A hymn book owned by
Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and conductor of the
Underground Railroad, was among the artifacts
displayed as part of the Women’s History Month
celebration held at the Charles L. Blockson
Afro-American Collection on March 5. The Blockson
Collection displayed the artifacts — which included a
shawl given to Tubman by Queen Victoria of England, a
memorial program from her funeral and other
collectables — as part of its yearly homage to notable
African American women.
This year’s honorees
were: City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell; author and
Photo by Ryan S. Brandenberg/Temple University
A hymn
book owned by Harriet Tubman
educator Marie T. Bogle;
Odunde Festival founder Lois Fernandez; television
news pioneer Trudy Haines; Philadelphia Inquirer
columnist Annette John-Hall; founder and president of
the American Women’s History Museum Audrey
Johnson-Thornton; philanthropist Beverly Lomax; and
Willa Ward-Royster, last remaining member of the
gospel group the Clara Ward Singers. Poet and
publisher for Third World Press Haki Madhubuti
performed several poems as part of the festivities,
which were broadcast live on WURD 990-AM and hosted by
the station’s programming director, Thera Martin
Connelly.
Testimony at the Underground Railroad
Network to Freedom Act of 1997 Hearings
BILL, H.R. 1635
To establish within the United States National Park Service
the
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program
Longworth House Office
Building, Room 1324, Washington, DC
July 22, 1997 – 10 am
It is indeed an honor for me to participate
in this historical event, in an effort to preserve the
former sites of the Underground Railroad, a subject that I
have been committed to since I was a child. When I was ten
years old, my grandfather told me that my great grandfather
and other members of my family escaped slavery on the
Freedom Train, that was commonly known as the Underground
Railroad. Although my great grandfather returned to the
United States after the Civil War, other relatives remained
in various parts of Canada to include Nova Scotia.
For more than thirty years, I have
researched, collected and written about this important
American epic. My greatest contribution was the cover story
I wrote for National Geographic magazine in July 1984. It
proved to be a popular article, receiving hundreds of
letters worldwide, stimulating interest in the preservation
of these historical sites. The article also gave me an
opportunity to travel throughout the nation, covering 20
states, including the provinces of Canada.
To my astonishment, I discovered with great
sadness that many of the sites have been demolished due to
urban removal, particularly the ones in the African American
community. I also discovered that many of the sites today
are under private ownership. In June of 1988, I was invited
to speak by the Quindaro Town Preservation Society in Kansas
City, Kansas, to help save the Quindaro ruins from being
destroyed to build a landfill at the Old Quindaro town
site. Quindaro was once an abolitionist settlement and a
station for blacks fleeing slavery via the Underground
Railroad.
In 1990, my connection with the Underground
Railroad Study began with former U.S. Representative Peter
H. Kostmayer (D., Pa.) who, after reading my book the
Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania and my article in
National Geographic, asked me if it was possible for these
former sites to be preserved, and if so, he would introduce
a bill to the Secretary of Interior to designate a route as
the Underground Railroad Historic Trail, install suitable
signs and markers and provide maps, brochures and other
informational devices to assist the public. After the
proposal was approved, I, along with several others were
asked to testify before a similar Committee in Congress.
Consequently, Rep. Kostmayer asked me to select a group of
people that represented various parts of the nation to from
an Advisory Committee. His staff then contacted the
prospective member of the Advisory Committee. This was how
the Advisory Committee was formed, and I was selected by
them as Chair. Four months before the Advisory Committee
was organized, a press conference was held, at which I
participated with Rep. Kostmayer, at Philadelphia’s Mother
Bethel A.M.E. Church. Mother Bethel, the oldest A.M.E.
Church in the country, was one of the most important
stations that hid hundreds of slaves. This press conference
generated a growing interest throughout the nation to
preserve the former Underground Railroad sites.
The Advisory Committee met in various parts
of the United States visiting the Underground Railroad
sites. I organized several tours, some of which I led.
Last year, I took a group of school teachers from the
Washington, DC area on a tour sponsored by National
Geographic. We traveled from Harriet Tubman’s birthplace in
Bucktown, MD, to Underground Railroad sites in Delaware, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and upstate New York, to include
Harriet Tubman’s and Frederick Douglass’ grave-site and then
into Canada. I was also a consultant for two television
documentaries about the Underground Railroad.
