Underground Railroad Content for PANDA Game
125 Entries
1444— Senegal: Goree Island
In 1444, Portuguese explorer Dinas Dias discovered the Senegalese Island of Goree named by the Dutch in 1510 as "Goode Reede" or
good harbor. The island was used on the Atlantic Slave trade as the last stopping point along Western Africa's Gold Coast before
embarking to the West Indies and the Americas. Many countries controlled the island, including England, France, Scandinavia or
Germany and the name changed according to the owner. While in control, the Portuguese mainly focused on Africa's Western Coast
countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Bunce Island. The Portuguese and Dutch ruled over the Goree Island
and it's people for almost three centuries.
On Goree Island the primary export was slaves, transported on the Atlantic Slave Trade. For three hundred years slaves were shipped
from Goree Island to the West Indies, and North and South America. The indigenous people of Goree, the Lebu, were often displaced
and held in slave houses, or Maison des Esclaves, before embarking on the treacherous journey of the Middle Passage. The slave
castle of St. Michel was built to protect the slave traders from slave riots and resistance. The ruins of Fort Nassau are also located on
Goree Island. In 1848, the Senegalese government abolished slavery and the export and trade of slaves.
1482— El Mina Castle
El Mina Castle, constructed January 20, 1482, was one of the earliest slave castles along the west coast of Africa and marked the
beginning of a European slave culture that became the economic backbone of the Americas. In 1434, the King of Portugal sent Diogo
da Azambuja to select a port location on the west coast of Africa (Clarke 1970). The original purpose of this port was to mine gold
(Falola & Warnock 2007). In 1440, the mariner, Antony Gonzales captured 2 Moors off the West African coast and traded them for 10
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African slaves and brought them home to Lisbon. A few years later, the King chartered another shipment of 200 African slaves, and
although this was seen as an opportunity to convert the Africans to Christianity, the Portuguese inadvertently began the Trans-Atlantic
Slave Trade (Ballagh 1902).
On January 20, 1482 the Portuguese built Sao Jorge Da Mina Castle, or El Mina Castle. Elmina, originally called “The Village of
Two Parts” because of the river separating the community, in Portuguese means “The Mine.” (Lawrence, 1963) In 1637, the Dutch
gained control over the Castle and shifted the focus from gold to slaves as the headquarters for the Dutch West India Company.
Elmina became a large slave depot for detaining and exporting captured Africans from the Gold Coast, now Ghana (Kallulu). In 1872,
England seized control of the castle from the Dutch.
1482— Sierra Leone: Bunce Island
In 1482, Portuguese slave traders built a post on Bunce Island, off the coast of Sierra Leone, as the last stop before traveling to the
New World. The Atlantic Slave Trade traveled along the western coast of Africa, also called the Gold Coast due to the wealth of gold
and the slave trade. Bunce Island served as the final stop to buy and board slaves before traveling the Middle Passage. African slaves
were then sold in North and South America or the West Indies. The last corner in this triangle was the trip back to Africa's West Coast
to begin the trade again.
Between 1750 and1800 Bunce Island was called the "Rice Coast" for Western Africa. Here slaves were groomed and acclimated to
life on a rice plantation. Richard Oswald, the proprietor of the Royal African Company, managed the operations on Bunce Island. He
established a business relationship with Henry Laurens a very successful rice plantation owner in Charleston, South Carolina. Through
their relationship, all slaves taken along the Middle Passage were sent to Lauren's rice plantation in South Carolina. Richard Oswald
and Henry Laurens completed a triangle of the slave trade between Africa's Western coast and the American slave trade.
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1492— Christopher Columbus’ false discovery of the “West Indies”
Christopher Columbus’ false discovery of the “West Indies”, in 1492, opened up North and South America to the culture of slavery
after Columbus failed to find gold for Spain and became desperate to produce wealth through the industry of the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade. In 1489, Christopher Columbus presented to Queen Isabella of Spain and her court his plan to find a new and quicker route to
India. He was denied the commission because it was too costly and his demands were too high. Queen Isabella then decided to fund
Columbus’ voyage with her own wealth and sponsored three ships to sail west in the hope that Columbus would find gold (Juang
2008). The Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina set out on August 3rd, 1492 with a crew of 120 men. Pedro Alonso Nino, an African
born in Spain, sailed on this voyage (Tucker). The ships sailed first to the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco, and then
westward. On October 11th, 1492 Columbus and his crew spotted land. Upon reaching the shore Columbus erected the Spanish flag,
prayed to God for allowing them to reach land safely and named the island San Salvador. Assuming they sailed to the Far East side of
India, Columbus called the natives “Indians”. This term befell all native people of the New World (Abbott 1875).
On March 15th, 1493 Columbus reached Palos, Spain in the Nina, along with the crew of the Santa Maria and 9 Indians. King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received Columbus and 6 of the ten Indians that sailed back with him in mid April. Columbus’ return
and his findings created excitement throughout all of Europe. Nevertheless, many people, including Columbus, believed that the land
discovered was the east side of India and referred to the new world as the West Indies. Pope Alexander VI granted the new land to
Spain primarily because King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were devout Catholics and he hoped to convert the natives. Queen
Isabella focused on the well being of the natives and did not condone enslaving them (Abbott 1875).
On September 28th, 1493 Columbus set sail for his second voyage to the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Two Africans sailed with Columbus on his second voyage (Tucker). Columbus sailed to the west coast of Africa before he made his
way to the Americas. It is claimed that upon seeing the internal disputes of the African empires, he suggested using Africans as slaves
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instead of Indians (Clarke 5). On November 3rd the fleet of ships reached what Columbus named Dominica and the Lesser Antilles
islands, within the Caribbean Sea. Life within Hispaniola was difficult for both the Spanish and the natives. While the Spanish mined
for gold with the help of the natives, Columbus traveled inland and to Cuba. Members of Columbus’ crew mutinied, new ships arrived
from Spain, and the natives were no longer treated fairly per the request of Queen Isabella. The natives fought back, but were
overpowered by disease, and outnumbered by the arriving Spanish. Many of the Spanish sailed back to Spain, became sick, or died
from war or disease. Columbus became sick during the expedition of Cuba. Out of desperation of not finding gold, Columbus sent his
brother, Diego Columbus, back to Spain with 500 natives to be sold as slaves. With this act the Spanish and the natives of Hispaniola
went to war. Abbott writes, “It is difficult to reconcile the enormous extortion which Columbus was practicing upon the natives, with
the intense solicitude he professed, and often manifested, for the conversion of the natives. But man is often a bundle of
inconsistencies” (Abbott 267).
When the 500 native slaves reached Spain, Queen Isabella held a council to discuss if the act of selling the natives was a sin and she
decided to send the natives back to their homeland. Although Queen Isabella demanded that the natives be treated with “the utmost
kindness” the island of Hispaniola was already engaged in war (Abbott 268). On March 14th, 1496 Christopher Columbus returned to
Spain and despite the circumstances was received by the royal court. The King and Queen granted Columbus with six ships for a third
voyage although by now rumors of disease, death, and hardship surrounded the New World. On May 13th 1498 Columbus set sail for
his third voyage to Hispaniola. He split the six ships, sending three straight to Hispaniola and three remained with him, sailing south to
discover more territory. Columbus anchored at Trinidad, Grenada, and Tobago (Abbott 275). On Columbus fourth and final voyage he
set out to find the strait that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (Abbott 303).
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1501— Spanish Monarchy to imports African slaves
Pope Alexander permitted the Spanish Monarchy to import African slaves to all Spanish colonies. As early as 1375 the Catholic
Church established that enslaving those who chose not to convert to Catholicism would not be viewed as a sin, but as reasonable
punishment (Fogel 1989). In the 16th century religious leaders used this distinction when dealing with slavery and the contradiction of
owning slaves. As the Native population in Hispaniola decreased due to disease and enslavement, Bartolome de Las Casas convinced
Queen Isabella to allow the importation of African slaves into Hispaniola to work the sugarcane and coffee plantations (Kennedy
2003). Few Africans already lived in Hispaniola as servants to Spanish soldiers and settlers. It was evident through this small
community of Africans that they were already immune to many of the European diseases and more adaptable to the hardships of
plantation life. In 1501, Pope Alexander VI granted the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella permission to import
Africans slaves into Hispaniola (Tucker). The series of contracts to ship African slaves into Spanish colonies began in 1518 and
would later lead to the organization of the Spanish Asiento (Posta). The 1533 census of Hispaniola taken by Archbishop Alonso de
Avila indicated that there were 1,880 Africans and 200 Indians (Landers 47).
1536— Estevanico
Estevanico, one of the first Africans in the American west coast, became a guide to Spanish explorers seeking gold on the Pacific
coast. In 1528, Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Dorentes and an enslaved African, Estevanico or Esteban, shipwrecked off
the coast of Texas. Local Indians captured them and Estevanico learned Indian sign language. The men eventually escaped and set out
on an 8-year journey to Mexico City. Estevanico explored the southwestern mainland of North America with Cabaza de Vaca and
earned mention for himself in de Vaca’s official report to the Spanish crown. In 1536, Estevanico became a guide for Spanish
explorers in the New World and earned respect as a healer in the eyes of the Native tribes (Lanning 2000).
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1565— St. Augustine, Florida
On September 20th, Pedro Menendez de Aviles settled St. Augustine, Florida, becoming the first city in the continental United States.
Menendez led an attack on the French Fort Caroline in an effort to push the French Huguenots out of Florida. In the name of Spain
and God, Menendez slaughtered the French and renamed the fort, St. Augustine. African slaves helped construct the Spanish
settlement of St. Augustine, now considered the oldest city in the continental United States (Taylor 2001). Spanish clerics documented
the baptisms, marriages, and deaths of the Africans as part of the church record. Based on the roughly 200 years that Spain controlled
Florida the majority of Africans in this region were from the Congo (Heywood 2002) (Hine 2008).
1580— The Spanish Asiento
The Spanish Asiento, meaning monopoly, began over the Atlantic Slave Trade. In 1479, Castile signed the Treaty of Alcacovas with
Portugal relinquishing all rights to sub-Saharan Africa and its resources (Rodriguez 55). Spain then relied on a system of contracts and
agreements with other countries to supply its colonies with African slaves. Spain first officially contracted with Portugal in 1580 and
then the Dutch in 1662. In 1700, the French House of Bourbon took over the Spanish crown and awarded the asiento to French
merchants. The asiento became a major prize and the corruption within the colonies made importing and exporting goods extremely
profitable for whoever controlled it (Rodriguez 55). Spanish exploration and settlement continued in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico,
Jamaica, Peru and elsewhere including Southeastern and Southwestern North America.
1600s-1700s— Colonial North America
Colonial North America began as a place where individuals went to escape persecution and oppression; however, these colonies began
to represent the very thing they were trying to escape when enslaved Africans were brought here to work. The first African slaves
began to come to mainland North America around the late 17th century in the Chesapeake. This expanded to South Carolina in the 18th
century, the lower Mississippi Valley and eventually the whole southern United States (Georgia, Florida, Alabama etc.) (Berlin 2003).
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In 1676 society in the Chesapeake region (Virginia and Maryland), shifted toward chattel slavery after Nathaniel Bacon’s small group
of indentured servants and planters rebelled, known as Bacon’s Rebellion. Slaves slowly replaced indentured servants, as the main
source of plantation labor. In the Chesapeake the crop of interest was tobacco. Native Americans, as well as Africans were forced into
plantation labor; but as the Native America population began to dwindle, African slaves increased. The Chesapeake became a part of
the Middle Passage due to the increased need. Slaves planters began to look not just in the West Indies but also in Africa’s interior.
During the 1680s about 2,000 Africans were brought to Virginia alone. By the 18th century nearly 8,000 slaves had arrived in the
colony. At this time the Chesapeake replaced Jamaica as the most profitable slave market in North America (Berlin 2003).
When slaves entered the Chesapeake, they were taken to small lots at tobacco landings. Only a few slaves were bought at a time. After
being purchased slaves were no longer allowed to maintain the small communities that they formed aboard slaves ships. Slave
freedoms were further reduced between 1683 and1721 when a majority of slaves came into Virginia from Senegambia, other African
countries, and the Caribbean. By the 18th century 40 percent of the slaves arriving in the Chesapeake came from the Bight of Biafra
and the majority came from Angola (Berlin 2003). The life of slavery proved to be harsh and unbearable for slaves. Often times the
violence, exhaustion and isolation that slaves experienced led them to self-destruction and depression. Some slaves, however, refused
to submit to plantation life and instead planned revolts. Slaves resistance included revolts, rebellions, withholding labor or running
away; all planned with secrecy. Many of the slaves’ opportunities to rebel disappeared in the 18th century, with the adoption of laws
designed to degrade free blacks (Berlin 2003).
The low Country, consisting of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, followed the patterns of the Chesapeake. The main crop of
interest in these regions was rice. Sometime during the 18th century Africans were brought into this region. These slaves were the
mainsprings of working class and Africans were the dominant group in the slave population. By the 1720s, slaves outnumbered
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whites. The majority of slaves came from the Bight of Biafra. But unlike the Chesapeake, the Low Country was not able to launch
them into the leader in the slave market. The Middle Passage weakened many of the slaves that arrived there and making it difficult
for them to harvest rice. Since mostly women did fieldwork, they were unable to maintain families; birth rates were low and
miscarriages were high because of the work demand.
1607— Jamestown is established
The English colony, Jamestown, was established, beginning the reign of England in American for the next 150 years. In 1584, Queen
Elizabeth I commissioned Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a colony in the New World and although Raleigh claimed land for England a
permanent settlement was never built (Pederson 2009). In April 1607, the Virginia Company of London constructed a permanent
settlement at Jamestown, Virginia as a trade post with the hope of finding riches such as gold and silver for England. King James I
also commissioned the Virginia Company of Plymouth to sail English colonists, known as Pilgrims, to form the Plymouth colony in
1620 in search of religious freedom. The Virginia Company went bankrupt in 1624 and King James I took control of both colonies
(Geiter 2002). The settlers at both Jamestown and Plymouth were ill equipped and ill prepared for the winter and diseases in Virginia.
The majority of settlers was sick or died and those left could barely cultivate enough crops in the summer months to last throughout
the year. With no understanding of Native American culture the colonist demanded food from them, but were turned away. The
colonist then began a series of brutal acts in which to scare the Natives into giving them food and scare the colonists into following
laws. By 1616 the colonist began to cultivate tobacco (Taylor 2001) (Hine 2008). In 1617, Jamestown, Virginia settlers tried to use
Native Indian laborers but failed. By 1620, Puritans from England arrived in North America and established the Plymouth Bay
Colony; Plymouth colonists disturbed the life and culture of Native tribes indigenous to the New England region.
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1619— The First enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown
The first enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown, Virginia, becoming indentured servants and then free blacks to begin the first
generation of free blacks in New England. In July 1619, two English ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer, waited in the Gulf of
Mexico to attack a Spanish ship on its way back to England. Although, King James set the punishment for piracy at death, Captain
John Hope of the White Lion and Captain Daniel Elfrith of the Treasurer both eager to get rich, took their chances. When they
happened upon the Spanish ship the San Juan Batista, Captain Acuna surrendered, but instead of Spanish gold the two men found
African slaves. The White Lion and the Treasurer captured 60 of the Bantu people and set sail for Jamestown, Virginia. Controversy
surrounded the two ships arrival and the trade of the 20 Africans aboard. According to the eyewitnesses John Rolfe and John Pory,
Captain John Hope arrived in Chesapeake Bay, in late August, and traded 20 Africans; with no mention of the Treasurer. Rolf and
Pory were later accused of creating a false account to protect Lord Robert Rich from the wrath of King James. Lord Robert Rich, the
deputy governor of Virginia, ordered the Treasurer to commit this act of piracy without a proper marquee from the King. A few
month earlier King James beheaded Rich’s partner, Walter Raleigh, for the same act of piracy. Rumors began in England that Lord
Rich was invested in the Spanish ship the San Juan Batista and allowed it to use Jamestown as it’s port. Also, that Lord Rich allowed
the Treasurer to attack the same Spanish ship, with an expired marquee. Part of this controversy began when John Rolfe failed to
mention the Treasurer in his report to the Virginia Company and only described the White Lions arrival. The 20 Africans that were
traded in Jamestown were among 349 Bantu people from Angola, sold to the San Juan Batista as prisoners of war. The 1624 Virginia
census recorded 22 Africans many without names and all without last names and the 1625 Virginia census listed “25 Negroes” as
“Negro man” or “Negro woman;” some named but all without last names (Tucker). Of these Margaret Cornish, John Pedro, John
Graweere, Francis Payne, and Anthony and Mary Johnson become the first African slaves in English-speaking America to receive
English surnames, freedom, and land. They later became the first generation for free blacks in Dutch New York (Hashaw 141).
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1630— In the Matter of Hugh Davis 1630
On September 17th, in the matter of Davis 1630, Hugh Davis was sentenced to a public whipping for fornicating with a black woman.
The official report of the Virginia court states, “ Sept. 17, 1630 Hugh Davis to be soundly whipt before an assembly of negroes &
others for abusing himself to the dishon[o]r of God and shame of Christianity by defiling his body in lying with a negro w[hi]ch fault
he is to actk next Sabbath day” (Tucker 2010). Although the court report does not document that Hugh Davis was a white man, he is
clearly set apart from those described as “negroes” and therefore must have been white (Couvares 2000). This case illustrates how the
common practice of racial prejudice and discrimination toward black Americans began to shape American laws. In the 17th century
foundations were being set for future ideologies in the support of slavery.
1636 – Slavery in Connecticut
As a result of the Pequot War, slavery became a part of Connecticut culture, but gradual emancipation was quickly established.
Slavery did not legally begin in Connecticut but instead Indian slaves were awarded as a result of the Pequot War and transitioned to
African slaves in the late 18th century. During 1774 the population of African slaves was estimated at 6,500. The first census,
conducted in 1790, showed that 2,759 slaves and 2,801 free blacks resided in Connecticut. Connecticut’s General Assembly passed
laws of gradual emancipation that caused the number of slaves to continually decline until the end of the 1800’s. Chattel slavery did
not benefit the Connecticut economy and therefore was slowly removed to accommodate white citizens in regards to jobs and
property. For example, in 1784 the General Assembly ruled the any enslaved or mulatto child born after March 1, 1784 would be
legally free at the age of twenty-five years old (Cruson 2007).
1654— In the Matter of Johnson v. Casor
In 1654, Anthony Johnson sued for the right to an indentured servant and was awarded, John Casor, as his slave for life. In 1621,
Anthony Johnson arrived in Virginia as a servant of Nathaniel Littleton, on the Bennett Plantation. Fourteen years later, Littleton
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released him of his servitude and Johnson established a colony in Northampton County, Virginia, buying at least one African to work
his land (Hine). In 1651, Johnson was given 250 acres of land through a government initiative to encourage population growth and 5
servants. In 1654, Johnson sued for the recovery of his servant, John Casor, from a neighboring farmer. John Casor claimed that his
servitude had expired and he went to work for Robert Parker. Johnson claimed that Casor was his servant for life and that Parker
illegal apprehended Casor. The Virginia court ruled in favor of Johnson, returning Casor as Johnson’s servant for life, and forcing
Parker to pay the court costs (Kinshasa 2006). This case set the legal precedent for owning slaves in the British colonies, by
establishing the rights of the slave owner (Hine 2008).
