.
(21:51):
But then she is on this gunboatand her job is to take out the
Confederate boat, which she does.
Where does she get that skillfrom?
That is just plain old courageand cockiness, as far as I'm
concerned.
She wears that gunboat, takesout the Confederate army and
wins the battle of the TambiRiver.
That's pretty amazing stuff.
Harriet had the wherewithal togo in because they didn't trust
(22:14):
her at first.
Who is this woman?
What does she think she iscoming here?
You have to think about thecamaraderie, if you will,
between free African Americansand those that were enslaved.
Not a whole lot of trustpulling and probably no
camaraderie actually.
So she had to go down and learntheir language to get them to
trust her and she said you knowI'm going to get you out of here
(22:34):
.
And she did, she did and winsthe battle.
I mean that's pretty incredible.
After all, she went throughright.
She hit in the head all thelashings, all the beatings, gets
people to freedom, goes andfights in a war and wins the
battle Pretty incredible.
And still she doesn't get paid.
When I was there I met withsome historians and they pointed
(22:54):
out a corner to me where sheset up a food stand Probably the
first food stand, I don't know.
She's selling cookies, cakesand pies to raise money for
these new families that are nowfree when the war's over.
She's headed back to Canadabecause she's got to get her
family.
They're going to move back intothe United States.
She's on the train.
(23:15):
Some Confederate soldiersrecognize her, they pick her up
and they throw her off a movingtrain More bodily damage.
By this time she's in her 40s,early 50s, I think.
Can you imagine she gets backto Canada and she can come back
into the United States by thistime she's regarded, but not
highly enough to get paid.
She befriends William Seward,the Secretary of State under
(23:36):
Abraham Lincoln.
They give her the money to buya house in Auburn, new York,
which is a second state park toHarriet Tubman.
The first one is down here inChurch Creek, opened in 2018,
and then that state park inAuburn, new York.
They renovated the house.
I did my walk last year.
I look forward to going back toseeing the renovations.
And so she gets a house and shebrings her family back into the
(23:59):
United States.
Now what does she do there?
Now?
She lives in New York andCanada longer than she does here
.
She leaves here when she's 27.
So the rest of her life isspent there.
When you go to Auburn and StCatharines, they know her
history very well.
So she gets a house.
She's given the money but sheinsists on repaying it.
(24:19):
Even though she never got paid,she insists on repaying it.
So she does all kinds of oddthings and always helping people
.
That's how she gets money.
But she ends up opening a housein Auburn for the homeless, for
the poor, for the children thatmay not have families, and she
takes people in.
It's pretty amazing.
Now she marries John Tubmanwhile she's here.
(24:40):
John Tubman doesn't want tocome.
She was born airman to Ross andchanges her name to Harriet
Tubman.
Once she's on the run, shecomes back to get her husband,
but her husband has remarried.
He doesn't want to come withher.
So she leaves him behind anddecides this mission is bigger
than you and I.
A Civil War soldier, 22 yearsyounger than Harriet, needs
(25:01):
shelter.
His name is Garrett Davis.
She ends up marrying him.
She's well into her 50s by nowand she marries a man 22 years
younger than she is, never haschildren, adopts an old girl
named Gertie, who's 13.
History doesn't really followGertie, so we're not quite sure
what happens.
But instead of her deciding Igot this house now I don't have
(25:24):
to pay the money back, sheinsisted on repaying the sewers.
She spends her whole life inservice to other people.
Now, one other thing worthmentioning Auburn is, I don't
know, 50 miles from Seneca Falls, and we know that Seneca Falls
is the birthplace of the women'ssuffrage movement.
She befriends Susan B Anthony.
They have started this movement, susan B Anthony.
(25:44):
They have started this movement.
Susan B Anthony hears about her.
They form the Negro Women'sLeague.
The organizations come togetherand they ask Harriet Tubman if
she'll go around the countrysidetalking about women's right to
vote.
But Harriet says nope.
No, it's not going to bewomen's right to vote I'm going
to be talking about freedom,freedom for everyone.
So she goes around the countryand they talk about women's
(26:08):
suffrage.
Both Tubman and Susan B Anthonydied before 1920, but their
efforts, their work, theircommitment to this whole
movement of women's freedom andwomen's rights culminates into
the 1920s, and that's when womenget their right to vote.
So this is the kind of womanthat Harriet Tubman was.
She believed strongly that noone should be enslaved, that
(26:31):
people should be free to liveand pursue the kind of lives
that God put them on this earthto do, and that was her mantra.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
And that's what she did, and she has a lasting
legacy.
What else do you guys have thatmight have the feel of Harriet?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, we've got all kinds of statues and artifacts.
