Plaque, northeast corner of Geneva and North Streets, just south of Welland Avenue, St. Catharines

A legendary conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman (1820 - 1913) became known as the “Moses” of her people. Tubman was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation and suffered brutal treatment from numerous owners before escaping in 1849. Over the next decade she returned to the American South many times and led hundreds of freedom seekers north. When the Fugitive Slave Act (1850) allowed slaveowners to recapture escaped slaves from the northern states, Tubman extended her operations across the Canadian border. For eight years she lived in St. Catharines and at one point rented a house in this neighbourhood. At one time slaveowners offered as much as $40,000 in reward money to anyone who could bring them Harriet “Moses” Tubman, dead or alive. But she was never caught. She was a great symbol of hope to many slaves who dreamed of freedom.With the outbreak of the Civil War she returned to the U.S. where she served as nurse, spy and scout for the Union Army.
In 1999 a dramatic sculptural representation of Harriet Tubman and a band of runaways was placed in Harriet Tubman Park in Boston. It is titled “Step on Board”.