1656— In the Matter of Grinstead v. Key
Elizabeth Key Grinstead, a black slave, sued for her freedom and won on grounds of Christian baptism and a free white father (Solow
1991). Elizabeth Key was the daughter of a slave woman and a white Englishman, Thomas Key. Under English common law Key
should have followed the status of her father and therefore born free, but instead she followed the status of her mother and was a slave.
In 1654, she sued for her freedom and the Virginia assembly ruled in her favor. The Northumberland County Order Book for 16521665 states, “that by the Comon Law the Child of a Woman slave begott by a freeman ought to bee free.” In the same year Elizabeth
Key married her attorney William Greensted or Grinstead (Moynihan 1993). The outcome of this case shows the significant, although
limited, freedom of blacks in the 17th century, if only in having the right to sue (Billings 2007). Warren M. Billings writes,
“The outcome of each is immaterial; the important point is that for a time even slaves had a right to sue in court. As long as
that right remained, the Virginia slave’s loss of freedom was not complete, and a slave could subject his master to lengthy and
costly litigation that might result in the winning of his release from bondage.”
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1672-1864— Southern Maroon Colonies
When people think about slaves escaping from their plantations in the South, the first thought is of fugitive slaves following the
Underground Railroad North. It is often neglected that slaves had another option for escaping slavery and that was to form their own
communities in the South. The fugitive slave communities in the South, called maroon communities, formed as slaves decided not to
head north, but to live in their own, hidden societies across the South. Many slaves did travel to the North, as living in a maroon
community was not an easy option. The slaves were living amongst a society that saw them as property, and if they were found, the
maroons could easily be captured, sent back to their plantations to continue as slaves, and beaten for trying to escape. Those
communities that did form offered a place of escape for other fugitive slaves as well as a community of support that became its own
culture. They were not simply in one place, but evidence shows that in at least fifty documented places across the entire South from
1672 to 1864, there existed these independent maroon communities. Some communities were larger than others and were able to last
longer than others, however many of the same themes exist between all the maroon communities. The communities were hard to find
and documentation is scarce. The communities were often in swamps, mountains, or dense forests so they were hard to find. This
aided in protecting the community from being found by slave catchers. Often, when the community was peaceful and not trying to
start slave rebellions, the maroons were able to live semi-safely away from society. For instance, one large community in Dismal
Swamp between Virginia and North Carolina grew to have about two thousand maroons at one point. This community was in contact
with locals whom they traded with and were not causing guerilla warfare like other maroons. Thus, due to the peaceful nature and
cooperation, this community was able to grow to a large size and exist relatively unchallenged. They traded and relied on local whites
living in the area that would illegally trade goods with the maroons. Since not everything could be made or grown in the swamps and
forests, the maroon community relied on this trade to keep it alive. There is documentation of many of these types of communities that
lived on the outskirts of towns in the brush who would rely on locals for support.
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Other communities did not take the cooperative living stance and instead fought the institution of slavery while living on the outskirts
of society. In one community in South Carolina, the colonial people lived in fear of a group of maroons who were taking an active
resistance to the institution of slavery. The South Carolinians are noted as living in fear of maroons who were robbing their homes
and plantations. There are numerous newspaper articles throughout the eighteenth century of maroons acting in this way and robbing
the locals. Because of the large population in South Carolina, there were fears by the government of rebellion and in 1765; the militia
there destroyed at least one major settlement within South Carolina. These stories of robberies and fear of the maroons were common
among the South and many expeditions seeking to destroy maroons are noted. The maroons were not only stealing from the
plantations, they were also trying to convince other slaves to rise up and leave with them. They caused slave insubordination and tried
to entice others to running away. Because of the threat of these maroons to society, they were often in conflict with government
authorities and destroyed. The maroons were not only interacting with the Southern community in various ways, but also were
working within themselves to form their own culture. Some communities lasted only a brief period of time, but those that lasted a
while had time to draw on the experiences of all in the community to shape a culture of their own.
1676— Bacon’s Rebellion
Bacon’s Rebellion, led by Nathaniel Bacon, was an up rise of white indentured servants and black slaves against British Parliament,
becoming the turning point event in the shift from indentured servitude to chattel slavery in America. Bacon’s Rebellion began, in
Virginia, as indentured servants fulfilled their servitude and a population of poor restless men increased (Wright 63). Nathaniel Bacon
led a rebel group taking over Williamsburg for a few weeks in demand of land. He, along with poor whites and black slaves rebelled
in retaliation against the British for allowing land to be given away to friends of the king and for protecting Indian land. Black slaves
participated because Bacon promised freedom in return (Stewart 183). Post this event, plantation owners used less white indentured
servants and more black slaves, assuming black slaves to have fewer resources to up rise (Hine 2008). The rebellion also raised fears
of interracial violence against the colony (Tucker). Conflicts in rebellions like these caused the colonies to investigate a new labor
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force that was easier to control (Wright 63).
1688— Pennsylvania
The state of Pennsylvania’s communities galvanized around the issue of slavery and established a set of unprecedented firsts in
support of abolitionism. As early as 1688, a community of German-born Quakers put forth what has been documented as the first
formal protest against slavery (Haley 1992) in the original North American, thirteen colonies (Fighting Against Slavery). Paraphrasing
and expounding upon Matthew 7:12, Francis Daniel Pastorius (1651-1720) wrote:
“These are the reasons why we are against the traffik of men-body… Is there any that would be done or handled at this
manner? There is a saying, that we shall doe (sp) to all men, alike as we will be done our selves: making up no difference of
what generation, descent, or colour they are. And those who steal or rob men, and those who buy or purchase them, are they
not all alike? (ExplorePAhistory.com)
Pastorius distributed his document among other Quakers, from whom he received little or no reaction. Before long, however, the
ideals of the document began to take root among Quakers, as well as Methodists, and other religious groups. Just as the 17th-century
religious community began to reject slavery as a question of faith and morality, wealthy Quakers in the business community were
among the first to question its economic value (Fighting Against Slavery). They realized that slavery was less profitable for them in
the North than it was for large plantation owners in the South. Their farms were smaller, (Fighting Against Slavery) and the farming
season was shorter, so there was less work for slaves to do. In addition, “the Revolutionary War [had] introduced fresh ideas and
attitudes about human equality” (Ibid).
For these and other reasons, Pennsylvania’s political community took an extraordinary stance on slavery, and became the first state to
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adopt an emancipation law. Passed on March 1, 1780, the Gradual Emancipation Act was a step in the right direction. Although slave
owners were allowed to retain enslaved children until they were 28 years of age, (Ibid) the Act motivated abolitionists to accelerate
their antislavery activities. In 1787, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society was established with Benjamin Franklin as it president. James
Forten, a wealthy black businessman and abolitionist, (Haley 1992) devoted himself to the destruction of slavery by all methods
possible, including contributing money to start The Liberator, a newspaper run by white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, (Haley
1992) and the outright purchase and freeing of blacks in bondage (Fighting Against Slavery).
1693— Fort Mose, Florida: A Community of Self-Emancipated Black People
In 1693, King Charles II of Spain decreed that any enslaved black male on an English plantation that escaped to Spanish Florida
would be granted freedom provided he join the Militia and become a Catholic. As early as 1700, black people began escaping from
British-held North and South Carolina to Spanish-held Florida where they sought refuge among the free blacks, the Seminole Indians
and the Spanish.
In 1738, the Spanish governor of Florida chartered Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose or Fort Mose (pronounced Mo-say), the first
free black settlement in what would become the United States. Approximately 100 blacks lived in and around the Fort. Many were
skilled worker, including blacksmiths, carpenters, cattlemen, boatmen, and farmers. With accompanying women and children, they
created a colony of free people that ultimately attracted other fugitives from slavery. The men served as military support for the
Spanish colony that lived two miles away in St. Augustine. Fort Mose remained a free black community until 1763, when Spain ceded
Florida. The Fort Mose residents were evacuated to Cuba, along with the Spanish colony.
1700s-1800s— Second Great Awakening
During the late 1700s and early 1800s, an average of about seven percent of the American population belonged to a church.
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Nevertheless, only double the amount of people who went to church actually belonged. Membership within the church was very
difficult for the average person. Leaders within the church judged whether or not the individual’s belief, conversion, and experience
were legitimate. In some other situations, the congregation of the church would vote on the applicant based on their knowledge of the
individual. In the past, joining a church was very similar to joining a secret club or fraternity. Due to the decline in religious members,
many religions held religious revivals to emphasize the importance of God in one’s life. However, the Second Great Awakening
helped African Americans to become more independent.
Since church was separated from state, due to the founding fathers of the United States, political leaders had no voice in the
denomination of the country. So from 1790s to the 1830s religious revivals swept the United States and this transformed the mindset
of many Americans. This transformation is considered the Second Great Awakening. At the beginning of the transformation, the
largest denominations were Congregationalists (descendants of Puritan churches), Anglican (also known as Episcopalians), and
Quakers. However, by the 1800s Evangelical Methodism and Baptists became the fastest growing denominations.
In New England, the interest of new religions created the inspiration of social activism. In western New York, the spirit of revivals
created new denominations. In the Appalachian region of Kentucky and Tennessee, revivals encouraged the Methodists and Baptists
and from that spawned the camp meetings. Camp meetings were religious services held for several days at a convenient location for
those members who could not travel to the church site. The first camp meeting occurred in Kentucky in July 1800. James McGready
(a Presbyterian) and two of his colleagues preached for three days. However, after their camp meeting two circuit-riding Methodists
ministers arrived. Nevertheless one of the largest camp meetings was at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in August 1801. About 10,000 to
25,000 people attended.
The Methodists had an efficient organization that required their ministers to become circuit riders. Circuit riders sought out people
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who lived in remote frontier areas, who they hoped to convert. The Baptists didn’t have a religious organization; instead, their farmpreachers where people who received the call from God, studied the Bible, and founded a Church. Since, the Baptists used this method
it caused them to become the dominant denomination throughout the Border States and most of the south. Nevertheless the revival
movement spread from the Christiana Church to the Methodists, Episcopalian and Baptist. Regardless of the denomination
differences, their members worked closely together.
Evangelizing of the West also took the form of interdenominational missionary groups such as the American Bible Society (1816), the
American Tract Society (1826), and the American Home Missionary Society (1826). Their members were educators, leaders, and
exponents of eastern urban culture. Eventually, social activism created abolition groups, temperance and suffrage societies. Other
people committed to prison reform, care for the handicapped and mentally ill.
Charles Grandison Finney, who is called the inventor of professional revivalism, was one of the most influential people during the
Second Great Awakening. He was a lawyer who set out to preach the Gospel. His revivals were made through careful planning,
showmanship, and advertisement. Charles Finney also organized the Hanover Presbyterian Church, which was one of the first
churches in the east to hold one of his revival meetings. Finney eventually moved to Ohio in 1835 to take a chair in theology at
Oberlin College. He eventually became president of Oberlin College. Oberlin College became the first college to allow an African
American woman to graduate. Due to these social activism groups, many slaves and free blacks got heavily involved in the churches.
In 1790 (the beginning of the Second Great Awakening), churches had 11,682 black Methodists and 19,000 black Baptists. The
Baptist church allowed slaves and free blacks the right to travel within the south to speak to the white and black congregation.
However, during the Second Great Awakening, the topic of slavery became a growing topic. Many people in the North objected to it,
while people in the south saw it as a way of life. The missionaries were very strong willed by opposing to slavery. Many slaves and
free blacks responded to this growing controversy by organizing their own independent black churches.
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One of the black independent churches that came out of the Second Great Awakening was the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
(AMEZ). It is an evangelical branch of the Methodist church. AMEZ was organized in the early 1820s but was founded in the 1790s.
It was created due to the discrimination in the Methodist and Episcopal churches. It became a safe haven for blacks to worship freely.
The AMEZ has a long history in the civil rights issue. Many of their congregation members were great abolitionists such as Sojourner
Truth, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. The Second Great Awakening not only changed the religious ideas of Americans but
also enriched the black community to seek equal rights.
To date, the AMEZ church has more than 1.4 million members, with outreach activities throughout the world. There are also member
churches in all continents except Australia. In West Africa, in particular, the denomination has set up schools and clinics throughout
Ghana and Nigeria. The Church also has facilities in Liberia. However, many of its structures have been destroyed by civil war.
Overseas missions are a critical component of the AME Zion Church. Nevertheless, the denomination believes in charity starting at
home. That is why, over the years, several individual churches have implemented programs to help families to find low-income
housing, jobs, financial planning assistance, health care and day care services. "Our concern is for the whole person," says Bishop
Cecil Bishop, the (retired former) senior bishop of the AME Zion Church.
1712— The New York Slave Rebellion
The New York Slave Rebellion on April 7th, 1712, caused by whites fears and the growing slave population, ended in new and stricter
slave laws. Two events leading up to this rebellion created tension between the white population and the growing slave population in
New York. In 1704, Elias Neau opened a school to Christianize and to educate African slaves and Native Americans. In 1708, two
African slaves were executed for the murder of their master, his pregnant wife, and their five children over restrictions on Sunday
travel. Tension escalated over the amount of freedoms given to slaves and the communication between the growing slave communities
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(Rodriguez 207). On April 7th twenty-seven West African slaves, Creoles, and Native Americans (Rodriguez 2007) rebelled against
harsh treatment, by setting fire to an outbuilding and ambushing the white men who tried to put the fire out. Two enslaved Africans,
John and Cuffe set fire to John Van Tilboroguh’s outhouse. When men ran out to inspect the outhouse nine white men were killed and
six or seven were injured. Thirty-nine rebels were arrested and of them, six committed suicide, 13 were acquitted, 3 were pardoned
and the remaining were brutally executed (Rodriguez 2007) (Alexander 2010). After the revolt new slave laws were introduced
limiting the rights of slaves to gather, to be out after dark, and to possess firearms. The new slave laws also gave masters the right to
punish slaves in any way that they saw fit as long as it did not result in death or loss of limbs (Rodriguez 2007) (Hine 2008).
1713— The English Asiento
England gained control over the Asiento, procuring immeasurable profits through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the eventual
success of the American colonies through slavery. Beginning with Sir Robert Rich in 1618 until the last monopoly on trade in 1633,
England commissioned trading companies to supply the American colonies with African slaves. From 1633 to 1713 England ended
the monopoly on trade and the American colonies were allowed to contract with a variety of companies (Ballagh 1902). At the end of
the War of Spanish Succession England demanded from France the Asiento and all Spanish colonies in the Americas to pay for war
debts. In 1711, the English sent Matthew Prior to France to finalize an agreement. Although both France and Spain were reluctant, on
March 26th, 1713, Spain and England signed the Treaty of Utrecht (Rodriguez 55) relinquishing the asiento to England (Frey 18) for
thirty years (Rawley 60). This treaty now forced Spain to purchase slaves from England, giving England the control to monopolize the
supply of slaves to serve its best interests. The British government contracted the South Sea Company to manage the asiento and
follow the contract outlined in the treaty. Between 1700 and 1770 the trade to the American colonies multiplied by five. English ships
sailed a constant stream of goods from England to African to the Americas and back to England. In addition to supplying goods to
Africa and the American colonies, England was introduced to luxuries offered all over the world, including tobacco, cocoa, and
vanilla. African labor became England’s cheapest imported good, later funding the Revolutionary War (Hine 2008). The success of
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the American colonies created innumerable profits for England, of which can never be measured today. In 1750 at the peak of the
trade Spain and England terminated Asiento and the American colonies traded African slaves independently of England (Savelle 1974)
(Ballagh 1902).
1719— Slavery in the Louisiana Territory
Slavery was introduced in the Louisiana Territory, including Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, forming a unique slave
culture north and south of the Missouri river. In 1712, the French government gave Sieur Antoine Crozat permission to colonize
Louisiana and use slave labor, but slaves were never brought into Louisiana. Seven years later a commercial company brought 500
slaves into lower Louisiana on June 6th, 1719. In the same year, Philip Francis Renault brought another 500 slaves from St. Domingo
into upper Louisiana, known as “Illinois Country.” The slave culture in Upper Louisiana, consisting possibly of Illinois, Missouri, and
Arkansas, was very different from Lower Louisiana. The slaves in Upper Louisiana were farmers and house servants, allowed to
worship and rest on Sunday, and taught the catechism. The slaves in Lower Louisiana were under slave laws or “Code Noir” enforced
by masters and overseers. Slavery in the Louisiana territory would soon become a large industry. In 1763, England took over Illinois
Country, separating the Louisiana territory by the Missouri River (Harris 1906).
1735— Slavery in Georgia
Trustees of the Georgia Charter established Georgia as an anti-slavery state, banning the importation of African slaves. Georgia was
founded for the purpose of providing a buffer between English South Carolina and Spanish Florida and a home for the religiously
persecuted. The Trustees hoped the colony would produce fine goods, such as silk and wine. The institution of slavery was therefore
not needed for the colony to prosper and within the Trustees vision for Georgia; African slaves were viewed as a nuisance. The
Georgia Charter also learned, through the example of other English colonies, that slavery took the place of free labor and therefore
deterred English families from settling in a place with no jobs. Finally, the founders predicted that Georgian slaves would frequently
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escape to Florida (Wood 1984). In 1733, 114 men, women, and children were handpicked to settle in Georgia. James Oglethorpe was
selected to supervise the colony (Wood 1984). By 1735, the founding Trustees banned the importation of African slaves into Georgia.
In doing so, they hoped to draw workers from England’s lower class and in a way to promote the ideals of freedom and spirituality
amongst the poor (Smith 17).
1738— Fort Mose, Florida
Established in 1738 Fort Mose, also known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose. The Fort was created to accommodate living
space for the African Americans that had been permitted unconditional freedom from the state of South Carolina that year. Fort Mose
was known in American history as the first free black community in the United States. The Fort was occupied by the Spanish, and
remained a site of attack from the British since its inception. There was an Anglo/Spanish Rivalry brewing from the slave raids the
English were performing on the Spanish and vice versa. The slaves turned the Fort into a religious sanctuary where they were baptized
in the Catholic faith, married and given jobs. The land was fertile and was based by a riverbed, which made it good for farming which
became a large occupation at Fort Mose. The rest of the free Africans were artisans of sorts, blacksmiths, and laborers. The first town
fort lasted two years but by 1740 the English governor of Georgia attacked it and destroyed it. The fort was re-established in 1752, and
grew stronger with a black population of 15%. By 1762 the fort had become a military outpost, port city and religious center. The
African Americans and the Native Americans that inhabited the fort created alliances within their communities or "marooons" and had
seven forts that spanned from the Fort Mose to the San Sebastian River. In 1763 the territory for Florida was added to England's
expanding empire and the Spanish, African and Native American descendants left to live in Cuba. This was the end of the first free
black community in the United States.
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1739— Stono Rebellion
The conspiracy of the Stono Rebellion frightened South Carolina plantation owners into strengthening their already existent black
codes. On September 9th, in St. Paul’s Parish, 20 slaves crossed the Stono Bridge led by Jemmy (or Tommy) and captured weapons in
a local barn. On their journey toward Georgia, in search of the Fort Mose in Spanish Florida, the mob raided plantations and murdered
an estimated 30 whites (Rucker 2006). Lieutenant-Governor William Bull informed the South Carolina militia and on horseback, they
ambushed and disarmed the rebellion (Rucker 2006). The militia killed 44 of the Africans and dispersed the remainder (Davies 2008).