Because of the ongoing international interest
in the Underground Railroad and its idealized history, in
which fact and memory intertwine to epitomize a period of
rich heritage, it is imperative that Bill, H.R. 1635 is
implemented and receive the proper funding to better
preserve and exhibit our national heritage. It is also
imperative that an interpretive handbook is written by
scholars and consultants to teach the history and preserve
the memories of those brave souls who represented the
morality of Antebellum America; remembering the heroic
essence and hardships of great spirits such as Frederick
Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Levi Coffin, John Brown, Lucreatia
Mott, William Still, Native Americans such as, Chief
Pontiac, and a host of others. We realize that no one
institution, book or in-depth study can tell the full story
of this pivotal period in the history of America, however,
we can achieve its fullest expression through the lives of
such luminaries and the mechanisms they used for freedom in
this important chapter in history. Increasing the need for
wider recognition, we must challenge the deployment of the
national media in presenting the cultural value of our
heritage constructively, to inform rather than entertain.
In closing, I would like to commend the work
of the staff of the National Park Service for keeping this
project alive; a special thanks to the Underground Railroad
Study Advisory Committee for your efforts and hard work over
the past five years that have turned a necessity into a
possible reality. Without your help and the help of the
hundreds of people throughout the nation, who supported this
great project, we would not have been able to attain its
goal. And, thanks to those of you who have come today, many
from great distances, to support the project.
In the words of the old slave spiritual, that
was sung in connection with the Underground Railroad,
“Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass.” Let this BILL become
a reality so that our children of all races, creeds and
colors can enter into the 21st century in
brotherhood and sisterhood.
Letter from Frederick
Douglass.
ROCHESTER,
August 29, 1868
DEAR HARRIET: I
am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has
been written by a kind lady,
and that the same is soon to be published. You ask for what
you do not need when you call upon me for a word of
commendation. I need such words from you far more than
you can need them from me, especially where your superior
labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of
our land are known as I know them. The difference between us
is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the
service of our cause has been in public, and I have received
much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the
other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in
the day—you in the night. I have had the applause of the
crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by
the multitude, while the most that you have done has been
witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen
and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage,
and whose heartfelt “God bless you” has been your
only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have been
the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your
heroism. Excepting John Brown—of sacred memory—I know of no
one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships
to serve our enslaved people than you have. Much that you
have done would seem improbable to, those who do not know
you as I know you. It is to me a great pleasure and a great
privilege to bear testimony to your character and your
works, and to say to those to whom you may come, that I
regard you in every way truthful and trustworthy.
Your friend,
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
Letter from Wendell
Phillips.
June 16, 1868.
DEAR MADAME: The
last time I ever saw John Brown was under my roof, as he
brought Harriet Tubman to me saying: “Mr. Phillips, I
bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this
continent—General Tubman, as we call her.”
He
then went on to recount her labors and sacrifices in behalf
of her race. After that, Harriet spent some time in Boston,
earning the confidence and admiration of all those who were
working for freedom. With their aid she went to the South
more than once, returning always with a squad of
self-emancipated men, women, and children, for whom her
marvelous skill had opened the way of escape. After the war
broke out, she was sent with endorsements from Governor
Andrew and his friends to South Carolina, where in the
service of the Nation she rendered most important and
efficient aid to our army.
In my
opinion there are few captains, perhaps few colonels, who
have done more for the loyal cause since the war began, and
few men who did before that time more for the colored race,
than our fearless and most sagacious friend, Harriet.
Faithfully yours,
WENDELL PHILLIPS.
Extracts from a Letter
written by Mr. Sanborn, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board
of State Charities.
MY DEAR MADAME:
Mr. Phillips has sent me your note, asking for
reminiscences of Harriet Tubman, and testimonials to her
extraordinary story, which all her New England friends will,
I am sure, be glad to furnish.
I
never had reason to doubt the truth of what Harriet said in
regard to her own career, for I found her singularly
truthful. Her imagination is warm and rich, and there is a
whole region of the marvelous in her nature, which has
manifested itself at times remarkably. Her dreams and
visions, misgivings and forewarnings, ought not to be
omitted in any life of her, particularly those relating to
John Brown.
She
was in his confidence in 1858-59, and he had a great regard
for her, which he often expressed to me. She aided him in
his plans, and expected to do so still further, when his
career was closed by that wonderful campaign in Virginia.
The first time she came to my house, in Concord, after that
tragedy, she was shown into a room in the evening, where
Brackett’s bust of John Brown was standing. The sight of it,
which was new to her, threw her into a sort of ecstasy of
sorrow and admiration, and she went on in her rhapsodical
way to pronounce his apotheosis.
