How to Celebrate the Life of Harriet Tubman

The principles of Kwanzaa serve as guideposts year-round, not just for one week in December. No one better exemplifies the second principle - "kujichagulia," or self-determination - more than Harriet Tubman. Born to slavery, she escaped, then repeatedly risked death to lead hundreds of others to freedom.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Maps Of Underground Railroad Routes
• Rental cars
• Train Tickets
• Airline Tickets
• Books About Harriet Tubman

1. Drive along Harriet's route to freedom, from Bucktown, Maryland, north through Delaware and into southeastern Pennsylvania.
2. Explore some of the stops on the Underground Railroad. The main line and its many branches extended from Florida north to Montreal, and from Boston on the east to John Brown's home at Osawatomie, Kansas, on the west.
3. Visit the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, New York, where Harriet settled after the Civil War. It's now owned by the A.M.E. Zion Church and available for tours by appointment.
4. Take a trip to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, where Harriet helped her colleague John Brown plan his famous raid.
5. Introduce your children to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad - and the concept that freedom is something worth dying for. To get started, browse your favorite online bookstore for good book titles.
6. See a performance of "Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One" if it comes to your area. The one-woman show, written and performed by actress Gwendolyn Briley-Strand, takes its audience on one of Ms. Tubman's 19 journeys on the Underground Railroad. (Check your local newspaper, or search the Web.)
7. Do something you've always wanted to do but have always been afraid to try. As Harriet always said, "I can't die but once."

Tips & Warnings

• For information on places associated with the Underground Railroad, contact state tourism offices. You'll find the largest concentration of official historic sites in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
• Remember that, no matter how rocky a journey may be, there's always some good scenery along the way. Harriet pointed that out to one of the passengers she was leading to freedom on a real train bound for Canada. The escaping slave was so terrified he refused to talk or even glance out the window. As the train crossed the border into Canada, the newly free man burst into song, then launched into a loud monologue no one could stop. An exasperated Harriet cried out, "You old fool, you! You might at least have looked at Niagara Falls on the way to freedom!"
• Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross in Bucktown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Her birth date has never been verified; estimates range from 1816 to 1823. She died on March 10, 1913, at her home in Auburn, New York.