Stono’s rebellion was the largest slave up rise in U.S. history. It created fear in white slave owners in colonial America and the
antebellum period. This caused South Carolina to pass the Negro Act, which combined all slave codes into one (Knight 2003) (Hine
2008). Some South Carolinians suspected that the cause of the rebellion was the concentrated population of Angolans living in the
area. Subsequently the purchase of Angolan slaves decreased until the end of the eighteenth century. In addition, South Carolinians
also blamed the recently sanctioned Spanish Florida as providing an incentive for slaves to runaway (Rucker 2006). Plantation owners
often demanded from the Florida Governor the return of their slaves but were denied due to a Spanish royal edict offering Florida as a
religious sanctuary (Landers 1999).
1741— New York Fires
Ten arson fires in New York led to New York officials executing 34 people rumored to be involved in a conspiracy to revolt
(Campbell 24). Although fires were common within the city, whites began to speculate that the slave population was responsible,
when 10 buildings burned down in the span of 3 weeks. The New York Supreme Court ruled that the fires were linked to a grand
scheme to destroy the city and abolish slavery. The conspiracy created tension and fear in the city, causing many to point fingers and
make accusations, leading all the way up to white high-ranking officials. The court quickly rapped up the case, but had already
examined, an estimated 200 people, and executed 34 whites and blacks found guilty. One black man committed suicide in jail and
many others were sold to the Caribbean. 7 white men were banned from the state of New York. The New York fires will remain a
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conspiracy, as there is no evidence to prove or disprove the involvement of the slave population. Nevertheless, the conspiracy
demonstrates how white paranoia and fear often controlled the laws and regulations of a state (Campbell 24).
1763-1783— African American and the Struggle for Independence
The Revolutionary Era in the United States brought independence to American colonies but did not lead to freedom from slavery,
which was still an institutional landmark among the colonies; the years from 1763-1783 however, witnessed a surge of African
American intellectual and political leadership that was embraced during the era of war and struggle for independence. African
Americans played an important role in the colonial struggle for independence. As the ideas of freedom spread among the American
colonists, African Americans reacted strongly. Their perception of slavery was altered drastically and many began to take action. In
the South, large numbers of slaves escaped, while in the North, slaves used the legal system to petition for freedom. African
Americans began to serve on both sides of the struggle for independence. Some fought alongside the Colonists, while others supported
the English King. In most cases African Americans picked the side with the greatest opportunity for freedom. In the South, British
commanders offered freedom to slaves in return for military service. Colonist troops were at first reluctant to enlist black men, but as
situation in the colonies became more severe, the enlistment opportunities increased. In the military, African Americans were able to
participate in various capacities, as some became spies, soldiers or privateers. Most believed that the promises of freedom upon defeat
of the ‘enemy’ army would lead to their freedom and equality within society. This most ardently was not true.
Coinciding with the struggle for independence and the American Revolution also came a second revolution – one of the emancipation
of slaves in the North. Fostered by ‘Christian ideals,’ an anti-slavery movement was initiated. It eventually led to the abolition of
slavery across the colonies and future states in the North. At the end of the American Revolution, African Americans made many
gains within Northern society. The free population increased, and many African Americans began to experience civil liberties not
previously entitled to them. They did however continue to face significant difficulties in the newly emerged independent lands. Even
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though colonists asserted their independence from England, their declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ – was certainly not the
reality for African American men. Independence came for white colonists, but slavery and degradation of African Americans was still
largely institutionalized.
1775— The Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery
The oldest abolition society in the U.S. is the (first named the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage),
which successfully advocated for an adequate anti-slavery law in Pennsylvania to protect free Negroes from kidnap and sale into
slavery. The society then helped to enforce the new laws by organizing committees of correspondence and by hiring competent
counsel to secure the conviction of offenders. During the American Revolutionary War, the society’s activities were suspended. Its
officers reorganized as the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully
Held in Bondage, and for Improving the Condition of the African Race. The Pennsylvania Society, with Benjamin Franklin as
president, added its efforts to those of the Quakers, promoting education, employment, and assistance to the free African American
community in Philadelphia as well as assisting enslaved persons and advocating for an end to slavery. The society documented this
community well through censuses and home visits throughout the antebellum period.
The society organized on April 14, 1775. Formed mostly by Quakers, three original members included Anthony Benezet, who called
the meeting, Thomas Paine, and John Woolman. Restructuring after the American Revolutionary War in 1787 as the Pennsylvania
Abolition Society (PAS), the society still carries on its mission of education to this day through projects such as the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania’s online web pages of lesson plans, reading, and other primary source materials drawn from the PAS collection.
Late 1700’s— Pee Pee Settlement
Established in Ohio during the late eighteenth century, the Pee Pee Settlement was a predominantly African-American community.
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Located in Pike County, the Pee Pee Settlement was located along Pee Pee Creek in Pebble Township. The creek was named for Peter
Patrick, an early white resident of the area, who formerly lived in Virginia. A squatter, Patrick eventually returned to Virginia due to
Native-American attacks. Most black residents were former slaves from Virginia. Most residents earned a living as farmers, with some
becoming sizable landowners. The community grew relatively quickly, with residents establishing a church in 1824. They constructed
a school and government building soon thereafter. African-American residents also actively assisted runaway slaves along the
Underground Railroad. They built a school, meeting hall and organized a church. At first the settlers worshipped in various homes, but
in 1824 organized into a congregation, most probably influenced by the Rev. David Nickens. Nickens organized another Baptist
congregation in Chillicothe the same year (First Baptist Church). The date of the construction of the first log church is not clear, but
seems to have been in the 1840s. Minor Muntz donated the land for the church. Four Underground Railroad routes or lines operated in
Southern Ohio and through Chillicothe. Two of the routes followed the Scioto River, one route on the east side following the
approximate course of old Route 23 and one on the west side following Route 104. Both of these paths were well worn by the time
white settlers reached the Scioto Valley. The routes followed trails cut through wilderness by Native Americans. A third route
originated at Ripley and the fourth trail began as fugitives crossed the Ohio River at Gallipolis.
1783— The Peace of Paris
The Peace of Paris or Treaty of Paris, signed in September, ends the American Revolutionary War, bringing freedom to few black
slaves and reform to the newly independent nation. A preliminary treaty was signed in 1782 to end the war by John Adams, Benjamin
Granklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens (Rakove 316). Prior to the official end of the war, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New
Hampshire made provisions for the gradual emancipation of slavery, but failed to consecrate these ideas into writing. As a by-product
of the war propaganda created by American Patriots, these New England states abolished slavery within their constitutions. An
estimated 20,000 black slaves or Black Loyalist accompanied British soldiers back to England, to Nova Scotia, or Africa between the
years of 1781-1783. The remaining black slaves either escaped or sued for their freedom, understanding their new rights in the
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Northern states including Quok Walker and Elizabeth Freeman. The treaty also delineated lands newly acquired after the
Revolutionary War and created an international boundary line between the United States and British Canada. Nevertheless, Britain
continued control of Michigan at this time (Hine 2008).
1833— Canadian Abolition
While putatively considered a free nation, the official abolition of slavery in Canadian territory occurred under the British Empire’s
Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which were followed by a series of policies that aided the abolition movement in the United States. To
understand abolition in Canada, several complexities must be unraveled, beginning with the geographic space when referring to
“Canadian Territory.” Officially, Canada became a nation after the abolition of slavery (Mackey 2010). The northern most territory of
North America known as Canada underwent several transitions of colonial rule from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, largely
between French and British rule. Canada did not become an official territory until the Constitution Act of 1867, which proclaimed
Canadian confederation under British rule (British Parliament 2010). Furthermore, the territory of Canada continued to expand
through the twentieth century, with the addition of Newfoundland in 1949. In this respect, we must be careful about projecting the
modern Canadian map onto the discussion of Canadian slavery and, subsequently, abolition.
As for the existence of slavery, the practice of black slavery existed in the modern day Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Newfoundland, British Columbia, and into the sparsely populated province of Yukon.
For the most part, instances of slavery were not widespread in these Canadian territories largely because the economies of Canadian
territories were not based on agriculture. This is to say that Canadian territories were not slave societies; they were societies with
slavery. Slavery was practiced in the region for over 200 years. From 1628 to 1833, slavery existed as a legal form of labor in both
French and British colonies in Canadian territory. As such, it was intensely and widely practiced (Cooper 2007).
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Some historians have written that Canadian slavery was mild and rare; however, this trivialization of Canadian slavery has robbed the
enslaved people of Canada of an accurate history and further dehumanizes their histories. Instances of slavery were brutal in Canada
as in anywhere during this era. Simultaneously, and paradoxically, Canadian territory served as a safe haven for black Loyalists who
fought for the British in the Revolutionary War. At the onset of the war in 1775, Britain offered freedom to any enslaved person that
fought for the British Army. When Americans won the war in 1783, Black Loyalists joined a flood of other Loyalists that retreated to
Canadian territory, including slave-holding whites. These black Loyalists founded free black communities throughout territories in
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in communities like Preston, Shelburne, Birchtown and Saint John. In fact, these and other
Canadian free black communities were the first free black communities in North America. The co-existence, though hardly peaceful,
of free black communities and slaveholding societies in Canada reflects the ambiguity of slave laws in Canadian territories. (Cooper
2007)
Laws to govern slavery existed in some Canadian territories, including the Code Noir of 1685, which sought to police slave ownership
in French colonies throughout the world. In 1793, (Cooper 2007) the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada adopted “An Act Against
Slavery,” which outlined the gradual abolition of slavery in Upper Canada and outlawed the importation of slaves. No such law
existed for Lower Canada; however, the lack of legal status for slavery in Lower Canada played out counter-intuitively in the courts.
Some slaves in Lower Canada successfully challenged their enslavement because there was no law for slavery. Contrastingly, the Act
Against Slavery in Upper Canada gave slavery legislative sanction and outlined the rules under which slavery could continue to exist;
thus, the legal status of slaves in Upper Canada was incontestable (Mackey 2010).
In 1807, Britain outlawed the slave trade for the entire empire, making the importation of slaves also illegal in Lower Canada. On
August 28 1833, King William IV passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which sought the “Abolition of Slavery throughout the British
Colonies; for Promoting the Industry of the Manumitted Slaves; and for compensating the Persons hitherto Entitled to the Services of
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such Slaves.” While no direct mention was made of Quebec or Lower Canada in the Act, the question of slavery in Lower Canada
became irrefutable (Mackey 2010).
After the official abolition of slavery in Canada, Canadian Abolitionist movements like Anti-Slavery Society of Canada turned their
attention to America. Thousands of American fugitives escaped into Canada to seek refuge from slavery in America. This exodus
grew even greater after the American legislature passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, making Canada a\safe northern refuge for
runaway slaves. Canada also served as a safe haven for free blacks from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. When the United
States won the territories of California and New Mexico, the legal status of free blacks became threatened. Starting in 1858, free
Blacks began to cross into Canadian territory through its Northwestern Border and into British Columbia. Despite the ambiguities of
slavery in Canadian Territory, the land north of the United States served as a vanguard in abolition movements (On the Road North).
1783-1861— Antebellum America
Antebellum America was a time of development for the newly established nation. Politics, economics, and communities worked on
defining themselves across the country. As America became more complex, conflicts and re-evaluations of societal institutions were a
logical consequence. During this period of national growth, Antebellum America saw the development of numerous fronts fighting
against slavery.
Slavery had existed since the world’s early ages. What made slavery in America different was the inclusion of race into the equation.
Slavery in America assigned prejudice and discrimination for the life of one race of people. By specifically enslaving Africans, the
color of one’s skin immediately said something about their worth in society. American racialization of slavery caused heated
arguments and opinions amongst many. Though the Constitution avoided explicitly using the word slavery, its provisions reinforced
the profitable plantation economy of the South thus making immediate emancipation nearly impossible.
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Slavery was primarily an establishment of Southern states. American slavery was multifaceted; African Americans were enslaved on
farms, plantations, within households, or in cities and towns. The underlying core of slavery believed that slaves were property
because they were black. Slaves were often reminded of their lowly status through violence and inhuman treatment.
Quakers and Protestant evangelists were among the first groups to openly oppose the immorality of slavery in the United States. This
initial religious tone sparked further public interest in the emancipation of slaves. Early anti-slavery efforts were conservative in
nature, calling for the gradual eradication of slavery in the United States. They proposed that slaveholders and plantation slowly and
gradually free their slaves and transform the economics of the South. The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color of
America, better known as the American Colonization Society, proposed the return of free African Americans to a “greater freedom” in
Africa. The American Colonization Society helped found the nation of Liberia in 1821-1822, named for a place of freedom. Founders,
Henry Clay and John Randolph, Quakers and slaveholders, whom all supported the colonization ideology, believed free blacks had a
better chance of living “freely” in Africa than in the United States. Slaveholders recognized that removing free blacks from American
society simultaneously removed some threat of slave rebellion.
The 1820s and 1830s observed as shift in anti-slavery ideology to a more immediate approach. William Lloyd Garrison emerged as
the prominent abolitionist movement leader. Garrison’s Boston based anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, gained attention for its
rejection of the American Colonization Society, willingness to allow African American writers, and most importantly its call for
immediate, uncompensated emancipation. In 1833, Garrison headed a delegation of anti-slavery enthusiasts consisting of Samuel J.
May, James G. Birney, and Joshua Leavitt at the first meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia. The American
Anti-Slavery Society adopted a “Declaration of Sentiments” demanding immediate emancipation and denounced the nation’s fathers
for “spilling human blood like water” through the creation of the “pro-slavery” Constitution. The Declaration affirmed that all
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delegates must “secure the colored population…all the rights and privileges that belong them to as men and as Americans…The paths
of preferment, of wealth, and of intelligence should be opened to them as widely as to persons with white complexion” (Stewart).
The term “Moral Suasion” was coined for the technique in which abolitionists of this time sought to educate and influence public
opinion regarding the extinguishment of slavery. Moral Suasion declared that politics embraced corruption, promoted slavery, and had
made a treaty with hell and the slaveholders. Changing the hearts and minds of American citizens and culture became the central task
for those adhering to moral suasion ideology. Methods employed by moral suasionists relied on educating the public through
speeches, sermons, mass meetings, fugitive narratives, and newspapers (Stewart). By the late 1830s, anti-slavery sentiment had
become prominent within Northern states. Numerous local auxiliary anti-slavery societies formed in Detroit, Philadelphia, New York,
Boston and elsewhere. In 1837, women held their own Anti-Slavery Convention in New York and embraced the participation of
African Americans. Political parties, including the Liberty Party and the Free Soil Party, penetrated the depths of politics, seeking to
make slavery the top of the nation’s political agenda. Nation wide conflicts erupted. Political and legal hot topics included the Dred
Scott Case, Missouri Compromise, and Fugitive Slave Law. Little by little the nation was tearing apart over slavery.
1787— Anti-slavery Societies
White Quakers and Free blacks organized antislavery societies in the Northern states advocating the gradual emancipation of slavery,
the protection of free blacks, and the relocation of free blacks. Anthony Benezet, a Quaker abolitionist, organized the first antislavery
society called, the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Benjamin Franklin became the president. This
organization was fearful of the immediate end of slavery and the societal structures it held together in the South, although not
supportive of slavery. Later most antislavery societies formed under the framework of the American Convention for Promoting the
Abolition of Slavery and Improving the Condition of the African Race. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organized the Free African
30
Society in Philadelphia, which sought to support other free blacks during a time when slavery began to grow and manumissions
declined (Hine 2008).
1787— U.S. Constitution
U.S. Constitution, written at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, strengthened the Union and the slave states with specific
proslavery clauses. On September 17th 39 out of the 42 delegates signed the constitution, allowing congress more control over the
states, implementing taxes, regulating trade, and maintaining an army (Ravoke 1). Although there was no distinct mention of slavery
there were specific clauses that favored the slaveholders and slave states, including Article I: 2, Article I: 9, Article IV: 2, and Article
IV: 3. The Atlantic Slave Trade was extended for 20 more years and would be outlawed in 1808. This allowed slave states to use
imported slaves to expand westward. Because of this westward expansion within these 20 years more slaves were imported into the
U.S. than any other 20-year period in history (Hine). Within this document slaves were described as “other persons” to not fully
address the issue of slavery (Ravoke 6). In 1789, the U.S. Constitution was ratified by the 13 states.
1787— The Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance, adopted by congress, established the line between free states and slaves states by the immediate ban of
slavery within the new territories. The ordinance mandated laws for land sales, education, government and the subsequent formation
of new states; Northwest of the Ohio River and East of the Mississippi River. By outlawing slavery, Congress saw an opportunity to
execute their plans, for the gradual emancipation of slavery, which they had sought after in prior years. The territory clearly defined a
region apart from the southern states where the cultural prosperity was dependant upon slavery. The new states formed in this region
were Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. Nevertheless, the Ordinance permitted British subjects remaining
in the territory to retain their slave property (Hine).
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1791— Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution encapsulates a period of intense conflict from 1791 to 1804 leading to the abolition of slavery, the creation of
the first autonomous black republic, and lasting implications for international slave rebellions. Several dynamics of Saint-Domingue
society—modern Haiti—created an atmosphere that was ripe for slave revolution. In 1789, Saint-Domingue had a unique racial and
class demographic, with a population of about 500,000 African slaves, 32,000 European colonists, and 24,000 affranchis (free people
of color who were usually of mixed African and European descent). The heterogeneity of Saint-Domingue society created deep
fragments along skin color, class and gender lines. Interestingly, these fragments were not completely linear. Some affranchis were
slave owners, while some white colonists were landless laborers and peasants; yet, the affranchis were not politically autonomous and
faced discrimination among whites who were economically inferior.
News of the French Revolution began to spread across the ocean, promoting liberty, fraternity, and equality—notions that captured the
attention of the affranchis elite who wanted the same civil rights. Growing brutality and dehumanization of African slaves eclipsed
this political movement and accelerated the urgency for independence. As the first organized assault in late 1790, Vincent Ogé led a
violent uprising after his efforts to lobby the Parisian assembly for colonial reform failed. In May of 1791, the revolutionary
government in France decided to grant affranchis rights to citizenship, but whites in Saint-Domingue refused to comply, which
accelerated existing tension. Within two months, tension erupted into several isolated insurrections between Europeans and affranchis.
By August, thousands of slaves, armed by mulatto sympathizers, also rose in rebellion against the white elite. Rebels were imprisoned
and mutilated by white colonists, which only escalated more violence. Toussaint L’Ouverture, well read in the verses of French
Enlightenment and Revolution, emerged among the slave rebellion as the leader of an organized slave army. Through his leadership,
rebel forces defeated French colonial presence and pushed Spanish and British intruders off of Haitian territory. Overpowered in
numbers and intensity of violence, European colonists conceded and agreed to comply with France’s citizenship mandate. After a
successful coup back in France for the revolutionary armies, the French revolutionary government sent military leader Léger Félicité
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Sonthonax to maintain order after the citizenship mandate concession in 1793. Shortly into his appointment, Sonthonax offered
freedom to any slave that joined his army—a maneuver that led Sonthonax to abolish slavery within the year.