She
has often been in Concord, where she resided at the houses
of Emerson, Alcott, the Whitneys, the Brooks family, Mrs.
Horace Mann, and other well-known persons. They all admired
and respected her, and nobody doubted the reality of her
adventures. She was too
real a person to be suspected. In 1862, I think it
was, she went from Boston to Port Royal, under the advice
and encouragement of Mr. Garrison, Governor Andrew, Dr.
Howe, and other leading people. Her career in South Carolina
is well known to some of our officers, and I think to
Colonel Higginson, now of Newport, R.I., and Colonel James
Montgomery, of Kansas, to both of whom she was useful as a
spy and guide, if I mistake not. I regard her as, on the
whole, the most extraordinary person of her race I have ever
met. She is a negro of pure, or most pure blood, can neither
read not write, and has the characteristics of her race and
condition. But she has done what can scarcely be credited on
the best authority, and she has accomplished her purposes
with a coolness, foresight, patience and wisdom, which in a
white man would have raised him to the highest pitch
of reputation.
I am, dear Madame, very truly
your servant.
F.B. SANBORN
Letter from Col. James
Montgomery.
ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C., July
6, 1863.
HEADQUARTERS COLORED BRIGADE.
BRIG.-GEN. GILMORE,
Commanding Department of the South—
GENERAL: I wish
to commend to your attention, Mrs. Harriet Tubman, a most
remarkable woman, and invaluable as a scout. I have been
acquainted with her character and actions for several years.
I am,
General, your most ob’t servant,
JAMES MONTGOMERY, Col. Com. Brigade.
Letter from Mrs. Gen. A.
Baird
PETERBORO, Nov. 24, 1864.
The bearer
of this, Harriet Tubman, a most excellent woman, who has
rendered faithful
And good services to our Union
army, not only in the hospitals, but in various capacities,
having been employed under Government at Hilton Head, and in
Florida; and I commend her to the protection of all officers
in whose department she may happen to be.
She
has been known and esteemed for years by the family of my
uncle, Hon. Gerrit Smith, as a person of great rectitude and
capabilities.
MRS. GEN. A. BAIRD.
Letter from Hon. Gerrit Smith.
PETERBORO, N.Y., Nov. 4, 1867.
I have
known Mrs. Harriet Tubman for many years. Seldom, if ever,
have I met with a person more philanthropic, more
self-denying, and of more bravery. Nor must I omit to say
that she combines with her sublime spirit, remarkable
discernment and judgment.
During
the late war, Mrs. Tubman was eminently faithful and useful
to the cause of our country. She is poor and has poor
parents. Such a servant of the country should be well paid
by the country. I hope that the Government will look into
her case.
GERRIT SMITH.
Testimonial from Gerrit Smith.
PETERBORO, Nov. 22, 1864.
The
bearer, Harriet Tubman, needs not any recommendation. Nearly
all the nation over, she has been heard of for her wisdom,
integrity, patriotism, and bravery. The cause of freedom
owes her much. The country owes her much.
I have
known Harriet for many years, and I hold her in my high
esteem.
GERRIT SMITH.
Certificate from Henry K.
Durrant, Acting Asst. Surgeon, U.S.A.
I certify that I
have been acquainted with Harriet Tubman for nearly two
years; and my position as Medical Officer in charge of
“contrabands” in this town and in hospital, has given me
frequent and ample opportunities to observe her general
deportment; particularly her kindness and attention to the
sick and suffering of her own race. I take much pleasure in
testifying to the esteem in which she is generally held.
HENRY K. DURRANT,
Acting Assistant Surgeon, U.S.A.
In charge “Contraband” Hospital.
Dated at Beaufort, S.C., the 3d day of May, 1864.
I concur fully in the above.
R. SAXTON, Brig.- Gen. Vol.
A Letter from Gen. Saxton to a lady of Auburn.
ATLANTA, Ga.,
March 21, 1868.
MY DEAR MADAME:
I have just received your letter informing me that Hon. Wm.
H. Seward, Secretary of State, would present a petition to
Congress for a pension to Harriet Tubman, for services
rendered in the Union Army during the late war. I can bear
witness to the value of her services in South Carolina and
Florida. She was employed in the hospitals and as a spy. She
made many a raid inside the enemy’s lines, displaying
remarkable courage, zeal, and fidelity. She was employed by
General Hunter, and I think by Generals Stevens and Sherman,
and is as deserving of a pension from the Government for her
services as any other of its faithful servants.
I am very truly yours,
RUFUS SAXON, Bvt. Brig.-Gen., U.S.A.
