Mt. Pleasant Cemetery-Dangerous Rendezvous - Preston MD
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 38° 43.236 W 075° 55.554
18S E 419509 N 4286178
Laws restricted blacks from meeting in groups and a group of slaves gathering in a home or in the woods might arouse suspicion. But they did gather at cemeteries---a rare respite amidst the constant oversight that prevailed in the 19th century.
Waymark Code: WM16TRG
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 10/04/2022
Views: 1
LOCATION: Marsh Creek Road, Preston, MD United States 21655
Mount Pleasant Cemetery- Stop 25 (page 30) Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway Driving Tour Guide.
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TEXT on historical market:
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery-Dangerous Rendezvous
— Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway —
After Quakers sold their meetinghouse to the local black community in 1849, the new owners established Mt. Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church. The original church building has since burned, but the modern day congregation still uses the cemetery.
Laws restricted blacks from meeting in groups and a group of slaves gathering in a home or in the woods might arouse suspicion. But they did gather at cemeteries---a rare respite amidst the constant oversight that prevailed in the 19th century slave societies.
One escapee testified that Harriet Tubman used a cemetery for a nighttime rendezvous away from the suspicious eyes of plantation masters and overseers. This evidence suggests that some freedom seekers took their first secretive step on the Underground Railroad surrounded by silent ancestors.
Above: In 1857, Tubman raced to the area to rescue her free parents, Ben and Rit Ross, who lived nearby. Ben was about to be arrested for helping the “Dover Eight,” a group of freedom seekers who had fled Dorchester County.