Araminta ‘Minty’ Ross, also known as Harriet Tubman, the Moses of her people, risked her own freedom to help seventy enslaved people escape on the Underground Railroad and another 750 escape during a raid she led with the Union Army. She worked as a spy, scout, and nurse during the Civil War. She was a suffragist and civil rights activist.
In 1859, she became a landowner. Frances Miller Seward, the wife of U.S. Senator William Henry Seward, sold Harriet seven acres for $1,200, the equivalent of around $45,000 today. The original home burned down in 1880 when a boarder accidentally started a fire, and the brick home that replaced it is still standing today.
The house needs a lot of work, and when we visited they were raising money to restore the home.
In 1896, Harriet bought the lot next door with a vision of creating a home and hospital for elderly and sick African Americans. Instead of charging money, she only took in people with nothing to their names. Those that were able helped around the pig farm and homestead, and those who weren’t lived out their days in as much comfort as Harriet could provide.
The rest of her land is now the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park. The visitor center sits back from the road and is an absolute wealth of information, not just about Harriet but the trials and tribulations of trying to make the world a better place.
Planning a visit was a little tricky. After an internet deep dive, we discovered you have to call and leave a voicemail with the date and time you wanted to come and the number of people in your party. If they didn’t call you back, it meant you could come. As a super-planner Virgo, this was hard for me. But we trusted their process and it all worked out just fine. You can find the details for visiting here.
We learned when we got there that one man ran the visitor center, and he did an incredible job. The visit began with learning about her life chronologically, and I don’t think a single one of us moved a muscle while he spoke. He was the perfect storyteller for the big life of 4’11” Harriet Tubman.
After wandering around the visitor center, as a group we headed to one of the home on the property. This house was used for people who were slightly ill but could still help with chores in exchange for room and board. We were able to tour the inside of the house, which includes some of Harriet’s actual furniture, donated by her family.
Down the street, Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, Harriet’s church, is now part of the National Park Service. They have worked tirelessly to restore the church to look the way it did when Harriet worshiped there. It was supposed to reopen a few months before we visited but was unfortunately closed the day we went to Auburn.
We also paid our respects at her grave in Fort Hill Cemetery. People leave items on her tombstone to honor her legacy and express gratitude for her work toward freedom and equality.
Before leaving Auburn we made two more stops related to Harriet Tubman and her incredible legacy. First, the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center. This welcome center for Auburn is free to visit and has an interactive exhibition, “Seeing Equal Rights in NYS,” where you can learn about the state’s progressive history supporting equality.
Our last stop was the Seward House Museum. We didn’t intend on stopping here but Harriet’s history and legacy was tied too closely to the Sewards to skip it.
William Henry Seward was a New York State Senator, Governor of New York, a United States Senator, and served as Secretary of State in the Lincoln and Johnson administrations. But like most great men, he had an even greater wife. Frances Miller Seward was the daughter of Judge Miller, who originally owned the house that is now the Seward house. While William Henry Seward supported African American rights and thought slavery should be abolished, it was Frances who took action. She was a free-thinker, practically unheard of in the 1800’s, she supported the Women’s Rights movement, and she hid runaway enslaved people in her basement, which was part of the Underground Railroad. She even told William to quit Lincoln’s cabinet if all enslaved people weren’t immediately emancipated.
And she sold land to her friend, Harriet Tubman.
The house itself was beautiful and grand, like many historic homes. A docent took us through the whole house and provided an in-depth commentary about each room.
Located just over an hour from Rochester, NY, Auburn holds an important place in civil rights history. To truly honor those who fought for freedom and equality, a visit to Harriet Tubman’s house and Auburn, NY, is required.
PS—this is my 700th post! I published by first post in March of 2013 and have since traveled to 21 countries, 37 US states, and every Canadian province. We have two big trips planned this year that will finish off all 50 states!