[projekktor id=’11577′]
She was the conductor in the underground railroad; a hero to fugitive slaves seeking freedom.
Harriet Tubman was born in Cambridge, Maryland, and settled in Auburn, New York. But for ten years the civil rights activist made St Catharines her home. She lived on North St near the BME church.
St Catharines will now have a Tubman bond, with Cambridge and Auburn as sister cities.
Every year busloads of tourists visit the black history display at the St Catharines museum. Mayor Brian McMullen hopes the Harriet Tubman sister city connection will bring even more visitors.
“There’s a lot of people interested in black history in general, but also tracing their roots and following the underground railroad and what that meant to so many people in terms of freedom and so from a tourism opportunity, in terms of our Lock 3 museum, encouraging more people to travel to both Maryland and New York state but also here to Southern Ontario.”
“I think it’s a great opportunity and something that people are very interested in but at the same time I think the most important thing is celebrating the life and legacy of Harriet Tubman.”
Some St Catharines residents are telling city council to take it a step further, by making the neighbourhood where Harriet Tubman lived, a tourist attraction.