The ''Harriet Tubman Memorial'', also known as ''Step on Board'', is located in Harriet Tubman Park in the South End neighborhood of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. It honours the life of abolitionist

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, us ...

. It was the first memorial erected in Boston to a woman on city-owned property. The memorial is a 10-foot tall

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

sculpture by artist

Fern Cunningham Fern Cunningham (24 January 1949 – 19 August 2020) was an American sculptor. One of her best known works is the Harriet Tubman Memorial, which was the first statue honoring a woman on city-owned land in Boston. Early life and education Cunn ...

and depicts Tubman leading a small group of people. She holds a Bible under her right arm. The figures are backed by a vertical slab, on the reverse of which is a diagram of the route Tubman took when accompanying passengers on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

, and several quotes by and about Tubman. The inscription on the back of the memorial reads: ''Step On Board'' HARRIET ROSS TUBMAN 1820 - 1913 ''Go Down Moses, Way Down in Egypt's Land,'' ''Tell Old - Let My People Go'' ''There are two things I've got a right to,'' ''and these are death or liberty. One or another'' ''I mean to have. No one will take me back alive.'' —Harriet Tubman ''The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the'' ''witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism.'' —

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

''Tell my brothers to be always watching unto prayer,'' ''and when the good old ship of Zion comes along,'' ''to be ready to step aboard.'' —Harriet Tubman ''She expected deliverance when she prayed,'' ''unless the Lord had ordered otherwise.'' —

Sarah Bradford Sarah Mary Malet Bradford (''née'' Hayes; born 3 September 1938) is an English author who is best known for her royal biographies. Early life and education Bradford was born in Bournemouth in 1938, the daughter of Brigadier Hilary Anthony Haye ...

Locations along the Underground Railroad are shown along an arc: Canada, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, New York City, Philadelphia, Delaware, and Maryland.

References

{{Underground Railroad Memorials to Harriet Tubman Monuments and memorials in Boston Tubman Sculptures of men in Massachusetts Sculptures of women in Massachusetts Statues in Boston Outdoor sculptures in Boston Sculptures of books Works about the Underground Railroad