Abolitionist, civil war spy and suffragist Harriet Tubman. Welcome to Harriet Tubman underground railroad state park. My name is Ranger Crenshaw and here we highlight Harriet Tubmans early years. She was born not three miles east of here in the town of madison and she spent a lot of time in this area as well as bucktown a few miles west of here. It was here in this area of Dorchester County that she learned the skills vital to make her a successful conductor on the underground railroad, reading the landscape, reading the stars, foraging for food and being comfortable outdoors by herself. Id like to highlight a little bit about our Visitors Center. This building is lined in cedar. These last three buildings are lined in zinc and the idea behind the zinc is that over time it will begin to patina and weather kind of like copper begins to patina and it will begin to fade and the idea is that after you come through our Visitors Center your ignorance about Harriet Tubmans life with the underground railroad will fade as well. We have vegetative roof on the flat surfaces and that helps us keep the Visitors Center warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We also have rain barrels to collect the excess water and we use that to water our vegetation and we also have lights and id like to highlight those because we can turn them off completely at night and do night sky programs and it cuts down on light pollution. The light is filtered downward so you can enjoy the night sky which was pivotal to Harriet Tubman and we have the infiltration pond in the far end of the park and that collects our gray water and filters it so if wild life lands there everything is fine and we dont have to worry about it and thats important because a large portion of the park is in a critical area. I would also like to highlight the view north which was our design plan. So when you enter the park you came in through the south and you walk north to begin your experience. You walk into our Visitors Center and again you head north just like Harriet Tubman did. And this area here opens up to the Legacy Garden and it highlights the view north. It it is openness and the north was free and unencumbered. Shell be pointing north towards freedom and there will be four figures out in the distance heading toward their freedom. When you enter the Visitors Center you enter in the south and if you look north you can see its open. Its very bright and thats thanks to our wall there. When youre done youre experiencing the northern portion of the Visitors Center and you look south and it will be very enclosed and very dark and we do that on purpose to represent the south being encumbered in slavery and the north being open and free. The landscape is very important us to. It is our most important interpretive tool. Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad state park is 17 acres and we are surrounded by the National Wild life refuge and they preserve this beautiful landscape that you see. That ensures that when you look around and you see pines and cedars. Right over there you can see the Black Water River and the forest of this area which is also preserved. When you drove down here you probably took route 16 and 235 and theyre the native american roads and known as the highway to freedom multiple escapes help us to preserve the landscape. You probably saw cornfields and various things being grown and you probably see timber all around you in various stage of growth and that landscape is very important and the landscape the way it looks now is similar to the way it would have looked in Harriet Tubmans time. In theory, if you gave her orientation and told her that was north and that was south, thats east and thats west. Shed be able to navigate this area because it looks so similar. So this is a man of the Harriet Tubman underground railroad byway. There were over 30 sites and 120 miles long and it includes maryland, delaware and pennsylvania. We are meant to be the hub right here of the byway so you come here and you learn about Harriet Tubmans life. And id like you to meet our bust of Harriet Tubman. The very important part of this bust is life size. She was about 5 feet tall in real life and this bust is also 5 feet tall. It was made by mr. Brendan oneal. This is a bronze bust and there is a lot of symbolism with this bust. Her name is down at the bottom. Along the back there are some chains and the chains are broken to represent the bonds of slavery that miss tubman broke along the underground railroad. You can see scars on her back which are from the flogging she received in her life. She bragged she could do the wok of a man. The bronze bust is sitting on a piece of the wide oak which was a reference to her town in maryland. The oak was standing for 460 years before it fell down and then this is a piece of cedar. It was chosen because it has that spiral texture and it shows texture and strength and its also a reference to her time in the timber fields with her father. As i mentioned, outside, the first building of the Visitors Center is lined in cedar, as well and you will notice she is facing north looking towards freedom and her head is lifted slightly, but also very approachable. So well begin