Harriet Tubman Day to be celebrated on March 11, 2017

Harriet Tubman Day 2017 in Delaware will be celebrated on Saturday, March 11, 2017 with a series of free public programs at two locations in downtown Wilmington.

Activities will begin with a State of Delaware proclamation ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Delaware History Museum located at 504 N. Market St. RSVP requested by March 3, 2017 by e-mailing gloria.henry@delaware.gov.

Following the ceremony, family programs on Tubman and the Underground Railroad will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Delaware History Museum, and from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Wilmington Friends Meeting House located at 401 N. West St. Reservations for the family programs are requested by calling 302-655-7161 or e-mailing deinfo@dehistory.org.

Harriet Tubman Day is held annually in commemoration of the March 10, 1913 death of the noted Underground Railroad conductor. Born a slave in 1820, Tubman is credited with personally escorting over 300 slaves to freedom on more than 20 separate trips through Maryland and Delaware. These escapes included her own from a Dorchester County, Md. farm in 1849. Tubman was an abolitionist, humanitarian and Union spy during the Civil War. Her 100 percent success rate in helping slaves escape to freedom made her a legend throughout the country. She is documented as traveling through Sussex and Kent counties in Delaware with the aid of local Black families, and she frequently collaborated with noted abolitionist Thomas Garrett of Wilmington.

The 2017 Harriet Tubman Day celebration in Delaware is sponsored by the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, the Delaware Historical Society, Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, the Quaker Hill Historic Preservation Foundation, the Underground Railroad Coalition of Delaware and the Wilmington Friends Meeting House.

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