14. April – 28. Juni 2026

Prior to the Civil War, the economy of the southern USA states was dominated by the industrial agriculture of cotton and rice, which depended on the institution of slavery. The few families that controlled this hierarchy benefitted tremendously, becoming some of the wealthiest people in the world, enabling them to dictate the social structure of their societies. Fearing the dilution of their political power as new states joined the union, this cabal decided the southern states should secede and hubristically attacked the northern army at Fort Sumter in Charleston. In response, the North moved to blockade southern trade with Europe through Charleston and Savannah and took Beaufort, South Carolina as a supply port which was in the middle of the most profitable rice growing areas.

Harriet Tubman, who had liberated herself from slavery, was already an American hero from her work with the Underground Railroad. Tubman went to Beaufort to gather intelligence from the enslaved people freed by the Northern Army invasion, and discovered that the rice plantations were still operating on the next river system, The Combahee River. Based on her spying, The North planned a bold nighttime raid up this shallow, winding river with three converted paddle-wheel steamboats. Tubman had recruited spies and scouts and the essential river guides from the plantations, who guided the Northern generals and 150 freshly trained, newly liberated black soldiers up the moonlit river. They surprised the Confederate defenders and attacked the rice plantations there, freeing over 750 enslaved people, making it one of the most successful slave rebellions in the world.

Those rice plantations, with their man-made, freshwater wetlands, have become priceless habitat for species migrating north to escape the rising temperatures of the climate crisis. As wetlands in Florida have been drained and filled, these wetlands have become essential stopovers for migratory birds and other species.

Harriet Tubman, an American hero, is both an inspiration for many Americans and a person of controversy, stuck in the middle of the legacy of racism. Efforts to have her face on the $20 bill have been stalled for many years. This series of pictures and videos tells this story through the words of some of the descendants of the people freed in the raid, and explores the habitat remaining after the disappearance of the rice culture.