Auburn, New York, was Harriet Tubman’s chosen home. There are ongoing efforts to keep her work and legacy alive, specifically annually with International Underground Railroad Month, which takes place every September.

This year, New York is moving forward with the creation of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad New York Corridor, a proposed heritage byway from Manhattan to Niagara Falls that will spotlight sites and stories central to Tubman’s life, including her home in Cayuga County. Visitors can explore Tubman’s legacy through the Harriet Tubman Home, AME Zion Church, and more in Cayuga County. The Underground Railroad Trail is virtually accessible via the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Tour app.

The plan was initially announced in 2023, and two years later, they’ve made significant progress. Blavity spoke with Karen Kuhl, the executive director of the Cayuga County Office of Tourism, and Michele Jones Galvin, Tubman’s great-great niece, about the initiative. 

Blavity: How long has the Underground Railroad Corridor been in the works?

Karen Kuhl: This started in 2023. It was an opportunity to apply for a grant that was coming down from federal through the state to market new products. So with Ally Spongr DeGon from the Underground Railroad Consortium of New York State, she and I put together a proposal for the grant, which was accepted. And that allowed us the funding to contract a professional cultural historical consultant who has worked with many other byways in the U.S. to develop the corridor management plan for the byway.

How involved has the family been in getting this off the ground?

Michele Jones Galvin: Well, to tell you the truth, we have just been just aghast that we’ve been asked to be part of the descending council for the byway, and we have attended meetings and been on Zooms and other forms of communication all along the way throughout this entire process. So we are very privileged and pleased to be a part of it.

Karen, what will travelers see along the corridor, and just how expansive is it?

KK: I’ll give you a little more technical background than you probably want, but I think it’ll be easier for me to answer that question. The initial intent was to develop a byway that came in from New Jersey into Manhattan, went up kind of along the Hudson. And then east-west along the state, kind of following the Erie Canal corridor exiting Niagara Falls, just like Harriet Tubman did when she went toward Saint Catharine’s.

Right now, the corridor management plan that was submitted to the Department of Transportation includes only a portion of that east-west corridor from Niagara Falls to Auburn due to technicalities of not getting all the resolutions that are required for the Department of Transportation, blah blah blah. So the byway is not officially designated yet. It is in the hands of the Department of Transportation’s advisory council, who is reviewing the application. Then, it will go to the New York State Legislative floor. We have Sen. May from the Syracuse-Auburn area championing that bill, which is in the process of being written. So, like I said, that’s a lot of the technical stuff behind this.

What will visitors see along the way?

KK: In the corridor management plan, there is a list of resources identified. These resources had to have a correlation, either directly with Harriet Tubman or the Underground Railroad freedom seekers and descendants, and or specifically the Underground Railroad, so that we ensured that this byway honors the life and legacy of freedom seekers along the way. Michelle Gavin Jones made a reference to the Descendants Council. There’s a descendants council that was put together in order to ensure that the voices of the familiar relatives of freedom seekers continue being involved in the conversation. 

So, this resource list that was put together had to have some link to Harriet Tubman or other freedom seekers. There are a lot of visitor resources available, such as hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and different communities. There has been a strong effort made by the internal planning team to ensure that Black businesses get elevated in that conversation. So, the economic benefit of the byway continues honoring the legacy of the freedom seekers.

I read that there’s a virtual component for those who don’t attend in person.

KK: Yes, there will be. There isn’t one right now. There will be a virtual component. There’s a website that’s being developed at the moment. There will be maps that will be developed. There will be conversations about podcasts. There’s been conversations about apps. The Cayuga County Tourism Office, with the participation of many of Harriet Tubman’s familiar relatives, developed an Underground Railroad app within our county. So there is an app that you can find online called UGRR Cayuga or Harriet Tubman, something like that. So, this would serve a kind of a prototype or something that can be done statewide when the byway finishes. So, like I said, the byway is not officially designated, and a lot of these are still in the works.

Michelle, how does this corridor and International Underground Railroad month keep her legacy alive?

MJG: Oh my gosh, I think first and foremost, it’s really about travel. It’s about being able to go from one place to the other, from the beginning of the byway to the end of the byway, sort of duplicating Aunt Harriet’s trek to Saint Catherine’s to Canada. So I think in many, many respects, and the other thing I’d like to add, too, is that it’s not just the physical travel, but it’s also the ability to get to connect with friends and family along the way. So in many respects, it really duplicates her travel efforts and her journeys from slavery to freedom.

How significant is this moment, given that we’re in a time socially and politically marked by intentional efforts to suppress our history?

MJG: They do what they do; we do what we do, which is to continue to communicate and Harriet’s legacy and her work. We can only be totally erased if we join in and help us erase ourselves. So I think the most important thing is for the byway efforts to continue and to do what we want to do and express that we want to do, and we just take it a day at a time, and we get a time, and don’t let the negativity or the notion of erasure impede the work that we do.

The post What To Know About The Underground Railroad Corridor In Upstate New York And Its Progress appeared first on Blavity.



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