Adkins Arboretum

On the Eastern Shore, the forests and waterways of the traditional land of the Choptank and Nanticoke Indians shaped the austere home life, backbreaking labor, and dramatic escapes of enslaved blacks. Hundreds of acres of white oak, black walnut, poplar, hickory, and sweet gum trees near river transportation provided income to local landowners. Harriet Tubman and her father Ben Ross graded and harvested timber there, and Harriet learned lessons for living off the land. Those small lessons, gained by living close to nature, could mean success or failure on the Underground Railroad, as freedom seekers used practical knowledge to survive. Fruit trees offered food, greenbrier thickets ripped clothes and scratched bodies, and the resin of sweet gum soothed wounds caused by its spiked balls piercing hurried feet.

Maryland · United States