By Mari D’Albora Dattolo
Outside of Greenwich in Cumberland County, NJ is one of the oldest African American settlements on the eastern seaboard. Springtown came about after the Manumission Act of 1786 when Quakers sold small tracts of land to free Blacks who then would settle into Philadelphia’s suburbs, or as far north as Canada. In the 1800 census, there were approximately 80 free people of African descent in Greenwich Township, as well as an equal number of enslaved people. New Jersey’s Gradual Abolition of Slavery Act was passed in 1804. However, the last enslaved person in Greenwich wouldn’t be released until 25 years later in 1829.
One of the people who utilized New Jersey’s Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman, born “Araminta Ross” in March 1822, took her mother’s first name and her first husband’s last name when she reached adulthood. Tubman was a strong-willed and courageous young woman born into slavery on a Maryland plantation. When she was a child, an overseer threw a weight that struck her in the head. The resulting injury left her with severe headaches, seizures and narcolepsy for the rest of her life. Disabled and only five feet tall, she was easy to underestimate.
Upon hearing that she would be sold to another plantation in 1849, she planned a daring escape into the Northern free states. With seven escape routes into New Jersey, points of entry from the South included Cape May, Greenwich and Springtown. Tubman planned to escape with her brothers, but they turned back due to fear of getting caught. As a result, Tubman made her first journey to freedom alone.
A year later, Tubman returned to free her sister and her sister’s two children from Dorchester County, MD. Traveling along the western route, they walked at night, hid during the day, foraged for food and slept outside on the ground without so much as a blanket. After approximately 90 miles, they crossed the Delaware Bay from the Eastern Shores into Quaker-occupied West Jersey. With the aid of Lenni Lenape scouts, she and her fellow fugitives followed the network of safe houses through South Jersey’s pine forests to the city of Philadelphia. She accomplished this feat using her knowledge of plants and herbs, navigating the intercoastal waterways and by the guidance system of the stars.
After her first success of guiding others to freedom, she began planning and executing missions to Maryland to free more slaves. In the summer months, Tubman found work as a domestic servant and cook in Cape May’s grand hotels. Her earnings enabled her to support the expense of future crossings. During these daring crossings, she carried a pistol and reportedly told those tempted to turn back to “Live free or die.”
In her later years, Tubman participated in other antislavery efforts. She supported John Brown in his failed 1859 raid on the Harpers Ferry, Virginia arsenal. During the Civil War, she learned the towns and transportation routes of the Confederate army — information that made her a vital ally to Union military commanders. Tubman served as a spy and armed scout for the Union army, learning from the enslaved population about Confederate troop placements and supply lines. She also led the Combahee River Raid, which led to the freedom of 700 slaves in South Carolina and was the first woman-led raid in the United States.
At the war’s end, Tubman resided in Auburn, New York. She raised funds to aid freedmen and joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in their quest for women’s suffrage. Tubman also cared for her aging parents. She married Union soldier Nelson Davis, who was also born into slavery. Tubman was more than twenty years his senior. They adopted a daughter together in 1874.
After an extensive campaign for a military pension, Tubman was initially only awarded $8 per month in 1895 as Davis’s widow, who died in 1888. She was finally granted $20 per month in 1899 for her service. Since the military denied her so long the pension she earned, Tubman worked with writer Sarah Bradford on a biography to generate income. In 1896, she opened the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged and cared for the elderly in her community. Harriet Tubman died in 1913 and was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York.
The Harriet Tubman Museum of New Jersey opened its doors on Juneteenth 2021 and features artifacts and art from Harriet Tubman’s time in New Jersey when she worked as a cook in a Cape May hotel and raised funds to rescue enslaved people. The museum also highlights the history of Cape May as a crucial stop on the Underground Railroad and a center of abolitionist activity.
The Harriet Tubman Museum building is located on a block that antislavery activists called home in Cape May. Lafayette Street and Franklin Street became a center of abolitionist activity centered around three important buildings developed in 1846.
For more information or to visit the Harriet Tubman Museum email info@harriettubmanmuseum.org or visit harriettubmanmuseum.org.