We've got shackles.
I was presented some slaveledgers back to 1848 of the John
Pennington family in Boston,founded in their attic.
It's the original ledgers ofwhere he was purchased and
Pennington is one of the menthat Harriet Tubman rescued.
(27:06):
Oh, wow.
So I will be putting that inframe.
But we just have lots of books.
We have exhibits of spoons andforks that were used in slave
cabins.
What we found is that, based onthis recent dig in the last
couple of years, they foundartifacts at Benjamin Ross's
cabin.
We believe that there was somehierarchy.
(27:28):
Benjamin Ross was a veryskillful boat builder and a
navigator.
He was a foreman.
He regulated and oversaw howthe boats were built.
He was known to be able to lookat the sweetgum tree and the
tulip poplar and determine whatpart of the tree was best for
the ships he built.
So in this dig they foundspoons and forks.
(27:53):
They found knobs to dressers.
So we believe that there wassome sort of hierarchy among
enslaved people where BenjaminRoss and the Ross family might
have lived differently.
Especially, benjamin Rosstreated a little differently.
Her mother, old Ritt, wasregarded very highly for someone
who would never lie, verytrusted.
So what we have here are piecesthat people have found living
(28:13):
here In Cambridge.
We have generations of familiesthat are still here.
The Rosses are still here, theThompsons are still here, the
Patsons are still here.
They bring us stuff and we haveit in display cases that you
could come and see.
The Benjamin Ross site will be atourist site once they complete
the dig and shore everything up.
(28:33):
Part of the land is owned bythe state of Maryland.
Part is privately owned so wehave to work through what is
available.
There are 45 sites along theUnderground Railroad from here
to Philadelphia.
Associations have beeninstrumental in restoring these
sites.
So a lot of history.
You can go back in history withthe locations of places, with
the artifacts and with thedescendants.
(28:56):
They still have the stories.
So this place is so rich withhistory it gives me goosebumps.
I'm from DC.
I come here every week tovolunteer in this museum.
It's just that important and Iwrite grants because this story
is an incredible American storythat we all need to know.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Do you have any recommendations for anyone who
wants to read more about Harriet?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So there's a couple.
I would certainly recommendSarah Bradford.
She wrote two books Harriet,the Moses of Her People, and
there's one other, both onAmazon.
Kate Clifford Larson wroteBalfour, the Promised Land.
She did a great job, a greatchronology of the Tubman story.
But the one that I'm readingnow is called Nightflyer, by
Taya Miles, and Taya goes verydeep into how Harriet became who
(29:42):
she was based on her faith,into how Harriet became who she
was based on her faith, her willand her connection to her
culture.
It's just amazing that she didso much research to go back to
the west coast of Africa andmake the connections of how
Harriet did, what not justHarriet but those who came here
how they survived.
I would recommend those booksas a good base to start.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Documentation in general was rather sparse, but
in Harriet's case, part of thereason why we know so much about
her is someone had actuallyspoken with her, got her version
of events and then wrote itdown Absolutely and who.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Sarah, sarah Bradford .
So Sarah Bradford was a womanwho an abolitionist, but she
started writing books and thisis in the later 1800s.
You know Harriet, by this time,is free and she tells her what
happened.
And so the historians that havewritten books long after that's
their Bible, they've got to goto Sarah Bradford because she
(30:39):
was there.
She was there and then WilliamStill, the father of the
Underground Railroad, where,when Harry got to freedom in
1849, she meets William Still.
He's in Philadelphia, hismother was born here and she
made the decision to leave, goto New Jersey, remarry, and she
had William Still.
So he's born free,well-educated, a prolific writer
(31:00):
.
He documents the stories.
Once you got to his place,knocked on his door, he wrote
the Underground Railroad, and sowe have that documentation.
But there's so many others,there's so many other stories
that we're finding out about andwriters, historians are writing
about, because it all ties into that period.
It was a magnificent period ofhuman valor.
(31:20):
Thank you so much for sharingmore of Harriet Tubman.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
She is one of my favorite historical figures and
this was really great my mottois find the Harriet in you.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Take one thing that she did, embrace it, and you
will be free.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting
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If you enjoyed the show, pleaseconsider subscribing and rating
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If you love a museum and wouldlike to hear it featured in an
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(31:58):
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Sometimes, every now and again, there's a person born
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Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, I'm Ayla Sparks and this is Curator's Choice, a
podcast for history nerds andmuseum lovers.
From ancient relics to modernmarvels, each episode of this
show features a new museum and acurator's choice of some
amazing artifacts housed there.
These guardians of history willshare insights, anecdotes and
the often untold stories thatbreathe life into the artifacts
(00:33):
they protect.