The abolition of slavery helped improve relationships with colonial power and the rebel forces of Haiti. In the late 1790s, Toussaint
L’Ouverture agreed to fight British and Spanish presence in Haiti. He won seven battles in seven days, awarding him the recognition
as the defacto governor of Haiti. However, military dominance over European interlopers was not L’Ouverture’s only political agenda.
Simultaneously, Governor L’Ouverture began organizing for independence from colonial rule in several areas on the island. He
strategically pledged allegiance to France while colluding with the British for Haitian independence and his own political agenda. By
May 1801, L’Ouverture gained nearly complete control over the island. However, across the ocean in Europe, a rising military
strategist in his own right began organizing for further French domination. In 1802, Napolean Bonapart fixed eyes on Haiti and
attempted to restore the old regime of France on the island. He sent General Charles Leclerc, along side an experienced military force
of former Saint-Domingue officers to wrestle back control from Governor L’Ouverture and reintroduce slavery. Refusing to be
plunged back into slavery, L’Ouverture and his army remobilized and resisted. By 1803, Napoleon agreed to make peace with
L’Ouverture’s revolutionary forces and L’Ouverture agreed to retire from public life. Shortly after, Napoleon invited L’Ouverture to
France for a negotiation meeting with the promise of full safe conduct; instead, France violated the peace agreement and arrested
L’Ouverture. He died in prison less than a year later in April 1803.
Despite the betrayal, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe continued to lead the revolutionary black army against France.
They defeated a large part of Leclerc’s army, and by November 1803, the French decided to withdraw from Haiti, making it the
world’s first autonomous black republic and one of few nations to defeat Napoleon Bonaparte. The implications of a successful slave
revolt resounded throughout North America, as accounts of the rebellion slipped from Atlantic ports into plantations across the
country. White American slave owners began to feel unrest over the revolts, fearing that their slaves would attempt similar revolts.
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This fear manifested into brutal acts of violence against slaves, as masters attempted to scare their slaves into submission. While some
rebellious slave forces attempted revolt through acts of extraordinary ingenuity and determination, the sheer force and brutality
exhibited by masters often shut down any uprising. To further escalate slave revolts, a sweeping migration of free blacks from Haiti
began moving into coastal regions in America. Often, these migration groups created alliances with American slaves and began
conspiring for revolution and rebellion, but the coups hardly ever succeeded, as white plantation owners dominated rebel groups in
capital, size and force.
The Haitian Revolution’s most important contribution was the symbol of black autonomy. American abolition leaders fostered
relationships with Haitian government to establish emancipation strategies and Haitian leaders, however controversially, encouraged
black Americans to immigrate to Haiti in an effort to create individual autonomy. The Haitian revolution also encouraged other slave
revolts and fights for independence beyond America, including Latin American and African countries still under colonial rule.
Toussaint L’Ouverture
Toussaint L'Ouverture, (1743-1803) also known as François Dominique Toussaint Louverture, Toussaint Bréda and the "Black
Napoleon," in the 1790s led the greatest slave revolt in the West Indies of Saint Dominique, later known as Haiti. At the time of the
late 18th century Spain and France each owned half of the country known as Haiti. Toussaint's father was named Gaou-Guinou, from
the Arada Tribe in Western Africa and had eight children; Toussaint the oldest. The European colonizers built sugar plantations and
forced Africans from the Atlantic Slave Trade to work on these plantations. Toussaint was born into slavery under the control of a
sugar plantations master, Count de Breda. The overseer of Breda's plantation allowed the slaves to learn to read and write. All the
slaves were baptized with the islands official religion of Roman Catholicism. He eventually moved to a position outside the sugar
fields as a coachman and house servant for the Count de Breda. At the age of 33 L’Ouverture's was granted his freedom. Soon after he
married Suzanne Simone Baptiste L’Ouverture and had two children.
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On October 30, 1791 the Boukman Rebellion, a revolt staged against the whites in the French colony of Saint Dominique later known
as Haiti, occurred with L'Ouvertures leadership. Inspired by the French Revolution of 1789, French enlightenment philosophers,
Toussaint participated in the Haitian Revolution. He first joined the army as a doctor and then became a military commander because
of his skills and intelligence. Moderate Revolutionaries in France applied the "Rights of Men" to everyone except for enslaved
Africans. This was the catalyst to the slave revolt in which Toussaint led his slave army to defeat the French, the Spanish and the
British. Toussaint as the General Governor instated himself as the governor for life and decreed the emancipation of slavery in Saint
Dominique. Toussaint remained the General Governor of Saint Dominique until 1802.
The French Ruler Napoleon heard of the revolt in Saint Dominique and came to defeat Toussaint's army. Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802
sent his brother General Latrec with 20,000 solider over to Haiti to disarm this powerful slave army led by Toussaint, and reinstate
slavery. Napoleon committed 40,000 more troops and eventually led to the surrender of L’Ouverture. Promised to return to life in
Haiti he was betrayed and sent to jail in the French Alps named Fort de Joux and died in 1804.
1793— The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793
The Fugitive Slave Law, passed by Congress, was a compromise between pro and anti-slavery members of government to combat the
increase in slave escapes. Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Law, allowing slave owners the right to capture slaves and go
before a local magistrate, circuit, or district judge to present an affidavit showing ownership of the enslaved person. The slave owner
could then legally remove the slave with a warrant (Schneider 149). The law also set a $500 fine to those that helped the escaped
slave. Established to strengthen Article 4, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the law outlined the steps by which a bounty hunter
could legally retrieve a fugitive slave in a free state. During and after the Revolutionary War the number of escaped slaves increased
and pro-slavery politicians pushed for more government aid in retrieving what they believed to be their property (Stewart 29).
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Nevertheless the Fugitive Slave Law was poorly enforced and Northern abolitionist did little to help southern bounty hunters retrieve
their “property”. Many Northern states created Personal Liberty laws to protect freedom seekers and free blacks from false allegations
and re-enslavement (Schneider 150).
1800’s— The Black Community in Chillicothe, Ohio
Many free blacks migrated to Chillicothe, Ohio, where they created a vibrant community and helped fugitives escape the institution of
slavery. Runaways, especially from the slave state of Kentucky often crossed the Ohio River, and then traveled up the Scioto River to
Chillicothe, where they gained greater distance from their former owners and safety from the slave hunters. While many area whites
also aided blacks in their pursuit for freedom, all were not to be trusted. A white Methodist minister, for example, betrayed a member
of his congregation for the one hundred dollar reward. Three armed slave catchers captured the husband and father of three, and
quickly dragged him out of town. However, approximately 200 members of the town’s African American community learned about
the kidnapping, caught up to the slave catchers, and demanded the release of the runaway. Out numbered, the kidnappers released their
captive. Although the runaway remained in Chillicothe, only 40 miles from the Ohio River, the slave catchers never accosted him
again. This African American community proved that it could and would protect its residents from the treachery of slavery, thus the
town became an important stop for freedom-seeking refugees on the Underground Railroad.
1807 –- The Elliott/Heward Incident
The Elliott/Heward Incident was the first case in Michigan that involved the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and Canadian fugitives. In
1796, Detroit became a part of the United States and created a line of demarcation between America and Canada. Those citizens that
wished to remain Canadian citizens were forced to move and those that stayed were now Americans. Tension formed on the
borderline between Americans and Canadians and those who were labeled deserters or traitors. In October 1807, Matthew Elliot and
Richard Pattinson, Canadian plantation owners, filed a petition with territorial attorney general Elijah Brush in the Michigan Supreme
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Court to retrieve nine of their slaves that fled from Canada to Detroit. Both Elliot and Pattinson were former Michigan citizens before
the border establishment and Detroiters, who were still bitter, vowed to prevent the return of the slaves to Canada; among them was
Richard Smyth. The Elliot Pattinson case went before Chief Judge Augustus Brevoort Woodward of the Michigan Supreme Court and
on October 20th James Heward, Elliott’s plantation overseer, was called to testify.
1807— The Denison case
The Denison case, although did not bring freedom to the Denison children, did establish gradual emancipation laws in the state of
Michigan. Elizabeth Lisette Denison and her brother sued the territory of Michigan for freedom after their master, William Tucker,
died and willed their parents free, but not them (Mull 14). Judge Augustus Woodward denied freedom to the Denison children, but
created gradual emancipation laws. William Tucker’s widow, Catherine, represented herself as a British subject who had the right to
retain her slave property under the Jay Treaty. The Denison children evaded lifetime slavery by escaping to Windsor, earning
Canadian citizenship. On her return Elizabeth Denison became a prosperous Detroit area landowner, landlord, entrepreneur and
philanthropist (Tucker).
1820’s— Free Blacks and Fugitives from Slavery Established Communities along the Ohio River
Black freedom seekers fleeing the clutches of slavery first looked to members of their own race and communities for directions and
support in their personal and shared efforts to be free. Around the mid 1820s, before the underground movement became known as the
Underground Railroad, great numbers of enslaved blacks began escaping from Virginia and Kentucky to the free state of Ohio by way
of the Ohio River. Logically, the first people that the runaways turned to for help were other African Americans, free and fugitive, as
they were skeptical of trusting any white people. Persuaded by blacks that were living in relative safety, many of the escapees settled
in and around cities such as Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Oberlin, Perrysburg, Ripley, and Lawrence County, Ohio, as well as Cabin Creek
and Madison, Indiana. They chose to remain in these "front-line" communities along the Ohio River where they covertly worked to
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help other enslaved African Americans find their way to freedom. While history recollects much of what white abolitionists did to
help thousands of enslaved African Americans gain their freedom via the Underground Railroad, much must be said about the fact that
it was African Americans that initiated, sustained, and survived the protracted struggle against slavery.
1821— Mexican Abolition
Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 immediately following the revolution, as Mexican government acknowledged
slavery was inconsistent with their revolution’s ideals of liberty. On September 15, 1829, President Vicente Guerrero issued the
Mexican Emancipation Decree, which proclaimed the official abolition of slavery in Mexico. The slave population in Mexico Proper
was not particularly large during revolutionary independence; further, blacks were integrated into the larger Mexican society far more
than their international counterparts. Black slaves in Mexico fought along side creoles and mestizos for Mexican independence, and
were pivotal to the abolition of slavery following independence. However, by 1822, over 22,000 whites from America had settled into
the sparsely populated province of Texas, often settling with their slave property. Autonomy in the Texas province seemed easy to
achieve; yet, on July 13, 1824, the Mexican government attempted to restrict slavery in Texas by adopting the Mexican Constitutional
Convention decree, which outlawed domestic slave trade and granted freedom to all black fugitives. Following the decree, white
settlers began protesting for an “extradition treaty,” which would force Mexico to return all fugitive slaves back to the United States.
Mexican authorities resisted white settler protests, despite the strain that this resistance caused between the United States and Mexico.
President Vicente Guerrero officially abolished slavery on September 15, 1829, through the Mexican Emancipation Decree. The goal
of the emancipation decree was to compensate slave owners for their slave property. Mexico was a poor country after the
revolutionary wars, so the decree provided that compensation would not be granted until the republic could afford it.
The decree aroused anger among white settlers—both slave holding and non-slave holding; thus, on December 2, 1829, Guerrero
decided to exempt Texas from the decree in an effort to keep foreign settlers in the Texas province. Six years after the decree, and the
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subsequent exception for the Texas province, President Antonio López de Santa Anna threatened to eliminate the special exception of
slavery for Texas through a unified Mexican Constitution. President de Santa Anna’s declaration prompted American settlers to wage
a revolutionary war for independence from Mexico. The Texas Revolution lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836, when Texas
declared itself as an independent and slaveholding republic.
Throughout this secession, Mexico maintained its antislavery stance and indicated that any fugitive slave that escaped to Mexico
would not be reclaimed. Abolitionists started spreading the word about this safe haven, beginning an exodus of fugitive slaves. The
exodus grew in unprecedented numbers after Texas was annexed to the United States in December 1845. Historians have estimated
that between 1836 and 1855, as many as 5,000 slaves crossed the southwestern boarder into Mexico to escape slavery. These slaves
largely traveled through the city of Mazamilta in Jalisco, where a network of abolitionists and former slaves aided fugitives in making
their way in Mexico. In fact, Mexican officials started to encourage fugitive slaves to establish colonies along the northern boarder of
Mexico, primarily in anticipation of American invasion. They believed that these colonies would protect the Mexican boarder in honor
of their newfound freedom from slavery. Tension between Mexico and Texas—even after the United States annexed Texas—
remained as slaveholders in Texas fought to reclaim fugitive slaves in Mexico. Mexican officials stood their ground to continue aiding
fugitive slaves. In 1857, the Mexican government gave fugitive slaves constitutional rights and protection under Mexican law.
Fugitive slaves in Mexico were also given the freedom to found legally free settlements throughout Mexico.
In a broader historical context, Mexico’s struggle for emancipation is largely associated with the American controversies of manifest
destiny, free soil, and the Mexican-American War. Manifest destiny was a Jacksonian belief that American expansion westward was
both an American right and an American destiny. President James Polk used the principle of manifest destiny to justify the MexicanAmerican war. He moved to occupy part of Texas territory that was already controlled by Mexico, prompting war over which country
would possess the territory. The Mexican-American War had serious consequences for Mexico, who gave up its Californian and New
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Mexico territories in exchange for 15 million dollars. They also lost control over all of Texas Territory and settled on the Rio Grand
serving as the border between Mexico and the United States. However, the legal status of slavery in the former Mexican territories of
California and New Mexico sparked the Free Soil debate and the Wilmot Proviso, both of which advocated that these new territories
be recognized as free territories. Advocates of the “Free Soil” party believed that it would be abhorrent to re-introduce slavery in a
territory that had previously outlawed it. In the mean time, former slaves who settled in these contested territories began an exodus
into Canada to avoid their ambiguous status of freedom. In a partial sense, the emancipation of slavery in Mexico served to prevent
American slavery from expanding further west. Furthermore, it fueled the abolition movement in America alongside the Haitian
Revolution.
1828— Southern Ohio: The Foundation for the Antislavery Movement in Cincinnati
The black community in Cincinnati, Ohio, resisted white mob action, continued to increase their numbers, and eventually became the
foundation of the antislavery movement along the Ohio River. By 1828, the growing black population in Cincinnati caused the white
citizenry to “take measures to prevent the increase of the Negro population within the city.” In 1829, over the course of several days,
white mobs attacked black residents with stones, destroyed their houses, and committed other violent assaults. On one Saturday night,
approximately 300 whites prepared to attack the black community again. This time, African Americans, numbering between 24 and
36, devised a plan. They waited for the mob to come, and then defended their families and homes. The mob quickly retreated with the
black residents in hot pursuit. This was one example of the determination exhibited by blacks that chose to live along the Ohio River.
They helped members of their race attain their freedom rather than move to the relative safety of the northern states or to the slave-free
country of Canada. Through the ongoing antislavery and underground actions of the black community, Cincinnati became one of the
early and crucial centers of the antislavery movement.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe was born June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut to the Rev. Lyman Beecher (1775-1863) and
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Roxanna Foote Beecher (1775- 1816). In 1832, her father moved the family to Cincinnati when he received an appointment as
president of Lane Theological Seminary. In Cincinnati, Harriet taught school at the Western Female Institute and began writing
professionally. In 1836, she married Calvin Stowe, a clergyman and professor at Lane Theological Seminary. In 1850, the Stowe
family moved to Maine and then in 1852, to Andover, Massachusetts where her husband assumed a professorship at Andover
Theological Seminary. Two years later, Beecher Stowe rose to fame when she published "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The anti-slavery novel
became a runaway best seller, selling 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week; 300,000 in the first year; and in Great
Britain, 1.5 million copies in one year. Her novel, in which she attempted to communicate that slavery was a sin, vividly depicted the
pain and suffering of the institution. Beecher Stowe travelled to Great Britain twice, in 1853 and 1856, giving lectures that focused on
the horrors of slavery. When her husband's tenure at Andover Theological Seminary ended in 1864 they moved to Connecticut were
they lived the rest of their lives. Harriet Beecher Stowe died at her home in Hartford, Connecticut on July 1, 1896.
Harriet Beecher Stowe House
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home from 1873 to till her death in 1896, today serves as the historic Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. The
grand Hartford, Connecticut house commemorates Stowe’s life work and acts as an inspiration for social justice and action. Sold after
Stowe’s death to numerous owners, the house came into the Beecher family’s possession again in 1924. Katherine Seymour Day, a
grand niece of Stowe and granddaughter of Harriet’s sister Isabella Beecher Hooker, purchased the house and lived in it for nearly 40
years. Using her skills as a painter and preservationists, Katherine Day restored the home to the quality and character it possessed
during Stowe’s lifetime with precise detail. Today, the home holds numerous original Beecher family furnishings, photos, and other
memorabilia. Extensive collections of Stowe’s transcripts and writing materials display her genius as a novelist.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, born on June 14th, 1811 in Litchfield, CT, was daughter to Reverend Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote
Beecher. Growing up high expectations, all eleven of the Beecher children went on to promote justice in society. All seven sons
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followed the path of their father to become ministers, whilst Harriet’s sisters Isabella and Catherine sought women’s justice through
education and suffrage programs. Harriet learned she was gifted with penmanship at the young age of seven when she won her first
essay contest at her school (Stowe). In Litchfield, the Stowe family embraced higher education and being culturally competent. Law
students from Tapping Reeve’s law school boarded at the Stowe home and participated in intellectual dining room table discussions.
At Sarah Peirce, a local institution for the education of women, Lyman Beecher taught religion. Harriet’s formal education began at
this same school and continued pursuing writing at Hartford Female Seminary founded by her sister Catherine.
Leaving Connecticut in 1832, Lyman Beecher moved his family to Cincinnati, Ohio and took the position of headmaster of Lane
Seminary. Harriet met Calvin Stowe, a professor of Theology at Lane Seminary, and he would soon become her husband. In
Cincinnati, Harriet bloomed as a novelist. There, she experienced first hand the horrors of slavery and the terror of the Underground
Railroad. Holding fugitives in her father’s home over time and giving them employment, Harriet heard first hand fugitive narratives.
Later, Harriet’s keen observations and vivid imagination cumulated in tremendous book of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. First
published in an abolitionist newspaper and later in book form, Uncle Tom’s Cabin showcased Harriet’s fury with American legislation
promoting slavery (Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Law of 1850). Uncle Tom’s Cabin spread like wild fire across the nation.
Additionally, the publishing of the book brought financial security to the Stowe family and allowed Harriet to write full time. In 1862,
Harriet had the honor of meeting President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln infamously greeted her by stating, “So you're the little woman
who wrote the book that started this Great War.” The novel touched the hearts of millions of Americans and Harriet made the story of
slavery a personal one.
