After seven years of fundraising efforts to create a permanent monument to Harriet Tubman starting back in 2017, the historic Tabernacle Baptist Church in downtown Beaufort, SC has planned a celebration to unveil the completed monument on June 1, 2024.
Sculptor Ed Dwight, who is known for completing more than 100 history-rich memorials and art projects dedicated to the African experience, has created a 14 foot tall larger than life-sized sculpture of Tubman on top of a bronze pedestal that will feature scenes depicting slaves rushing toward their escape and refuge in 1863. The sculpture features an image of a typical soldier under arms and provides an area for imagery or interpretative text to share more about the Combahee River raid and Tubman’s involvement in Beaufort.
The monument depicting Harriet Tubman’s heroic ventures will sit next to the 161 year old church on Craven Street in downtown Beaufort, SC. Tabernacle Baptist is also the burial place of Robert Smalls, who was born a slave in Beaufort and became a Civil War hero and Congressman. A bust of Smalls is also on the church grounds.
“We wanted to do something more meaningful to put an emphasis on the role she played specifically in Beaufort County. We felt that the time was right now. Although she helped with the raid that was lead from Beaufort, Tubman also served as a scout, a spy, cook and did things to help newly freed slaves, mainly women, become self-sufficient,” Tabernacle Baptist Church Pastor and former S.C. Rep. Kenneth Hodges said.
Craven Street is steep in history. The old Beaufort Arsenal and the Beaufort history Museum is a block east of the church. To the west is the Secession House, site of many informal discussions and formal meetings during the 1850’s to discuss withdrawal from the Union. Many historic homes also line the street, and it’s all right in the middle of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park.
For more information about the Harriet Tubman Monument, you can visit https://www.harriettubmanmonument.com/
Dwight was a U.S. Air Force pilot who became the first African American astronaut candidate in the 1960s, but during tumultuous years in America’s history at the time, he never got to go to space.
That has all changed for him now, at 90 years old, as he is scheduled to finally make it into orbit this year aboard a Blue Origin rocket. He will be the oldest person to ever visit outer space.
