The Maryland Department of Transportation recently unveiled a new and updated roadside historical marker honoring Civil War-era abolitionist Harriet Tubman and her contributions to American history.
[Above photo by David Trozzo for the Maryland DOT]
The unveiling ceremony took place at the Harriet Tubman Freedom Center in Cambridge, MD, on the same date she escaped slavery in 1849.
The agency said in a statement that the new marker includes updated language that Tubman’s relatives helped craft, while also correcting an inaccurate sign installed in 1967 as part of the Civil War centennial that included incorrect information about Tubman’s birthplace and the number of enslaved people she led to freedom.
[Editor’s note: In March, archaeologists with the Maryland DOT showed off a trove of “interesting artifacts” found at the Ben Ross home historical dig site; the place where the father of Tubman, Ben Ross, lived and where she spent her teenage years. The agency noted at the time that its archaeologists spent the past four years processing hundreds of artifacts collected from the Ross home, which is deep in the wetlands of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.]
Following that ceremony, construction crews replaced the former historical marker and installed the new, updated one along Greenbrier Road in Bucktown, MD.
This new roadside marker is part of an initiative by the Maryland DOT and the Maryland Historical Trust to review markers that highlight the state’s untold stories and correct ones with historical inaccuracies.
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