February 6, 2026 Hello , Using hammers, wrenches and crowbars, National Park workers tore down an exhibit last week that featured Martha Washington's enslaved servant girl. “You can’t erase history once you’ve learned it. It doesn’t work that way.” That's what a U.S. District Judge told Justice Department lawyers defending the Trump Administration's insistence on removing images and information on enslaved people who'd lived and worked in the President's House in Philadelphia. The city has sued to have the display
restored, including television screens that broadcast videos on the lives of the people owned by President George Washington. You might remember my newsletter last October telling about Ona Judge, the enslaved woman who ran away from the Presidents' House. Now, her story is gone from the Presidents' House in Philadelphia. More on that below and how you can help, but first... Nearly every school kid learns about Harriet Tubman, her escape from slavery and her work on the Underground Railroad. Less often they learn she was the first American woman to lead an armed mission behind enemy lines.
Conductor on the Underground Railroad Wrecked Havoc on Confederate Stockpiles
Harriet Tubman is remembered and celebrated for her work as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, leading at least 70 people to freedom. Less well known is her work with the Union Army during the Civil War when she planned and executed an armed raid into Confederate territory. It was June 1863. Union forces had just suffered their worst defeat yet at the hands of the Confederates and Robert E. Lee at the First Battle of the Wilderness. Northerners needed a boost and they gained both military and psychological momentum when James Montgomery and 300 men of the Second South Carolina Black regiment and the Third Rhode Island Battery pulled off the Combahee Raid near Beaufort, South Carolina. Harriet Tubman supplied intelligence to Colonel Montgomery, claiming the Combahee River countryside was ripe for a successful invasion.
Courtesy Harper's Magazine On the night of June 2, 1863, the formerly enslaved woman guided a force of three gunboats upriver to rout enemy outposts, destroy stockpiles of supplies and weapons, and free hundreds of captives. The raid wrecked havoc on Confederate holdings on both sides of the river and emboldened more than 700 slaves to desert their plantations and flee to freedom. At the appearance of Union gunboats coming up the river "...overseers used their whips in vain, for they failed to drive the slaves back to the quarters. They turned and ran for the gun-boats;
they came down every road, across every field, dressed just as they were when they left their work and their cabins. "There were women with children clinging around their necks, hanging onto their dresses, or running behind, but all rushed at full speed for 'Lincoln’s gun-boats.' Hundred crowded the banks, with their hands extended toward their deliverers, and most of them were taken aboard the gun-boats to be carried to Beaufort."
A Boston newspaper reporting the event mentioned Colonel Montgomery later gave a speech, which was followed by words from "the black woman who led the raid....For sound sense and real native eloquence, her address would do honor to any man, and it created a great sensation... "
Military commander, nurse, cook, scout, and spy---Harriet Tubman did it all for the Union Army. She was paid a mere $200 for her service over the course of the war and was refused veteran's benefits. A century after her death, the federal government again tried to diminish the accomplishments of this brave woman. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in
Maryland fell victim to alterations on the NPS website after President Trump's executive order to purge all mention of diversity and inclusion from the US government. The changes — first reported by The Washington Post — included removing Tubman's picture from the top of the page and making multiple edits to the text. The edits had removed references to slavery and the brutal realities of history.
For example, the original opening sentence referenced the
Underground railroad's core role in “the resistance to enslavement through escape and flight.”
The edited version
called the railroad “one of the most significant expressions of the American civil rights movement” and described how it “bridged the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality.”
After public
outcry the original information about Harriet Tubman was restored to the website in April 2025. If remains to be seen whether the Republican Administration will pay any heed to criticism of the attempted erasure of Ona Judge. It appears Trump celebrated the start of Black History Month by striking a blow against American history.
Titled “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” the exhibit had highlighted the contradiction of slavery and freedom in early America, focusing on the nine enslaved workers George
Washington kept in the house when he lived there as the nation’s first president. It came down as directed by the Republican Administration's directive to remove “descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times)" from all national
parks. Every day since the panels and videos were taken away, citizens of Philadelphia have put up protest signs in the area. By the end of every day, the signs are torn down.
An "off-duty park ranger" asked critics to understand that NPS employees are "under INCREDIBLE pressure & stress." Park
staff will lose their jobs if they do not comply with the censorship directive coming down from on high, but they are doing what they can to fight it. Cynthia Rufe, the federal judge hearing the lawsuit brought by Philadelphia has ordered the federal government to "mitigate any further deterioration or damage" to the exhibit's
panels after storing them. The city is seeking a permanent injunction that would restore the panels being stored at a facility near the National Constitution Center.
Like my article today? Forward this email to share with family and friends.
Sources http://www.harriettubman.com/tubman2.html https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/national-park-service-restores-original-harriet-tubman-underground-railroad-webpage/6217209/
National Parks
Conservation Association is fighting to protect and preserve our nations most iconic and historically important places. There are lots of important issues to write our Congresspeople about. This is one more. Here are just a handful of parks targeted by the Republican Administration for changes or removal. - Grand Teton National Park has been ordered to change or remove a sign about an explorer who massacred Native Americans.
- The Washington Post
reported information at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Arizona about a Navajo leader who settled disputes with ranchers is listed for changes or removal
- At Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, exhibits describing the treatment of Native Americans have been ordered for change or removal.
National Parks Conservation Association defends our national parks — on the ground, in the courtroom and on Capitol Hill.
Follow me on social media
This newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Read
a great book? Have a burning question? Let me know. If you know someone who might enjoy my newsletter or books, please forward this e-mail. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe anytime at the link below. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. Contact me at email@MaryCronkFarrell.com. Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. |
|
|
