A lot is understood about Harriet Tubman as a famend abolitionist, humanitarian, and Civil Conflict hero. However we too usually overlook her continued legacy and ultimate years in Upstate New York.
Auburn, NY holds wealthy heirlooms of Tubman’s historical past and ultimate years after securing freedom for herself and plenty of others. It additionally has robust ties to the formation of the Underground Railroad, which might spotlight why Tubman determined to make the town her ultimate dwelling.
Whereas many individuals know Harriet Tubman as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, few know the remainder of her story and the way Auburn served as a birthplace for the community of protected areas. Tubman spent her 50+ years post-slavery as an abolitionist, activist, public speaker, mentor, philanthropist, and a profitable entrepreneur whose senior dwelling facility grew to become a Nationwide Historic Landmark in 1974.
Tubman’s ultimate years had been something however simple. However stay a testomony to how far she had come after efficiently escaping enslavement and main others towards freedom. After serving as a “Moses” of the Underground Railroad and as a scout and spy throughout the American Civil Conflict, Tubman lived alongside her household, pals, and colleagues within the place the place the soul of equal rights was born and nonetheless lives at the moment.
A go to to Auburn NY, in Cayuga County will permit you the glory of tracing Harriet Tubman’s footsteps and experiencing her historical past – and her legacy – in an entire new method. We toured the city in honor of Nationwide Underground Railroad Month and had been in a position to stroll in her sneakers throughout the streets and the flooring of the historic landmarks that welcomed her life as a free lady.
An in-depth tour and historical past lesson with GLOW Excursions walked us via Tubman’s dwelling that holds the bricks she helped her bricklayer husband Nelson Davis lay as the muse for the property that also sits at the moment. We toured her gravesite and that of her husband, a former military man who traveled right down to Galveston, Texas in 1865 to let the previously enslaved know that they had been free.
Sure, Harriet Tubman’s husband was among the many troops who went to Texas on June 19, 1865, and birthed the nationwide vacation all of us now know as Juneteenth. GLOW Excursions founder, Ted Freeman introduced us to church buildings and homes such because the Seward Home Museum, the place enslaved individuals had been safely housed throughout their freedom journey.
He additionally shared worthwhile household historical past about his great-great-grandparents, Harry and Kate Freeman, who’re broadly believed to be founders of the “New Guinea: Negro Settlement,” a protected haven free of charge Blacks and the birthplace of the Underground Railroad, as famous by the Auburn Citizen.
With a historical past of liberation free of charge Blacks, Auburn’s early efforts towards inclusion made it the proper place for Tubman and plenty of different previously enslaved to name dwelling. Now guests can take the self-guided Underground Railroad Tour and see church buildings and homes such because the Seward Home Museum, the place enslaved individuals had been safely housed throughout their freedom journey.
You’ll be able to be taught extra about Tubman’s philanthropic work, tour the property she owned, and see the apple orchards that she planted at The Harriet Tubman Nationwide Historic Park. Then pay your respects to her life at her ultimate resting place in Fort Hill Cemetery.
Harriet Tubman’s legacy lives on in historic websites, residents, and the group of Auburn. The locals are pleasant and the meals is contemporary off the farm making for scrumptious meals at each flip.
Plan a go to and permit your self to expertise the untold story of Harriet Tubman and her bravery, together with the resilience of our ancestors who had been serving to lay the muse for Tubman and different freedom seekers at a time once they couldn’t do the identical all through most of America.
Auburn’s four-part podcast collection “Stroll in Her Footsteps: Harriet Tubman’s Life in Auburn, NY” serves as a precursor to what a go to will carry. Hosted by Tourism Ambassador Beonca Louis, along side lecturers, historians, and descendants, the episodes share tales and interviews that discover Tubman’s life work and the way it has impacted American historical past and the residents of her chosen hometown.
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