Bridge highlights Tubman's Lowcountry heroism

Published Tue, Sep 5, 2006

By BRANDON HONIG
The Beaufort Gazette

Gullah slaves used to sing, "Swing low, sweet Harriet," hoping Harriet Tubman would come to the Lowcountry and carry them to freedom. She answered that call on June 2, 1863, leading 300 black Union soldiers up the Combahee River to raid several plantations.

Tubman is best known as a conductor on the Underground Railroad; even before the Combahee raid, she had helped about 300 slaves, many from her home state of Maryland, escape to the North.

But it is Tubman's contribution to Beaufort and Colleton counties that prompted state Rep. Kenneth F. Hodges, D-Bennetts Point, to introduce legislation, which passed in February, requesting that the new U.S. 17 bridge over the Combahee River be named The Harriet Tubman Bridge.

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