Rev.
Samuel I. May, in his recollections of the anti-slavery
conflict, after mentioning the case of an old slave mother,
whom he vainly endeavored to assist her son in buying from
her master, says:
“I did
not until four years after know that remarkable woman
Harriet, or I might have engaged her services, in the
assurance that she would have bought off the old woman
without paying for her inalienable right—her
liberty.”
Mr.
May in another place says of Harriet, that she deserves to
be placed first on the list of American heroines, and
then proceeds to give a short account of her labors, varying
very little from that given in this book.
To be continued…
The Rescue of Charles Nalle –
Troy Whig, April 28, 1859.
HARRIET TUBMAN
This republication of Sarah H.
Bradford’s memorable biography of Harriet Tubman is an
exact, unaltered and unabridged, reprint of the expanded
second edition of 1886. The first edition appeared in 1869.
Both were privately printed by Mrs. Bradford for the purpose
of raising funds to aid “the Moses of her people.”
Bringing 'stationmaster' Thomas Garrett
to life By ROBIN
BROWN, The News Journal
Posted Tuesday, August 21, 2007
A new sound -- a
blacksmith's hammer -- will ring joyful noise as
August Quarterly, the nation's oldest
African-American festival, wraps a month of
activities this weekend.
Retired Delaware National Guard Sgt. Maj. Willis
Phelps, one of Delaware's top historical
interpreters, will bring his blacksmith gear and
plenty of stories Sunday afternoon, for the final
day's gospel fest at Tubman-Garrett Park in
Wilmington. Although best known for his portrayal
of America's first African-American soldiers --
earning him the nickname "Delaware's Buffalo
Soldier" -- Phelps will portray a Civil War-era
blacksmith.
Phelps bases his
blacksmith on several Delawareans in the time of
slavery -- most notably a Wilmington Quaker
considered under-appreciated by history.
He was Thomas
Garrett, the lesser-known namesake of the city
park. Like better-known Harriet Tubman, he was a
"stationmaster," or leader in the secret
Underground Railroad, smuggling slaves to the
North.
Garrett is credited
with helping more than 2,700 slaves to freedom,
according to the Delaware Public Archives.
"No other point along
the entire Underground Network handled as much
human traffic as did the Garrett house," says the
Harriet Tubman Historical Society. "For many
fugitive slaves en route to Philadelphia and other
points north, the City of Wilmington became known
as 'A Last Stop Before Freedom.' "
Like many free black
people of the day, a woman who worked for the
Garrett family was abducted and sold into slavery.
Garrett kept going, despite being convicted of
aiding runaway slaves.
He also was an early,
grassroots supporter of the first Wilmington civil
rights movement, from which came free worship and
August Quarterly.
When Bishop Peter
Spencer in 1813 established the nation's first
independent black church -- defying laws against
people of color assembling without white
supervision -- Garrett helped pay for land where
the church was built.
Now known as the
Mother African Union First Colored Methodist
Protestant Church, or Mother AU Church, this
independent black church ensured people of color
the freedoms of religion, speech and assembly for
the first time. It started August Quarterly in
1814 to celebrate.
When Garrett died in
1871, black Wilmingtonians reverently carried him
from his house to the Quaker meeting house
cemetery at Fourth and West, where he is buried.
Garrett's home and
way-station to freedom stayed around more than a
century later, but was razed in the Bicentennial
year, 1976, for a new parking lot.
Garrett is honored in
a state historic marker erected about two blocks
from his home, and his city duly honored him and
Tubman by naming the riverside park that will fill
this weekend to celebrate not only religious
freedom but also the suffering and sacrifices of
past generations who made it possible.
As Phelps on Sunday
strikes hammer to hot metal, to make tools or
sharpen them as Garrett did, he will demonstrate
one of the few 1800s crafts open to black people.
And he will tell stories to all who are willing to
listen about those who reached freedom here and
those who opened their hearts and homes to help
them.
People like Thomas
Garrett.
Write to robin brown
at The News Journal, Box 15505, Wilmington, DE
19850; fax 324-5509; call 324-2856; or e-mail
backstory@delawareonline.com
Willis Phelps shows Civil War-era
blacksmithing to Matthew Holstein, 8, of Bear, last
summer at Fort Delaware. Phelps will portray his new
blacksmith persona -- drawing on the life of
abolitionist Thomas Garrett and others -- from 2 to 5
p.m. Sunday at August Quarterly at Tubman-Garrett Park,
Wilmington.