Thanks for tuning in to thisMighty Oak Media production and
enjoy the show.
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of Curator's Choice.
Today on the show, we're lookingat the Underground Railroad.
Beyond the imagery of secretroutes and hidden safe houses,
it was a complex network ofpeople, places and very powerful
(00:55):
codes Codes in words, codes insongs and even codes in the
stars.
In this episode, we delve intothe stories of Harriet Tubman,
known as the Moses of her people, and explore how faith,
resilience and ingenuity helpedguide countless individuals to
(01:15):
freedom.
With Linda as our guide at theHarriet Tubman Museum and
Education Center in Cambridge,maryland, she shares with us the
incredible story of HarrietTubman.
So, without further ado, let'sjump right in, with Linda At its
core.
What was the UndergroundRailroad?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
The Underground Railroad was a network of people
, locations and code.
So what do I mean by code?
Code is the way they spoke,those that could write the way
they wrote and those that couldsing.
It's the songs that they sangto signal folks that were
getting ready to get on theUnderground Railroad that it was
(01:57):
time to come Harriet Tubman.
So she was referred to as theMoses of her people.
So this Underground Railroadwent as far south as Mexico, as
far north as Canada and westUtah, and we're finding more
areas all throughout the UnitedStates because this is a real
hot topic and archaeologists aredigging in to get the history.
(02:18):
Harriet Tubman, when she wascoming back, she made her first
walk in 1849 using this network.
When I say people, 50% of theAfrican Americans living in
Maryland at the time were free.
They were very instrumental inhelping the movement of people.
So you had the free AfricanAmericans, you had her father,
benjamin Ross, samuel Green.
(02:39):
They were station managers.
They were enslaved people.
They were double agents.
Thompson's Plant plantation wasa station stop along the
Underground Railroad.
The stops would be houses,barns, churches, all those
instrumental in helping themovement of people.
Harriet Tubman was consideredthe Moses of her people.
She did her first walk in 1849.
(03:01):
She comes back her first timein 1850.
There's all this chatter aboutHarriet Tubman Born Araminta
Ross.
She changed her name.
So Go Down Moses was a songthat was sung in the fields.
The enslaved were just singingthese songs, but in fact it was
code.
May I sing one of the songs?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Go down Moses way down in Egypt land.
Tell old Pharaoh to let mypeople go.
When Moses went to Egypt land,let my people go.
He made old Pharaoh understand.
Let my people go.
Egypt was the plantation.
(03:42):
Pharaoh was the enslaver, moseswas.
You know, we know Moses fromthe Bible.
Let my people go.
That was Harriet's job.
Let my people go.
My people are going up north.
They're going to go above theMason-Dixon line to find freedom
.
So it was code.
Another code song, real quickly.
She had to follow the NorthStar.
(04:04):
In the North American sky inthe winter, the two most
prevalent constellations,especially here is the Big
Dipper and the Little Dipper.
At the base of those twoconstellations is Polaris or the
North Star.
Another code song, not used somuch here on the eastern shore,
but certainly along theUnderground Railroad,
particularly in the far south.
(04:25):
It was follow the drinkinggourd.
The next time you go out, lookup at the muntra sky and outline
it with your finger.
It comes down, it goes under.
There's the North Star back up,while the constellation it
resembles a drinking gourd or aladle.
Follow the drinking gourd.
Come on and follow the drinkinggourd, for the old man is
(04:46):
waiting just to carry you tofreedom.
Follow the drinking gourd.
When the sun comes back and thefirst quell calls follow the
drinking gourd, for the old manis waiting just to carry you to
freedom.
Follow the drinking gourd.
There's a lot of singing goingon because it was a way of
(05:07):
dealing with the horrificconditions of slavery.
It brought an enormous amountof hope where most were in
despair, but singing and knowingthat freedom would be yours.
So there's many examples of howthey traversed it, but that's
when it was a network andHarriet Tubman was the best
network.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It makes a lot of sense when you think about it
because, however annoying it maybe, when you hear a jingle, it
sticks in your head and youremember it, even if you don't
want to.
So encoding in a song is thebest way to make sure that
everybody can remember theinstructions.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Absolutely, and they were so skillful, so incredibly
smart to have created this code,this way of communicating to
get to freedom.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I do have a question.
So I feel like this might beone of those things that's kind
of an urban legend at this point, but I've heard many times that
the quilts on barns wereoriginally used as codes for the
Underground Railroad.
As codes for the UndergroundRailroad, the quilts were more.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You heard more about that in the South than you did
here.
All this, although they canrefer to Maryland as Little
Mississippi, but it was moreSouth Carolina, north Carolina,
florida, that you heard that.
