The Path of Thorns and Roses (Contraband and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial, Alexandria, VA)
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Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial]]> African Americans--Virginia
Alexandria (Va.)--History
American South
Cemeteries--Virginia
Freedmen--Virginia
Fugitive slaves--United States
Public art
Public sculpture]]>
Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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The Path of Thorns and Roses is an 18-foot high sculpture that spirals upwards and includes six allegorial figures: Oppression (a semi-nude male figure), Struggle (a semi-nude male figure at the base of the sculpture), Sacrifice (a woman who grasps the limp body of a child), Loss (a woman enfolded onto herself), and Compassion (a woman holding a baby and reaching towards Loss). Hope, a man with a bald head, stands on his toes within a large circle of thorns. The figure of Hope holds an unbloomed rose in his outstretched hands. Alongside the statue is a four-walled structure, “The Place of Remembrance,” the includes the names of individuals interred at the site as well as historical information on African Americans in Alexandria during the Civil War. Limestone blocks mark individual graves.

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Virtual Tour of Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery Memorial on Google 360 virtual tours]]> Bronze plaque on base of sculpture:
The Path of Thorns and Roses. Created and sculpted by Mario Chido, 2013. Public art owned by the City of Alexandria, Virginia. Cast by Mussi Artworks Foundry, California.

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Engraving on base of sculpture:
“I am thankful there is a beginning. I am full of hope for tomorrow. A Power mightier than man is guiding this revolution; and though justice moves slowly, it will come at last. The American people will outlive this mean prejudice against complexion.” —Harriet Jacobs, freedwoman, author, educator and dedicated aid worker in Alexandria during the Civil War

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Inset brick with bronze lettering on plaza:
1955 Gas Station. Under this plaza is the concrete floor of a gas station, the construction of which desecrated many graves. The flooring was kept in place to protect the graves that remain below.

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Text from Wall One of "The Place of Remembrance":
Welcome to Contrabands and Freemen Cemetery Memorial

During the Civil War, Alexandria’s population swelled with more than 20,000 enslaved African Americans fleeing Confederate territory for safety behind Union lines. Initially called Contrabands because they were considered “property” taken during wartime, they would later be called Freedmen. The new arrivals joined Alexandria’s free and enslaved African Americans, hoping to find jobs, homes, educational opportunities, and lost family. They also found deplorable living conditions and a raging smallpox epidemic. Many people died just as freedom came within reach.

The federal government established a cemetery for the dead here in 1864. A formal record documents the burials for 1,711 individuals through January 1869 when the government abandoned the cemetery. The community of Freedmen was left the task of maintenance, and may have continued using the burial ground well after it closed. Over time, its wooden grave markers deteriorated, and the cemetery suffered many desecrations. An adjacent brick manufactory excavated clay, exposing bones and coffins. The paving of Washington Street covered and disturbed graves and the development of a gas station, the Beltway, and an office building destroyed hundreds more.

Locations of many of the surviving graves remain unidentified but more than 540 have been found by archaeologists and given markers. Though individuals can no longer be linked to burial plots, the names of those buried in this cemetery survive. They are inscribed here, along with ages, dates, and places of death, and notes left by the record-keeper. Today, visitors to the cemetery memorial join descendants of the Contrabands and Freedman in honoring the memorial of these freedom seekers.

Individuals for whom living descendants have been identified are noted with this marker.

[The following text appears above the bronze plaques with the names of those buried at the site.]

In Alexandria’s first known civil rights protest,… members of the United States Colored Troops signed a petition requesting that black soldiers be buried alongside their white comrades in arms at the nearby military cemetery. Some Authors fought their request and, in one instance, the caisson of a USCT soldier en route to the military cemetery was forcibly re-routed to his cemetery. Still, the soldiers won their battle, and in January 1865, caskets of over a hundred USCT soldiers were disinterred from this burial ground and moved to Alexandria’s National Cemetery where they are recognized by stone markers today. Their names are listed below.

