Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Sites

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The BME Church marks a terminus on the Underground Railroad and was home to its most famous conductor, Harriet Tubman. This national historic site was built in 1855.

St. Catharines was a terminus on the Underground Railroad for hundreds of enslaved Black people escaping to freedom in Canada. The Underground Railroad was a network of people who assisted and guided freedom seekers as they fled the United States.

This national historic site, through its association with the famed Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, was an important place of abolitionist activity. Tubman was called the “Black Moses” and remained in St. Catharines for 10 years and attended church at this site.

 

St. Catharines was a centre of local abolitionist activities and local citizens formed societies to assist formerly enslaved people in adjusting to their new life of freedom.

St. Catharines’ Lakeside Park has been the site of an annual picnic on the 1st of August when thousands of African Americans and Canadians gathered for the Big Picnic to mark Emancipation Day – the day in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 came into effect across the British Empire.

About Harriet Tubman

The most celebrated member of Salem Chapel is the legendary Underground Railroad conductor, Harriet Tubman.

Sister Tubman moved to Canada after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was passed. While residing in St. Catharines from late 1851 to early 1862, she attended the AME/BME Church.

Highly revered by the community and known as “Moses,” Sister Tubman conducted the majority of her clandestine Underground Railroad rescue missions starting and ending in this British Canadian town.

In 1868, when asked where and why she guided the freedom seekers, Harriet Tubman said, “I wouldn’t trust Uncle Sam with my people no longer; I brought them all clear off to Canada.”

Learn more about the BME Church