Now historians have dispelledthat.
That was even possible.
I read a passage where theywould put the quilt out.
They'd hang it on a line andput it out for two to three
weeks and as the enslaved peoplewere walking by they would see
(06:28):
the coats, they'd see the bearclaw, but historians have not
been able to verify that.
But similarly, the drinkinggourd.
I get into debates with reallyaccomplished, credentialed
historians who fight with me allthe time.
Drinking gourd was copyrightedin 1928, and then again in 1948.
Absolutely, they werecopyrighted long after slavery.
The enslaved people had no ideaabout reducing songs to a music
(06:52):
sheet with bars and lines andstaffs.
They didn't know that.
So it's my contention thatthese rhythms, these cadences
were stolen and they weren'tgiven credit for it.
So if I talk to people who haveties to their history in the
South, they stand by the quilt,by the oral history, by the
folklore.
(07:12):
And who are we to really dispelany of it?
Because we weren't there andneither were the historians.
I'm more inclined to listen toSarah Bradford who interviewed
Harriet Tubman.
I'm sticking with her.
I've talked to many historianswho say Sarah, embellish the
story to sell books.
They weren't there.
It would make sense that thequilts could be.
(07:33):
These are symbols that werebelieved to have been brought
from the west coast of Africa,but I'm thinking unlikely that
they would be able to hang aquilt for two to three weeks
while enslaved people arewalking by to understand what
was going on.
The songs, though?
The songs I am so committed tobecause these are rhythms that
they sang or hummed at the bellyof those slave ships.
(07:55):
I know that to be true.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
What were some of the other things that were signals
to signal like a safe house?
You've heard carvings on thedoor or things that you can only
see in a certain light Lanterna lit lantern.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
We're in Dorchester County where she was born.
Her father was enslaved inCaroline County.
In Caroline County right nowthe Historical Society has
restored 50 of the original safehouses, either barns or
churches.
Wow, the signal was a litlantern.
The Quakers were veryinstrumental in helping the
movement of people.
If the lantern was not lit,keep going, but if it was a lit
(08:33):
candle it was safe to stop, sothat we know was a signal.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Well, and I think whenever you're thinking about
the Underground Railroad as well, you have to realize it's not
just this linear single trail.
It was an incredibly complexorganization.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And the people made itsuccessful, all those who helped
, who put their lives on theline, who put their properties
up to be safe houses.
Each route was different.
They were covert operations andhad to elude the enslavers who
really, by the way, just weren'tas smart as they were.
(09:09):
I mean for people to have comehere, to have been captured, put
on slave ships, made to endurethat middle passage that took
three to five months, sometimescome to a land they'd never seen
, climate that they'd never hadto deal with, language they
never heard to be able to endurepretty brilliant human beings
(09:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
And speaking of brilliant people, harriet Tubman
yes, I want to know more aboutwhat was her life like when she
was enslaved.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Her grandmother was brought here from the west coast
of Africa Some books say Ghana,some say Senegal 1750-ish
captured, put at the belly ofthat ship and made to endure
that middle passage and broughthere to Long Wharf, which is
right down the street from wherewe are.
Harriet Tubman had the benefitwhen she was on that slave ship.
She was pregnant with HarrietTubman's mother, harriet Tubman,
(10:03):
our Harriet, and I've got alittle rendering of what we
thought things she looked like,at age 13, was born.
Her given name was AramintaRoss.
So when modesty was broughthere and purchased by the Patson
family, she was pregnant andshe eventually bore Harriet Ritt
or Harriet Green, old Ritt,when Old Ritt had her children
(10:23):
at least, and through tubman,and tubman was the fifth of nine
children.
I'm not sure that the youngerbrothers got to know their
grandmother, but harriet knewher grandmother and her
grandmother would tell her thatshe came here free.
This system that you're in istemporary.
If you have faith, if she camefrom either Senegal or Ghana,
their connection to their faithwas huge, deep, very intense.
(10:48):
She would share with Harrietthat if you have faith you will
find freedom.
So Harriet, or Menti, froze upwith this idea of freedom, this
horrific condition of slavery.
She was treated very badlybecause she was very obstinate.
She was always questioning thissystem of slavery because she
is living in Dorchester County,where 50% of the African
(11:10):
Americans are free.
So imagine working plantationsbeing rented out.
That was a big industry here onthe Eastern Shore.
They would rent their enslavedpeople out.
She is meeting and talking withpeople that look just like her
that are free.
She's always questioning thiswhy are you free and I am not?
So as a consequence of herquestioning her understanding
(11:34):
who, she understood, where she,who she was and where she came
from, she was constantly beat,you know, as a little girl.