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Text from Wall Two of "The Place of Remembrance":
[The following text appears below an 1865 grid street plan of Alexandria]

The City

The Freedom seekers who arrived in Alexandria joined a large existing community of African Americans, including many free and enslaved individuals. These residents, new and old, helped to shape the city, establishing neighborhoods, and founding churches and schools. They also went to work on the railroads, at the wharves, in factories and small businesses, at hospitals and army encampments, and in their homes.

Freedmen’s Cemetery
This burial ground for African Americans was established by the federal government on the outskirts of town, on land owned by Francis Smith, Robert E. Lee’s attorney.

Soldiers Cemetery
Injured soldiers of the US Colored Troops convalescing at L’Ouverture Hospital successfully petitioned for the right to a burial alongside their white comrades at this military cemetery.

Slave Jail and L’Ouverture Hospital
The Price Birch and Co. slave jail at 1315 Duke Street was once the last stop for thousands of slaves sold south to a life of extreme hardship. The Union army commandeered the property as a jail. In 1804, a hospital was built nearby that treated African American soldiers and civilians for diseases like tuberculosis and typhoid, Shiloh Baptist Church congregation formed here.

Contraband Barracks and School
Some Freedmen found housing in crowded barracks like those on Prince Street. Despite the difficult conditions. Freedmen attended a school established at the barracks.

African American Schools
Deprived of an education by slavery, Contraband and Freedmen seized the opportunity to learn. Adults and children alike filled Contraband schools across the city learning for the first time to read and write.

African American Neighborhoods
While some of those arriving in Alexandria settled into established free black neighborhoods such as Hayti and the Bottoms, most camped out in deserted buildings or on marginal land, often constructing their own huts and shacks. These crowded settlements eventually became new African American neighborhoods such as Cross-Canal, Petersburg, and Grantville.

African American Churches
Places of gathering, faith, aid, and activism, Alexandria’s black churches were critical to the Contraband and Freedmen community. Many of Alexandria’s present-day congregations began meeting during the war.

Railroads
Alexandria’s strategic location where railroads met waterways made it a center of supply for the Union army. Rails also transported soldiers to the front and brought back the wounded to Alexandria’s hospital. Many Freedmen became railroad workers helping to keep goods and personnel moving.

Wharves
Many Contrabands and Freemen worked on the waterfront, processing, loading, and unloading goods coming in on ships and by rail. These laborers kept a steady stream of food and supplies flowing to the Union army.

[The following text appears below a bas-relief of enslaved people escaping bondage]

Fleeing slavery for sanctuary and freedom in Alexandria

When Virginia seceded in May of 1861, Union troops occupied Alexandria and turned the port town into a staging area and base for operation. It also became a beacon for freedom seekers who took the opportunity war provided to escape enslavement. Thousands of fleeing African Americans made the dangerous and difficult journey through Confederate territory, often traveling on foot, some coming from hundreds of miles away. They arrived in Alexandria hungry, tired, and with few resources, and began searching our food, clothing shelter, medical treatment, and education.

[The following quote appears to the right of the bas-relief.]

“I traveled 65 miles and we had 52 on our number before, we crost, the river…we tought, we wold, be taken eny moment, the babys cried, and we could whear, the sound of them. On the warter. We lay all night in the woods, and next day we traveled on and we reached, Suffolk that night and we lost twenty one of the Number.” —Emma Bynum, a freedwoman describing her flights to freedmen in a composition for her schoolteacher, Miss Lucy Chase

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Text from Wall Three of "The Place of Remembrance":
[The following text appears below a bas-relief of a school teacher surrounded by her students.]

Learning to read at an Alexandria freedmen’s school

Overwhelmed by their numbers, Alexandria could offer little aid to the newly arrived Contrabands. Some took up residence in temporary barracks created near the site of a former slave jail. Others found shelter in free black neighborhoods or in abandoned buildings and shanties. Social workers like Julia Wilbur, a white Quaker from New York, and Harriet Jacobs, a black freedwoman, responded to the need by gathering supplies, attending to medical problems, and setting up school and other community services. Despite their efforts, many particularly children, died from exposure or disease. Still, the freed people worked tirelessly to create new lives, and in the process, reshaped the city of Alexandria.”