our tour right you in. As you can see were starting in the south and heading towards the north just like Harriet Tubman did on the journeys on the underground railroad. The ceiling and the floor and the siding makes you look from south to north. It is very symbolic here. This wood is reclaimed barn wood from the Eastern Shore of maryland, again, a reference to her time in the timber fields. This first section of the tour highlights the juxtaposition of tubmans life. The images here that you see show the beauty of the river region as well as the ugliness of slavery. So Harriet Tubman was born in this region, and this is where she learned the skills necessary to become a successful conductor on the underground railroad. This section is supposed to immerse you into a day of Harriet Tubmans life. The quote here says slavery is the next thing to hell. If a person would send another into bondage, he would send them to hell if he could. These are images of the Chop Tank River region and behind you is what i call the wall of tubman. It has eight images of Harriet Tubman on it. This next section here shows the ugliness of slavery and that families were torn apart by slavery. This is an image of the Dorchester County courthouse and it shows a mother being sold away from her child and her husband. Tubmans Three Sisters were sold into slavery very early in her life and it broke her family apart. They were sold to a chain gang, sold down south and never heard from again and tubman remembers their wails and cries as they walked away from her family and Harriet Tubmans mother never recovered from that and this shows the ugliness of slavery breaking apart families. This is a good section to highlight the way our exhibits are laid out. Most exhibits have a quote of Harriet Tubman or someone who knew tubman at the top, an image and a tactile panel. This tactile panel is meant to be touched and felt so you can see and touch what youre reading. So this group says i grew up a neglected weed, ignorant of lennele liberty, and it shows little children with very little clothing doing farm work. Timber and corn were important crops found here in the Chop Tank River region. This next section talks about tubmans earliest memory. The first thing i recall was lying in the cradle that my father made. So this is a recreated cradle. When a child was born in that time a sweet gum tree was chopped down, hollowed out and you put a foot board and a headboard, and it was called a gum. Harriet tubman was taking care of her brother moses. A young tubman had to take care of her Little Brothers while her mother worked in the big house and tubman had fond memories of this and i cant imagine the worry of a mother knowing that her baby was taking care of another baby. The baby was worried so she cut a slab of pork and she warmed it in the coals of the fire and put it in the babys mouth and the baby stopped crying and she thought, that it was indeed just the piece of pork and i think thats a funny story because if you put a piece of bacon in my mouth ill stop talking, too. This next section here talks about tubmans early life and the quote says every time i saw a white man i was afraid of being carried away. I had two sisters carry ied awa in a chain gang. They were sold away to a chain gang and never seen again. And this tactile panel again shows the young tubman and her little brother and then this is a nice map of this area that were in right now that shows Dorchester County. You probably came through cambridge when you came over and crossed the Chop Tank River and down the creek which is where we are and were in this area here. Tubman was born in petersneck district which is about right here in madison during tubmans time that was known in tobacco stick and so this image right here shows the road that she was born on. The next section id like to highlight is Harriet Tubman at work. This shows Harriet Tubman at a very young age checking musk rat traps. Musk rats are rodents that are common in this area. Most musk rat traps were checked in the late fall or early winter when the pelts were the thickest. They were caught for their pelts. So this shows Harriet Tubman and the musk rat and you can see shes ankle deep in water. Shes not wear anything shoes and shes not wearing a hat and wearing rags. Shes absolutely miserable. I used to sleep on the floor and cry and cry and cry, if i could only be with my mom, and that was with young tubman from an early age. The next section id like to highlight is the Bucktown Village store incident. When tubman was about a teenager she went to the Bucktown Village store with the plantation cook and an angry overseer was there and tubman walked in and there was a runaway slave and he said grab that slave and tubman said no and he picked up a twopound weight and he hit Harriet Tubman above hear eye and skull and knocked her out. The last thing she remembers was hem raising his hand with the weight in it. She was taken to the store and sat where she bled and bled. Her owner made her go to work the next day. She tried to work because there was so much blood and sweat dripping down into her eyes and her mother meant to recuperate her, and her owner decided she wasnt doing work and he brought