One of her early jobs, aboutfive years old now.
Harriet only grew to be fivefeet tall as an adult.
So she was a tiny, petitelittle girl.
One of her early jobs, aboutfive years old Now, harriet only
grew to be five feet tall as anadult.
So she was a tiny, petitelittle girl left largely alone
because she was a middle child,so middle children.
Growing up.
(11:54):
I had to kind of figure outlife because I had my older
brothers and my older sistersand here I am in the middle and
no one's really paying attentionto me.
So Harriet Tubman spent anawful lot of time alone figuring
things out, having hergrandmother in her ear and just
kind of observing hersurroundings.
Her father, benjamin Ross, wasa boat builder and navigator, so
(12:15):
he's in her ear when he couldand so she grows up with a whole
different way of seeing theworld and in her mind, based
upon what her grandmother said,she's supposed to be free.
One of her jobs very early andshe was very, very defiant, very
obstinate.
She's five years old One of herjobs was to go into the icy
Blackwater River and check thetraps of muskrat.
(12:36):
Muskrat was big, they sold thefur.
If she would go in and checkthe trap and there were no
muskrat there, and if she didfind them there half dead,
imagine the trauma of a littlefive-year-old seeing a half dead
big old furry rat with a longtail and sharp teeth.
But anyway, if she'd go checkthe trap and there were no
muskrat, she'd be severelybeaten.
She developed a real resistanceto being beaten and it made her
(12:57):
very strong and her faith wasvery strong because her
grandmother told her if youbelieve, if you have faith, if
you're connected to this beingGod, call it what you want up in
heaven.
If you're obedient there, youwill find freedom.
So that's how she grew up andthat's what made her who she was
.
She resisted the system ofslavery.
(13:22):
She wanted to be like the freeAfrican Americans that she had
come to know, and she justplodded her way till she got
there.
I'm sitting inside of my museum.
I had this mural painted inFebruary of this year and it's
the Bucktown store.
I do walking tours.
I've walked the UndergroundRoad.
I've walked from Broadus toPhiladelphia three times.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Oh wow.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I walked from Auburn, new York, to Canada once and
then I walked from Charlestoninto Beaufort once, so I'm kind
of covering the path that shetook In this Bucktown store.
The other thing that reallysolidifies who she becomes is
what happens here in the store.
She'd been rented out.
She's 13 years old by the timeshe's 13,.
She's seen all the wars ofslavery.
(14:01):
She's been beaten.
She tells Sarah Brathwaiteabout her body.
She's got lashes and marks frombeing beaten.
All the time she sees othersbeing beaten.
Brodus was an especially harshenslaver because of his
upbringing.
She knows what she's dealingwith.
She's 13, but probably hermaturity level is 30.
(14:22):
She goes.
She's been rented out.
She comes to this Buckhoundstore.
She comes to this Bugtown store.
She's coming into the frontdoor.
I just love this.
This room is amazing.
She's coming in the front door.
You see, samuel, there's a youngslave boy, samuel thinking
about eight years old.
He has left his plantation andhe's running down Best Pitch
Ferry Road.
He runs to the back of thestore.
(14:42):
Harriet's coming in the front.
I'm looking at the back door.
He runs in the back and Harrietsees what's happening.
This is considered her firstact of defiance, so he's being
pursued by the overseer namedBarnett.
Barnett runs in the back doorand he calls out to Harriet
because he sees her at the frontand he says grab him.
Harriet doesn't do that.
She puts out her hand andpushes Samuel out the door.
(15:04):
He picks up a two-pound weightand throws it in the little
boy's direction, but it hitsHarry in the head instead,
cracks her skull.
She falls out.
Blood streams down her face,soils her garment.
She's eventually picked up andtaken back to the plantation
that she had been rented and isallowed to rest for the night.
But that morning she's got toget up and work.
(15:24):
Blood's still on her face,garments in her hair.
She says that the reason thatblow didn't kill her she told
Sarah Bradford I hadn't killedmy hair until I was 18.
So she had thick, full hairuntamed and she had had it
wrapped in cloth made offlaxseed.
That was a crop that was grownhere.
You take the shell of theflaxseed and you can strip it
and eventually get thread andthen you get this linen.
(15:46):
So it was wrapped in linencloth and that cushioned the
blow, but it didn't stop thattwo-pound weight from cracking
her skull.
Imagine she was a handicappedAmerican who did amazing things.
After this hit to her head thecracked skull, she has this
frontal lobe damage andeventually has epilepsy,
narcolepsy, sleeping disease,call it what you want.
(16:08):
But she'd frequently be workingin the fields and she'd have
these epileptic attacks two,three times a day.