News Journal file/BOB HERBERT
Thomas Garrett
Biden
Introduces Legislation to Save National Underground
Railroad Network
WASHINGTON,
DC
– Today U.S. Senator Joe Biden. (D-DE) introduced the Underground Railroad
Network to Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2007, designed to preserve over 300
Underground Railroad-related programs and sites in 28 states – including 9 in
Delaware –
over the next several years.
The legislation will raise
the authorized level of funding for the program from
$500,000 to $2.5 million. Recent National Park Service
financial estimates have shown the future of the network
in great risk, as it will have a funding shortfall of
over 79 percent by the year 2011 if no action is taken.
“The Underground Railroad
Network is a vital asset to our national park system,”
said Senator Biden. “This is a special part of American
history that we cannot afford to let slip away. We must
move now to ensure that the brave acts of these
individuals are preserved for future generations to
observe and honor.”
Sen. Biden was joined by
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and eight Senate co-sponsors
in introducing the bill. This bill has already been
introduced in the House by Reps. Mike Castle (R-DE) and
Alcee Hastings (D-FL). Established in 1998, the
Underground Railroad Network to Freedom is the only
national program dedicated to the preservation,
interpretation, and dissemination of Underground
Railroad history.
The list of sites and
programs in
Delaware is
below:
June 27, 2007
Press Release
Dover
Delaware Statehouse [site]
StarHillHistoricalSocietyMuseum
[program]
The Rocks—FortChristinaState Park
[site]
New Castle
New Castle Courthouse [site]
Wilmington
Historical Society of Delaware
[facility]
Long Road to Freedom: UGRR in
Delaware
[program]
Thomas Garrett Home Site [site]
Tubman--GarrettRiverfrontPark and
MarketStreetBridge
[site]
Wilmington Friends Meeting House
and Cemetery [site]
Published: Mar 07, 2007 - 08:01:07 pm EST
Harriet Tubman Day set:
Public invited to celebration Saturday
Harriet Tubman
CAMBRIDGE - The Harriet Tubman
Organization invites the community to attend the Harriet Tubman
Day Annual Celebration on Saturday, at the Elks Lodge, 618 Pine
St., from 6 to 10 p.m. The annual banquet and program is
sponsored by the Harriet Tubman Organization with Donald Pinder,
president, and Evelyn Townsend, vice president.
For historical accuracy, the first Harriet Tubman Day
Celebration began in the late 1960s and was arranged by Addie
Clash Travers. The day was with a weekend of historical and
cultural activities in the city of Cambridge, ending in church
services at the historical Bazzel AME Church at Bucktown.
The Harriet Tubman Historical Society, voice/advocate for the
preservation and recognition of Harriet Tubman and the
Underground Railroad reached Dorchester County during the early
1980s in search of Harriet Tubman's trail and to reconnect the
Maryland & Delaware Underground Railroad. Vivian Abdur-Rahim
visited the Dorchester County Public Library and spoke with
librarian Gloria Henry.
Ms. Henry led her directly to Addie Clash Travers, Linda
Wheatley and members of the Harriet Tubman Association (now the
Harriet Tubman Organization). Together, both organizations
established a friendship and network that continues today with
Evelyn Townsend and officials of the Harriet Tubman
Organization.
The Harriet Tubman Historical Society and the Harriet Tubman
Association of Dorchester County, joined to sponsor the first
National Harriet Tubman Day Celebration. Sen. Joseph R. Biden
Jr., D-Del., the late Sen. Bill Roth and Rep. Thomas Carper,
D-Del., sponsored Harriet Tubman Day legislation in the United
States Congress .
Harriet Tubman Day was proclaimed
by President Bush, Congress, more than 20 governors, elected
officials, cities, and St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
On March 9, 1990, the Harriet Tubman Historical Society
sponsored the Harriet Tubman Day cultural program in Wilmington;
March 10, 1990, the first Harriet Tubman Freedom Tour, departed
from Wilmington, stopping at Underground Railroad sites in
Delaware, crossing the Choptank River, en route to the
celebration banquet in Cambridge.
Since the Harriet Tubman Day celebration in the late 1960s and
the first National Harriet Tubman Day, March 10, 1990, several
major events of interest have been reported:
l $50,000 was awarded to Evelyn Townsend to support the Harriet
Tubman Organization "to pay the mortgage on the group's Race
Street Headquarters and to conduct major repairs," Mrs. Townsend
said as she received the check from Del, Rudy Cane;
l Harriet Tubman Millennium Pilgrimage sponsored by Addie
Richburg & the International Network to Freedom, Washington,
D.C. May 2000;
l Dedication of the Harriet
Tubman Memorial Garden, May 22, 2000, Cambridge;
l Harriet Tubman Highway, a stretch of U.S. 50 was dedicated to
Tubman;
l The Harriet Tubman Special Resource Study legislation
sponsored by New York Sen. Charles Schumer and Maryland Sen.
