Leaving Their Mark on History
Watch highlights from The Underground Railroad stamp First Day of Issue Dedication Ceremony
The USPS hosted a First Day of Issue Dedication Ceremony Saturday, March 9, 2024, for the new The Underground Railroad stamps.
The event was held at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Church Creek, Maryland, and attended by Ernestine Watts (descendant of Harriet Tubman), Bob Seeley (descendant of Thomas Garrett), Kenneth Morris (Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives), and Kate Clifford Larson (historian).
From the time slavery was introduced to the Colonies until it was abolished in 1865, enslaved people tried to escape it. The flight to freedom—on foot or horseback, or by carriage, wagon, or boat, sometimes just ahead of slave hunters—was difficult and exceedingly dangerous. These resistance efforts became known as the Underground Railroad.
Most remained anonymous, but some left their mark on history, including the 10 men and women honored on the stamps: Catharine Coffin, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett, Laura Haviland, Lewis Hayden, Harriet Jacobs, William Lambert, Rev. Jermain Loguen, William Still, and Harriet Tubman.