[The following quote appears to the right of the bas-relief.]

“Besides the school in the barracks there are our others in the city, which are self-sustaining, one containing one hundred and fifty pupils, It is an astonishing fact, which ought to be placed upon record…that out of the two thousand people collected at Alexandria there are four hundred children sent daily to school. The first demand of these fugitives when they come into this place is that their children may go to school.” —Harriet Jacobs, freedwoman, educator, and aid worker in Alexandria, April 29, 1863

[The following text appears below an aerial map of the cemetery]

The Site:
The cemetery was established in 1864 and officially closed in 1869. Burials probably continued after this time, even as the wooden grave markers from the Civil War era deteriorated. Over the next century, this site endured many intrusions, and no longer appeared to be a sacred place. This site map identified features uncovered by historical and archaeological research, as well as desecrations, that occurred through the 1990s.”

1) Memorial Fence: Today, a steel fence evokes the wooden picket fence that once encircled the cemetery. The historic boundary is unknown, but likely included additional land that was paved over during the construction of South Washington Street.

2) Carriage Path: Carts carrying the dead entered the cemetery along this route.

3) Grave Shafts: Archaeology has identified more than 540 of the 1,711 burials believed to be present on site. Although no graves or artifacts were disturbed, the study revealed evidence of prior destruction caused by development of the site.

4) American Indian Site: Thousands of stone artifacts were discovered during archaeological investigations, including a 13,000 year old Clovis spear point. These finds suggest that American Indians periodically visited this bluff overlooking Hunting Creek for millennia to manufacture tools for hunting, scraping, hides, and other activities.

5) United States Colored Troops Section: As a result of a successful protest by USCT to be buried with full honors alongside their white comrades, the caskets of USCT were moved from a section of the cemetery to the nearby military cemetery in 1805.

6) Brickyard: Clay excavations may have occurred on the western edge of the cemetery, resulting in the desecration of graves, as noted by an 1892 Washington Post article: Of late the owners have been allowing the neighboring brickyard to dig clay from the outer edges of the graveyard with which to make brick. This digging has resulted in the unearthing of many coffins and skeletons, leaving the outer graves in very bad condition.

7) Gas Station: The current memorial plaza is built atop the floor and foundations of a service station built in 1955.

8) Office Building: The slab of a 1960 office building was covered during the memorial’s construction to protect the graves presumed to be below. A reconstruction portion of the building can still be seen on Church Street. Two stone Markers located the southernmost corners of the building.

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Text from Wall Four of “The Place of Remembrance”:
“I have just witnessed a novel and solemn scene, a funeral in the open air. The deceased, Peter Washington, was an old man, and a slave until the breaking out of the war… After the signing and a prayer, a minister, an early associate of the deceased gave a brief sketch of the life of Peter Washington. He had eight children; in one day he was bereft of his six daughters and five grandchildren. ‘On that day’ said the minister, ‘he leant on me, and with a bursting heart exclaimed, “If it were not my hope in Christ, I could not bear up under this trial.”’ [M]any of his hearers seemed to find an echo to a like experience in their own souls, They swayed their forms, and moaned as if some wound of the past was being dressily probed. No child of his came to bid him a last farewell, they are scattered I know not where: his two sons are in the army battling for the country their father loved inspite of her persecutions to him and his.” —Harriet Jacobs, freedwoman, educator, and aid worker in Alexandria, describing the funeral of Peter Washington, buried here May 32, 1864

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Text from grave marker:
Many of the African Americans who fled to Alexandria to escape enslavement and those already living here succumbed to disease and deprivation during and shortly after the Civil War. Carts bearing the dead entered the cemetery along a path in this location. Stones mark the locations of more than 540 graves identified by archaeologists and now protected by the memorial. According to historic records, the cemetery once held nearly 1,200 additional graves, many of which were destroyed by buildings and roads. Of the people laid to rest here, over half were children under the age of sixteen.

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“Contrabands & Freedmen Cemetery Memorial.” City of Alexandria Virginia. February 2, 2018. Accessed March 21, 2018. https://www.alexandriava.gov/FreedmenMemorial.

