Qualla: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS Photo, Public domain. The landscape has not changed. That is the entire point. Stand at the edge of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County, Maryland, and you see what Harriet Tubman saw: miles of tidal marsh stretching to the horizon, broken only by stands of loblolly pine and the occasional great blue heron lifting off the water. There are no monuments in the traditional sense, no marble columns or bronze statues dominating a plaza. Instead, the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park preserves something far more powerful -- the actual terrain that a formerly enslaved woman crossed again and again, returning thirteen times over a decade to lead approximately seventy people to freedom. This is a park where the land itself is the memorial.

Image: NPS Photo | Public domain

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park: Born into the Marshes

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS Photo, Public domain. Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross around March 1822, the middle child of nine enslaved siblings in Dorchester County. Her parents struggled against enormous odds to keep their family together. Taken from her mother and hired out at age six, she endured years of physical and m...

Image: NPS Photo | Public domain

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park: Thirteen Journeys South

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS Photo, Public domain. Between 1850 and 1860, Tubman returned to Dorchester and Caroline counties an estimated thirteen times, guiding family members, friends, and strangers along the Underground Railroad to the North. She traveled at night, in winter, when the long darkness provided cover and frozen g...

Image: NPS Photo | Public domain

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park: From Monument to Park

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS Photo, Public domain. The path to honoring Tubman on her home ground took decades. The Conservation Fund donated 480 acres of land known as the Jacob Jackson Home site to the federal government, and on March 25, 2013, President Barack Obama designated the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National M...

Image: NPS Photo | Public domain

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park: Where the Land Tells the Story

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS Photo, Public domain. The fifteen-thousand-square-foot visitor center, jointly managed by the National Park Service and Maryland Park Service, opened on March 10, 2017, drawing more than five thousand visitors during its opening weekend. Its design is deliberate. A memorial garden contains three zones...

Image: NPS Photo | Public domain