CAMBRIDGE -- Much of the landscape in Dorchester County is still stuck in the 19th century, back when Harriet Tubman stole away as a slave in 1849, lived as a free woman in the North then made more than a dozen returns to the area, guiding scores of family and friends to freedom. In fact, some of the back roads and swamps she traveled along seem to have been virtually untouched.
And that's a good thing.
Want to see what America looked like before freedom was recognized for everybody? Visit Dorchester County's Finding A Way to Freedom driving tour, a 60-mile stretch along U.S. Route 50 and State Highway 16 and a few adjoining secondary roads that chronicle Tubman's life and the routes that escaped slaves traveled to reach nearby Underground Railroad stops in adjacent Caroline County.
The tour includes more than two dozen sites, including: the village store believed to be the place Tubman almost lost her life during her first act of public defiance; the Methodist church that was among the few in the country to open its doors to both free and enslaved worshippers; the water-locked countryside where slaves hid for weeks before fleeing to Caroline County.
Structures on the route that haven't been completely overhauled show their wear: rotted floorboards, door hinges and tools rusted to a grainy brown, brittle tombstones with lettering that's scarcely legible. But they're still standing, along with rows of rotted-out trees that serve as a backdrop to emerald-green marshes and plowed soil upon which families have farmed for generations.
No need for modern-day re-enactments here. You can visualize Tubman leaving this place in the middle of the night, traveling with neither a guide nor road map, risking her life and her freedom with each return trip.
"Dorchester County has remained very rural, and you do get a sense when you come to this county what it was like when Harriet Tubman was alive and the Underground Railroad was active," said Natalie Chabot, Dorchester County tourism and heritage area director. "Go out to the countryside and see the waterways and you can see the challenges [runaway slaves] faced trying to get past the open farm fields still here and the massive rivers here."
Most of the structures on the tour are either abandoned or privately owned, but a few are still being used, including the Dorchester County Courthouse in downtown Cambridge.
