“The Gospel train’s comin’ And rollin’ thro’ the land” – The Gospel Train (Traditional). Harriet Tubman was the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. She was born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland, sometime between 1820 – 1822. Called Araminta Ross at birth, she took the name Harriet (Tubman was her married name) when she escaped from a plantation with two of her brothers in 1849. Tubman returned to the Maryland plantation several times, to rescue family members and other slaves. On one of her trips, she tried to convince her husband to come with her, but he had remarried and refused to leave. Tubman would eventually make some 13 forays back into Maryland to rescue as many as 70 people. One group at a time she would bring with her out of the state, traveling by night in extreme secrecy. She became known as “Moses”, and “never lost a passenger”. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed, allowing runaway slaves to be retrieved from Northern “free” states to be returned to their owners in the South, Tubman began guiding the fugitives farther north, into Canada.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