In 1873, Harriet and her family moved to the neighborhood of Nook Farm, back in her home state of Connecticut. In the 1870’s, Nook
Farm was synonymous with literary genius and forward thinking. The progressive neighborhood initially formed in 1853 with the help
of John Hooker and Francis Gillette. Originally 140 acres of pasture and woodland, the brother in-laws developed the neighborhood as
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they sold property to family and friends. Nook Farm attracted politicians, activism, and others working to leave their positive marks
on the world. Notable names of the neighborhood include Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, Harriet’s sister
Isabella Beecher Hooker, Charles Dudley Warner, William Gillette, and Joseph Hawley. The Victorian and Gothic styling of homes in
Nook Farm attracted just as much attention as the family names. Every day life in Nook Farm existed more in the social community
sphere than single-family business. The open thinking of Nook Farm created a warm, inviting community of open doors, hearts, and
minds. William Dean Howell’s, a resident of Nook Farm, wrote that the Clemens and Warners “live very near each other, in a sort of
suburban grove, and their neighbors are the Stowes and Hookers, and a great many delightful people. They go in and out of each
others’ houses without ringing, and nobody gets more than the first syllable of his first name – they call their minister Joe Twitchell”
(Harriet Beecher Stowe Center). Harriet’s Nook Farm was home until her death in 1896. The nurturing Nook Farm community was
perfect to cultivate Harriet as a mother, wife, and an internationally recognized writer.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum
Originally the home of the Marshall Key family, today the Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum pays tribute to the life
work of Harriet Beecher Stowe as an activist for social justice. This museum serves as one of the stops on an “Underground Railroad
Tour” in Washington, Kentucky. Other stops on the tour include the Paxton Inn and the Courthouse Front Lawn, where Harriet
Beecher Stowe witnessed a life changing slave auction. Located in the city of Washington, Kentucky, the Slavery to Freedom museum
served as the former home for the Key family. Robert Rankin purchased the plot of land in 1789, upon which time he sold it to Eli
Metcalfe, the older brother of Kentucky Governor Thomas “Stonehammer” Metcalfe. After numerous transactions the home ended up
in the hands of Marshall Key in 1815. Marshall Key came from a politically active family. Key’s uncles were Chief Justice John
Marshall and Colonel Thomas Marshall served as Staff Officer under George Washington and later in life the Surveyor of Kentucky.
Marshall Key’s daughter Elizabeth Marshall Key attended the school in Cincinnati where Harriet Beecher Stowe taught.
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The structure of Marshall Key home is renowned for its classic Gregorian style. Distinguished by the home’s elegant interior staircase
and formal Gregorian frontispiece, Marshall Key’s house is one of the finest antebellum era homes in the city of Washington,
Kentucky. The current day museum houses original wood workings, mantels, doors, floors, and chair railings. In the home’s back
lawn, stands a small, brick structure, named as an “Indian Fort”. This two level outlook structure with vertical slits for observation and
defense, helped settlers ward off Native Americans who frequently crossed the Ohio River at the nearby city of Maysville. The
intersection of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s life journey with that of the Marshall Key family began when the Beecher family relocated
from Connecticut to Cincinnati in 1832. Lyman Stowe and daughters moved to the slavery frontier city after Lyman was offered a
position to become the first president of the influential Lane Seminary. Founded in a time of social, political, and religious conflict,
Lyman Beecher became famous for his call for social activism on behalf of the students at Lane Seminary. The Lane Seminary
debates of 1834 became infamous as students discussed topics such as immediate emancipation and the American
Colonization Society.
Shortly after moving to Cincinnati, Harriet and her sister established the Western Female Institute in 1832. Later that year, the sisters
published A Geography for Children and New England Sketch, which gained Harriet fame in the Western Monthly Magazine. Harriet’s
move to Cincinnati served in to influence the rest of her life. Living in her father’s home, Harriet was exposed directly to the hardships
and reality of slavery in the United States. Lyman Beecher, promoter of activism, actively involved his family in the Underground
Railroad. Cincinnati, the frontline in the fight against slavery, was uniquely located at the intersection between freedom and slavery in
terms of physical boundaries to fugitives. Lyman Beecher’s home actively housed fugitives and even employed them temporarily.
Harriet soaked up all Cincinnati’s hotbed environment had to offer. Harriet toured the neighbor slave state of Kentucky with fellow
abolitionist friend, John Rankin. She befriended several fugitive slaves, conducting interviews, which would later shape her novel,
Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, editor of the magazine Philanthropy, and later National Era, also embraced the talents of
Harriet and later published the first edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the National Era.
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Elizabeth Marshall Key was a student to Harriet Beecher Stowe at the Western Female Institute. Being an involved and responsible
teacher, Harriet visited her student, Elizabeth, at her home in Washington, Kentucky in 1833. To entertain their guest, Marshall Key,
Elizabeth’s father, invited Harriet to the local slave auctioning at the courthouse lawn down the street. Harriet is said to have walked
up in the arm of Ben D. Parry, a deputy under Colonel Marshall Key, and “witnessed a Negro man sold on the block” (Abroad the
Underground Railroad). Little to Marshall Key’s knowledge this scene would leave a vivid impression on Harriet and contribute to her
writings in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Upon her visit to the Marshall Key homestead, Harriet found inspiration for the characters of “Uncle
Tom” and “Topsy” from Aunt Jane and Uncle Isham who resided in the corner home down street of the Marshall Key homestead
(Historic Washington). Open weekends and festivals, a visit to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Slavery to Freedom Museum gracefully
depicts the struggle of fugitives and Harriet’s momentous role as an anti-slavery novelist.
Cincinnati, Ohio
During the operation of the Underground Railroad, Cincinnati, Ohio served as haven of resistance to the Underground Railroad and as
a reminder of the horrors of slavery. Cincinnati sits on the Ohio River, which connects it to the neighboring slave state of Kentucky.
One side of the river gave fugitive slaves access to freedom and the other side kept them enslaved. The Ohio River played a larger
economic role in the connection of these two states. The river was important to trade between the states. The farmers from the north
provided southern planters with goods and vice versa. Slaves were often apart of the trade, as they were often transported across the
river to the “Cotton Belt” (Griffler 2004). For freedom seekers the Ohio River became known as the River Jordan and Cincinnati
became a passageway to reach the promise land that lay ahead. Establishing the Ohio River as the American version of the Jordan
River was key in creating routes throughout the northern shore of Ohio. Many of the cities that were apart of the Underground
Railroad were port cities with strong African American communities. This is particularly true for Cincinnati. The large community of
African Americans there made it easier for runaway slaves to blend into the community and therefore become unnoticed. Assistance to
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these runaways often came in the form of black churches or white abolitionists (Griffler 2004).
For runaway slaves, how they planned to escape was essential to if the escape was successful. One factor that determined the
successfulness of the escape was who was involved in helping the runaways along Underground Railroad routes. Although it seemed
that freedom in the North was only separated by the Ohio River dividing Ohio and Kentucky it was not that simple. There were
opponents on both sides of the river that wanted to keep slavery alive. Runaways always worried about the possibility of being
captured and returned to slavery. Slave catchers regularly patrolled the area in search of runaways. Fugitive slaves were not the only
ones in fear of slave catchers, free blacks were also afraid of being kidnapped and forced into slavery. Therefore many runaway slaves
were motivated to continue on northward to Canada instead of settling in Cincinnati (Griffler 2004).
One of the pioneers of the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati was Levi Coffin, a Quaker abolitionist and businessman. Coffin was
born in North Carolina on October 28, 1798. He developed an opposition to slavery at an early age. His family later moved to Indiana.
Coffin is often referred to as the President of the Underground Railroad and his home is often called the “Grand Central Station” of
the Underground Railroad. Coffin moved to Cincinnati in 1847 and set up his own business shortly after arriving there. He set up his
home as a safe house for runaway slaves. Coffin also organized a large network that helped runaway slaves in Cincinnati. He was very
careful about selecting individuals to help him with Underground Railroad efforts and it wasn’t until he built trust with the community
that Coffin was able to begin helping fugitive slaves. One of the runaway slaves that Coffin assisted was Eliza Harris. Harris escaped
from the South by crossing the frozen Ohio River in the winter. She brought her young child along as well. By the time the two
reached the Coffin’s residence they were exhausted and near death. Coffin provided Harris with food, clothing, new shoes, and shelter
before helping her to continue on her journey to freedom in Canada (Yannessa 2001).
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Coffin moved around several times during his time in Cincinnati until he settled in a large home that rented rooms to boarders. This
was a perfect place to hide runaway slaves because of the constant flow of people. Coffin’s wife, Catherine was also heavily involved
with Underground Railroad movement. She made costumes and when fugitives arrived they would be dressed as butlers, cooks, and
other workers. The most frequently used disguise was a Quaker woman, which consisted of a high collar, long sleeves, gloves, veil,
and large brimmed hat could completely hide its wearer when their head was tilted slightly downward. Some of the runaways who
were mulattoes were able to pass as white guests. This was not something new to Coffin; he was also very active in the Underground
Railroad in Indiana, where his home had also served as a safe house for slaves escaping to freedom (Yannessa 2001).
Levi Coffin
Levi Coffin, abolitionist, Quaker, and known as the President of the Underground Railroad, was born on October 28, 1798 in North
Carolina. At the young age of 15, he began helping fugitive slaves escape north. On October 28, 1824, he married fellow North
Carolinian and Quaker, Catherine White. The Coffins were members of the Quaker Society of Friends. In 1826, they moved from
North Carolina to Newport, Indiana because of increased opposition to the Quakers in North Carolina. In Newport they opened a store
and joined the Underground Railroad Movement. With the assistance of his wife, Catherine, more than 3,000 slaves over a period of
twenty years gained their freedom. Initially, the Coffins assisted kidnapped slaves, but eventually, their noble efforts included
assisting fugitive slaves. As a result of the vast numbers of slaves they assisted, their home has been referred to as the "Grand Central
Station of the Underground Railroad." In 1847, the Coffins moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and opened a free goods store because they
believed it was wrong to sell goods that had been produced by the use of slave labor. There in Cincinnati, the Coffins continued
working on the Underground Railroad. One of the slave refugees, Elijah Henson that was assisted by the Coffins was immortalized in
the famous 19th century novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, authored by Harriett Beecher Stowe. Levi Coffin died on September 16, 1877.
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1828— Jacksonian Era
The Jacksonian Era refers to a period in American history beginning with president Andrew Jackson's election in 1828 and lasting
until 1849. The era was marked by institutional democratic reform and tension between the landless proletariat and republican elites;
more importantly, the Jacksonian era alludes to a period in which Jacksonian Democracy shaped the discourse and outcome of
slavery. The Jacksonian Era officially began with the election of Andrew Jackson a generation after the Revolutionary war and ended
in the wake of the Civil War. Because of this unique position in American history, the five presidents of the era—Andrew Jackson,
Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and James Polk—became formative in shaping America’s modern political
institution. The era is also referred to as the Second Party System. This party system—in which the Democratic Party reigned superior
over small party opponents like the Whigs, the “Free Soil” Party, and eventually the Republican Party—followed the demise of the
Democratic-Republican Party in the era before. Andrew Jackson, a former Tennessee Representative from humble means, quickly
became a star amidst party instability. Jackson was supported by a coalition of both former Democratic-Republican and Federalist
Party supporters, campaigning as a candidate for the common man. Jackson’s inaugural addresses at the start of both terms
foreshowed a new Democratic era, as he trumpeted ideals of popular participation, the end of banking monopoly, states’ rights,
westward expansion, and the integrity of the Union. Slavery did not appear to be on the table.
In fact, both supporters and opponents of Jackson approached the question of slavery in a very calculated manner for the first 4 years
of Jackson’s presidency. Party leaders across the board suggested that national politics and slavery were “mutually exclusive;” further,
The Nullification Crisis of 1832 brought the question of slavery to the fore for the first time in Jackson’s presidency. In 1828,
President John Quincy Adams signed the Tariff of 1828 into law to protect Northern industries that were being driven out of business
by the South’s low price point. The South had far lower production costs, as slavery diminished labor costs and yielded more per
quarter. The tariff set to place a tax on southern goods to encourage more competition between the goods. Southern plantation owners
thought that the tariff disproportionately helped Northern states. In 1832, South Carolina created the Ordinance of Nullification, which
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declared the tariff was unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void. This ordinance created a sectional crisis between the north and
south, foreshadowing the Civil War. In 1833, President Jackson issued a Force Bill and Compromise Tariff Bill to end the crisis over
the issue, and the majority of southern interests complied; however, Jackson’s aggressive approach planted a seed of discontent in
Southern Democrats. Southern politicians began to question whether Jackson was still an advocate for southern interests.
Southern anxiety was matched by anxiety among abolitionists, who started organizing to place slavery on the national agenda. In
1833, William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan founded the American Anti-Slave Society to facilitate this movement. Also in 1833,
Britain passed the Abolition of Slavery Act, which emancipated all slaves in British colonies and compensated their owners. This act
officially made Canadian territory a free land for slaves, and sparked an exodus of fugitive slaves into Canada. By 1835, slavery had
become an unavoidable question in American politics: first with the Democratic nomination of Martin Van Buren for President;
second, with the campaign by the Anti-Slavery Society to flood the mail with anti-slavery literature and to lobby congress for action
against slavery. Southern Democrats opposed to Van Buren’s election began to spread rumors that Van Buren was “an avowed
abolitionist in principle;” however, general party sentiment was that slavery would not become an issue so as to preserve national
unity. Only one year before Van Buren’s elections, abolitionists started to advocate Congress to make the District of Columbia a free
territory, while southern pro-slavery advocates demanded that Congress stand against the interference of slavery in D.C. For these
competition reasons, William Pinckney successfully introduced the Gag Rule, which would table any petition, proposal or bill that
mentioned slavery. The intention may not have been to perpetuate slavery; however, the implications were rather clear: nothing could
be done about slavery.
After Van Buren’s failed attempt to secure a second term, Whig Party Candidate William Henry Harrison took office
promoting westward expansion; however, within a month of his presidency, Harrison died of pneumonia. Vice President John Tyler
took office and, unlike his predecessor, was a staunch supporter of states’ rights. By the end of his term, Tyler replaced his entire
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cabinet with conservative democrats. Tyler’s presidency further cleaved southern and northern interests, also foreshadowing the Civil
War. The last of Jacksonian Presidents, James Polk, was known for expanding America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This
expansion had tremendous implications on the question of slavery, as Congress fought over whether new territory should be free or
slave states. This question remained unresolved until the Compromise of 1850, which allowed Texas to join the union as a slave state,
and California as a free state. The Compromise of 1850, while abolishing slavery, also passed the Fugitive Slave Act, sparking an
even greater exodus of fugitive slaves into the free territory of Canada, where the law had no effect. Finally, the backlash of the
compromise drove yet another fracture into Union integrity, preceding the Civil War. The Jacksonian Era ended at the dawn of the
Civil War.
1829— Cincinnati Riot of 1829
The Cincinnati Riot of 1829 occurred between July and August. The riots broke out as a result of limited employment opportunities in
Cincinnati for Irish Immigrants and African Americans in the community. From 1820-1829, the black population in Cincinnati grew
from 433 to 2,258. Cincinnati transformed from a small village into a thriving city. In July the township trustees posted a notice that
stated blacks had to start paying $500 bonds or they would be expelled from the town. These bonds also included good behavior and
worked along with the black laws that were already being enforced within the black community. Soon after these new laws were
instated, blacks began losing job opportunities. This tension sparked a series of racially generated acts of violence on blacks from
white, which included the destruction of property. Some blacks fought back, while others left Cincinnati. This violence continued until
August of 1829. By this time an estimated 1,100 to 2,000 blacks left Cincinnati. Many contributed to the formation of Wilberforce in
Ontario, Canada (Taylor).
The Cincinnati Riot was thought to be a reflection of years of economic and political oppression that African Americans faced for
years. The ruling that was made by the township trustees forced the departure of African Americans. This demonstrates the incredible
strength of the African Americans who decided to leave Cincinnati. Instead of living in a state of oppression, these individuals decided
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to leave and start lives in a new place where they hoped to avoid these problems. In the past, many African Americans were drawn to
Cincinnati because of the employment opportunities that waited. This included work that involved the ports and steamboats. By now
African Americans began to see that Cincinnati did not offer the freedom that they imagined (Taylor).
The black community planned to emigrate before the riots had occurred. James C. Brown emerged as the leader of the emigration
movement. Brown was born a slave in Kentucky and purchased his freedom for $1,800. By the end of June 1829, blacks met to elect
representatives to explore parts of the globe that would be a suitable place to migrate. Israel Lewis and Thomas Crissup were selected
to survey land in Upper Canada. After arriving in Canada, the two men met with the Lt. Governor of Canada to discuss the idea of
settling in the area. 4,000 acres of land were purchased (Taylor). Those who did leave Cincinnati did not leave all at one time. There
were two groups of migrants. The first group consisted of individuals and families, who were simply trying to flee the violence. The
second group consisted of the individuals who had organized the migration to Canada (Taylor).
Scioto River
The early pioneers to Scioto Township were a diverse and unique group of people specifically in their thoughts and experiences
surrounding slavery. Some of the early pioneers came from slave-holding families while others participated in the cause of freedom
for all men as conductors on the Underground Railroad. Four Underground Railroad routes operated in Southern Ohio and through
Chillicothe. Two of the routes followed the Scioto River; one route on the east side followed the approximate course of old Route 23
and the other followed Route 104. Both of these paths were well worn by the time white settlers reached the Scioto Valley. The Scioto
River runs north to south through Scioto Township. The earliest settlers to Scioto Township settled near the river on the Scioto Trail
beaten long ago by the Native Americans. The river was the source of energy to fuel the mills of the time. The river was used to float
timber to Franklinton before the construction of dams.
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John Rankin’s House
The house of the Presbyterian minister, abolitionist author and stationmaster on the Underground railroad is now a museum that it is
open from May 2 through October 31 from 10:00am to 5:00pm Wednesday-Saturday, and 12:00pm to 5:00pm on Sunday. The John
Rankin House is located in Ripley, Ohio at 6152 Rankin Road. The Rankin House museum is located on Liberty Hill which overlooks
the Ohio River on the border of Tennessee which was a slave states at the time of the 1793 and 1859 Slave law were passed. One
hundred steps lead from Ripley to the Rankin house on the Liberty Hill; these steps a national Landmark are named "The Freedom
Stairway." John Rankin a noted Abolitionist is known as one of the first conductors in Ripley, Ohio, founder of the Ohio Anti-Slavery
Society and the author of abolitionists manifesto, "Letters on American Slavery", in 1826, which discussed anti-slavery west of the
Appalachians. The house has several secret rooms in which slaves were hidden. The area surrounding the Ohio River and Ripley,
Ohio was known as one of the first stops ever on the Underground Railroad. The John Rankin home and Ripley, Ohio became the
basis for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous work, Uncle Tom's Cabin. “A lighted candle stood as a beacon which could be seen from
across the river, and like the North Star was the guide to the fleeing slave.”
Reverend John Rankin
Reverend John Rankin, American abolitionist, Underground Railroad conductor and stationmaster, was born in 1793 in Jefferson
County, Tennessee. He attended Washington College in Virginia and became a Presbyterian minister. He married Jean Lowry in 1814.