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“Forgotten Cemetery for Freed Slaves Rediscovered.” CBS Evening News. September 10, 2014. Accessed March 21, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pK4e8daKPc.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pK4e8daKPc

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Unwavering Courage in the Pursuit of Freedom (Wilimington, DE)]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionist--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Fugitive slaves--United States
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913
Garrett, Thomas, 1789-1871

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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“Connecting Humanity During Disconnected Times,” Mario Chiodo at TEDx Napa Valley, December 19, 2012]]> Bronze plaque:
Unwavering Courage in the Pursuit of Freedom, Dedicated October 3, 2012, Honorable James M. Baker, Mayor, Artist: Mario Chiodo.

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Inscripton on Tubman biographical bronze plaque:
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; 1820 – March 10, 1913). ‘I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.’ Born on Maryland’s eastern shore, Harriet Tubman’s family of eleven suffered the indignities of violence and division common to the institution of slavery. Harriet escaped from slavery following the death of her owner in 1849. Over the course of 10 years, with the help of Thomas Garrett and other abolitionists, she led hundreds of slaves along the Underground Railroad through Wilmington to freedom in New York, New England, and Canada, earning the title of the ‘Moses of her people’. During the Civil War, she was a cook and a nurse and became a spy and armed scout for the federal forces, helping to liberate more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. Tubman died in 1913 at her home in Auburn, NY.

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Inscripton on Garrett biographical bronze plaque:
Thomas Garrett (b. August 21, 1789 – d. January 24, 1871). ‘No labor during a long life has give me so much real happiness as what I have done for the slave.’ Thomas Garrett has been called Delaware’s greatest humanitarian and is credited with helping more than 2,700 slaves escape to freedom in a forty-year long career as a station master of the Underground Railroad. His abolitionist activities, along with the Quaker congregation from the Friends Meeting House in Wilmington, helped to make Wilmington an important gateway on the freedom trail. Garrett helped Harriet Tubman on her many journeys, giving her food, clothing, shelter, and money. He was convicted of violating the federal Fugitive Slave Law in 1848 and heavily fined and forced into bankruptcy. Garrett devoted his life to the abolitionist cause, openly defying slave hunters, as well as the slave system.

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Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> Chiodo, Mario. “Unwavering Courage in the Pursuit of Freedom.” Freedom March of Art. Accessed March 18, 2018, www.freedommarchofart.com/tubman.html.

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Step on Board (Boston, MA)]]> Abolitionist--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Fugitive slaves--United States
Massachusetts--History
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad]]>
Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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]]> Inscriptions on back of relief:
Step On Board, Harriet Ross Tubman, 1820 – 1913, Go Down Moses, Way Down in Egypt’s Land, Tell Old Pharoah — Let My People Go.

“There are two things I’ve got a right to, and these are death or liberty. One or another I mean to have. No one will take me back alive.”—Harriet Tubman

“The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism.” —Frederick Douglass

“Tell my brothers to be always watching unto prayer, and when the good old ship of Zion comes along, to be ready to step aboard.”—Harriet Tubman

“She expected deliverance when she prayed, unless the Lord had ordered otherwise.” —Sarah Bradford]]>
Inscription on bronze plaque:
For the Adornment and Benefit of Boston. The design, fabrication, and installation of the memorials at Harriet Tubman park were made possible through the efforts of the United South End Settlements with funding support from the New England Foundation for the Arts, George B. Henderson Foundation, the Edward Ingersoll Browne Fund, a public charitable trust administered by the Trust Office of the City of Boston. The art piece ’Step on Board’ was designed by artist Fern Cunningham in 1999, and ’Emancipation’ was designed by artist Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller in 1913. The park is maintained by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department in partnership with the friends of Harriet Tubman Park, 2000.

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Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> “Step on Board/Harriet Tubman Memorial.” CultureNOW. Accessed March 19, 2018, https://www.culturenow.org/index.php?page=entry&permalink=08696.

