Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway
After Quakers sold their meetinghouse to the local black community in 1849, the new owners established Mt. Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church. The original church building has since burned, but the modern day congregation still uses the cemetery.
Laws restricted blacks from meeting in groups and a group of slaves gathering in a home or in the woods might arouse suspicion. But they did gather at cemeteries—-a rare respite amidst the constant oversight that prevailed in the 19th century slave societies.
One escapee testified that Harriet Tubman used a cemetery for a nighttime rendezvous away from the suspicious eyes of plantation masters and overseers. This evidence suggests that some freedom seekers took their first secretive step on the Underground Railroad surrounded by silent ancestors.
Above: In 1857, Tubman raced to the area to rescue her free parents, Ben and Rit Ross, who lived nearby. Ben was about to be arrested for helping the "Dover Eight," a group of freedom seekers who had fled Dorchester County.
| HM Number | HM1I1W |
|---|---|
| Tags | |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Friday, November 28th, 2014 at 9:01pm PST -08:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 18S E 419509 N 4286178 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 38.72060000, -75.92590000 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 38° 43.236', W 75° 55.554' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 38° 43' 14.16" N, 75° 55' 33.24" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 410 |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 22582 Marsh Creek Rd, Preston MD 21655, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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