Four years later, in 1818, he formed an anti-slavery society in Carlisle, Kentucky but later moved to Ripley, Ohio because he and other
opponents of slavery were unable to freely speak against slavery in Kentucky. The Rankin's home in Ripley, Ohio overlooked the
Ohio River into Kentucky, a slave state. Rankin was known for providing a lantern in or near his home as a signal to slaves that it was
safe to cross the Ohio River and seek shelter at his home. Rankin was a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of America. In 1825
he authored "Letters on Slavery," ten years later, in 1835, Rankin established the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. As a result of his antislavery efforts, more than 2,000 fugitive slaves secured their freedom. Reverend John Rankin died in Ripley, Ohio on March 18, 1886.
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1829— Saby, Isom and Nancy
Freedom seekers, Saby, Isom and Nancy, safely travel along the Underground Railroad to escape slavery and find freedom in Canada.
Saby, Isom, and their baby, Nancy, escaped from Kentucky over the Ohio River into Indiana. The family traveled to the town of
Brookville where they lived among a community of African Americans. After Saby was kidnapped and then rescued again, a small
group within Brookville decided to travel to Canada. With the help of Quaker, Frederic Hoover, the small group was guided from
Brookville to Richmond, Indiana. Hoover appealed to Fort Wayne, Indiana to allow the group to pass through unharmed and on
October 10th, he records that the group did just that. Edward Howard and the Ottawa Indians then assisted the group through Defiance,
Ohio. The group then traveled through Monroe, Michigan and on to Detroit where they escaped to Canada (Mull 7).
1830’s— Southeast Michigan: A Community of Black and White Abolitionists in Detroit
In the mid 1830s, Detroit was a bustling port city that included a small black community comprised of successful entrepreneurs who
collaborated with white business owners in an antislavery network that helped fugitives escape from slavery to freedom in Canada.
Black members of the community included men such as William Lambert, a tailor, abolitionist, and head of Detroit’s African
American arm of the antislavery movement. He was known to distract bounty hunters while his colleagues slipped fugitives across the
river. George DeBaptiste, an African American entrepreneur, former valet to President William Harrison, and owner of the
T.Whitney steamboat, transported fugitives to Canada via Detroit-Sandusky-Amherstburg, an Underground Railroad water route.
Detroit also had white abolitionists, such as Seymour Finney, who worked in tandem with the black abolitionists. A successful
businessman, Finney sheltered runaways in his stable, which was close to the Detroit River, until they could flee to Canada. Other
well-known Detroit white abolitionists included landowner, Shubael Conant and British-born saddle and harness maker, John Sabine.
Although the early black Detroiters encountered conflicts with some of the City’s white residents during incidents such as The
Blackburn Case (1833) and the Whorehouse Riots (1834), blacks found the white Detroit residents more supportive of antislavery
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causes than those in most American towns. Whites accepted the small black population as part of Detroit, and runaways felt that if
they reached the City, there were dedicated members of the underground movement that would protect them and helped them reach
freedom in Canada.
1830’s— The Detroit River Site
The Detroit River Site is located on Sixth Street and West Jefferson Avenue, in Detroit, Michigan. This site was the last destination
towards freedom for many fugitive slaves heading to Canada. Fugitive slaves leaving for Canada referred to the Detroit River as their
“River Jordan,” and Canada as their “Land of Canaan”. George de Baptiste along with William Lambert, active abolitionists and cofounders of The Detroit Vigilance Committee, used a ship to escort over 1,000 slaves to freedom. The ship was named the T. Whitney,
which traveled between Sandusky and Detroit. It would stop in Amherstburg (Canada) on the pretense of getting lumber, while
actually shuttling fugitive slaves to freedom. The navigator of the T.Whitney was a white abolitionist, Captain Atwood because at the
time African Americans were not allowed to sail ships. Currently at the Detroit River Site there is a bronze statue of slaves peering
over the water towards freedom.
George DeBaptiste
George DeBaptiste, African American abolitionist and Underground Railroad agent was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1815 to
wealthy free black parents. He received training as a barber during an apprenticeship with Lomax Smith in Richmond, Virginia.
Subsequently, he worked as a valet and a steward on steamships on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In 1837, he moved to Madison,
Indiana where he opened a barbershop near the Ohio River. There, he assisted enslaved blacks escape from Kentucky. DeBaptiste
became a personal valet to U. S. President, William Henry Harrison; following Harrison's death, DeBaptiste returned to Indiana.
Approximately four years later, in 1846, as a result of anti-African American riots, he left Indiana (with a $1,000.00 bounty on his
head) and moved to Detroit, Michigan where he worked with prominent black abolitionists in the Anti-Slavery Movement.
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Prominently connected to the movement, DeBaptiste was actively involved in the transporting of fugitive slaves to Canada. He was a
member of Second Baptist Church, the first African American Church in Michigan. In 1846, he opened the George DeBaptiste House
located on the Southwest corner of East Larned and Beaubien which aided fugitive slaves in reaching their destination - Canada.
George DeBaptiste died in Detroit, Michigan on February 22, 1875.
1842— Detroit Vigilance Committee
The Detroit Vigilance Committee (also known as The Colored Vigilance Committee of Detroit) was created for the aid and protection
of free and escaped enslaved people. The committee consisted of free Negro citizens organized by William Lambert (who became
Secretary) in 1842 and then headed by George DeBaptiste. The committee cared for runaways after they arrived on free soil, hid them
to prevent their recapture, and aided them on their way to Canada. Detroiters would board them for a few days, purchased clothing
and medicine for them, provided them with small sums of money, informed them of their legal rights, and gave them legal protection
from kidnappers. In addition, functioning as an ‘upperground railroad,’ the committee helped both enslaved and free establish
themselves in Detroit: it furnished letters of introduction, found jobs, and gave guidance and protection until the new citizens could
support themselves. In the absence of competing white abolitionist organizations, the totally Negro group maintained an independent
existence until the Civil War, reaching its peak in the mid-1850s. For example, in one two-week period in 1854, the committee gave
assistance to fifty-three freedom-bound blacks, a figure that grew to 1043 for the period from May 1, 1855, to January 1, 1856. The
society, according to Lambert, was so successful that in one year it transported 1600 fugitives to Canada.
1843— The State Convention of Colored Citizens
The State Convention of Colored Citizens convened in Detroit, Michigan on October 26-27, 1843 to advance abolition and Negro
rights in political and moral spheres. The Michigan State Convention of Colored Citizens was held following a national convention in
Buffalo, New York on August 15-19, where delegates met from across the country to discuss the means of achieving black civil rights.
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The discussion focused on various tactics to achieve this goal. Some leaders argued that that the United States Constitution guaranteed
inalienable rights for all citizens, and the best way to achieve full citizenship was to convince the masses that these inalienable rights
should be extended to blacks. They argued further that the best means to achieve full rights is through political action. Members of the
newly formed Liberty Party were the main promoters of political action as a tactic for rights. Others held firm to the Garrisonian
ideology, which believed that the Constitution was a proslavery document in its purest form; thus, equal rights cannot be achieved
until a constitutional revolution was actualized. The question of whether full citizenship should be achieved through militant means
also circulated the discussion. People on both sides of the Constitution debate entertained the idea of using violence as a means to
fulfilling citizen rights. The National Convention of Colored Citizens also intended to promote more traditional means of selfimprovement, like temperance, education, mechanical trade, abolition and morality. The Michigan delegates at this National
convention were William Monroe, Robert Banks, Richard Gordon, and William Lambert, who were elected by ballot to promote
“liberty, education and morals” at the national convention. While at the convention, William Monroe positioned himself as an ardent
supporter of aligning with the Liberty Party and the ideology of radical political action.
Following this convention, Rev. William C Monroe called Michigan business leaders and pastors to hold a State Convention on
October 27 and 28 of the same year at Second Baptist Church. The convention was officially titled “the State Convention of Colored
Citizens of the State of Michigan, held in the city of Detroit on the 26th and 27th Days of October 1843, for the Purposes of
Considering their Moral and Political Conditions as Citizens of the State.” Monroe appointed William Lambert to be chairman protempura of the convention. Twenty-one leaders across the state were invited to discuss the condition of blacks in Michigan. Ten of
these leaders served as delegates from counties across the state to reflect the small black communities located throughout. The eleven
other delegates were citizens of Detroit, reflecting the largest population of blacks in the city. In his leadership, Lambert focused on
promoting “Human Liberty and Equal Rights,” alongside the promotion of self-improvement that was outlined at the National
Convention:
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“We feel ourselves aggrieved, that we are deprived by injustice of those inalienable rights with which we are endowed by
the creator of the Universe, and incorporated and made sacred to every native born inhabitant of these United States, by
the Declaration of the American Independence.”
Following the convention, Michigan black leaders used all of the legal channels of political engagement in the state to obtain voting
and other withheld rights. One of their biggest campaigns was a petition in the Michigan legislature to abolish the legal distinction
between white and colored citizen, and extend this abolition to “all elective franchise irrespective of color or descent.” In response to
the petition, a joint resolution, called Report of the Selected Committee on the Amendment of the Constitution so as to Extend
Elective Franchise, was introduced in both houses, and referred to committees for report. Despite strong dissenting opinion from
Representative Austin Blair of Jackson, who believed in the petition’s core values, neither the house nor the senate approved the joint
resolution. The majority opinion believed, “Our government is formed by, for the benefit of, and to be controlled by the descendants
of European nations, as contradistinguished from all persons.” In fact, blacks did not gain full voting rights until the state’s adoption of
the Fifteenth Amendment on the United States Constitution.
William Lambert
William Lambert, African American abolitionist, activist, businessman, and one of the most active African American abolitionists in
Detroit, Michigan, was born in 1817 in Trenton, New Jersey to a free black woman and a father who was enslaved. Lambert received
his education in Quaker schools. Working on a steamboat, as a cabin boy, he arrived in Detroit, Michigan in 1838. Five years later he
attended the State Convention of Colored Citizens, an organization in which he served as its Chairman. Active in the Anti-Slavery
Movement, he served as secretary of the Detroit Vigilance Committee, coordinated its efforts of providing aid and protection to
fugitive slaves, maintained records of the hundreds of slaves it assisted, and personally participated in the rescue of several slaves.
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With other African Americans, Lambert created a secret society of African Americans (often referred to by different names: "African
American Mysteries" and "Order of the Men of Oppression"), which operated for more than a decade. The society, according to
Lambert, was so successful in one year it transported 1600 fugitives to Canada. Lambert was friends with many abolitionists including
Highland Garnet, and was trusted counselor to William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith and Wendell Phillips. He attended the 1858
meeting held by John Brown in Chatham, Ontario where Lambert was elected treasurer of the new government Brown intended to
establish following his raid on Harper's Ferry. Lambert was also in attendance at the Detroit meeting between Frederick Douglass and
John Brown at William Webb's home where Brown unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Douglass to join him in the raid. Although
Lambert did not join Brown, he contributed money for the raid. Lambert committed suicide in Detroit, Michigan in 1890.
Madison J. Lightfoot
Madison J. Lightfoot was born in the state of Virginia. However, he spent some time in Kentucky, which is where Thornton and
Ruthie Blackburn were from. At the time of his birth, Virginia was considered a slave state, so he was born a slave to the Lightfoot
family. In 1831, Madison married Tabitha Smith at St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church, which is the same year that the Blackburns
arrived in Detroit, Michigan. It is considered that Madison was very close to Thornton, which is why Thornton and Ruthie Blackburn
went to Detroit; because they knew that the Lightfoots lived there and could help them obtain their freedom. Church played a major
role in the lives of African Americans, whether free or still enslaved. The Lightfoots along with the Blackburns, Frenchs, and
Willoughbys attended the First Baptist Church. This church showed a lot of discrimination towards African Americans. They were
only allowed to sit in designated areas of the church and couldn’t hold any church offices. The Lightfoots, Frenchs, and Willoughbys
became the founders for Detroit’s first black institutions. So, in 1836 these three families along with other former slaves (thirteen in
total) decided to organize the Second Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan.
However, before the Second Baptist church was organized a serious matter occurred which is now considered “The Blackburn Case”.
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In 1833, Ruthie and Thornton were scheduled to return to their slave masters. It is documented that Caroline French, wife of George
French, changed clothes with Ruthie Blackburn to help her escape to Canada. Tabitha Lightfoot helped Ruthie out of jail and flee to
Canada. George French and Madison Lightfoot both knew what their wives were doing and knew the risks that were involved.
However the pros outweighed the cons. Thornton eventually escaped as well to meet his wife. Church services for the Second Baptist
Church was held at the French and Willoughby homes, due to the fact that the church didn’t have a permanent location. Madison J.
Lightfoot along with George W. French became the church’s first deacon and clerk. However, the Second Baptist Church became a
station for the Underground Railroad. This church alone helped over five thousand slaves escape to Canada.
Madison J. Lightfoot along with George W. French worked at Detroit’s Steamboat Hotel. Which was considered the “most celebrated
hostelry west of Buffalo.” This job probably helped them when they tried to help slaves escape to Canada, since the steamboats were
on the Detroit River. The only separation from Canada and Detroit was the Detroit River, which is a lot bigger than the Ohio River
that helped slaves escape from Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. Lightfoot was a very educated man. He served a
prominent role establishing a relationship between Michigan churches with Canadian churches. Especially since the churches in
Michigan helped prepare the slaves on their journey to freedom and the churches in Canada helped the freed slaves establish a new
life.bIn 1846, Madison J. Lightfoot became a part of the black congregation at Sandwich First Baptist Church, which is located in
Sandwich, Canada. Sandwich is now called Windsor. Before services would be held in different members homes. However, in 1847,
the congregation built a log cabin to use for services.
In 1853, Lightfoot was ordained as a minister. Nevertheless, when Madison Lightfoot became pastor of the Sandwich First Baptist
Church, the log cabin was still the place of service. However, shortly after he became pastor, Queen Victoria and the Crown granted
the congregation property, which is where the church still stands today. The congregation dedicated their new church on August 1851
in memory of the 18th anniversary of the British Emancipation Act. Madison J. Lightfoot dedicated his life to help serve his fellow
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African Americans.
1858— Lambert/DeBaptiste Secret Society
William Lambert and George DeBaptiste form a secret society to assist fugitive slaves along the Michigan Underground Railroad.
William Lambert and George DeBaptiste had by this time organized a secret society called by various names for the purpose of
assisting large numbers of freedom-seekers from the Ohio River to Canada. Lambert claimed that by 1859 the secret underground
organization could “put through an invoice of freight from the Ohio River to Lake Erie in 10 or 11 days.” Lambert also claimed that
in one year they liberated 1,600 people. Although the organization consisted primarily of African American men, there was likely
some overlap of the Detroit secret organization with John Brown’s. It was, perhaps, Brown’s knowledge of the Secret Order of
Mysteries learned from one of his inner circle, George R. Gill, that brought Brown to Detroit to meet with the Lambert and other black
leaders (Lumpkin)(Tucker).
1830— National Negro Convention
Black leaders organize to discuss the African American condition in America through the National Negro Convention, beginning an
era of improvement for the black community. On September 15th, 1830 forty blacks from nine states convened at the first National
Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Colour in Philadelphia. The convention, also known as the National Negro
Convention or the National Colored Convention, lasted for 10 days. From it emerged the American Society of Free People for
improving their condition in the United States; for purchasing lands; and for the establishment of a settlement in the providence of
Canada. Bishop Richard Allen was named the president. Hezekiel Grice was rumored to have conceived the idea of having a
convention in a letter he sent to several black leaders, asking the question of whether a mass exodus to Canada should be planned for
the black community. Although one of the main goals of the convention was to discuss a mass exodus to Canada, black leaders also
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found it necessary to discuss improving their lives in America for those who could not leave. This convention met periodically until
1864. From these subsequent meetings the American Society of Free persons of Labor was formed.
1831— New England Anti-Slavery Society/Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society
The Boston, Massachusetts-based New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEAS), founded in1831 by William Lloyd Garrison, supported
immediate abolition, viewing slavery as immoral and non-Christian. The Society, the first ‘immediatist’ society in the country,
sponsored lecturers or "agents" who traveled throughout the New England area, speaking in local churches or halls, and also selling
abolitionist tracts or Society’s newspaper, The Liberator. The Society also sponsored mass mobilizations such as yearly anti-slavery
conventions and celebrations of July 4th or the Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in the West Indies, August 1.Whenever
possible, the Society's agents would also encourage the formation of local anti-slavery societies. By 1833, the Society had merged
with the all-black Massachusetts General Colored Association, and there were 47 local societies in ten northern states, 33 of them in
New England. With the rise of other state societies in New England, the NEAS was no longer the only regional voice; as a result of its
success, it became an auxiliary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and Garrison and Arthur Tappan renamed it the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society in 1835.
1831— Nat Turner Uprising
1831 was a year to remember; the spiritual inspiration of one enslaved man Nat Turner resulted in the banning together of more than
forty African American slaves in one of North America’s most famous revolts. “The prophet” as his people saw him, was led by a
series of visions and signs which he believed were sent to him from the heavens (Nat Turner’s Rebellion 2010). The death of about 60
white people and nearly 200 black people was the result of Nat Turner’s Rebellion but the effects lived long after. Born October 2,
1800 just one week before the hanging of Gabriel Prosser (a slave who led the planned attempt to take over Richmond, Virginia), Nat
Turner was considered a prophet by other African Americans even in his youth (Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Africans 2010). As a child,
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he talked about events in great detail that had occurred before he was ever born. He spoke with such intelligence and insight that
people were led by him and believed that he was “intended for some great purpose”. Being a highly Spiritual man, Nat Turner, spent
his time fasting, praying and developing a spiritual connection with God, allowing the spirit to lead his actions (Nat Turner’s
Rebellion 2010).
After running away for 30 days in 1821 Nat Turner returned to his master, Samuel Turner, because the Spirit told him though a vision
to “return to the service of my earthly master” (Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Africans 2010). When his owner Samuel Turner passed; Nat
Turner was sold to Thomas Moore. Three years after being sold, Nat Turner saw lights in the sky and had another vision of drops of
blood on corn and hieroglyphics on leaves: He prayed for the meaning of these signs and visions. He had his third vision on May 12,
1828; this latest sign made it clear to Nat Turner that the visions meant that he should fight his oppressors. He recalled, “I heard a
loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the
yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching
when the first should be last and the last should be first…And by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me when I should
commerce the great work, and until the first sign appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the appearance of
the sign…I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons” (Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Africans 2010).
In 1830, Thomas Moore passed; Nat Turner was moved to the home of Joseph Travis the new husband of Thomas Moore’s widow.
Nat Turner described him as a kind master. An eclipse of the sun in February 1831 was Turner’s sign to fulfill the prophesy of his
uprising, so he confided his plans to Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam because he trusted them the most. Nat Turner’s final sign occurred
on August 13; there was an atmospheric disturbance that caused the sun to appear bluish-green. On August 21, Turner, his trusted
friends and two other slaves brought the plans to life. They set out to kill white people; the men, women and children that they came
across. They started with sparing a few because Turner believed the poor white inhabitants “thought no better of themselves then they
did of Negroes.” Nat Turner’s slave master, Joseph Travis and his family, were killed in their sleep. Using knives, axes, and hatchets,
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the men went house-to-house killing white people, sparing almost no one. As they killed each family, many of the family’s slaves
joined Nat Turner’s brigade. The brigade of insurgents grew to a group of about sixty slaves over a two-day period; the men of this
uprising were eventually defeated. As word of the slave revolt spread, uprisings throughout the south sprang up.
