LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (WCAX) – A new statue of Harriet Tubman, called “The Beacon of Hope,” has been installed at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Northern New York. The traveling statue has been hosted by towns and cities across the country in hopes of inspiring those who visit.
“Just that one statue really gave me a lot of educational experience and also emotional experience,” said Bill Ferns, a visitor from New York City.
Ferns is among the many visitors to the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, witnessing “The Beacon of Hope” Harriet Tubman statue for the first time.
Brown was an abolitionist who historians say shared a vision of a country free of slavery, just as Tubman did.
“They fought for the end of slavery in the United States and they also both aided fugitive enslaved persons escaping through the Underground Railroad, through this area into Canada,” said Jerilea Zempel a board member of John Brown Lives.
Brown and Tubman were good friends and at one point, Brown tried to convince Tubman to join him at the raid of Harpers Ferry.
“Brown called her his general and he hoped she would participate in the raid and there is some question to whether he jumped the gun and went ahead with the raid a couple of weeks earlier than he was supposed to or that Harriet Tubman was ill and couldn’t travel,” said Brendan Mills, the site manager at the John Brown Farm.
Mills says after Brown’s execution due to the Harpers Ferry raid, Tubman continued to fight.
“Harriet Tubman would go on to keep the fight going, the fight against slavery and she of course would be a scout for the Union Army during the Civil War,” Mills said.
Today, her statue highlights that pivotal point in American history, one that Zempel says continues to be uncovered.
“It is a very important history here that has in many ways not been told or has been forgotten, and I think history is an unending story of our understanding of the past and the more that we know about what happened, the more we understand the past and our future through the past,” Zempel said.
“The Beacon of Hope” statue will be on display at the John Brown Farm until October.