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LincolnToddFan · 05-26-2014, 10:24 AM

Oh my God...THANK YOU LINDA! She is an inspiration to me. I didn't realize that she is buried in the same cemetery as the Seward family.

Linda Anderson · 05-26-2014, 10:35 AM

I hope you get a chance to visit Auburn, Toia. The Seward Mansion is just up the street from the Harriet Tubman house. There is a fantastic museum at the Tubman house. What a life Harriet had!

"In 1857, Harriet Tubman relocated her parents from St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada to Auburn, NY. She was provided a two story brick home [photo] on the outskirts of Auburn, by her friend, William H. Seward. A short time later he sold the property to Tubman for a modest sum, an illegal transaction at the time. Seward was at that time the US Senator from New York.

"In 1863, Tubman led a group of African American Union soldiers on raids along the Comcahee River in South Carolina. There she met a soldier named Nelson Davis. They were married in Auburn in 1869, with the Sewards among the many friends in attendance. Davis and Tubman lived in a brick house on the property until his death in 1888. That house is now used as home for the Resident Manager of the Harriet Tubman Home."

http://www.nyhistory.com/harriettubman/home.htm

http://www.harriethouse.org/

L Verge · 05-26-2014, 11:27 AM

A member of this forum, Dr. Kate Clifford Larson, has been instrumental for years in getting an initiative to fruition to recognize the works of Harriet Tubman in her native state of Maryland. Years ago, the Surratt House sponsored a bus trip to the Eastern Shore of Maryland's sites related to Harriet. It was fascinating then, so I can only imagine the great educational wealth it will have when the full trail and museum is completed as part of the Network to Freedom project of the NPS.

LincolnToddFan · (This post was last modified: 05-26-2014 08:39 PM by LincolnToddFan.)

I am a bit confused. I always assumed that Harriet lived in Canada during her repeated raids to free slaves until after the end of the war. Her life was in grave danger in America. There was of course a bounty on her head in the South, and at any time she could have been kidnapped from a Northern city and handed over to the South, couldn't she?

Anyway, yes it is my dream to visit both the Seward Mansion and gravesites as well as Harriet's final resting place. I also very much want to come to back to Maryland, where I spent a memorable year living in Silver Spring as a third-grader.

Thanks again Linda and Laurie! Smile

LincolnMan · 05-27-2014, 04:19 AM

Interesting that the marker lists her name only- no birth or death dates- nothing about her life...

Linda Anderson · 05-27-2014, 07:12 AM

(05-27-2014 04:19 AM)LincolnMan Wrote: Interesting that the marker lists her name only- no birth or death dates- nothing about her life...

That's a good point, Bill. It turns out that the information is on the back of her tombstone. I didn't even think of looking there.

LincolnToddFan · 05-27-2014, 09:45 PM

Her birth name was Araminta Ross...surprised that isn't mentioned on her stone.

Gene C · (This post was last modified: 05-27-2014 09:59 PM by Gene C.)

I haven't read this book, but I'd bet it is good
http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Promised-Lan...ate+larson

Everything I've seen, youtube videos, her book about Mary Surratt, is very good.

LincolnMan · 05-28-2014, 05:16 AM

(05-27-2014 07:12 AM)Linda Anderson Wrote:
(05-27-2014 04:19 AM)LincolnMan Wrote: Interesting that the marker lists her name only- no birth or death dates- nothing about her life...

That's a good point, Bill. It turns out that the information is on the back of her tombstone. I didn't even think of looking there.

Ah, very nice.

KLarson · (This post was last modified: 05-28-2014 08:38 AM by KLarson.)

Thanks Laurie! The Tubman Visitor Center is scheduled to open in early 2016. The 125 mile long Tubman Byway in Maryland is up and running, with wayside markers and a fabulous audio tour that you can download from iTunes or the Byway website http://www.harriettubmanbyway.org/ . the Byway also continues through an additional 70 or so miles in Delaware to the Pennsylvania border.

Thanks Gene!

Some of that old web information is incorrect. Tubman purchased a wood frame house on 7 acres from William Seward in 1859. It was a small farm once owned by Frances Seward's father, and it sat on the town line between Auburn and Fleming, NY. Tubman loved the Sewards, and they loved her and supported her efforts. Her debt to them for the property - which she always had trouble paying - was forgiven in 1873 by one of Seward's sons. Tubman's family moved from Canada in the early spring of 1861 and settled into the home. It burned in 1880, and Tubman rebuilt it with bricks made on the property in 1883. This is the residence now undergoing restoration, and it should be open to the public in the next couple of years.

(05-26-2014 08:39 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote: I am a bit confused. I always assumed that Harriet lived in Canada during her repeated raids to free slaves until after the end of the war. Her life was in grave danger in America. There was of course a bounty on her head in the South, and at any time she could have been kidnapped from a Northern city and handed over to the South, couldn't she?

Anyway, yes it is my dream to visit both the Seward Mansion and gravesites as well as Harriet's final resting place. I also very much want to come to back to Maryland, where I spent a memorable year living in Silver Spring as a third-grader.

Thanks again Linda and Laurie!

Tubman did not move to Canada until 1857 or so, even though she did bring freedom seekers to St. Catharines throughout the 1850s. She purchased a home from Wm. H. Seward in 1859 in Auburn, but did not really move in until 1861.

(05-27-2014 09:45 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote: Her birth name was Araminta Ross...surprised that isn't mentioned on her stone.

She changed her own name in 1844, so I feel that what is on the tombstone is what she would have wanted.

(05-26-2014 08:39 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote: I am a bit confused. I always assumed that Harriet lived in Canada during her repeated raids to free slaves until after the end of the war. Her life was in grave danger in America. There was of course a bounty on her head in the South, and at any time she could have been kidnapped from a Northern city and handed over to the South, couldn't she?

Anyway, yes it is my dream to visit both the Seward Mansion and gravesites as well as Harriet's final resting place. I also very much want to come to back to Maryland, where I spent a memorable year living in Silver Spring as a third-grader.

Thanks again Linda and Laurie!

Tubman could have been arrested, but no one knew she was the one who was repeatedly returning to Maryland to rescue her family and friends. There was no large bounty for her capture - that is a old myth. Her enslaver, Eliza Brodess posted only a $100 reward for her capture and return after Tubman first ran away in 1849. No other rewards were ever posted. She lived in Philadelphia from 1850 until mid to late 1856, though she did stay with family and friends in Canada when she arrived there with freed slaves.

LincolnToddFan · 05-29-2014, 04:00 PM

Great information, some of it surprising...thank you Kate!