37. Red Bridges

A Place to Wade Across the Choptank

This stream at the headwaters of the Choptank River was possibly near Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad route to Sandtown, Delaware. The current at this location is fast, yet the water is shallow.

Freedom seekers who followed the Choptank River to Delaware may have crossed here and at other shallow tributaries near the Choptank’s headwaters. Like Harriet Tubman, fugitives relied heavily on the secret network of safe houses belonging to blacks and whites throughout central and northern Delaware. Harriet Tubman later told historian Wilbur Siebert that her preferred route was by way of her parents’ home in Poplar Neck, to Sandtown across the Maryland border.

While fugitives made parts of their journeys unaided, the assistance provided by a secret network of sympathetic people and those who ran safe houses was invaluable to their success. Throughout Delaware, communities of Quakers and a large free black population helped hide and escort runaways northward on their way to Pennsylvania.