Follow the North Star along the Harriet Tubman Byway

Polaris, also known as the North Star, appears stationary above the horizon of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Harriet Tubman, who grew up near the refuge in Dorchester County, Maryland, used Polaris as her guiding light as she and other escaped slaves fled north on the Underground Railroad, a path forged by freedom-seeking slaves and abolitionists in the 19th century.

On their journeys, Tubman and others fleeing to Canada could rely on several natural signs to point them northward: moss grows on the north side of trees, migrating birds fly north in the summer and Polaris always points north. Over the course of a decade, Tubman risked her life on more than a dozen trips back to Maryland to transport her parents, brothers, family members and friends to freedom.

As the birthplace of Tubman, the Eastern Shore of Maryland holds a rich history in its expansive farm fields, settlements and wetlands that nestle into the crooks and creeks of the Chesapeake Bay. Along the 125-mile Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, which winds through Caroline and Dorchester Counties, visitors can stop at more than 30 sites that tell the story of Tubman’s pathway to freedom, where she lived, worked and fought to free herself and countless others.

See some of the sights along the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway.