Qualla: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad: Introduction

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Keith Lanser - User: (WT-shared) Lanskeith17 at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore around 1822, in the same flat tidewater landscape of marshes, creeks, and forests that she would later use as an escape route to freedom. After her own escape in 1849, she returned at least thirteen times to guide approximately seventy enslaved people north - never losing a single passenger. 'I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger,' she said. The Underground Railroad was not a railroad and not underground - it was a network of safe houses, sympathetic helpers, and secret routes that funneled freedom-seekers from the slaveholding states to the North and Canada. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park preserves the landscapes of Dorchester County where Tubman was enslaved, where she first resisted, and where she returned repeatedly despite a $40,000 bounty on her head, earning the name 'Moses' from those she led to freedom.

Image: Keith Lanser - User: (WT-shared) Lanskeith17 at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad: Born in Bondage

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MamaGeek at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Araminta Ross - she later took her mother's name, Harriet - was born to enslaved parents on the Brodess plantation in Dorchester County. As a child, she was hired out to work in the fields and homes of neighboring farmers, receiving beatings that left scars she carried for life. ...

Image: MamaGeek at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad: The Conductor

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smallbones, Public domain. Most people who escaped slavery never returned south. Tubman returned repeatedly, using her intimate knowledge of the Eastern Shore's creeks, forests, and safe houses to guide family members and strangers to freedom. She typically traveled in winter when longer nights provided co...

Image: Smallbones | Public domain

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad: The Network

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Goetsch E, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Underground Railroad extended far beyond Tubman. It encompassed thousands of people - free Black communities, Quaker families, abolitionist networks - who provided food, shelter, disguises, and transportation to freedom-seekers. On the Eastern Shore, the routes often led nort...

Image: Goetsch E | CC BY-SA 4.0

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad: Beyond the Railroad

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wdzinc, CC BY-SA 3.0. Tubman's courage extended beyond the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War began, she served the Union Army as a cook, nurse, scout, and spy - the first American woman to lead an armed military raid when she guided the Combahee River Raid in 1863, liberating over 750 enslaved ...

Image: Wdzinc | CC BY-SA 3.0

Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad: The Park Today

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lvklock, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park encompasses sites across Maryland's Eastern Shore where Tubman lived, worked, and led escapes. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek provides exhibits, films, and ranger programs int...

Image: Lvklock | CC BY-SA 4.0