Paul Sarbanes;
l The Web site is www.HarrietTubmanStudy.org
Gov. George Pataki in 2003 proclaimed March 10 a holiday in the
state of New York, initiated by the Black Women Leadership
Caucus.
During the 2000 session of the Maryland General Assembly, the
African American Tourism Council of Maryland and the Harriet
Tubman Organization of Cambridge were successful in getting
Senate Joint Resolution 12 passed to designate March 10 every
year as Harriet Tubman Day in Maryland. Louis Fields played an
important role in establishing the day.
The Harriet Tubman Historical Society wrote letters to the
Congressional Black Caucus May 1999, requesting their support
for the Harriet Tubman National Holiday. Theme: The Millennium
Project for Peace and Reconciliation.
The community is invited to join the Harriet Tubman Organization
Saturday and meet descendants and friends at the Harriet Tubman
Annual Celebration.
For tickets contact The Harriet Tubman Organization, 424 Race
St. or Donald Pinder at (410) 228-0401. Tickets for adults are
$20 and include the Harriet Tubman dinner and cultural program;
half-price for children under 12.
At the annual Harriet Tubman Day Banquet
at Elks Lodge No. 223 Saturday, The Moves of Praise dance
company treated guests to an inspirational performance.
By Renee Gilliard, Daily Banner
CAMBRIDGE — Saturday’s annual Harriet Tubman
Day Banquet gave many guests the opportunity to reflect on the
significant contribution made by one of the “conductors” of the
Underground Railroad.
The annual event at the Elks Lodge No. 223
celebrates the life of Harriet Tubman on the anniversary of her
death in 1913.
Emcee Royce Sampson led those in attendance on
a journey through Ms. Tubman’s contributions to the African
American community and society as a whole through a variety of
speeches and musical performances.
“We are so grateful that there were people
like Harriet Tubman…and it makes no difference what color our
skin may be, we are all children of God,” Mr. Sampson shared as
he set the spiritual tone for the evening.
The evening began with a selection from the
Warriors of Worship choral group and the Waugh Chapel Gospel
choir, who got the crowd of nearly 100 clapping in unison to a
variety of Christian music.
The Moves of Praise dance company then
presented a series of dances, with a range of performers from
toddlers to teenagers. Their interpretive movements were
inspired by faith and slavery and brought many in attendance to
tears.
Evelyn Townsend, a retired teacher, welcomed
guests to the event and reinforced a tone of faith saying,
“[Harriet Tubman] had faith in God and took
her life in her own hands, not letting anything come between her
and her faith in God.”
Guests had the opportunity to dine while
listening to the words of the Rev. Lena Dennis, keynote speaker.
The reverend is a Dorchester native and pastor of Eastern United
Methodist Church in Baltimore.
Her passion for Christianity took her to West
Africa where she conducted Bible studies with young adults and
taught students about marriage, sex education, and HIV and AIDS.
Vivica Grissom, a theologian from Philadelphia
was also in attendance. The event brought her to Cambridge as a
descendant of Harriet Tubman.
