Underground Railroad

Among the suburban developments and shopping centers of Columbia, there are still places -- manor houses, a church cemetery, a tiny riverside cave -- that recall a time when fugitive slaves traveled through Maryland as they escaped to freedom via the Underground Railroad. The Howard County Center of African American Culture started a series of riding tours yesterday to focus attention on historic sites related to the Underground Railroad that community members may pass every day without realizing the significance.

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.

In the painting, a young African-American boy, dressed in blue jeans and bright red cap, gazes out thoughtfully at the viewer. Look closely, and his eyes seem to gleam with intelligence and determination. "It's like flipping the pages of a family album," says historian David Terry. The artwork, created by Maryland artist Joseph Holston, is on display at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in a section of the permanent exhibition devoted to black achievement in the arts.

At this weekend's Underground Railroad Tour, travel through time to the 19th century and discover what it was like to be a slave in search of freedom. The tour leads participants to a variety of sites that are crucial to black history. Many of these locations were stops on the historic Underground Railroad. One stop is at Orchard Street Church, founded by Truman Pratt in 1825. The church has a secret tunnel and hiding area that indicates that it was a stop on the Underground Railroad. "Orchard Street Church is the highlight of the tour because the legendary escape tunnel is there," says Tom Saunders, one of the Underground Railroad tour guides.

Alison Kwan Kwan is a native of Yonkers, N.Y., and is a senior at the Johns Hopkins University. She has written for UniSun and The Sun's Modern Life section. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in communications. For this issue, she writes about the Underground Railroad in a travel story. Cindy Blasingame Baker Baker, 34, writes about her decision to become a stay-at-home mom in this issue's First Person. She made that decision when she had her first child. Now she has two children.

CAMBRIDGE -- The remaining copies of a biography of Harriet Tubman, published to raise money to buy her a house after the Civil War, trickle about in general circulation, occasionally selling among rare-book collectors and dealers. Once in a while, one of the slim leather-bound volumes that Tubman dictated in 1869 even turns up on eBay. That's where Frank Bittner found the book a few months ago, perusing the Internet from his home in the rural Eastern Shore farming community of Hurlock.

WASHINGTON -- Over three decades ago, North Vietnam was able to undermine the conventional superiority of the U.S. military via a complex and robust system of trails and tunnels that funneled guerrillas into the south. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, as it became known, constituted an Achilles' heel for the United States in Vietnam and is remembered today as one of the important elements that ultimately contributed to what is considered to be a defeat of U.S. foreign policy. Defeat is surely not imminent for the United States in Iraq.

We know the names. Harriet Tubman was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, transporting more than 300 slaves to freedom. Frederick Douglass was an ardent spokesman for the abolition movement, and Thurgood Marshall helped end legal segregation as the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court. The full histories of these Maryland-born civil rights legends are rich in detail and poignancy. Now, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, which opens Saturday, is telling their stories - along with those of countless others - to give visitors a greater understanding of African-Americans' contributions to the country.

Marylander Harriet Tubman, the fugitive slave who is the subject of a mural dedicated at Annapolis City Hall yesterday, died on March 10, 1913, in Auburn, N.Y. Tubman is best-known for leading fugitive slaves to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. She was revered among abolitionists, especially Quakers, who gave her money and shelter along the Underground Railroad network of safe houses that ran from Virginia and Ohio to the Northern states. John Brown, who died leading a slave raid in Harpers Ferry, called the fugitive leader "General Tubman."