people in to poke and prod at her and when she couldnt be sold, he said youre not worth a six pence. That was a horrific injury for a young Harriet Tubman, but it opened up a new world for her. We think she got temporal lobe epilepsy. She heard voices and saw people singing and she had vivid dream, it was absolutely amazing for her faith. This section here talks about Harriet Tubmans faith and this is a quote from Thomas Garrett who was pivotal on the underground railroad. He was a quaker up in wilmington and he helped 2,500 to 3,000 runaways receive their freedom. He said i never met with any person of any color who had more confidence in the voice of god as spoken direct to her soul and her faith in a supreme power truly was great. So for a white male landowning quaker to say that about a black woman in tubmans time speaks volumes about her faith. The next section were going to highlight is tubman in the timber fields and during Harriet Tubmans time, half of the blacks in Dorchester County were indeed free. This shows Harriet Tubman working in the timber fields and the gentlemen could be free or enslaved men working and she worked in the timber fields who was ben ross. This shows Harriet Tubman and stewarts canal so what would happen is the timber would be cut or in this case floated in the canal to shipbuilding towns to madison and church creek where it would be processed and shipped to baltimore or it would be used there. So tubman was rented out and she was able to take some money aside for herself and purchased two oxen. This allowed her to do more work, basically to carry more timber from the timber fields of Dorchester County to the shipbuilding towns and thats what this shows right here and tubman and her oxen and it highlights the importance of tubman being outside and here is where she learned how to forge for food and how to read the landscape and how to be comfortable in the woods at night which were skills that she needed during the underground railroad. Most of her escapes were done that night when the nights were the longest. This was an important time for her and she got to work outside with her family and her friends and most likely her brothers and her father. This next section well talk about is tubmans selfemancipation. So in 1849 Harriet Tubman got the feeling that she was going to be sold. As i mentioned earlier she lost Three Sisters very early to the chain gang and she knew what that was like and she didnt want to be sold. So she was about to leave in 1849. This shows Harriet Tubman in poplar neck caroline county. Her owner comes home and she rides up on the horse and she opens the gate for him and she closes the gate behind him and continues to sing her goodbye song and she walks to her freedom. Thats significant because she was singing a goodbye song so she could say goodbye to her family and friends so that they would know that she was leaving and not to be worried. After tobacubman got to freedom looked at my hand tot see if i was the same person. There was a glory to everything. The sun came over the trees and the fields and i felt like i was in heaven. This is tubmans first taste of freedom when she crossed over and she was able to spend some time in philadelphia and make money to come back and get her family and friends. The next section were going to highlight is called the journey and its supposed to show a journey one night on the underground railroad. So the quote over here says i crossed the line. I wassy from, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land and my home was down in maryland because my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters and friends were there, but i was free and they should be free. I would make a home in the north and bring them there. God help me how i prayed then. I said to the lord im going to hold steady on to you, but i know youll see me through. That shows once you got to freedom there was no one to welcome her there. She didnt feel at home because her friends and family were in maryland so she came back 12 times to save her family, 14s and loved ones and people she couldnt do without. The song you hear is the good old ship design and ill talk about that later and you can see the names of the list of people that she rescued. Over 70 documented rescues including moses ross, peter pennington, and then the section over here talks about the north star which is what tubman used to navigate. God set the north star in the heavens and he gave me the strength in my limbs and he meant i should be free and this is a movable piece right here that basically shows that no matter what season youre in the north star is steadfast and it stays exactly where it always is, at the tip of the little dipper and at the end of the big cup of the big dipper. Harriet tubman rescued over 70 family and friends from slavery in 12 journeys and she was unable to rescue rachel and her children. Her children were sold before tubman could rescue her and this quote says we are much pleased that harriet succeeded in assisting even a few of her suffering friends to escape from bondage, but her sister was not among the number and thats quoted from abolitionist d. E. Collins to Franklin Sandborn who is a friend of tubman. The