Tubman stands as a prime example of the difficulty of creating accurate public and
geographical tributes for historical figures whose deliberate intention to stay out of public view
and record within a particular location was necessary for their survival. Tubman’s temporary
status in Baltimore as a fugitive, as well as her illiteracy, make her unable to be completely
and/or accurately portrayed in today's public realm. Scholars, therefore, must choose their own
deliberative communicative routes when attempting to find proper "words" to address Tubman
and other written voids in history. James A. McGowan and William C. Kashatus, authors of
Harriet Tubman: A Biography, add details to recreate Tubman’s unwritten story, stating that
“Kessiah’s husband, John Bowley, a free black ship carpenter, sent word to Harriet hoping to
enlist her help” (28). 3 Obviously, “word” could have been oral and/or written, and “word” could
have been received through a third party reader. 4 McGowan and Kashatus regularly draw from
Larson’s Bound for the Promised Land, in describing how, “[s]heltered by a family in the free
black enclave of Fell’s Point, Kessiah and her children were met by Harriet, who guided them
safely [up the Chesapeake] to Philadelphia” (30). 5 Additional returns and rescues by Tubman
from Baltimore are only briefly mentioned by McGowan and Kashatus, including a rescue “a
few months later to bring [Tubman's] brother, Moses, and two other runaways to freedom” (30).
In addition, McGowan and and Kashatus mention evidence of other Baltimore sites Tubman
used for hiding refugees, such as the Orchard Street African Methodist Episcopal Church (43).
Larson acknowledges her inability to accurately recount Tu bman's history through the
repetitive use of “perhaps” and “likely” throughout her biography. While admitting the
uncertainty of Tubman’s personal actions and words, Larson is certain in describing the
Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument [A National Park Service Unit], the self-guided driving tour
routes the places where Tubman grew up, worshiped, labored, and led others to freedom.
3
McGowan and Kashatus highlight the reason for Tubman’s entrance into Baltimore: the passage of the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which “allowed slave hunters to seize alleged fugitive slaves without due process of
law and prohibited anyone from aiding escaped fugitives or obstructing their recovery” (“Fugitive Slave Law”).
4
“Word,” for Tubman, and for others who could not rely on a traditional literary system for safe
communication, embodied a language not necessarily written not on paper, but within the private circles of friends
and family members.
5
Baltimore, and Fell's Point in particular, was a (relatively) safer hiding place for Bowley and his family
(compared to the Eastern Shore) because of its large free African American population, even though slavery was
still in full practice in the city, as “[t]here [Bowley and his family] would circulate among the city’s 36,000 blacks—
29,000 of them free—and become indistinguishable to slave catchers and federal marshals alike” (McGowan and
Kashatus 30). Forty years earlier Fell's Point had been labeled "a nest of pirates" by former British merchant ship
captains ("Baltimore and the War of 1812"). McGowan and Kashatus explain that “[f]rom Baltimore, [Tubman]
could continue north on the Chesapeake, secreted on a steamship by African American stewards, until she reached
the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal” (43).
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