The enslavers, and even herfellow african-americans and the
people that she worked with,thought she was a little nutsy.
She'd go into a catatonic state.
They thought it was voodoo orwitchcraft.
They would just watch do thisand then she'd finally regain
consciousness.
But when she did, she began tohave these visions.
(16:31):
These are the visions that hergrandmother told her, visions of
freedom.
She embraced that and went onto be this amazing woman, the
mother of the UndergroundRailroad.
Not only did she get herself tofreedom above the Mason-Dixon
line, what makes her so amazingis she came back to get other
people.
So that's our Harriet.
(16:52):
The store still exists.
It's still out on Bucktown Road.
It's been there since 1820.
The Meredith family still ownthe Bucktown store and I delight
in taking people there and, asyou can see, I'm very animated
and I tell this story and peopleare really pulled into who
Harriet Tubman was.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I think one of the things that made me admire her
the most is when she escaped,then decided to come back and
run the chances of reliving thisto even a worse extent because
she was helping others escape.
But when I found out that shewould pass out, have these fits
in the middle of a rescue.
(17:32):
They would just wait for her toregain consciousness and they
would continue the journey.
I would not be nearly thatstrong as to be like all right,
well, we're going to continuethis life or death journey where
I just passed out for a fewminutes, it's remarkable.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
It is remarkable, and imagine how the people
following her felt.
They thought oh my God, we'rein this.
What's going on here?
What is happening, crazy woman.
Now imagine the enslaved peoplewho were already frightened
about taking this route,frightened about leaving their
plantations and not knowingwhere they were going.
They too had to have anenormous amount of faith,
(18:06):
courage, resilience, persistencejust to embark upon such a
journey At night, in the dark.
They always traveled at night.
The floor of the forest and thewooded area were covered with
sweet gum balls.
Imagine having to walk.
Do you know what a sweet gumball is, having to walk on those
prickly things?
And following this woman whohad these bits?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It's pretty astonishing.
Another reason why I admire heris because her resolve to make
sure that, no matter whathappened, she was going to get
them out safely, whether theyended up wanting it or not.
Well, and you couldn't turnback.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Once you decided everyone at risk everything, and
this mission was bigger thanHarriet and anyone involved.
She would tell them I'll killyou, we're in this and we got to
keep going.
You can't come back.
So yeah, pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Yeah, she is absolutely remarkable.
We know that she did all ofthese tricks to save people.
She ended up saving over 70.
And did she never lost anyone?
She never lost anyone andtraveled with babies.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
How did she keep the babies from crying out at night?
Because she knew the land.
She was such a naturalist, anenvironmentalist.
She knew what to use to make asedative and put it on the gums
of the babies so they wouldsleep all night long.
She never got caught and neverlost anyone.
Sometimes, every now and again,there's a person born in this
(19:32):
life to do incredible things,and she was that person.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
What happens to Harriet after she has completed
these rescues?
What does the rest of her lifelook like?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Oh my God.
So you would think, aftermaking 13 trips, so 1850, now,
while she's making these trips,this is about 11 years before
the Civil War.
So there's grumblings all overthe North, they're wanting to
usher in the IndustrialRevolution.
The South, no, no.
We're making enormous amountsof money we are not going to get
rid of.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Now this thing is working good.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
This relabor.
This is working good for us.
So 1850, they passed theFugitive Slave Act.
They passed one earlier, likein 1830, but it didn't go over
as well.
But this one was real becauseby the time the Civil War broke
out, 100,000 men, women andchildren had found freedom along
the Sunday Brown Railroad.
So they passed the FugitiveSlave Act and that said that
(20:23):
anyone African American,anywhere free or enslaved, could
be captured and sold south,because cotton was king and the
south was becoming insanelywealthy.
I read it was the fourthlargest industry in the world.
Now she does.
You know, she comes back and notall of her first time out is
all walking, subsequent trips.
She had a network of peopleused wagons, horses, boats and
(20:48):
later on, trains.
She makes these trips, 13 ofthem, gets these people out.
Her last trip back was to gether parents and they're in
Canada.
Does she just kind of sit back?
I got everybody out, I'm free,all is good.
I did my work, I can relax andenjoy.
That wasn't part of her DNA.
What happens?
Oh, abe Lincoln, by this timethey've written a lot about
(21:10):
Harriet Tubman.
There's pictures of her.
She is this, you know, biggerthan life, human being, and so
they figure out that well, wecan use this woman.
The Civil War breaks out in 1861.
Let's call Harriet why.
She's a spy, she runsclandestine operations, she
understands the land, she's anurse, she can cook, she can do
(21:31):
everything that we need in thismilitary operation.
