The Underground Railroad to St. Catharines: Harriet Tubman’s Canadian Legacy

Harriet Tubman may have drawn her last breath on March 10, 1913, but her spirit lives on. One hundred and thirteen years later, her story pulses through history, shaping generations and challenging the boundaries of time. More than an abolitionist and a Conductor of the Underground Railroad, she was a force of nature, a warrior for freedom, and a light that refused to be extinguished.

Though she was not the only conductor on the Underground Railroad, she became its heart, the one whose name echoes louder than the rest. Defiant, courageous, unwavering, Harriet Tubman was freedom personified. While often framed within American history and her image immortalised on the U.S. $20 bill as a symbol of resistance and freedom, Harriet Tubman’s legacy is far greater. As Historian Dann J. Broyld argues in Harriet Tubman: Transnationalism and the Land of a Queen in the Late Antebellum, seeing Harriet Tubman only through an American lens is misleading; it erases the years she spent in St. Catharines, where she built a home, a community, and a sanctuary for those seeking freedom (79). She was not just an American hero, she was a Canadian one, a transnational icon whose journey tells a larger story of Black migration, survival, and defiance.

This exhibition honours her extraordinary impact, tracing the footsteps of those she led to freedom, the daring escapes she orchestrated, and the collective bravery of her fellow conductors. By mapping these journeys across key Canadian cities, we uncover the true depth of Tubman’s influence, proving that her story is not just history, it is a legacy still alive in Canada, the world, and all who continue to fight for justice today.