Nat Turner’s revolt caused many white people to become highly angered and afraid. A white militia group of about 80 white men and
three companies of artillery “joined by detachments of men from the USS Natchez and USS Warren were sent to bring down Nat
Turner and the other slaves. When the men scattered, some were killed, some were captured and many escaped including Nat Turner.
This revolt also caused nearly 200 African Americans to lose their lives, including slaves and free men. Violence against African
Americans continued for weeks after the revolt. It wasn’t until a couple months later, on October 30, that a white farmer named
Benjamin Phipps found Nat Turner. Then arrested Turner convicted and sentenced to death six days later. On November 11, he was
hung in Jerusalem, Virginia. Insight on Nat Turner’s story was revealed in the book, The Confessions of Nat Turner. Thomas Ruffin
Gray, his physician while he was imprisoned in the County Jail, wrote this book (Nat Turner’s Rebellion: Africans 2010). Killing
African Americans was not the only response to Nat Turner’s rebellion. Slave-holding states across the South enacted restrictive laws
that made it unlawful to teach slaves, free blacks or mulattos how to read or write. Due to paranoia of future uprisings White people
tried to maintain even more control over African Americans from holding religious meetings without the presence of a licensed white
minister. Illiteracy among slaves became widespread for decades after the 1831 rebellion; however, Nat Turner created a turning
point in the history of North American slavery.
Nat Turner
Nat Turner, slave revolt leader of the only effective large scale and sustained slave rebellion in United States history, was born
enslaved on October 2, 1800 in Southampton, Virginia. Turner, a mystical person, claimed to have visions; fellow slaves nicknamed
him "the Prophet". One of his master's sons taught Turner to read and write at an early age. Turner, as a young man, memorized the
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Bible and spent his time studying; as such he was, to a certain extent, a slave with privileges. He became a lay preacher and was
viewed by many local slaves as a leader. His visions led him to believe he was destined to free his fellow slaves. In 1831, he plotted
with fellow slaves to kill their white slave master, Joseph Travis, and his family. On August 21, 1831, after considerable planning,
Turner and his cohorts attacked and killed the Travis family as they slept. Turner and his fellow cohorts then went from house to
house killing white people and freeing the slaves. As they went from house to house, their numbers increased to approximately 70-75.
Turner's insurrection resulted in the deaths of more than 50 white people. His plot to kill the white citizenry and free the slaves failed
when 3,000 national and state militia were sent to quash the rebellion. Although Turner initially escaped, he was captured, convicted
and executed by hanging in Jerusalem County, Virginia on November 11, 1831. As a result of the insurrection, numerous repressive
slave laws were enacted; however, the rebellion acted as a catalyst for the abolition movement.
1833— American Anti-Slavery Society
The American Anti-Slavery Society, the most significant abolitionist organization, was founded in December 1833 in Adelphi Hall in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by white abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, and Arthur and Lewis Tappan.
The Society pledged to end slavery in the States by ‘moral suasion’ and adopted as its basic tenet that slavery was illegal, if not under
the United States Constitution, then as a violation of natural law. Its members were white and black and included former slaves such
as Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown, who were agents for the organization. As the main activist arm of the Abolition
Movement in the United States, it held meetings, signed anti-slavery petitions that were presented to Congress, published journals and
printed and distributed propaganda, and sent its agents to different parts of the country to deliver anti-slavery lectures. In five short
years, its membership grew to more than a quarter of a million people. Abolitionists soon came to disagree over the necessity of
violence, the position of women in the movement, and the role of politics and organized religion in the antislavery cause. The Society
played a key role in furthering the cause of the Anti-Slavery Movement in the years that preceded the Civil War. Its dissolution
occurred in 1870, five years after the Civil War ended and five years after the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery.
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Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass, African American abolitionist, lecturer and writer (born, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey,) was born
enslaved circa 1818, in Tuckahoe, Maryland in Talbot County. His mother, Harriet Bailey, from whom he was separated as an infant,
was a slave and his father, believed to be a white man, has not been identified. Before escaping from slavery in 1839, Douglass
learned to read and acquired skills by which he could earn a living and later became active in the Underground Railroad. In 1838, he
married Anna Murray, a free African American housekeeper and subsequently moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Following a
speech he gave in 1841 at an anti-slavery meeting in Massachusetts, he became, at the urging of William Lloyd Garrison, an antislavery lecturer. Fearful that because of his speaking notoriety his "master" would attempt to retrieve him, at the urging of fellow
abolitionists, he travelled to England for his safety. However, he returned in 1845 and purchased his freedom with monies from
financial contributors in England and the States. In 1847, Douglass co-founded the "North Star", an abolitionist weekly that he later
merged with fellow abolitionist, Gerrit Smith's "Liberty Party Paper" and formed the "Frederick Douglass Paper". In 1884, two years
after his wife passed, he married Helen Pitts, a white feminist. Frederick Douglass died in Washington, D.C. in 1895.
1833—The Blackburn Escape
In 1833, Ruthie and Thornton Blackburn, who lived in Detroit, were to be returned to their slaveholder in Kentucky when the
community of Detroit rose up and aided in their escape across the river to free Canada. Thornton and Ruthie Blackburn fled from
slavery in Kentucky and settled into Detroit, Michigan. Thornton found a job, and the Blackburns settled into a new home seemingly
leaving their past as slaves behind them. However, one day Thornton was walking down the street and ran into Thomas Rogers, a man
who Thornton worked with while a slave in Louisville, Kentucky. They talked and went their separate ways. Since Thornton had the
forged manumission papers declaring the Blackburns freed slaves, he was most likely unfazed by the run in. Thomas Rogers
eventually returned to Louisville where he made an official statement of seeing Thornton Blackburn in Detroit and finding out about
Ruthie. On hearing the statement, Thornton Blackburn’s previous owner John Pope Oldham and Ruthie’s previous owner Virgil
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McKnight sent the attorney Benjamin G. Weir to Detroit to find and bring back the Blackburns. With a statement in court that the
Blackburns were escaped slaves, a Detroit judge would have to send the Blackburns with the attorney back to their owners in
Kentucky according to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.
On Friday, June 14, 1833, almost two years after the Blackburns first arrived in Detroit, Weir and Talbot Clayton Oldham arrived in
Detroit. Talbot Clayton Oldham grew up with Thornton and would be able to identify him. They immediately went to Judge Henry
Chipman of the Wayne County Circuit Court to have the Blackburns arrested and returned to Kentucky. Sheriff John M. Wilson was
then sent to the Blackburns home where he arrested Thornton Blackburn and took him to jail to wait for his trial. Ruthie Blackburn
was arrested the following day on Saturday, June 15, 1833. Neither Weir nor Oldham recognized Ruthie, but Oldham made a
statement to the judge that when Thornton escaped from Louisville, he took with him a woman thought to have been McKnight’s
property. Because neither could identify her, Judge Chipman was apprehensive at first to have her arrested. He gave in on June 15
since all he needed to issue a warrant for her arrest was a sworn statement from a white man that she was a slave. The news of the
Blackburns’ arrests spread quickly through the Detroit African American community and many went to the courthouse to hear about
the case. People from the rural areas also came to hear how this case would be decided. The courtroom was packed and journalist’s
overheard people in the courthouse saying that they would burn Detroit to the ground if the court decided the Blackburns were to be
sent back to Kentucky. The Blackburns did not present documents proving their manumission, probably because they knew the forged
documents would not hold up in court, and their defense attorney Alexander D. Frazier did not have sufficient evidence to prove the
Blackburns were free.
Judge Chipman ordered Sheriff Wilson to turn the Blackburns over to Weir and Oldham. Wilson decided to keep the Blackburns in
jail until the boat to Ohio set sail on Monday, June 17 at 4pm for Louisville, Kentucky. The people of Detroit were enraged. The
blacks of Detroit and white sympathizers focused on freeing the Blackburns. On Saturday, Frazier visited the Blackburns
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individually. Saturday night, leaders of black Detroit and most likely whites, including Frazier and the publisher of the Detroit
Courier, Cleland, met at the house of Benjamin Willoughby. Sunday morning, June 16, armed men flooded around the jail and by the
docks in order to prevent the Blackburns from being taken. Later that same day, two well-respected black women, Mrs. Lightfoot and
Mrs. French, convinced Sheriff Wilson to allow them to visit Ruthie Blackburn in jail to pray with her and talk. In the late evening,
Mrs. Lightfoot and Mrs. French appeared to have left with their heads hung low in sorrow. On Monday morning, June 17, the jailer
realized that it was not Ruthie Blackburn in jail, but Mrs. French. Ruthie Blackburn left the jail disguised as Mrs. French the previous
night and escaped to Canada. Frazier would later admit to counseling Ruthie on escaping Detroit. However, Thornton was still in
jail.
The boat was supposed to set sail that afternoon and an angry mob gathered around the jail. Around 4pm, the sheriff, deputy, and jailer
surrounded Thornton to escort him from the jail door, down the stairs, and to the waiting carriage. Oldham watched and was armed
while Weir waited at the boat. The angry mob marched down the street and when Thornton went to address them to calm them, he
was tossed a gun, which he fired into the air. As the mob surged forward, Oldham, the jailer, and the deputy ran into the jail and
locked the door behind them leaving Sheriff Wilson out with the mob. Sheriff Wilson was hit on the head with a club and remained in
severe condition for a few days following. Thornton was rushed into a different carriage as the one originally waiting to take him to
the boat had been disabled. Thornton and seven other men were ushered to a boat whose boatman demanded additional pay for taking
fugitives across the Rouge River. One man gave the boatman his gold watch and Thornton and the others made it to Canada. They met
with Ruthie, who changed her name to Lucie, in Sandwich, Canada, where they were jailed once again. Their fate was again in
question while the Canadian government decided whether or not the Blackburns had to be extradited back to Michigan for inciting the
riot and causing the sheriff’s injury. The Mayor and Detroit City Council met and ordered that all of Detroit’s black residents be
imprisoned. Twenty-nine people were eventually tried in connection with the Blackburn escape and riots with eleven sentenced to jail
time. Though both blacks and whites participated in the escape and riots, only blacks were sentenced to jail time. Because of the
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Blackburn Riot of 1833, law enforcement was tightened, forcing the blacks in the city to follow restrictive codes set in place in 1827
and 1828.
1833— The Blackburn case in Sandwich
When the Blackburns made their escape across the river from Detroit to Canada, they were captured and put in jail in Sandwich while
the attorney general of the province made a decision on their extradition case, which he eventually denied and thus granted the
Blackburns their freedom. The Blackburns escaped from being sent back to Kentucky as slaves when they crossed the Detroit River
on June 17, 1833. The Blackburns and seven men with them entered into the city of Sandwich in Upper Canada, which was a common
entry point for fugitive slaves leaving the United States. Ruthie Blackburn took on the new name of Lucie Blackburn in honor of the
successful escape. However, they would still have a struggle to gain freedom even though they were now in Upper Canada, which was
a known safe haven for fugitive slaves.
The Mayor of Detroit, Marshall Chapin, sent a message to the Sheriff William Hands whose district included Sandwich. The message
asked for the arrest of the Blackburns and their friends for crimes committed in Detroit including the attempted murder of Sheriff John
Wilson who had been hurt during the escape. The letter did not mention that the Blackburns were fugitive slaves. Sheriff Hands
contacted Justice of the Peace François Bâby who contacted a local judge named George Jacob. Judge Jacob was reluctant to issue a
warrant for fear that the Blackburns were wanted for being escaped slaves and not just for the charges mentioned. Bâby convinced
Jacob to issue the warrant so that the government could make the decision on the extradition when it came. The next day, Talbot
Oldham, the son of the slaveholder claiming to own the Blackburns, demanded that the authorities release the Blackburns into his
custody. The Canadian authorities denied him. An additional visitor to the jail that day was Attorney Charles Cleland to offer his
advice and the advice of City Attorney for Detroit Alexander D. Frazier to the Canadian government for making their case in defense
of the Blackburns.
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Two Detroiters were trying to help out the Blackburns; one was the attorney who was in charge of prosecuting the other African
Americans who had helped in the Blackburn escape. These men, along with many others in Detroit, were outraged that the Michigan
government would enforce the Fugitive Slave Act allowing the slaves to be taken from a free state back to a slave state. The
Blackburns were some of the many fugitive slaves demanded by the United States to be returned from Upper Canada. Luckily, these
requests had been made and denied in the past. Since Upper Canada was a British colony, the stance of the government that “every
man is free who reaches British ground” had been upheld. The Lieutenant Governor at the time was Colborne, and he was firm in his
stance to send no fugitive slaves back to the US. Public opinion was on the side of the Blackburns in Sandwich and most likely in the
capital of Upper Canada, York. However, the appeal for extradition was not based solely on the Blackburns being slaves and
property.
The Acting Governor of the Michigan Territory, Stevens Mason, sent his own extradition request on June 21 that stated the
Blackburns and their friends had to be returned to the United States due to inciting a riot and attempting to kill the sheriff. However,
Mason did include documents showing the ownership of the Blackburns by their masters from Kentucky. The Attorney General of
Upper Canada Jameson was working on the extradition case in the capital York, but the Blackburns still needed their own local
attorneys in Sandwich. Unfortunately, the masters from Kentucky had put all the lawyers in the area on retainer so the Blackburns
were unable to seek their support.
On June 23, the attorney from Detroit, Cleland, wrote Judge Alexander Hewitt of the court in Sandwich and solicited his help.
Unfortunately, Hewitt had been hired by the slave holders as well and could not accept the case, but he was able to forward the case
on to Judge Jacob who then realized that Cleland and Frazier in Detroit were the only support available to the Blackburns, though they
were unable to work in the Upper Canadian courts since they were American lawyers. On June 25, Frazier and Cleland travelled to
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Sandwich and made affidavits to Judge Jacobs. They both spoke to the character of the Blackburns and how the white and black
communities had respected both of them for two years. Frazier also added that it was his opinion that the riots were not incited by the
Blackburns, cast doubt on the slave master’s claim to Ruthie since they were unable to identify her, and even admitted to giving her
advice after her escape from jail and before she crossed the river. Frazier also admitted to telling Thornton that Upper Canada was a
safe haven for fugitive slaves. He made the point that Ruthie could not have incited the riot since she had already crossed the river into
Upper Canada when it occurred. He added that Sheriff Wilson in Detroit had no right to imprison the Blackburns since according to
the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 the slaves had to be turned over to their masters or people acting on the slave master’s behalf. Lastly,
Frazier admitted that he believed the extradition request was solely in order to send the Blackburns back into slavery and that neither
would serve time in jail. Thornton himself would make a petition for his release and that of his wife. He too described the support of
the community of Detroit where he had worked two years previous. He also claimed to have been a freed slave with a copy of his
manumission, though most accounts point to these freedom papers as being forged. Other prominent officials and members of the
community signed their names in support of Thornton’s letter. Another letter of people who had helped rescue Thornton was sent to
Colborne and this provided additional information that there were whites that also aided in freeing Thornton.
The Upper Canadian government had to keep up its policy on helping fugitive slaves while upholding the extradition process that it
was working out with the US. In the end, the position of the Executive Council as written by Jameson was that the Blackburns crime
could not be considered a capital crime. Lucie was in Upper Canada when the riots took place and her escape could not be considered
capital crime. Thornton did not commit a capital crime in his escape either, so neither was required to be extradited under the Fugitive
Offenders Act. Both Blackburns were freed around July 22, 1833 along with the rest of those imprisoned with them. The Blackburns
then travelled to Amherstburg to reunite with friends and begin their new lives.
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Thornton Blackburn
Thornton Blackburn, a fugitive from slavery, fled from Kentucky to Detroit, Michigan, where antislavery activists helped him escape
slave catchers and cross into Canada, a country that allowed him and his wife, Lucie to live free in the city of Toronto for the rest of
their lives. Thornton Blackburn was born in Maysville, Kentucky, just across the border from the state of Ohio in 1812. He was born
to Sibby Blackburn and an unknown father, though due to his light skin, referred to as yellow in some documents, and light eyes, it is
suspected that Sibby’s slave owner, Robert Smith, may have been Thornton’s father. At the age of three, Thornton was sold and given
to George Morton Murphy, who was nine at the time, in Washington, Kentucky. When Sibby was granted a pass, she could travel the
eighteen miles to see Thornton and teach him what she knew such as African trickster tales and maybe religious faith. Luckily,
Thornton’s older brother Alfred had been sold into this same town and the two could support each other.
Enslaved blacks were worth a lot of money to their owners, and slave catchers were sent after them when they went missing. Because
of the brutal punishments for running away, it took a daring person to try and escape. Thornton was a companion to young Murphy.
He also learned how to take care of horses and carriages, a skill he would utilize later in life. When young Murphy died, Thornton was
twelve, and it is believed that Thornton was probably apprenticed to a local mason. In 1825, Thornton was sent to Hardinsburg in
central Kentucky. He was acquired at age thirteen by the Browns. The Browns got a carriage and team in 1827 that Thornton would
have helped to take care of. He would have also chopped wood, done heavy lifting, and possibly assisted Dr. Brown when he was
seeing his patients. In Dr. Brown’s will, he is said to have owed Thornton $6.00, which was most likely paid to Thornton for some
extra work he had done. He would have also helped out on the farm doing plowing, planting, and harvesting. Sometimes there were
dances with whiskey and music for the rural slaves, which Thornton most likely attended. When Dr. Brown died in 1829 and his
estate went to his wife, Thornton’s life changed.
Judge Oldham, who oversaw the Brown estate, found Thornton a job in Louisville where he would live behind the Oldham residence.
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Thornton was seventeen and would be hired out with the money he made supporting the widowed Susan Brown and her children. He
was hired out to be a porter for a dry-goods company on Main Street owned by Wurts and Reinhard. He began work Monday,
November 16, 1829 and drove the store’s wagon to pick up goods for sale when they were shipped in as well as drop off goods to
those who purchased them. Over the years, Thornton proved himself to Judge Oldham and to the owners of Wurts and Reinhard, and
he slowly gained some autonomy while working. In the spring of 1831, Thornton Blackburn fell in love with an enslaved woman
named Ruthie. It was around that time that Thornton would have approached Judge Oldham and even Susan Oldham to gain
permission to marry Ruthie. It is not known how long Ruthie and Thornton had known each other, and this was the first Oldham and
Thornton’s owner Brown were hearing of their relationship. When Thornton realized that he and Ruthie would be separated, he
planned their escape from slavery in Kentucky to the free North.
On July 3rd 1831, Thornton and his wife Ruthie (who would later change her name to Lucie) forged papers saying that they were free
and boarded a ferry in Louisville. They headed to Cincinnati on the boat Versailles to try and escape slavery by making it to the
North. Once in Cincinnati, they bought tickets for a stagecoach to Sandusky in northern Ohio and arrived July 6th. They transferred
stagecoaches to head to Detroit, Michigan, and started talking to James Slaughter a black man from Detroit. When they arrived in
Detroit that afternoon, they would stay with him, his wife, and four kids. Thornton had trained as a stonemason when he was a boy, so
he was able to attain a job working for stonemason Thomas Coquillard. Thornton started using the alias John Smith to try and keep
himself from being caught, though many knew his real name. He and Ruthie moved into their own place in September 1831. The
Blackburns were prominent in their community and would have attended First Baptist Church. In June 1833, Thornton and his wife
were imprisoned, and were to be sent back to Kentucky. With help from the black community, they escaped from prison, and made it
to Sandwich (now Windsor) in Canada. In Canada, they were again imprisoned as escaped slaves, but were freed on July 22, 1833.
