For the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the citizens of Wilmington, Delaware erected a new statue in the revived Riverfront Park along the Christina River honoring Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad Station Master Thomas Garrett. The story-telling statue was put up near Quaker Hill where Garrett lived and sheltered runaways escaping slavery. In its request for proposals for the statue in 2011 the city said “Wilmington, Delaware was a major station on the Underground Railroad. The Harriet Tubman/Thomas Garrett public art project should speak to and about the relationship that was forged between Harriet Tubman and Thomas Garrett (who lived in Wilmington) in the efforts to free slaves from the bonds and inhumanity of slavery.” The city chose Mario Chiodo, a California-based artist, to create the statue.
Chiodo said that the monument “embodies the perseverance and sacrifice of Harriet Tubman and those who assisted her in leading enslaved African Americans out of the South, a dangerous, clandestine operation known as the Underground Railroad.”
The entrance to the park has an attractive arch over it. Through the entryway you can see the statue.
Harriet Tubman has become more famous in recent years than she was at the time of the Civil War Centennial during the 1960s. First New York, where she lived most of her free life, marked sites associated with her. Then, in the last thirty years, Maryland marked her early life as a slave and a visitors center was opened near where she grew up. In the 21st Century there have also been commemorative markers set up in New Jersey, Ontario, and here in Delaware. This statue is one of the most visited. It is just a few minutes off of I-95 and within an hour of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. There is plenty of parking and it can be easily accessed by train.
When I visited the monument, Tubman image looked like she was going through the torture of transit through the fields and swamps of Delaware. Her face showed both pain and a grim determination to get north of the Delaware River. In her hands she was carrying a baby. Was he dead? No.
The baby was a child who kept crying while she was taking the baby and his mother north. Tubman had to sedate the baby so that they could all make their escape.
Thomas Garrett was born in 1789 to a Quaker family outside of Philadelphia. He moved to Wilmington in 1822 where he became active in the local Quaker meeting house. He lived at 227 Shipley Street near his monument. By 1827, Garret was a national leader in opposition to slavery. Although he was a Quaker, he came to believe that a civil war would be necessary to end slavery. Over the next four decades, Garrett helped over 2,000 Black people escaping slavery. During the ten years before the Civil War, he assisted Harriet Tubman by giving her shelter when she was conducting escaped slaves. He also helped raise money for her support.
After the Civil War, when the 15th Amendment was passed, Wilmington’s African American community carried Garrett through the streets in celebration and to thank him for a half-century of advocacy for Blacks.
Garrett’s image shows him ever alert for slave patrols. He had been doing this dangerous work for nearly four decades. A court order had taken most of his property away as a penalty for aiding fugitive African Americans. He had been assaulted by a mob and a price was put on his head. His courage and alertness, though, kept the men, women, and children safe and sped them on their way to the North.
In 1868 Garrett wrote a letter in which he recalled his work with Tubman. He wrote:
MY FRIEND:
Thy favor of the 12th reached me yesterday, requesting such reminiscences as I could give respecting the remarkable labors of Harriet Tubman, in aiding her colored friends from bondage. I may begin by saying, living as I have in a slave State, and the laws being very severe where any proof could be made of any one aiding slaves on their way to freedom, I have not felt at liberty to keep any written word of Harriet’s or my own labors, except in numbering those whom I have aided. For that reason I cannot furnish so interesting an account of Harriet’s labors as I otherwise could, and now would be glad to do; for in truth I never met with any person, of any color, who had more confidence in the voice of God, as spoken direct to her soul. She has frequently told me that she talked with God, and he talked with her every day of her life, and she has declared to me that she felt no more fear of being arrested by her former master, or any other person, when in his immediate neighborhood, than she did in the State of New York, or Canada, for she said she never ventured only where God sent her, and her faith in a Supreme Power truly was great.
I have now been confined to my room with indisposition more than four weeks, and cannot sit to write much; but I feel so much interested in Harriet that I will try to give some of the most remarkable incidents that now present themselves to my mind.
The date of the commencement of her labors, I cannot certainly give; but I think it must have been about 1845; from that time till 1860, I think she must have brought from the neighborhood where she had been held as a slave, from 60 to 80 persons, from Maryland, some 80 miles from here. No slave who placed himself under her care, was ever arrested that I have heard of; she mostly had her regular stopping places on her route; but in one instance, when she had two stout men with her, some 30 miles below here, she said that God told her to stop, which she did; and then asked him what she must do.
He told her to leave the road, and turn to the left; she obeyed, and soon came to a small stream of tide water; there was no boat, no bridge; she again inquired of her Guide what she was to do. She was told to go through. It was cold, in the month of March; but having confidence in her Guide, she went in; the water came up to her arm-pits; the men refused to follow till they saw her safe on the opposite shore. They then followed, and if I mistake not, she had soon to wade a second stream; soon after which she came to a cabin of colored people, who took them all in, put them to bed, and dried their clothes, ready to proceed next night on their journey.
