Under the watchful eye of Underground Railroad "conductor" Harriet Tubman, more than 300 slaves were led to freedom on Chesapeake Bay waterways.
It is one of many little-known facts about the bay's role in the Underground Railroad - the loose network of anti-slavery Northerners that illegally helped fugitive slaves reach safety in the free states or Canada before the Civil War.
That piece of history is on display this month for another type of traveler.
Motorists will encounter fact-filled "Did you know?" signs as they approach the Bay Bridge.
The signs were posted Thursday by the state Department of Natural Resources to mark Black History Month. It's the first time that black history facts have been featured on signposts set up four summers ago to educate those in traffic - who are sometimes creeping - about the bay's history, wildlife and ecology. A special target is children, often stuck in the back seat.
"We're trying to illicit a `Wow!' kind of response that will inspire people to go to the library, get a book, do some research or have some nice conversations with their children about the history of the bay," said Alexis U. Grant, special projects coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources. The facts "are a teaser, an appetizer, then it's up to them to get the whole meal."
This month, eastbound motorists can read on a 15-by- 30-foot display, "Harriet Tubman led over 300 slaves to freedom on Bay waterways." Those traveling west will see, "Waterways of the Bay were part of the Underground Railroad."
About 20 million vehicles a year cross the bridge, according to the State Highway Administration, with most of the traffic in warmer months.
The signs are verified by Grant for their accuracy, then she formats the message to fit the space. That means boiling down every fact to about 50 characters - including punctation - after the lead-in of "Did you know?"
African-Americans
"So often African-Americans and other minorities look at the Chesapeake Bay as a playground for the rich," said Vincent O. Leggett, a local historian specializing in African-American maritime history and culture who works at DNR and suggested the signs. "We're trying to show that culturally and historically, African-Americans have been involved in the waterways since the beginning of Maryland and Virginia.
The bay "has provided subsistence living, it's been a way of travel and communication, and it has served as a gateway to freedom," Leggett added.
The Underground Railroad helped thousands of slaves escape to free territories from 1830 to 1860. Its name derived from the swift, secret way in which people were moved - mostly at night and hiding them during the day.
Underground Railroad routes in the three-state Delmarva area - known as Chesapeake Station or Chesapeake Underground - consisted of creeks and rivers that flowed into the bay and onward to the Atlantic Ocean, said Leggett, author of the soon-to-be-published book, "Chesapeake Underground: Charting a Course to Freedom." The book is an account of watermen who used their boats and knowledge of the bay to ferry runway slaves.
In 1850, Tubman, a runaway slave from Maryland, became a "conductor" - which meant that she knew the routes to free territory and had taken an oath of silence to keep the network of escape a secret.
It was also the year that she first helped slaves escape bondage. Tubman sent a message to her sister's oldest son that instructed her sister and family to board a fishing boat in Cambridge. The boat would sail up the Chesapeake Bay, where they would meet Tubman at Bodkin Point - on the bay's western shore near the site of what is now Anne Arundel County's Downs Park.
On to Philadelphia
From there, Tubman is said to have guided them to Baltimore, and from safe house to safe house into Pennsylvania, a free state, and on to Philadelphia.
"People have been amazed," Leggett said of the bay's connection to the Underground Railroad. "It's something that has been understudied."
Tubman returned to the South 19 times, helping more than 300 slaves, including her brother and his friends, escape bondage. Tubman became one of the most pursued leaders of the underground network with a bounty of $40,000 advertised as reward for her capture.
The black history signs will remain until March 1.
Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, when traffic is heavier to and from the beaches, the facts on the bay-related topics are changed every Thursday. During the off-season, they are changed the first Thursday of the month.