So she goes down to Beaufort,south Carolina, and she works
with General Montgomery.
She helps General Montgomeryget 700 enslaved people off
those plantations.
They go down there, the Unionforces go and they burn the
plantations and they get 700people away.
(21:51):
But then she is on this gunboatand her job is to take out the
Confederate boat, which she does.
Where does she get that skillfrom?
That is just plain old courageand cockiness, as far as I'm
concerned.
She wears that gunboat, takesout the Confederate army and
wins the battle of the TambiRiver.
That's pretty amazing stuff.
Harriet had the wherewithal togo in because they didn't trust
(22:14):
her at first.
Who is this woman?
What does she think she iscoming here?
You have to think about thecamaraderie, if you will,
between free African Americansand those that were enslaved.
Not a whole lot of trustpulling and probably no
camaraderie actually.
So she had to go down and learntheir language to get them to
trust her and she said you knowI'm going to get you out of here
(22:34):
.
And she did, she did and winsthe battle.
I mean that's pretty incredible.
After all, she went throughright.
She hit in the head all thelashings, all the beatings, gets
people to freedom, goes andfights in a war and wins the
battle Pretty incredible.
And still she doesn't get paid.
When I was there I met withsome historians and they pointed
(22:54):
out a corner to me where sheset up a food stand Probably the
first food stand, I don't know.
She's selling cookies, cakesand pies to raise money for
these new families that are nowfree when the war's over.
She's headed back to Canadabecause she's got to get her
family.
They're going to move back intothe United States.
She's on the train.
(23:15):
Some Confederate soldiersrecognize her, they pick her up
and they throw her off a movingtrain More bodily damage.
By this time she's in her 40s,early 50s, I think.
Can you imagine she gets backto Canada and she can come back
into the United States by thistime she's regarded, but not
highly enough to get paid.
She befriends William Seward,the Secretary of State under
(23:36):
Abraham Lincoln.
They give her the money to buya house in Auburn, new York,
which is a second state park toHarriet Tubman.
The first one is down here inChurch Creek, opened in 2018,
and then that state park inAuburn, new York.
They renovated the house.
I did my walk last year.
I look forward to going back toseeing the renovations.
And so she gets a house and shebrings her family back into the
(23:59):
United States.
Now what does she do there?
Now?
She lives in New York andCanada longer than she does here
.
She leaves here when she's 27.
So the rest of her life isspent there.
When you go to Auburn and StCatharines, they know her
history very well.
So she gets a house.
She's given the money but sheinsists on repaying it.
(24:19):
Even though she never got paid,she insists on repaying it.
So she does all kinds of oddthings and always helping people
.
That's how she gets money.
But she ends up opening a housein Auburn for the homeless, for
the poor, for the children thatmay not have families, and she
takes people in.
It's pretty amazing.
Now she marries John Tubmanwhile she's here.
(24:40):
John Tubman doesn't want tocome.
She was born airman to Ross andchanges her name to Harriet
Tubman.
Once she's on the run, shecomes back to get her husband,
but her husband has remarried.
He doesn't want to come withher.
So she leaves him behind anddecides this mission is bigger
than you and I.
A Civil War soldier, 22 yearsyounger than Harriet, needs
(25:01):
shelter.
His name is Garrett Davis.
She ends up marrying him.
She's well into her 50s by nowand she marries a man 22 years
younger than she is, never haschildren, adopts an old girl
named Gertie, who's 13.
History doesn't really followGertie, so we're not quite sure
what happens.
But instead of her deciding Igot this house now I don't have
(25:24):
to pay the money back, sheinsisted on repaying the sewers.
She spends her whole life inservice to other people.
Now, one other thing worthmentioning Auburn is, I don't
know, 50 miles from Seneca Falls, and we know that Seneca Falls
is the birthplace of the women'ssuffrage movement.
She befriends Susan B Anthony.
They have started this movement, susan B Anthony.
(25:44):
They have started this movement.
Susan B Anthony hears about her.
They form the Negro Women'sLeague.
The organizations come togetherand they ask Harriet Tubman if
she'll go around the countrysidetalking about women's right to
vote.
But Harriet says nope.
No, it's not going to bewomen's right to vote I'm going
to be talking about freedom,freedom for everyone.
So she goes around the countryand they talk about women's
(26:08):
suffrage.
Both Tubman and Susan B Anthonydied before 1920, but their
efforts, their work, theircommitment to this whole
movement of women's freedom andwomen's rights culminates into
the 1920s, and that's when womenget their right to vote.
So this is the kind of womanthat Harriet Tubman was.
