President Obama To Name Harriet Tubman Tribute A National Monument

On March 25, President Barack Obama is expected make the official announcement about his decision to designate five new National Monuments. According to reports, one of the new national parks will include the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument in Maryland.

Located on the Eastern Shore, the tribute will include large sections of land that were significant to Harriet Tubman’s life as a slave and Underground Railroad conductor.

“The monument commemorates the life of the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad who was responsible for helping enslaved people escape from bondage to freedom,” according to a statement released by the White House. “The park includes Stewart’s Canal, dug by hand by free and enslaved people between 1810 and the 1830s and where Tubman learned important outdoor skills when she worked in the nearby timbering operations with her father…Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument also includes the home site of Jacob Jackson, a free black man who used coded letters to help Tubman communicate with family and others.”

The monument will also be a partnership with the State of Maryland’s Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park Visitor Center, which is expected to open in 2015.

The other four new national monuments will include the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio, the San Juan Islands National Monument in Washington State, the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico and the First State National Monument in Delaware and Pennsylvania.