next area id like to highlight is the emancipation of her brothers. She had a letter written to Jacob Jackson who lived in Dorchester County. He owned 480 acres of land and he was a literal man and a veterinarian. She had arranged a code beforehand and so when the letter was written it said read my letter to the old folks and give my love to them and tell my brothers to always be watching under prayer and when the good old ship of zion comes along be ready to step aboard. So the song youre hearing is the good old ship of zion when jacob saw that in the letter he knew it was Harriet Tubman to notify her brothers to be ready, that she was going to come back and rescue them. Jacob jackson was a known operative on the underground railroad so he wasnt permitted to have his mail and it was very important to have this message. The postmaster had to read his mail before mr. Jackson could and when he picked it up and looked at it and he said this cant be for me. It makes no sense, but the lyrics from the good old ship of zion and he knew to let her brothers know that she was coming back for them. He met her brothers in poplar neck and they hid in a corn crib and this is a recreated corn crib. They had to hide here and their father put a blindfold on because he knew that somebody would ask him have you seen your children today and if he was wearing a blindfold he could say no, i have not seen my children. He brought them food and water and he talked to them for a little while, but they had to hide in the corn crib because their mother was waiting up for them for christmas and she was cooking food and shed prepared to see her children and her family and her friends so they had to hide in here otherwise if the mother saw them shed go crazy and shed be so excited that she would completely give them away. So the idea is our visitors can come in here and go inside the corn crib and look through the slats and imagine what it would have been like to not be able to say goodbye to your mother and to perhaps have that be the last time you ever saw her. Harriet tubman used a number of disguises. She knew shed be recognized once she got back to maryland. There was a story that she was disguised as an older woman and she wore a bonnet over her head and she hunched over and she was walking along and carrying these chickens and she saw her former master coming toward her and something in her head said pluck the feather on the chicken and it started shouting and screaming and squawking so she had to bend over and turn her back to her master who was coming so that he wouldnt recognize her and other enslaved people would also disguise themselves as men if they were women, or women if they were men so she was disguised pretty often. This section here highlights the emancipation of her parent, ben and rid ross. In the spring of 1857 Harriet Tubman came down from the north to rescue her parents. Her father was an underground rail rood agent and she came bak before that could happen. Her parents were in their 70s and she made a oneaxel wagon which is what should shows right here. So she got two wells and an axel and a plank and this would be a place for them to sit and a place for her feet and she emancipated her parents and her mother would not leave without her featherbed and her father would not leave without his bronze axe. All these columns right here that are in the middle of the building highlight people that were important to the underground railroad in Harriet Tubmans network. The reverend sam green of East New Market and william still, Thomas Garrett and Ann Marie Douglas and sydney gay and fathera coughman wright and Henry Douglas and garnet are also highlighted. The next section id like to talk about is tubmans time during the civil war. Harriet tubman was a scout, a spy and a nurse during the civil war and june 1, 1863 she became the only bm to plan and execute an armed raid. So it was Harriet Tubman, colonel James Montgomery and the second South Carolina colored troops and they took three steampowered gunships which you can see over there and they chugged up the river about 25 miles into the depths of South Carolina. They flooded rice fields. They burned plan takes and they emancipated 750 to 800 people which is very significant because in tubmans time people were, of course, property so that was a huge loss for the slave owners down there and thats what this is showing. Harriet tubman in a run about or smaller boat reaching down to rescue people to their emancipation and it shows women carrying anything that they could carry, a basket, some chickens and children and thats a big deal because thats the largest emancipation, vent in the history of the united states. The quote there says i prayed to god to make me strong and able to fight and thats what ive always prayed for ever since, and it shows Harriet Tubmans dedication to the united states. She was indeed a veteran. It was a massive boon for the union army because about ten days later 100 to 110 men signed up for the union army. So Harriet Tubman was a bit of a rabble rouser and she was complaining nothing was being done to emancipate people to free the slaves. So massachusetts goner john andrew recruited her to operate behind the lines