Harriet had run out of money, and gave them some of her underclothing to pay for their kindness. When she called on me two days after, she was so hoarse she could hardly speak, and was also suffering with violent toothache. The strange part of the story we found to be, that the master of these two men had put up the previous day, at the railroad station near where she left, an advertisement for them, offering a large reward for their apprehension; but they made a safe exit.
She at one time brought as many as seven or eight, several of whom were women and children. She was well known here in Chester County and Philadelphia, and respected by all true abolitionists. I had been in the habit of furnishing her and those that accompanied her, as she returned from her acts of mercy, with new shoes; and on one occasion when I had not seen her for three months, she came into my store.
I said, “Harriet, I am glad to see thee! I suppose thee wants a pair of new shoes.” Her reply was “I want more than that.” I, in jest, said, “I have always been liberal with thee, and wish to be; but I am not rich, and cannot afford to give much.” Her reply was: “God tells me you have money for me.” I asked her “if God never deceived her?” She said, “No!” “Well! how much does thee want?” After studying a moment, she said: “About twenty-three dollars.”
I then gave her twenty-four dollars and some odd cents, the net proceeds of five pounds sterling, received through Eliza Wigham, of Scotland, for her. I had given some accounts of Harriet’s labor to the Anti-Slavery Society of Edinburgh, of which Eliza Wigham was Secretary. On the reading of my letter, a gentleman present said he would send Harriet four pounds if he knew of any way to get it to her. Eliza Wigham offered to forward it to me for her, and that was the first money ever received by me for her.
Some twelve months after, she called on me again, and said that God told her I had some money for her, but not so much as before. I had, a few days previous, received the net proceeds of one pound ten shillings from Europe for her. To say the least, there was something remarkable in these facts, whether clairvoyance, or the divine impression on her mind from the source of all power, I cannot tell; but certain it was she had a guide within herself other than the written word, for she never had any education.
She brought away her aged parents in a singular manner. They started with an old horse, fitted out in primitive style with a straw collar, a pair of old chaise wheels, with a board on the axle to sit on, another board swung with ropes, fastened to the axle, to rest their feet on. She got her parents, who were both slaves belonging to different masters, on this rude vehicle to the railroad, put them in the cars, turned Jehu herself, and drove to town in a style that no human being ever did before or since; but she was happy at having arrived safe.
Next day, I furnished her with money to take them all to Canada. I afterwards sold their horse, and sent them the balance of the proceeds. I believe that Harriet succeeded in freeing all her relatives but one sister and her three children.
Etc., etc. Thy friend,
THOS. GARRETT.
Next to Garrett are important tools of his work. A box with supplies for the refugees from slavery. Water to refresh people who had been walking in the heat of a Delaware Summer’s day.
Garrett is at the right side of Tubman and two escaped enslaved people are on her left.
The image of the refugees reminded me that while Tubman and Garrett helped their escape from slavery, it was also the bravery of those escaping slavery that made the Underground Railroad possible. And it was the mutual aid of the “passengers” that allowed them to escape. As escaped slaves settled in the North and in Ontario, they helped guide other escapees transiting through their regions.
The plaque identifying the monument.
Determination shows through in Tubman’s face. At her side is a pistol for confronting slave patrollers trying to kidnap her and her charges back into slavery.
The statue is not meant to be realistic. It is meant to tell the story of these two freedom fighters and the many people they helped find freedom.
The park itself is beautiful. It is landscaped with several historical makers. Its lovely paths are used for walks and jogging.
The Christina River is just a fifty years from the monument. The brick walkway is a good place to relax.
There are flights of fancy like this 19th Century Bird House.
This area is where the African American community celebrates the August Quarterly every year since 1814.
Tubman-Garrett Riverfront Park is at the foot of N. Market St., and is the eastern terminus of the Wilmington Riverwalk. The park is located across the street from the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station (if you’re arriving by Amtrak or Septa), the Wilmington Bus Station (Greyhound), and the DART Transit Center (local bus system). We arrived by car and found plenty of parking nearby.
The station depicted in the photo below was built in 1907. The building was designed by Frank Furness who won the Medal of Honor for bravery shown during the Civil War.
My wife Michele and I went to the famous Charcoal Pit. Yes, they make their burgers over a charcoal fire. They also make great shakes. The Pit opened in 1956. I first came here about three decades ago and it has not changed at all. It is about a fifteen minute drive from the monument.
It is a regular stop for officials on their way to Washington. President Joe Biden has, according to the Pit’s cook Lupe Avilez, “come here so many, so many, so many times.” The Pit is located at 2600 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803 and it opens at 11 AM each day.
The furnishings are both pure 1950s and kept in top shape. Besides burgers, you can get a chargrilled hot dog, crabcakes, Philly Cheesesteaks, and they have extensive offerings of ice cream for dessert.
All color photos taken by Pat Young.
To explore all the sites Click Here for our new Google Map presentation.
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
