A nine-foot tall sculpture depicting the iconic woman who escaped slavery and led others to freedom through the Underground Railroad drew visitors during its final weekend in Montgomery County.
The Harriet Tubman “The Journey to Freedom” sculpture is traveling nationwide and has been at Button Farm Living History Center in Germantown since April. Tuesday, May 30 is the last day to see the work at the location.
The art piece shows Tubman leading a child to freedom. After its time in Germantown, it will travel down to South Carolina for its next stop.
Tubman was born in Maryland and journeyed back to help others escape slavery.
“The battles she was fighting still haven’t been won,” said Latechia Mitchell of Germantown. “She definitely is someone for us to look forward in, and get some ideas of how to maybe right some of those wrongs.”
“How many statues do you see in the country that represent these stories? There just aren’t many,” said the artist behind the piece, Wesley Wofford, who is from North Carolina. “So I think the success of this traveling exhibition just exhibits that nationwide need in all of us to look at these difficult truths and have conversations and I think that’s the only way to get past it.”
“On Tubman’s face you can see her anguish, you can see her determination,” said Colleen Clapp of Frederick.
“It’s just so moving, and powerful. Another woman used the word ‘powerful,’ and I said, that is the word,” she said.
“I had seen pictures of it and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’ But actually seeing it up close was just mind bending,” said Anthony Cohen, President of the Menare Foundation, an organization preserving Underground Railroad history based at Button Farm.
Cohen said he imagined the statue at the farm in a field surrounded by forest.
Visitors coming to see the sculpture take a short path to a large, grassy field, where the statue faces them on the far side of the field. People approach as they take a narrow path down the middle of the field until the path ends, where Tubman stands.
“I thought, what if we could get the statue in an environment that actually is the same as what is depicted in the work of art, her escaping through the wilderness, so that was kind of the light bulb moment,” Cohen said.
This is the last weekend to see the Harriet Tubman “The Journey to Freedom” sculpture at Button Farm in Germantown — the last day is Tuesday. @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/4EvfHUDjQ0
— Maryam Shahzad (@maryam_mcm) May 27, 2023