and she was give know a pass to travel down to South Carolina and do her military expedition and so she was a scout, a nurse and a spy and she was able to talk to the enslaved people as well as the free people down in South Carolina and they were told where the land mines were and the cumby river which was similar to the swamps of Dorchester County and theyre both lowlands and salt marshes and dictated by the tides. So tubmans skills that she learned here were useful and in South Carolina, as well and everyone knew that and she was sent down there to help and coordinate and assist the army. This final section of our Visitors Center talks about tubmans later life. She bought a home in auburn and she also attended a church and started a home for indigent and aged africanamericans. She was a suffrageette. She fought for womens rights and she also has a ship named after her the s. S. Harriet tubman and thats all highlighted here. And this is the final part of the door and id like to highlight stained glass images of Dorchester County in the summer, winter and spring. This image here shows Harriet Tubman pointing at the north star and emancipating a number of people and its done by Jacob Lawrence and it also shows the hazards that were there, it shows a frak wisnake with a for tongue and people carrying babies and squirrels and owls and it just shows the nature of it and its very beautiful and since our building is south facing on it, when the sun comes through this is absolutely stunning. Also the final section is interactive. There is a video over here where you can learn about Harriet Tubmans life and legacy and you can actually sit next to miss tubman. This depicts her in her later years and i would like to highlight this quote how the midnight sky and silenced stars have been witness to your devotion to your heroism and that was written by Franklin Douglas about Harriet Tubman. Harriet tubman was born in late february, early march of 1822. The records of enslaved peoples birth dates were not kept, but there is a receipt from a mid wife to help the mid wife deliver Harriet Tubman or aramentia ross which was the name she was given when she was born and she died march 10, 1913. So march 10th is Harriet Tubman day which is when the Visitors Center was opened. The Visitors Center was comanaged by the maryland and park service and it is located on the maryland state park called the underground railroad state park. The Administrative Offices are on the other side of the park and they house the park service and the network to freedom. The National Park service owns 180 acres of land and that is also managed from that Administrative Offices over there. So we are a partnership park. I think anyone should visit this center to build a connection to Harriet Tubman in her life. I want people to know that Harriet Tubman was just a normal person. She wasnt a superhero with a cape and these amazing powers. Shes a regular woman who was born into slavery. She remained illiterate, but she did Amazing Things for her friends and family and i want people to know you can make a difference in your normal life no matter who you are. Heres whats ahead. Coming up next, a look at the drafting of the u. S. Constitution and then well tack you to the Herbert Hoover president ial library and later, a discussion on vehicles used by u. S. President s. And join us tonight for American History tv in prime time from our american artifacts series, well visit the Herbert Hoover president ial library and museum to review the american president s life portraits exhibit and the Henry Ford Museum to see the president ial vehicles. American history tv is in prime Time Beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Tonight book tv is in prime time with a look at afterwords. The son of the Late Supreme Court justice antonin scalia, Christopher Scalia shares speeches by his father in his book scalia speaks and womens march cochair linda sarresor discusses her book together we rise. Kay leigh mcmainy is interviewed in her new book the new American Revolution and scott kelly talks about his voyages into space in his book endurance. Book tv in prime time on cspan2. Also tonight epa administrator scott pruitt and Fox News Channel host janeane pirro address the conservative conference. State governors from across the country are gathering in washington, d. C. This weekend for the annual winter meeting and throughout the day saturday the National Governors association will host pan else to talk about jobs, the Opioid Crisis as well as the future of agriculture and food availability and cspans live coverage begins tomorrow after washington journal on our companion network cspan. Each week, american artifacts takes viewers into Historic Sites around the country. Up next, we visit the National Constitution center in philadelphia. To learn about the creation of the u. S. Constitution in 1787 and to see several rare, early drafts. Welcome to the National Constitution center. Im jeffrey rosen, the president of this wonderful institution which as cspan viewers know is the only institution in america chartered by congress to disseminate information about the u. S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis and today i