THIS COURSE IS NOW OVER, BUT THE RECORDING IS STILL AVAILABLE! Is the landscape of Harriet Tubman’s early years truly “virtually unaltered” as described by the Maryland Park Service?  Join Phil Hesser, co-author of The Old Home Is Not There, on a sweep through Dorchester County as he looks for continuity and change.

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway website describes the 125 mile driving route through Dorchester and Caroline Counties as weaving through “a rare landscape, virtually unaltered for more than a century.”  Yet, the landscape has undergone changes over that time – much of that the product of farming technologies, transportation systems, and loss of marsh and coast to rising sea level and surging tides.  Nonetheless, it is possible to see the landscape as virtually unchanged by applying historical imagination to scenes of continuity in the landscape.  Focusing on a few key locations in Harriet Tubman’s Dorchester County native land, Phil Hesser, co-author (with Charlie Ewers) of Harriet Tubman’s Eastern Shore – The Old Home Is Not There, will show how those locations can be seen as “virtually unchanged,” an imagined portal into Harriet Tubman’s time.

Feedback from Phil’s last course:  

“Phil was well prepared and provided a variety of readings before each of the classes.  I found it interesting that he was able to weave so many different themes together. He used many positive teaching strategies which encouraged the learners to participate and he showed he valued our responses.”

“Always enjoy learning more of our local history and how it intersects with a wider horizon.”