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45:. Historians who have studied Tubman consider it "one of her most complicated and clever escape attempts." It was a risky trip because Tubman and Tilly would not have been able to travel directly from Baltimore to Philadelphia without proof that they were free women. In addition, local slave traders would have recognized strangers. Tubman sought to evade capture by going south, before heading north, and using different modes of transportation over water and land.
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Tilly's fiancé was a former slave who fled to Canada to avoid being sold in 1848 or 1849 and he had waited for Tilly to join him. He asked
Harriet Tubman to guide Tilly from Baltimore and gave Tubman money for expenses. Tubman arranged for a letter of passage from a steamboat captain in Philadelphia
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and landed in
Seaford. They spent the night at the only hotel in town, now the site of Gateway Park. A slave trader found them there, but Tubman showed him their passes and he let them go. She later recalled that she had prayed at the time, "Oh, Lord! You've been with me in six troubles, don't
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80:(Francis Molock, Cyrus Mitchell, Joshua Handy, Charles Dutton, and Ephraim Hudson), helping two children escape, and attempting to bring her sister Rachel and her children north, which was problematic after Rachel's children were sold and separated from her.
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and Canada. She had health problems, which delayed travel. The trips required money. White slaveholders became increasingly agitated by the number of people fleeing slavery. And the plans required finding a good time to make a successful escape. The
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A historical marker about the Tilly escape site is located at the corner of North Market and High
Streets at Gateway Park in Seaford. In September 2013, the site was made a location on the National Underground Railroad
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Another reason for traveling south was to avoid paying a $ 500 (equivalent to $ 16,956 in 2023) bond for each of them to guarantee that they were both free women to travel north (through
Maryland and
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In point of courage, shrewdness, and disinterested exertions to rescue her fellow-men, by making personal visits to
Maryland among the slaves, she was without her equal.
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and other people enslaved by
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newspaper with a reward for the capture of "Laura" who had fled on the same day that Tilly ran away. Bayly and her father Dr. Anthony C. Thompson were known by
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who was a free black man, an
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to
Baltimore. With this letter, she was able to obtain a pass for Tilly from the captain of the steamboat for their travel from Baltimore.
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Another version is that the landlord intervened and held the slave trader up so that they could get away and avoid being arrested.
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meant that slave traders could travel into the northern, free states. The law compelled people to help identify fugitive slaves.
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Braxton, Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings
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Tubman had coordinated the trip for Tilly with other plans, including helping five young men escape from the
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Bound For the Promised Land; Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Icon
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occurred in October 1856 when an enslaved woman, Tilly, was led by
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where she met up with Tilly. They took a steamboat south through
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Into the 1850s, it was hard for Tubman to make trips between
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Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park
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Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park
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for 40 mi (64 km) and then north-east via the
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Tubman located Tilly in Baltimore and they traveled to
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It was published as a book in December 2003 entitled
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Monuments of the Black Atlantic: Slavery and Memory
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568:"Distance between Seaford, DE and Bridgeville, DE"
128:(in the center of Delaware). They walked north to
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320:"Gateway to Freedom: The Tilly Escape"
183:by train. In Camden they met up with
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387:. LIT Verlag MĂĽnster. p. 152.
1401:Underground Railroad Bicycle Route
1192:The South Bend Fugitive Slave Case
1133:List of Underground Railroad sites
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1439:Freedom: The Underground Railroad
1342:Songs of the Underground Railroad
1273:Abolitionism in the United States
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207:Speculation of Tilly's identity
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761:Harriet Tubman Memorial Garden
152:. They traveled south through
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1423:Roots of Resistance
1305:Fugitive slave laws
1051:William Cooper Nell
776:Harriet Tubman Park
549:. December 11, 2013
373:. pp. 258–261.
1525:1850s in Baltimore
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1204:Jerry Rescue
1177:
1076:Gerrit Smith
1036:David Hudson
910:
902:
894:
886:
878:
875:(1976 novel)
870:
862:
843:
834:
821:
651:Tilly Escape
650:
575:. Retrieved
571:
562:
551:. Retrieved
546:
525:
485:
460:. Retrieved
456:
447:
436:. Retrieved
432:
383:
376:
370:
327:. Retrieved
323:
271:
261:
248:
226:
212:
210:
197:Eliza Wigham
178:
169:
165:
149:
143:
110:Philadelphia
87:
75:
63:
43:Philadelphia
31:Tilly Escape
30:
28:
1466:(2019 film)
1455:Underground
1450:(2016 film)
1434:(1992 film)
1410:(1932 book)
1351:(1872 book)
1330:lawn jockey
1232:Dover Eight
1228:(1856 book)
1214:(1852 book)
1066:John Rankin
1046:Peg Leg Joe
996:Levi Coffin
907:(2019 film)
899:(1996 book)
891:(1992 film)
867:(1932 book)
742:and museums
703:John Tubman
657:Dover Eight
130:Bridgeville
104:Map of the
1504:Categories
1484:See also:
986:Owen Brown
981:John Brown
854:Literature
680:Birthplace
577:2021-05-29
553:2021-05-29
462:2021-05-29
438:2021-05-29
329:2021-05-29
283:References
266:Delaware).
189:Wilmington
138:Wilmington
49:Background
711:(husband)
705:(husband)
673:Locations
114:Baltimore
39:Baltimore
1374:(Boston)
1326:Signals
1180:incident
1143:churches
856:and film
824:(Boston)
723:(mother)
717:(father)
715:Ben Ross
66:Maryland
1463:Harriet
1359:Related
904:Harriet
795:Homages
457:HISTORY
232:by the
126:Seaford
1317:Quilts
1266:Topics
1258:(1865)
1252:(1859)
1246:(1856)
1240:(1858)
1234:(1857)
1220:(1854)
1206:(1851)
1200:(1851)
1194:(1849)
1188:(1847)
1182:(1848)
1164:Events
1138:houses
1125:Places
968:People
814:statue
732:Legacy
695:Family
665:(1863)
659:(1857)
653:(1856)
639:Events
493:
391:
379:. See
223:Legacy
181:Camden
134:Camden
84:Escape
1178:Pearl
740:Parks
685:Grave
522:(PDF)
367:(PDF)
240:Notes
1488:and
1310:1850
547:WBOC
491:ISBN
389:ISBN
29:The
842:SS
112:to
1506::
570:.
545:.
534:^
524:.
505:^
471:^
455:.
431:.
403:^
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291:^
952:e
945:t
938:v
624:e
617:t
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171:—
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