SENATE
STATE OF MISSOURI
Whereas,
the members of the Missouri Senate always welcome the
opportunity to acknowledge milestone events in the histories of
Show-Me State communities and neighborhoods that are dedicated
to improving the future by remembering the past; and
Whereas, on March 10,
2007, Harriet Tubman Day will be observed in Kansas City,
Missouri, as a part of the Women’s History Month celebration at
the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Museum; and
Whereas,
Harriet Ross Tubman is closely associated with the struggle for
civil rights and with the Underground Railroad that helped many
African Americans win their personal freedom by assisting them
on their arduous journey out of slave states during the Civil
War; and
Whereas, the
inaugural Harriet Tubman Day in Kansas City is taking place in
large measure because of the steadfast vision and activities of
Shirley Johnson; and
Whereas,
in addition to serving as a memorial to Harriet Tubman, Harriet
Tubman Day will entail awards, certificates, ribbons, and the
giving of a special Freedom Award to an outstanding and worthy
citizen; and
Whereas,
Harriet Tubman Day also will involve more than one hundred
schools, some of whose students will perform selections
depicting historical tributes honoring women in history; and
Whereas, Harriet
Tubman day began in Cambridge, Maryland, in the late 1960s due
to the leadership efforts of Addie Clash Travers, who organized
Father’s Day weekend historical and cultural activities that
concluded in services at the historic Bazzel AME Church in
nearby Bucktown, Maryland; and
Whereas, Harriet
Tubman Day became a national celebration in 1990 when the
Harriet Tubman Historical Society joined with the Harriet Tubman
Association of Dorchester County, Maryland, the United States
Congress, more than twenty state governors, and many city
officials to dedicate March 10th in her honor:
Now Therefore, Be It
Resolved that we, the members of the Missouri Senate,
Ninety-fourth General Assembly, join to applaud the work, goals,
and accomplishments associated with the life of Harriet Tubman
and to convey to all of those involved this legislative body’s
most hearfelt best wishes for a highly successful Harriet Tubman
Day in Kansas City; and
Be It Further Resolved that
the Secretary of the Senate be instructed to prepare a properly
inscribed copy of this resolution for presentation at the
Harriet Tubman Day program in Kansas City, Missouri.
Offered by
Senator Coleman
Maida J. Coleman
State of Missouri:
City of Jefferson:
I, Michael R. Gibbons,
President Pro Tem of the Senate, do hereby certify the above and
foregoing to be a full, true and completed copy of Senate
Resolution No. 518 offered into and adopted on March 6, 2007, as
fully as the same appears of record.
In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the Senate of the
State of Missouri this 6th
day of March, A.D. 2007.
Michael R. Gibbons
President Pro Tem
94th General Assembly
Sense of Historical
Disparity
Harriet Tubman's relatives say she
deserves same due as fellow Marylander and abolitionist
Frederick Douglass
By Jamie Stiehm
Sun reporter
Originally published February 28, 2007
"What she did, nobody else did. He
[Douglass] had the exposure, while she was leading a secret
organization," Pinder said. "Very few people saw her, so she
was never known nationally like Douglass. Harriet was an
ordinary person who could not read or write, but an
extraordinary person who gave all those people hope."
Two new government projects may help redress the imbalance.
The state has convened a working group to identify land for a
modern Tubman museum in Dorchester County. The National Park
Service is considering a Harriet Tubman National Park, either
in Maryland or upstate New York.
Maryland can make a strong
case for the park.
Born into slavery, Tubman grew up on a plantation in Bucktown
owned by the Brodess family. Her youth was spent working
fields, hunting, crabbing - and yearning for freedom.
Her first attempt to escape with her brothers ended in failure
when they convinced her to turn back. Later, acting on her
own, she walked away from the plantation one night. She made
it to Pennsylvania, a free state.
She made eight or nine expeditions deep into Maryland to
rescue scores of slaves, many of them from her family network.
According to legend, she carried a musket - both for
protection against capture and to keep wavering escapees from
turning back and betraying the group.
Employing ruses and disguises, she became known as Moses for
delivering some of her people from bondage. She became so
successful that slave catchers offered a bounty of at least
$12,000 for her apprehension.
She was never caught.
During the Civil War, she worked as a Union spy and nurse.
Afterward, she turned to women's rights as her cause and
founded a charitable home for the poor and elderly.
Married twice, she died childless in 1913 in Auburn, N.Y., in
her early 90s. She never knew her birthday.
In her day, Tubman had her admirers and allies. John Brown,
the fierce abolitionist who launched an attack raid on an
arsenal in Harpers Ferry, called her "General Tubman."
Although she never returned to live free in Maryland, a
cluster of Rosses still reside in the flat terrain of
Dorchester County, not far from Bucktown.
Valerie Manokey, 71, is the oldest living family descendant.
She bears a striking resemblance to her famous relative and
offers an explanation for the blackouts that bedeviled the
abolitionist after she was struck in the head as a girl by a
white overseer.
"She had God leading the way. When she fell asleep [blacked
out], that was God saying, 'Harriet, you need a rest.' That's
what I told my children," Manokey said in an interview at a
diner in Cambridge. Also at the table were Manokey's sisters
Peggy Ross and Betty Lue Ross, and their niece Hawkins, who
sat with her 2-year-old daughter, Maya.
Darline Ross Rogers, another keeper of family memories, said
Tubman was a superior slingshot shooter and often killed
muskrats for group suppers - a dish the family enjoys to this
day.
Tubman's relatives continue to draw from and share inspiration
from her life story: spirituals sung to warn slaves of
approaching danger, quilts containing coded messages hung in
Quaker safe houses, how she learned from her father to
navigate by the North Star.