She believed strongly that noone should be enslaved, that
(26:31):
people should be free to liveand pursue the kind of lives
that God put them on this earthto do, and that was her mantra.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
And that's what she did, and she has a lasting
legacy.
What else do you guys have thatmight have the feel of Harriet?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, we've got all kinds of statues and artifacts.
We've got shackles.
I was presented some slaveledgers back to 1848 of the John
Pennington family in Boston,founded in their attic.
It's the original ledgers ofwhere he was purchased and
Pennington is one of the menthat Harriet Tubman rescued.
(27:06):
Oh, wow.
So I will be putting that inframe.
But we just have lots of books.
We have exhibits of spoons andforks that were used in slave
cabins.
What we found is that, based onthis recent dig in the last
couple of years, they foundartifacts at Benjamin Ross's
cabin.
We believe that there was somehierarchy.
(27:28):
Benjamin Ross was a veryskillful boat builder and a
navigator.
He was a foreman.
He regulated and oversaw howthe boats were built.
He was known to be able to lookat the sweetgum tree and the
tulip poplar and determine whatpart of the tree was best for
the ships he built.
So in this dig they foundspoons and forks.
(27:53):
They found knobs to dressers.
So we believe that there wassome sort of hierarchy among
enslaved people where BenjaminRoss and the Ross family might
have lived differently.
Especially, benjamin Rosstreated a little differently.
Her mother, old Ritt, wasregarded very highly for someone
who would never lie, verytrusted.
So what we have here are piecesthat people have found living
(28:13):
here In Cambridge.
We have generations of familiesthat are still here.
The Rosses are still here, theThompsons are still here, the
Patsons are still here.
They bring us stuff and we haveit in display cases that you
could come and see.
The Benjamin Ross site will be atourist site once they complete
the dig and shore everything up.
(28:33):
Part of the land is owned bythe state of Maryland.
Part is privately owned so wehave to work through what is
available.
There are 45 sites along theUnderground Railroad from here
to Philadelphia.
Associations have beeninstrumental in restoring these
sites.
So a lot of history.
You can go back in history withthe locations of places, with
the artifacts and with thedescendants.
(28:56):
They still have the stories.
So this place is so rich withhistory it gives me goosebumps.
I'm from DC.
I come here every week tovolunteer in this museum.
It's just that important and Iwrite grants because this story
is an incredible American storythat we all need to know.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Do you have any recommendations for anyone who
wants to read more about Harriet?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So there's a couple.
I would certainly recommendSarah Bradford.
She wrote two books Harriet,the Moses of Her People, and
there's one other, both onAmazon.
Kate Clifford Larson wroteBalfour, the Promised Land.
She did a great job, a greatchronology of the Tubman story.
But the one that I'm readingnow is called Nightflyer, by
Taya Miles, and Taya goes verydeep into how Harriet became who
(29:42):
she was based on her faith,into how Harriet became who she
was based on her faith, her willand her connection to her
culture.
It's just amazing that she didso much research to go back to
the west coast of Africa andmake the connections of how
Harriet did, what not justHarriet but those who came here
how they survived.
I would recommend those booksas a good base to start.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Documentation in general was rather sparse, but
in Harriet's case, part of thereason why we know so much about
her is someone had actuallyspoken with her, got her version
of events and then wrote itdown Absolutely and who.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Sarah, sarah Bradford .
So Sarah Bradford was a womanwho an abolitionist, but she
started writing books and thisis in the later 1800s.
You know Harriet, by this time,is free and she tells her what
happened.
And so the historians that havewritten books long after that's
their Bible, they've got to goto Sarah Bradford because she
(30:39):
was there.
She was there and then WilliamStill, the father of the
Underground Railroad, where,when Harry got to freedom in
1849, she meets William Still.
He's in Philadelphia, hismother was born here and she
made the decision to leave, goto New Jersey, remarry, and she
had William Still.
So he's born free,well-educated, a prolific writer
(31:00):
.
He documents the stories.
Once you got to his place,knocked on his door, he wrote
the Underground Railroad, and sowe have that documentation.
But there's so many others,there's so many other stories
that we're finding out about andwriters, historians are writing
about, because it all ties into that period.
It was a magnificent period ofhuman valor.
(31:20):
Thank you so much for sharingmore of Harriet Tubman.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
She is one of my favorite historical figures and
this was really great my mottois find the Harriet in you.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Take one thing that she did, embrace it, and you
will be free.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Thank you so much for tuning in and supporting
Curator's Choice, a Mighty OakMedia production.
If you enjoyed the show, pleaseconsider subscribing and rating
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If you love a museum and wouldlike to hear it featured in an
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(31:58):
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I'll do my best to reach outand see if I can get them to be
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