Malone’s Church in Madison, Maryland – Stop #9 along the Harriet Tubman Byway – has been named part of the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom – a prestigious recognition! The program commemorates stories of freedom seekers and freedom during the days of slavery. Friends and supporters of the church gathered to celebrate the news this fall.
While the church was founded in 1864 – years after Harriet Tubman had lived nearby — the area had been home to free and enslaved Blacks since the 1790s. Harriet Tubman was born nearby. As soon as the Civil War ended, the community established its own African American church. Members of Tubman’s family are interred at the church’s cemetery.
As the Network to Freedom news release says:
“”The people for whom Malone’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Madison, Dorchester County, Maryland, served when the congregation was first founded in 1864, had spent their lives building a community rich in faith, kinship, and the pursuit of freedom — most famously, perhaps, for Harriet Ross Tubman and her family, for her confidant and Underground Railroad agent Jacob Jackson, and freedom seeker Vincent Green, an original founder of Malone’s. In 1827, Green fled his enslaver, but was captured and eventually sold to unknown buyers far away in Baltimore. Remarkably, in 1845, Green returned a free man and became a leader in the community and this church.”
The Network to Freedom program consists of sites, programs, and facilities with a verifiable connection to the Underground Railroad. There are currently over 700 Network to Freedom locations in 39 states, plus Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Malone’s Church now has a website up at maloneschurch.com, where you can learn more, get involved, or donate to preserving the church. For the latest news, follow their Facebook page, known as the Harrisville/Malone Cemetery Maintenance Fund.
>> Read more about the church and its NTF designation in this story from Bay to Bay News.
>> Learn more about Malone’s Church and other sites along the Harriet Tubman Byway.