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“Special Projects: Harriet Tubman Sculpture & Park.” George B. Henderson Foundation. Accessed March 19, 2018, http://thehendersonfoundation.com/harriet_tubman_sculpture_park.htm.

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Harriet Tubman (first cast) (Mesa, AZ)]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionist--United States
American West
Antislavery movements--United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMNZ71_Harriet_Tubman_Mesa_Arizona]]> Inscription on back:
"Children if you are tired, keep going. If you're hungry, keep going. If you're scared, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." Harriet Tubman

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Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> “Las Sendas Park Statues.” Las Sendas Is Home. Accessed March 19, 2018, http://www.lassendasishome.com/statues/.

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“Harriet Tubman-Mesa, Arizona.” Statues of Historic Figures on Waymaking.com. Accessed, March 19, 2018. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMNZ71_Harriet_Tubman_Mesa_Arizona.

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"Harriet Tubman Statues by Jane DeDecker Across the US." Wander Woman Project. Accessed May 25, 2020, https://wanderwomenproject.com/places/harriet-tubman-statues-by-jane-dedecker-across-the-us/.

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Harriet Tubman (second cast) (Brenau University, Gainesville, GA)]]> Harriet Tubman and Child]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionist--United States
American South
Antislavery movements--United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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https://update.brenau.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_0007.jpg]]> Harriet Tubman, Las Sendas, Mesa, Arizona]]> Inscription on back:
"Children if you are tired, keep going. If you're hungry, keep going. If you're scared, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." Harriet Tubman]]>
Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> "Harriet Tubman Statues by Jane DeDecker Across the US." Wander Woman Project. Accessed May 25, 2020, https://wanderwomenproject.com/places/harriet-tubman-statues-by-jane-dedecker-across-the-us/.

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"Harriet Tubman and Child." Vision 2020 Public Arts. Accessed May 25, 2020, https://www.2030art.com/project-02.

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Harriet Tubman (third cast) (Little Rock, AR)]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionist--United States
South Central United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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https://locate.publicartarchive.org/art/Harriet-Tubman?ib=ext]]> Harriet Tubman, Las Sendas, Mesa, Arizona]]> Inscription on back:
"Children if you are tired, keep going. If you're hungry, keep going. If you're scared, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." Harriet Tubman]]>
Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> “Harriet Tubman, Little Rock, Arkansas.” Public Art Archive. Accessed March 19, 2018, https://locate.publicartarchive.org/art/Harriet-Tubman?ib=ext.

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Peacock, Leslie Newell. “Forever, Sculpture: Artwork and a City Director, Carve Out a Special Place along Little Rock’s Riverfront.” Arkansas Times, June 15, 2017. Accessed March 19, 2018, https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/forever-sculpture/Content?oid=7409126.

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“Harriet Tubman Statues by Jane DeDecker Across the US.” Wander Woman Project. Accessed May 25, 2020, https://wanderwomenproject.com/places/harriet-tubman-statues-by-jane-dedecker-across-the-us/.

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Harriet Tubman (fourth cast) (Ypsilanti, MI)]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionist--United States
American Midwest
Antislavery movements--United States
Michigan--History
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Harriet_Tubman_Ypsilanti_Michigan.JPG]]> Harriet Tubman, Las Sendas, Mesa, Arizona]]> Bronze plaque on front of statue:
Harriet Tubman, 1820-1913. Led slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad earning her the name of ‘Moses of Her People.’ Bronze statue created by Jane DeDecker and installed in 2006.

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Inscription on back:
"Children if you are tired, keep going. If you're hungry, keep going. If you're scared, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." Harriet Tubman

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Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> "Library Plaza." Ypsilanti District Library. Accessed March 18, 2018, https://www.ypsilibrary.org/about/visit/ydl-michigan/library-plaza/.

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"Harriet Tubman Statues by Jane DeDecker Across the US." Wander Woman Project. Accessed May 25, 2020, https://wanderwomenproject.com/places/harriet-tubman-statues-by-jane-dedecker-across-the-us/.

