National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

The Call of FreedomDorchester County occupies a central place in the story of the Underground Railroad, the secret network of "stations" and "conductors" assisting hundreds of enslaved African Americans to reach freedom in the mid-1800s. Church Creek and nearby Madison were ten important shipbuilding centers where some enslaved people learned skills in the maritime trades that helped them to use the creeks and rivers of the Chesapeake as passageways to freedom.

The Christmas EscapeTubman escaped slavery in 1849, yet risked her freedom time and again by making at least 13 trips back to the Eastern Shore and leading over 70 slaves north to freedom. Late in 1854, she sent a letter to Jacob Jackson, a free black farmer living near Madison saving "...tell my brothers to be always watching unto prayer, and when the good old ship Zion comes along, to be ready to step on board."

Authorities intercepted the letter, but Jackson told them he didn't understand its meaning. Later Jackson alerted Tubman's brothers that Harriet was on her way. When the three brothers went to see their parents on Christmas Day in nearby Caroline County, they found Tubman waiting to lead them to freedom.

A Conductor's RootsThe famed Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman lived and worked in this area. Her father Ben Ross served as the head timber cutter of a slaveholder on a Madison/Woolford plantation. Tubman's mother "Rit" Green belonged to the stepson of Ben's owner who moved her and her children to Bucktown in 1823. While Harriet Tubman was separated from her father in her early years, she later returned to this area toiling with him in the woods and marshes where she learned survival skills essential to her later success on the Underground Railroad.

(Inscription under the photo in the center top) This canal near Madison was dug with slave labor between 1810 and 1830. The canal was used to float logs to boatyards on the Little Choptank River.-Courtesy of Kate Clifford Library.

(Inscription beside the photo in the lower center) William Henry (Ross) Stewart, Sr., one of Harriet Tubman's brothers who fled with her on Christmas Day, 1854. The Ross brothers settled in Ontario, Canada. Photo taken c. 1860-Courtesy of Judith Bromwell.

(Inscription beside the photo of Harriet Tubman) Harriet wrote: "I was a conductor on the Underground Rail Road for eight years and I can say what most conductors can't say—I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger. (Women's Suffrage Meeting, Rochester, NY) (Courtesy of the Collections of the Cuyahoga Museum of History and Art)

(Inscription beside the book-Impending Crisis) This book, published in 1857, attacked slavery. Charles Dixon of Church Creek was brought to trial in Cambridge for loaning his copy of the book to friends and neighbors.

The "Finding a Way to Freedom" Driving Tour and Dorchester County Courthouse are part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, info available at the Dorchester County Visitor Center (410-228-1000)

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Show me all markers in:  Church Creek, MD  |  Dorchester County  |  21622  |  Maryland  |  United States of America

Treaty Oak
Walk the Old Trinity Heritage Trail Historical
Trinity P.E. Church
Anna Ella Carroll
Malone's Church-Ties that Bind
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center
The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway
Gethsemane Methodist Protestant Church
Madison-Preparing for Freedom

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