Tubman’s Blackwater: Wading Through Public History at a Wildlife Refuge

This essay evaluates the historic landscape of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay where Harriet Tubman was born and enslaved. By claiming the Eastern Shore as representative of Tubman’s world, tourism boosters minimize the ways that the surroundings have changed. Rather than a landscape of authenticity, these marshlands are what I term a “landscape of evocation,” one that evokes historical, cultural, and ecological components not only of Tubman’s time, but also of those who have lived among and navigated these wetlands in the two hundred years since her 1822 birth. To create a sense of belonging for visitors and locals alike, land management agencies must collaborate with these populations to meld disparate understandings of a singular place over time.