HISTORY Travel the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway Follow an American hero’s footsteps through history. N BY JIM MEYER Named one of the best driving tours in America, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway is a stirring tribute to the courage of Harriet Tubman and those who traveled the Underground Railroad. Gliding through historic towns and villages, farmlands, and the coastal wilderness of Caroline and Dorchester counties, this driving tour is a portal through a landscape virtually unchanged since Harriet Tubman began her daring crusade for freedom. Immerse Yourself in History See the restored Webb Cabin, a tiny one-Underground Railroad. A central point along the great Atlantic Flyway, Blackwater is home to bald eagles and herons, and vast flocks of geese that fill the sky horizon to horizon. ✥ Discover Maryland’s African-American History Witness the courage of African Americans and their struggle for freedom at these historic sites. BY JIM MEYER Maryland’s African-American experience has been inextricably woven through the fabric of its rich history. At the Annapolis City Dock, where slave ships once made port, see the Kunte Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, and honor the Roots author’s commitment to preserving and honoring African-American cultural heritage. Visit the nearby Banneker-Douglass Museum and learn of the contributions of great American thinkers and leaders like Benjamin Banneker and Frederick Douglass, whose indelible marks on the pages of history advanced the cause of freedom. Visit the cabin of Josiah Henson, the man whose story inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin . And witness the tragedies and triumphs of Harriet Tubman and other brave African-American travelers and conductors on the Underground Railroad Experience Trail in Sandy Spring. At Baltimore’s National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, life-sized wax figures bring African-American history to life. The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center offer unique perspectives on African-American contributions to industry and the birth of the American sound. At the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, experience the beauty and vibrancy of Maryland’s living African-American history. ✥ PHOTO: RAY STUDIOS Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park, Baltimore 26 ✥ VISITMARYLAND.ORG | 1-877-333-4455 PHOTOS: STATE OF MARYLAND; DORCHESTER COUNTY OFFICE OF TOURISM The byway links the new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center and more than thirty points marking touchstones of the life of “The Moses of Her People” and others. Visit the Harriet Tubman Museum and Education Center in Cambridge, and nearby Long Wharf Park to gaze out on the Choptank River. Now a place of serene beauty, its tranquil waters belie the site’s history as a landing point for slave ships. room cottage built in the 1850s, which is similar to the home where Tubman was born near Madison. Explore Linchester Mill, a potential crossing point for those seeking freedom on the Underground Railroad. Visit Courthouse Square in Denton where, in 1853, African-American residents celebrated the escape and return of Richard Potter, a free black youth who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. See the William Still Interpretive Center, which celebrates one of the Underground Railroad’s most famous station masters, and the Bucktown Village Store, where Tubman made her first bold stand for equality. Explore Natural Beauty Called the “Everglades of the North,” Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is a wildland of incomprehensible beauty. As a girl, Harriet Tubman visited this marsh to check muskrat traps for her master. Now you can journey along miles of hiking, biking and water trails through terrain that was both a barrier and a refuge for enslaved people on the Above: Harriet Tubman living historian with Massachusetts 54th USCT Regiment reenactors Top: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center
Maryland Official Visitors Guide 2017: Page 26
