~ The Mural Explained ~

1. Leading Combahee River Raid in SC - Tubman worked with Colonel James Montgomery, an abolitionist who commanded the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a Black regiment. Together, they planned a raid along the Combahee River, to rescue enslaved people, recruit freed men into the Union Army and obliterate some of the wealthiest rice plantations in the region. Read more HERE.

2. AME Zion Church - Built in 1891, the Thompson Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Auburn stands as a testament to Harriet Tubman’s legacy. This was the church that Harriet Tubman worshiped in and is also where, in 1913, her funeral service was held. Read more HERE.

3. Serving as Nurse during the Civil War - In 1862, Tubman traveled to Beaufort, South Carolina, to be a nurse and teacher to the many Gullah people who had been abandoned by their owners on South Carolina’s Sea Islands. In 1865, she was appointed matron of a hospital at Fort Monroe in Virginia, where she cared for sick and wounded Black soldiers. Read more HERE.

4. Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes - At the age of 74, Tubman purchased at auction a 25 acre parcel of land with numerous structures which abutted her residential property. Her hope was to establish the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes to carry on her work of caring for the old and poor in her community. When she was unable to raise the funds necessary to open the facility, Tubman deeded the property to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in exchange for their opening and operating the Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes. The facility operated from 1908 until the early 1920's. Harriet Tubman herself became a patient, staying in a structure on the property called John Brown Hall which was used as the infirmary and main dormitory, until her death in 1913. Read more HERE.

5. Participating in Women's Suffrage Movement - After settling in Auburn, New York, Tubman began actively promoting women’s rights and attended suffrage events organized in nearby Geneva by Elizabeth and Anne Miller. When asked if she believed in women’s suffrage, she said “I suffered enough to believe it.” Read more HERE.

6. Tubman's Brick Residence in Auburn - In 1880, a careless boarder accidentally set Tubman’s wood-frame house on fire and it was destroyed. The community rallied and helped Harriet build a new brick house, which was constructed between 1881 and 1882. It was erected on a foundation of cut Onondaga limestone laid on the subsurface rubble stone footing of the old house. The house was completely designed and built by African Americans—most likely Tubman’s second husband, Nelson Davis, and Tubman’s relatives and friends. Some of the bricks were even made on the site. Read more HERE and HERE.

7. Apple Orchard at Tubman Home - As a child, Harriet Tubman spent many long hours picking apples on the plantation where she was forbidden from eating any of them. When she did steal one she was beaten. Because of this, she viewed apples as a symbol of freedom and wealth, and vowed to one day be free, able to grow apple trees of her own, which she did on her property in Auburn, NY. You can see these same apple trees today when you visit her home! Read more HERE and HERE.