Museum Director Retraces Tubman’s Route from Auburn to Canada

It’s 153 miles from Auburn, New York to Saint Catharines, Ontario.

That’s the route Linda Harris, Executive Director of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center in Cambridge, Maryland, is walking to retrace Tubman’s steps.

“I’m walking the underground railroad,” Harris told Finger Lakes News Radio. “This is September and it is International Underground Railroad Month and I wanted to do this walk from Auburn to Canada in honor of [Tubman] and all those who had to leave the United States in 1850 because of the Fugitive Slave Act.”

The Fugitive Slave Act required escaped slaves to be returned to their enslavers regardless if they were residing in a free state.

Having visited Auburn just once before, and only briefly, Harris added that it’s great to be able to experience both sides of Tubman’s life.

“I focus at our museum on what she did there, but more importantly, what she did after she left. I connect the story. I give lectures that start from her birth in 1822 until the time of her death in 1913., so we cover that. So, I’m very happy to be [in Auburn] with the Harriet that left Cambridge… I’m happy to see this part of her life.”

Harris departs Auburn on Friday and hopes to make it to Canada by Wednesday. She has previously walked from Brodess Plantation in Maryland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, retracing the steps of Tubman’s escape from enslavement to freedom.