Wilmington, Delaware – In a series of treacherous journeys from the southern US states, abolitionist Harriet Tubman helped lead hundreds of African-Americans from slavery to freedom, years before the 1861-65 Civil War that brought an end to the practice in the United States.

One of the routes that Tubman would take was across the Christina River and into Wilmington, Delaware. It marked one of the dividing lines between states that still practised slavery in the south and free states to the north.

Some 150 years later, on the north side of the river is an Amtrak railway station. The station was passed through on Saturday by president-elect Barack Obama during his ceremonial “Whistle Stop” train journey to his inauguration in Washington.

“It’s ironic that an African-American president would stop by the same spot where slaves were freed,” remarked Louis Redden, 47, a Wilmington resident.

Tubman’s heroics are just one of many US historical nuggets from the centuries-long journey that brought Obama to Washington, where on Tuesday he will be making history of his own by becoming the country’s first black president.

Obama’s inauguration will mark a key step toward racial reconciliation in the United States. But Redden, himself an African- American, believed there was more history to be written as he watched Obama’s train leave the Wilmington station.

With Obama’s election in November, “America is really not there yet but on their way to abolishing racism,” said Redden.

“I don’t look for him to do any favours for African Americans. I look for him to do favours for all Americans,” Redden said.

Obama faces a myriad of problems and sky-high expectations at home and abroad as he takes the oath of office Tuesday in front of an anticipated record crowd of up to 2 million people on Washington’s National Mall.

Saturday’s 200-kilometre trip took nearly nine hours as the train slow-rolled through small towns, passing thousands of enthusiastic supporters who had braved minus-12-Centigrade temperatures in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the president- elect.

“He’s such an inspirational figure, he makes you want to come out in sub-zero temperatures,” said Savitha Krishna, 31, who came to the Wilmington stop along with her husband and five-month-old baby Nikhil.

Obama’s trip mirrored the inaugural journey of Civil War president Abraham Lincoln, a fellow Illinois politician who travelled by train all the way from Springfield, Illinois, for his own inauguration in 1861.

Obama began his ride in Philadelphia, the country’s first capital and site of the declaration of independence from Britain in 1776.

Three hours later in Wilmington he picked up vice president-elect Joe Biden, a veteran senator from Delaware, who continued living in his home state throughout his Senate career and famously commuted by rail to his office in Washington.

“It’s not every day you get to do your commute with the next president of the United States,” Biden joked to an estimated crowd of 7,000 that had come to the city’s station to wave their goodbyes.

Next, the train traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the country’s national anthem during the war of 1812. Key was held under British guard in Baltimore Harbour watching anxiously as US forces at Fort McHenry repelled an attack by the British Navy, and described his relief to see the US flag still waving when the smoke cleared.

An estimated 40,000 people turned out at city hall near the same harbour on Saturday to hear Obama call for a new “declaration of independence” from the political divisions of the past to address the crises currently facing the United States, including a devastating recession as well as wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We should never forget that we are the heirs of those early (American) patriots … who somehow believed that they had the power to make the world anew,” Obama said. “That is the spirit that we must reclaim today.”

If you ask his supporters, Saturday’s train journey may indicate Obama’s willingness to address yet another urgent problem facing the United States – its crumbling public transport system.

“We refuse to deal with public transportation in this country,” said Hal Blockson, a 69-year-old retired school counselor. “Barack and Joe Biden – especially Joe Biden – are going to change that.” (dpa)