Left: A family photo believed to be Anne Marie Ross Stewart, the great-great grandmother of Ernestine Wyatt. Wyatt was given the honor of ringing the first bell-a tribute resulting from her efforts in urging the United States Army Military Intelligence Corps to induct Tubman into its Hall of Fame as a full member and not just an honorary one, which occurred in 2021. She more recently appeared at a New Year’s event this year at the Women’s Memorial in Arlington Cemetery, which honored Tubman’s bicentennial with 200 bell tolls. Wyatt has been advocating for a Harriet Tubman Day and has pushed for the accelerated release of the planned Tubman $20 redesign. Her great-great grandmother Anne Marie Ross Stewart-still an infant when her mother Soph, Tubman’s sister, was sold further South into slavery-was rescued from Eastern Shore Maryland and resettled in Canada. Wyatt is especially focused on preserving Tubman’s national memory, a passion that comes from her familial ties. Their descendants thus have a special connection to “Aunt Harriet.” She rescued her parents and some of her siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews from the clutches of chattel slavery. Tubman was the fifth of nine children born enslaved to Harriet “Rit” Green and Benjamin “Ben” Ross in Dorchester County, Md. This adopted daughter died relatively young, but Tubman also helped to raise her siblings’ children and grandchildren. It is believed Tubman did not have biological children of her own, and she adopted a baby girl named Gertie when she was already middle-aged in 1874. Wyatt, who resides in Washington, D.C., is just one of scores of living descendants of the legendary Harriet Tubman. “But I always told them, why are you focusing on me? I didn’t do anything!” Random people at events honoring her three times great aunt Harriet Tubman simply wanted to touch someone “who has her DNA.” Seated in a chair on Tubman’s right is her niece Margaret Stewart Lucas.īefore the pandemic, Ernestine Wyatt was quite open to receiving hugs from strangers. Mary Elliott Gaskin (second from left) is the great-grandmother of Ernestine Wyatt and Tubman’s great niece. Relatives and caretakers with Harriet Tubman (seated center in wheelchair and shrouded in white) at the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, N.Y., circa 1911.
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