As the nation begins a new political chapter with President Barack Obama, there is renewed momentum to honor a Maryland-born heroine who also sought to bring change to America: Harriet Tubman.
Bills are once again before Congress to create state and national parks that would celebrate the life of Tubman, who was born a slave named Araminta Ross on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
"We believe she was born in early 1822, February or March, based on several documents that have been unearthed in the past 10 years or so," said historian Kate Clifford Larson, author of the 2003 biography Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. "She was born enslaved to a family that was living in the Madison area, south of Woolford, in Dorchester County. ... She was the fifth of nine children of Ben Ross and his wife, 'Rit' Green Ross."
For decades, there have been mystery and mythology surrounding Tubman. Larson's book is among several published in recent years that have shed light on details of Tubman's life - from the nearly 30 years she spent in bondage, to her marriage to a freeman, John Tubman, to her desire to be free.
"She ran away Sept. 17, 1849," said Larson, a professor at Simmons College in Boston. "Her runaway ad that was placed in a newspaper by her enslaver, Eliza Brodess, was discovered in January 2003 in a Dumpster." It was found by an Eastern Shore researcher.
Although she returned on her own that time, Tubman eventually made her way to Philadelphia and freedom. Using the Underground Railroad, she returned to Maryland over the course of a decade or so to liberate other slaves, including her elderly parents.
A point of contention in Larson's book involves the number of slaves Tubman led to freedom.
"We have done tremendous research on her rescue missions, her Underground Railroad activities," said Larson. "And we have discovered that she actually returned to Maryland to bring away about 70 friends and family members [in 19 trips], not 300 people."
She added that Tubman reportedly gave instructions to dozens of other slaves, which helped them gain freedom, too. No matter the numbers, the author praises what she calls Tubman's "extraordinary courage."
So does Donald Pinder, president of the Harriet Tubman Organization, which operates a Tubman museum in Cambridge. The group has pushed for decades at the grass-roots level to preserve Tubman's legacy, as have others.
