The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway Where Ordinary People Did the Extraordinary A partnership of Caroline and Dorchester Counties Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area Maryland Office of Tourism Development Maryland State Highway Administration Corridor Management Plan Prepared by: Mary Means & Associates, Inc with Kittleson Associates, Inc, Tony Cohen Kate Clifford Larson Andy Kalback 2007 The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway Where Ordinary People Did the Extraordinary Contents Chapter 1. Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad and the Byway 3 Chapter 2. The Corridor Defined: Resources and Intrinsic Qualities 15 Chapter 3. Framing the Plan: Vision, Goals, Strategies 27 Chapter 4. Weaving Strategies Into Action 45 Chapter 5. Managing the Byway, Implementing the Plan 61 Acknowledgements 69 Appendices Bibliography Photo credits “Harriet Tubman in the Region”, by Kate Clifford Larson Sites on National Register of Historic Places 2 Chapter One: Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad, and the Byway For several years preservationists, historians, and grant funding under the National Scenic tourism officials in Dorchester and Caroline Byway Program. Through the year 2005, the Counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore have Byways Program has provided funding for been working together on a touring drive that more than 2,100 projects along designated generally follows the route taken by slaves byways. escaping north on what came to be known as the Underground Railroad. The touring • NSB recognition improves the HTUR By- drive is designated the Underground Railroad way’s ability to compete for grants and Scenic Byway by the Maryland State Highway assistance from foundations and state Administration, and the resources of the By- and federal sources. way are significant. With the rapid population growth taking place in the region, a Corridor • The Byway’s inclusion in state and national Management Plan (CMP) was needed. The maps and guides supports local efforts to CMP will help assure the long-term preserva- strengthen local economies through heri- tion of landscapes and historic sites, as well as tage and eco-tourism. guide development of interpretive programs that will convey the history of the Under- • Having a plan will help encourage private ground Railroad along the Byway. and public preservation of cultural re- sources and historic landscapes that tell a With a corridor management plan, the Harriet story of national importance. Tubman Underground Railroad Byway (HTURB) could become designated as an All Ameri- • Participation in the CMP’s implementation is can Road (AAR) or National Scenic Byway voluntary. Neither the Plan’s completion nor (NSB). That honor brings eligibility for funding the Byway’s designation nationally dimin- for preservation of key resources, creation of ishes local control over decisions affecting interpretive programs, and for the implemen- land use and development along the tation of road safety solutions for pedestrians corridor. and cyclists, as well as cars, trucks, and farm machinery. Funding can also support techni- The corridor management planning process cal assistance to property owners and mar- examines the complicated environment keting the Byway as a visitor experience. along a proposed byway route to understand resources important to its inherent quality. Corridor Management Plan Resources fall into six categories of “Intrinsic Qualities:” cultural, historic, natural, recrea- Achieving the route’s recognition as an All tional, archeological and scenic. To achieve American Road or National Scenic Byway is a national recognition, a byway must contain central focus of the Harriet Tubman Under- at least one intrinsic quality of regional signifi- ground Railroad Byway Organization (Byway cance, with “significance” defined as repre- Organization), and completion of the Corridor sentative of a geographic area encompass- Management Plan is an essential step in gar- ing two or more states. According to the Na- nering such recognition. Byway planning and tional Scenic Byway Program guidebook, national recognition are important to the re- Byway Beginnings: Understanding, Inventory- gion for several reasons: ing and Evaluating a Byway’s Intrinsic Quali- ties, a byway may be considered significant if • Completion of a Corridor Management the following general criteria are met: Plan (CMP) makes the Byway eligible for 3 • Resources and experiences are of high Defining Intrinsic Qualities quality and are sought out by travelers from outside the region. Historic Quality encompasses legacies of the past that are distinctly associated with physical ele- • The story is of interest to a broad segment ments of the landscape that are of such historic of the traveling public. significance that they educate the viewer and stir an appreciation of the past. The historic elements • The experiences related to the story occur reflect the actions of people and may include with frequency along the byway. buildings, settlement patterns, and other exam- ples of human activity. For the purpose of determining regional signifi- cance, the three-state region of the Eastern Recreational Quality Recreational quality involves Shore, including portions of Maryland, Virginia outdoor recreational activities directly associated with and dependent upon the natural and cul- and Delaware, has been used. For each in- tural elements of the corridor’s landscape. The trinsic quality, the Byway and its related re- recreational activities provide opportunities for sources have been compared to similar roads active and passive recreational experiences. and resources in the region. The significance of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Quality is defined as the heightened visual Byway primarily lies in its historic qualities with experience derived from the view of natural and strong recreational, and scenic qualities pre- man-made elements of the visual environment of sent, as well. the scenic byway corridor. The characteristics of the landscape are strikingly distinct and offer a Historic Context pleasing and memorable visual experience. All elements of the landscape – landform, water, vegetation, and man-made development – con- Slavery was a major part of the nation’s econ- tribute to a byway’s visual environment. omy until the Civil War. Opposition to slavery on moral grounds was an undercurrent as early as the founding fathers, even among In Dorchester and Caroline County on Mary- those who themselves owned slaves. By 1804 land’s Eastern Shore, the Underground Rail- slavery was abolished in all the states north of road was particularly active in the 30 years Maryland. By the 1840s, the abolition move- leading up to the Civil War. Maryland’s agri- ment had become quite vocal, attracting cultural economy was based on grain and as tens of thousands of members. Sympathizers, grain prices dropped nationally in the first half th free blacks, and slaves had formed an active of the 19 century, Eastern Shore planters network of clandestine routes, safe houses, faced economic decline, even ruin. Slaves individuals, and places, by which slaves at- were property - assets that could be sold to tempted to escape to freedom. The network traders who took them south to the cotton came to be known as the Underground Rail- fields. road, with “conductors” acting as guides to their freedom-seeking “passengers” traveling the line. The strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act Law in 1850 made it more dangerous to har- bor or assist fugitive slaves, and those fleeing slavery could be pursued, captured, and re- turned from non-slave holding states. Dedi- Typical newspaper notice of a slave sale, Denton, cated conductors continued to help, regard- Caroline County MD, 1826. less that most freedom seekers necessarily had to flee to Canada. At its height, between In addition to enduring a brutal life, Eastern 1810 and 1850, an estimated 30,000 to Shore slaves faced having their families broken 100,000 people escaped slavery via the Un- up as fathers, husbands, wives, and children derground Railroad. were sold at auction and separated forever. 4 Though the dangers of escape north were huge, Harriet Tubman, the best known conductor of the chances of being sold south and the pres- the Underground Railroad, was born into slavery ence of an expanding Underground Railroad net- around 1822 in Dorchester County, and in 1848 work heightened the desire for freedom. she escaped. As a free woman, despite the ex- treme danger, she made more than a dozen About one half of this area’s black population trips back to the area over the next ten years. was free. They worked for wages in shipyards or Working with other abolitionists and Under- in timbering operations, often toiling side-by-side ground Railroad activists, Tubman was able to with enslaved Blacks, who saw the different - rescue about seventy of her relatives and though difficult - life freedom brought. Quakers friends, leading them north to freedom. had been a presence in the area for several generations. Philadelphia had a particularly ac- Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and statesman, tive Underground Railroad network, as did Balti- was born into slavery in 1818 near Hillsboro, in more, which had the nation’s largest free Black Caroline County. Douglass was sent to Balti- population. The unique geography of the more to labor. It was there that he learned to Chesapeake Bay and its many tributaries pro- read and first heard of the abolitionist move- vided water routes to sympathizers and Under-