Said Rogers: "Things happen when humble people dare to dream."
NASHVILLE – In order
“to honor and recognize Harriet Tubman for her
important role in the history of Tennessee and the United
States,” State Senator Ophelia Ford, D-Memphis, last
week unanimously passed legislation designating March 10 of
each year as Harriet Tubman Day. March 10 is the day on
which Tubman died in 1913.
“Harriet Tubman was one of the most remarkable people our
country has ever known,” Ford said. “She became known as the
‘Moses of Her People’ for her tireless efforts to help
slaves reach freedom through the Underground Railroad.
Historians estimate that as many as 100,000 people escaped
slavery on the Underground Railroad between 1810 and 1860,
and Harriet Tubman was a part of that effort.”
Tubman, the fifth of nine children, was born a slave in
Maryland. Historians place her birth date between 1820 and
1822. Fearing sale to the Deep South, she and two brothers
escaped in 1849. The two brothers eventually turned back,
but Tubman continued her journey northward. She eventually
joined the abolitionist movement and became involved in the
Underground Railroad, a clandestine organization that helped
slaves escape from the South. She made numerous trips back
to Maryland to help other slaves escape.
According to her estimates and those of her close
associates, Tubman personally guided approximately 70 slaves
to freedom in about 13 expeditions and gave instructions to
another 70 that found their way to freedom independently.
She was never captured.
During the Civil War, Tubman worked as a spy for the North.
She also planned and led a raid on Combahee Ferry, South
Carolina on June 2, 1863. This raid freed over 750 slaves.
“Tubman was also a noted advocate of equality for women,”
Ford said. “She was a member of the National Federation of
Afro-American Women, the National Association of Colored
Women, and the New England Women’s Suffrage Association.”
On February 21, 2007, the day Ford’s legislation passed the
State Senate, principals, teachers, and students from
Caldwell Elementary School, Hardy Elementary School, and the
Tommie F. Brown Academy of Classical Studies performed a
special program for the members of the 105th
General Assembly honoring Tubman.
General Harriet Tubman by Earl Conrad
Queen Victoria
Awards Harriet Tubman
The Diamond
Jubilee Medal
In April 1897 the
suffragists of Boston gave a benefit party for Harriet at
the Woman’s Journal parlors. An account in that
newspaper says that “…Mr. F.J. Garrison planned the
reception, Mrs. Edna Dow Cheney presided, and the survivors
of the old abolitionists in this vicinity, with the children
of those who have passed on, gathered to do Harriet
honor….Mrs. Frances E. Harper also was present.” Harriet’s
visit to Boston was also noted in the Woman’s Journal
of April 17, 1897, under the “Concerning Women” column:
“She has no pension, although her services during the war
were worth hundreds of men to the government….”
If the Government
was slow to recognize her, the British Queen Victoria
full well realized Harriet’s significance. A copy of the
Sarah H. Bradford biography had been sent to the Queen and
it had been read to her. The Queen sent a Diamond Jubilee
medal to Harriet and invited her to come to England. Harriet
said of this incident, “It was when the Queen had been on
the throne 60 years, she sent me the medal. It was a silver
medal, about the size of a dollar. It showed the Queen and
her family.” The letter she received with the medal “was
worn to a shadow, so many people read it.” 24 (pg.
215)
Clarke,
James B.: An Hour with Harriet Tubman, passim. The contact
of Harriet and the British Queen has been verified by others
then and now living, including Mrs. Tatlock, Mrs. Carter and
Mrs. Carroll Johnson, of 64 Garrow Street, Auburn, N.Y.
DEAR HARRIET: I
am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has
been written by a kind lady,
and that the same is soon to be published. You ask for what
you do not need when you call upon me for a word of
commendation. I need such words from you far more than
you can need them from me, especially where your superior
labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of
our land are known as I know them. The difference between us
is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the
service of our cause has been in public, and I have received
much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the
other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in
the day—you in the night. I have had the applause of the
crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by
the multitude, while the most that you have done has been
witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen
and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage,
and whose heartfelt “God bless you” has been your
only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have been
the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your
heroism. Excepting John Brown—of sacred memory—I know of no
one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships
to serve our enslaved people than you have. Much that you
have done would seem improbable to, those who do not know
you as I know you. It is to me a great pleasure and a great
privilege to bear testimony to your character and your
works, and to say to those to whom you may come, that I
regard you in every way truthful and trustworthy. 