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Memorial to the Underground Railroad (Battle Creek, MI)]]> Underground Railroad Sculpture; Underground Railroad Monument]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionists--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Fugitive slaves--United States
Michigan--History
Midwestern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Hussey, Erastus, 1800-1889
Hussey, Sarah Bowen, 1808-1899
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Underground_Railroad_Sculpture_in_Battle_Creek,_Michigan_(2981829830).jpg]]> Bronze plaque:
Memorial to the Underground Railroad. From the 1830s to the 1861, thousands of slaves in the southern United States courageously escaped northward to freedom to what became known as the Underground Railroad. Along this secret network, ‘conductors’ like Battle Creek’s Erastus and Sarah Hussey, whose likenesses are captured in this memorial, took great personal risks to ensure the safety of escaping slaves. Harriet Tubman, known as the Black Moses, was a national heroine of this epic struggle and is depicted leading another brave family away from the shackles of slavery. This memorial honors the Underground Railroad and is dedicated to the strength of the human spirit in the quest for freedom. Ed Dwight, Sculptor. Denver, Colorado. 1993. This sculpture was made possible by a gift from the Glenn A. Cross Estate and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

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Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> “Sharing the Legacies that Promote Social Justice.” W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Accessed March 19, 2018. https://www.wkkf.org/news-and-media/article/2008/01/sharing-the-legacies-that-promote-social-justice.

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“Battle Creek Underground Railroad Sculpture.” Detroit1701.org. Accessed March 19, 2018. http://detroit1701.org/Battle%20Creek%20Underground%20RR%20Sculpture.html.

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Glesner, Anthony Patrick. "Laura Haviland: Neglected Heroine of the Underground Railroad." Michigan Historical Review 21, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 19-48.

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Harriet Ross Tubman Memorial (Bristol, PA)]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionists--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Northeastern United States
Pennsylvania--History
Public art
Public sculpture
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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Inscription on base of sculpture:
Harriet Ross Tubman

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Inscription on bronze plaque:
Harriet Ross Tubman. Abolitionist-American Hero. Circa 1820-1913. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849. She fled to Philadelphia where, as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, she made 19 sorties into the South, liberating over 300 slaves. Ms. Tubman also served as a spy and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War. Harriet Tubman—Authentic American Hero

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Ten granite pillars with inscriptions (clockwise from base of sculpture):
Hope is Another Form of Freedom; We Choose Inclusion Not Exclusion; Our Town is America the Beautiful; We Stand Together; Liberty and Justice For All; Move Forward; Amalgamate the Community; Freedom Will Prevail; Unity is the Way.

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Ten stone markers:
Names of old African American families in Bristol

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Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> “Grant Helps Bring Tubman to Life.” HarrietTubman.com. Accessed March 21, 2018, http://www.harriettubman.com/grant.html.

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“Harriet Tubman-Lions Park-Bristol, PA.” Statues of Historic Figures on Waymaking.com. Accessed, March 21, 2018, http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3JK9_Harriet_Tubman_Lions_Park_Bristol_PA.

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Harriet Tubman (Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD)]]> Harriet Tubman Statue]]> Subject (Topic)
Abolitionists--United States
Antislavery movements--United States
Maryland--History
Northeastern United States
Public art
Public sculpture
Slavery--Maryland
Underground Railroad

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Subject (Name)
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913

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Subject (Object Type)
Commemorative sculpture

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Inscription on bronze plaque:
Harriet Tubman. C. 1821-1913. ‘The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witness of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism,’ wrote fellow abolitionist and Eastern Shore native Frederick Douglass of Harriet Tubman. A Civil War nurse, scout, spy, military strategist and early women’s suffragist, the ‘Moses of her people’ freed hundreds of slaves via the Underground Railroad. With the support of the Salisbury University community, sculptor James Hill and his students realized this work in 2009, with the hope that her story will continue to inspire courage and action in the pursuit of human rights.

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Monument and Myth: Commemorating Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad]]> Press Releases. “New SU Sculpture Honors Harriet Tubman.” News. Salisbury University. September 22, 2009. Assessed March 21, 2018, http://www.salisbury.edu/news/article.html?id=3995.

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