Once free, they moved to Amherstberg for the year. In 1834, they moved to Toronto where Thornton’s brother Alfred was living. He
began working as a waiter in a dining room at the law courts. They saved enough money, began renting a double lot in Toronto’s east
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end, and eventually purchased the place in 1848.
In 1837, the Blackburns began the first cab business in Toronto. He gave the cab design to Paul Bishop who made Thornton’s first
cab. This cab was named “The City” and was painted yellow and red. It could hold four passengers. For a while, Thornton had a
monopoly on the cab business and others in Toronto often would recognize him as the man who took them to their wedding or other
important life events. In addition to the cab business, the Blackburns also had a garden, which they expanded to occupy them in
retirement. Thornton never forgot his years of slavery. He returned to Kentucky and rescued his mother. They made it back to
Toronto in 1840. He served on a committee in the 1850s to help fugitive slaves that were settling in the providence. The Blackburns
invested in property, including property that became a community for former slaves. He attended the Convention of Colored Freemen
in September 1851, and was one of the five black delegates from Toronto at the meeting. He would become vice president of the
Canadian Mill and Mercantile Association whose goal was to provide jobs for fugitive slaves entering Canada. Thornton continued to
work to help former slaves the rest of his life. On February 26, 1890, Thornton passed away at the age of 76.
Lucie Blackburn
Lucie Blackburn, a fugitive from slavery in Kentucky, fled to Detroit, Michigan, where black antislavery activists helped her escape
from jail and the slave catchers, removing her to Canada, where she lived the rest of her life with her husband Thornton in Toronto.
Lucie Blackburn, also known as Ruthie Blackburn, was enslaved in Louisville, Kentucky, to George and Charlotte Backus. She was
probably born around 1804. Her maiden name is unknown and her origins remain a mystery though she told a Detroit newspaper in
1833 that she was “full blooded Creole from the West Indies.” She was a light-skinned, attractive, mulatto woman, and she worked as
a nursemaid to the Backus children. The Backus’ had a two-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy. The Backus’ were in the dry-food
merchant business and would have worked with other local dry-food merchants, including Wurts and Reinhard where her future
husband, Thornton Blackburn, worked. Lucie lived four blocks from Thornton in Louisville, and in the spring of 1831, Thornton
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Blackburn approached his owners and requested that he and Ruthie be married.
In 1831, the Backus Company went broke, and when George Backus died, Ruthie was sold to Virgil McKnight for a low price of
$300. Virgil McKnight was known to sell his slave to the Deep South. When Thornton realized that he and Lucie could be separated,
he planned their escape from slavery in Kentucky to the free North. On July 3, 1831, Thornton and his wife Ruthie (who would later
change her name to Lucie) forged papers saying that they were free and boarded a ferry in Louisville. They headed to Cincinnati on
the boat Versailles to try and escape slavery by making it to the North. Once in Cincinnati, they bought tickets for a stagecoach to
Sandusky in northern Ohio and arrived July 6th. They transferred stagecoaches to head to Detroit, Michigan, and started talking to a
black man from Detroit, named James Slaughter. When they arrived in Detroit that afternoon, they would stay with him, his wife, and
four kids. Since woman were an important part of the family income, Ruthie may have worked locally making dresses or doing
laundry. Ruthie and Thornton would move into their own place in September 1831. The Blackburns were prominent in their
community and would have attended First Baptist Church.
In June 1833, Ruthie and her husband were imprisoned and were to be sent back to Kentucky. With the help of black Detroiters, they
escaped from prison, and made it to Sandwich (now Windsor) in Canada. Once on Canadian soil, Ruthie changed her name to Lucie in
honor of her new freedom. In Canada, they were again imprisoned because of their escape, but were eventually freed on July 22,
1833. Once free, they moved to Amherstburg for the year. In 1834, they moved to Toronto where Thornton’s brother Alfred was
living. In 1837, the Blackburns started the first cab business in Toronto. They saved enough money, began renting out a double lot in
Toronto’s east end, and eventually purchased the place in 1848. Although Lucie did not have children, she probably cared for her
mother-in-law as Thornton was busy with the businesses. She would have also helped Thornton in some of the managing of the
properties and running of the taxi business. The Blackburns also had a garden, which she would have tended. In 1860, they expanded
their garden to occupy them in retirement. When she was eighty-five, she started lending out money and owned six mortgages at her
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death. Thornton died in 1890, and two years later, Lucie sold the home that they had occupied since 1834 to the school board. She
moved into an investment property that the couple had owned. She shared this residence with two sisters. She would pass away in
1895 at an estimated age of ninety.
1835— Charles Merritt House, Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan
Charles Merritt (1820-1893) moved to Battle Creek, Michigan in 1835. He was an expert cultivator in strawberries, blackberries and
peaches and became a large distributor in the Detroit and Chicago markets. His home at 327 Capital Ave. NE, Battle Creek, Calhoun
County, Michigan, became a meeting ground for prominent anti-slavery advocates such as Wendall Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison,
Parker Pillsbury, Henry C. Stone, and Sojourner Truth. Merritt’s home was known as a local stop for Sojourner Truth to stay during
her trips through Michigan.
1835— Michigan State Constitution
During Michigan's first Constitutional Convention in 1835, delegates gathered to draft and propose to Congress a Constitution relative
to the admission of Michigan as a State of the Union. The decision to hold a Convention came in 1832 when the vote of a supermajority determined that Michigan would apply for admission to the Union as a State. In February 1834, the Legislative Council of
the Territory passed a bill to authorize the people to form a constitution and State Government. Just a short time after, the Convention
would be set to convene. On September 1 1834, Stephen T. Mason, Michigan’s first elected Governor, spoke before delegates
gathered in Detroit on the importance of becoming a state of the Union. In his speech, Mason reiterated that the policy of instituting
State Government was dependent essentially on the action of the Legislative Council and its delegates. He stated that “it had become
manifest, that as a Territory, Michigan had but little weight on the deliberations of Congress which were vital to Michigan’s
permanent political and territorial rights.” As a territory, Michigan did not have the authority to vote within the Congress of the Union,
which meant that it had only but a passive voice in the anti-slavery movement. Seeking statehood meant that Michigan could exert its
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political opinions in the Legislative body of the United States and could be a more powerful presence in the capacity of eliminating
slavery. It was with this that Mason urged delegates to cooperate in order to expediently adopt a Constitution.
The Constitutional Convention began on May 2nd, 1835 and came to a conclusion on September 30, 1836 with the final draft of the
constitution. In the preamble, delegates asserted that the time had arrived for self-government. They had assembled and mutually
agreed to form into a free and independent state, “The State of Michigan.” With that, the state government was established and its
constitution ordained that government.
The Constitution of 1835 is broken into 13 articles. The first article being the Bill of rights, which included:
1. Political power is inherent in the people
2. The right of the people to reform the government whenever public good requires it
3. No man or set of men shall be entitled to separate privileges
4. The right to religious freedom
5. Separation of the purse from religious activity
6. Rights of conscience
7. Freedom of speech and press
8. Freedom from search and seizure
9. Right to trial by jury
10. Right to a speedy and public trial
11. No person shall be held for a criminal offense without the indictment of a jury
12. No person shall be tried for the same crime twice, and is guaranteed the privilege of a writ of habeas corpus
13. The right to bear arms
14. Military power is subordinate to civil power
15. No soldier shall be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner
16. Treason is defined as levying war against the state, or aiding enemies
17. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed
18. Cruel and unjust punishments shall not be inflicted
19. Property cannot be taken for public use without compensation
20. Right to assemble and petition
21. Acts of the legislature contrary to the Constitution will be void
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Article 2 of the Constitution dealt with the electors of the state government. Qualifications of electors’ included, every white male
citizen over 21 years of age who had been a resident of the state for six months preceding an election. Electors were also exempt, in
most cases, from arrest and from military duty. Article 3 divided the powers of the government into the three branches, which echoed
the Federal government. Article 4 set the parameters of the legislative department, which was also based largely on the powers and
procedures enumerated in the United States Constitution. Article 5 dealt with the executive branch and Article 6 handled the judicial
branch of the State. Article 7 dealt with county officers and local government. Article 8 established precedence for impeachment and
removal from office. Article 9 settled the parameters of the Militia including its organization, discipline and appointment of officers.
Article 10 pertained to education and the superintendents of school districts, as well as funding for schools and the creation of public
libraries. Article 11 was one of the most important provisions of the constitution as it prohibited slavery or involuntary servitude
within the State of Michigan. And lastly, Articles 12 and 13 dealt with methods for amending the constitution and the affirmation of
state elected officials.
The United States Congress recognized the Constitution, in its entirety, on January 26, 1837 when Michigan was admitted as the 26th
state of the Union. It was an important step for the Nation, as Michigan – being a free state – then had the ability to vote and affect
policy in relation to slavery or the abolition of slavery, as it would soon fight for.
1836— Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society
Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society believed in the immediate end of slavery and the efficacy of moral persuasion as opposed to
violence or political maneuvering. The society was formed on November 10-11, 1836 with 75 delegates from around the state
gathered in Ann Arbor. Many sister anti-slavery societies had formed statewide in Michigan from the mid-1830s to the end of the
decade, and by November 1836, there were enough of these to form the state organization. Thomas Chandler (1773-1817) of Lenawee
County, Michigan, and brother to famed abolitionist Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (1807-1834), acted as an agent of the state or
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national organization; he was president of the Garrisonian-era Michigan Anti-Slavery Society multiple times. Daniel Smith of Raisin
Township was elected one of its vice-presidents in 1839, and a Dr. E. Webb of Lenawee was a vice-president that year.
1836— First Michigan Anti-Slavery Society Convention
The Michigan Anti-Slavery Convention, held in Ann Arbor in 1836, established Michigan’s first unified effort to abolish slavery in
the United States. Ann Arbor hosted the first meeting of the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society on November 10th and 11th in 1836.
The two-day convention took place at the First Presbyterian Church. In attendance were 75 anti-slavery activists from six counties.
Delegates from these six counties elected officials and adopted 14 resolutions denouncing slavery. This convention led to the
establishment of The American Freeman, the first Michigan anti-slavery newspaper. Publishing offices of The American Freeman
were located in Jackson, Michigan. This newspaper’s successor in 1841 is the well-preserved Signal of Liberty. The Signal of Liberty
ran out of Ann Arbor and began publishing in 1841.
Origins of the anti-slavery movement in Michigan actually started within the realms of female activists. Elizabeth Margaret Chandler
established the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society in October of 1832. Chandler’s female anti-slavery society preceded the Female
Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia of 1833, headed by Lucretia Mott. Chandler’s poems and verse empathizing with fugitives and
slaves were frequently published in The Genius of Universal Emancipation and The Liberator. Elizabeth Chandler’s brother, Thomas
Chandler, also played a key role in of Michigan’s abolition movement. Another member, Laura Haviland whom prescribed to the
Quaker ideologies of integration and race equalization, sought a more active role in the movement against slavery. Often her social
activism against slavery brought complaints from Quaker church members. Haviland grew up as a daughter of a Quaker minister and
consequently grew to hate slavery early in her life. Once living in Michigan, she devoted her life to aiding fugitives through the
Underground Railroad and educating children about the perils of slavery.
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Men too were involved for the cause against slavery in Michigan. Devoting their time and expenses, four auxiliary societies were
formed in Farmington, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Lenawee counties in 1836. Even though Michigan was not yet a state, in 1836
persons who believed in the immediate abolition of the evils of slavery attended an “Anti-Slavery State Convention”. Under the
guidance of Reverend John Beach, the founder of numerous churches throughout Washtenaw, the Michigan State Anti-Slavery society
formed. During the course of two days, the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society defined itself through the adoption of 14 resolutions,
the election of officers, and the idea to start a newspaper. Darius Comstock of Lenawee County was appointed chair of the society
whilst J.C. Burnell of Detroit served as the secretary. The two days convention elected eleven vice presidents to represent each of the
11 counties and established an executive committee. Nearly all the members of this regulatory branch of the society were deeply
involved in the Underground Railroad.
The group encouraged women to continue their work in their own separate groups. The Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society also
eagerly sought to spread their vision through newspaper to the greater public, thus setting newspaper production was a priority. The
convention established a Constitution of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society addressing the party’s organization and goals. The
constitution specified that any person not a slaveholder or who does not engage in slave trafficking may become a member of the
organization. In the beginnings, current or previous slave owners often held anti-slavery meetings. Within the Michigan State AntiSlavery Society however, times had shifted and current members were not allowed to have any associations with the slave economy.
The constitution stated that the society’s goal was entire abolition of slavery in the United States of America and the elevation of their
colored brethren as men. Different from pervious societies, the Michigan anti-slavery society took it one step beyond abolition and
sought equality amongst the races. Further stress was placed on the society to convince fellow citizens through arguments and the
sight of God. The religious, non-violent tone of the constitution parallels the earlier movement of moral suasion. Additionally, unlike
its mother party, the American Anti-Slavery society, which believed the United States Constitution sustained and supported the
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institution of slavery, the Michigan anti-slavery society still had faith in the United States electoral system. The beginnings of the
Liberty Party and its ideology are reminiscent of this thinking (Signal of Liberty).
At this point in Michigan anti-slavery history, the movement was dominated by white presences. No black members served in the
higher order branches. However, the augmentation and localization the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society spurred the formations of
new auxiliary movements around Michigan. In 1837, Shubael Conant served as president for the new Detroit Anti-Slavery Society
(Mull). The men representing this group served as powerful force in the anti-slavery movement and for the Liberty Party throughout
the 1800s. Additional anti-slavery auxiliary societies rapidly formed throughout Michigan. In the spring of 1838, nineteen local
societies had been recorded. By 1839, fifteen organizations alone were set in Lenawee County.
1836— Second Baptist Church
Church became the social life for many African Americans. Many of them attended the white First Baptist Church. Some of their
black congregants included the Blackburns (Thornton and Ruthie), the Frenchs (George and Caroline), the Lightfoots (Madison and
Tabitha), and the Benjamins (Willoughby, Deborah, Frances, and Julia). However, there was a lot of discrimination within the First
Baptist Church. Blacks were forced to sit in designated areas of the church and couldn’t hold office. These men and women looked for
a place to worship the Lord and help slaves escape to Canada. So, they decided to establish their own place of worship, which is
known as the Second Baptist Church. The Second Baptist Church has been and still is a religious safe haven for African Americans.
In 1836, thirteen men and women who were former slaves organized the Second Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan. At first only the
thirteen people who organized the Second Baptist Church left the white First Baptist Church. However, within a year all African
Americans repudiated their membership within the white church. Service was first held at the French and Willoughby homes before
the church constructed an actual building. In the early 19th century, Britain abolished slavery in its entire empire, so Canada became a
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safe haven for runaway slaves. This encouraged the congregation to help slaves escape to Canada. From 1836 to 1865, the Second
Baptist Church became a major stop in the Underground Railroad and helped more than five thousand slaves reach freedom. They
provided clothing, food, and shelter. This church ignored the Fugitive Slave Laws, by helping slaves escape and not returning them to
their masters.
Even though slavery was a major issue affecting the African American community, there were other issues that the church decided to
fight against as well. In 1839, Reverend William C. Monroe became the first pastor and helped organize Detroit’s first school for
black children. Also, George W. French and Madison J. Lightfoot became the church’s first deacon and clerk, which is something they
couldn’t obtain at the white First Baptist Church. In 1841, the church organized the Baptist Association for Colored People in
Amherstburg, Ontario. This was done to give the former slaves in Canada a place to worship and grow spiritually. However, in 1843,
the first State Convention of Colored Citizens petitioned for blacks to have the right to vote. Then in 1865, the Equal Rights League
established the second petition, but both petitions were denied. The church fought hard for equal rights for African Americans until the
end of the Civil war, which eventually led to the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th
amendment allowed African Americans to obtain citizenship, and the 15th amendment allowed black men the right to vote.
Nevertheless, the 15th amendment didn’t go into effect until 1870.
After the struggles to demand equal rights, the Second Baptist Church started to build its first church in 1852. The congregation was
comprised of influential people, such as Sojourner Truth, John Brown, Ralph Bunche, and many others. On March 12,1859, Frederick
Douglas preached at Second Baptist right before meeting John Brown on the corner of Congress and St. Antoine. The church also held
a public reading of the Emancipation Proclamation a little after September 20, 1863 when President Lincoln read his speech. Till this
day, the footmarks are still in the church to prove that the Emancipation Proclamation was read there.
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Many of the church’s members contributed to the black community. In the late 1860’s, Fannie Richards, a member of Second Baptist,
encouraged the Michigan Supreme Court to establish racially integrated public schools in Detroit. Due to the fact that many of
Detroit’s public schools at that time were segregated. In 1896, one of the members of the Second Baptist Church decided to do
missionary work in Africa. It is known that their first pastor, Rev. William Monroe, did missionary work in Liberia. In addition, in
1927, Ralph Bunche, who was baptized at Second Baptist, became the first African American to receive a Nobel Peace Prize.
However, in 1914, a terrible incident occurred; a fire destroyed the church. Nevertheless, it was rebuilt at the same site and additions
were made in 1926 and 1968. It has also been remodeled many times since then. Second Baptist Church has done a great job as
becoming a symbol for the African American community. It has influenced the creation of over 30 churches, by providing funds,
organizing, and operating through pastors, leaders, and congregation.
The Second Baptist Church of Detroit, Michigan is able to claim the title as the oldest African American church in Michigan. It is also
the oldest black church in the Midwest in the United States. As far as Detroit is concerned, it is the seventh major church formed and
the second Baptist church in the city. Nevertheless, it is still a functional church that provides tours of the Underground Railroad.
Today, Reverend Kevin M. Turman is the 23rd pastor of Second Baptist Church. He has been a Baptist pastor for 25 years and served
at the Second Baptist for 22 years. Nathaniel Leach, the first church historian, conducted the organization of historical records and
photographs. He was able to bring back the story of the Underground Railroad to a generation who forgot the seriousness of it. Now
the public is able to take a sixty-minute tour to experience the life of a slave escaping to freedom. The tours are conducted on
Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday by appointment. The times are 10am, 11:30 am and 1:30 am. There is no charge for the tour, but
donations are appreciated. Till this day, the Second Baptist Church is a safe haven for African Americans as well as an educational
institution to make an awareness of slavery.
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Reverend William C. Monroe
Reverend William C. Monroe was one of the most influential people in the black community. However, it is unclear whether or not he
was born a slave, but since thirteen former slaves organized the church, it is a possibility that he was one of the founders. Plus, since
the Second Baptist Church has been burned three times, many of their records were destroyed about the history of William C. Monroe.
However, on March 16, 1836 at the home of George W. French (339 Macomb St.), William Monroe was elected pastor of Second
Baptist Church. He was the first pastor of that church and served from April 1, 1836 to December 31, 1846. At this point in time, the
church was the people because it was run out of members of the congregation’s houses. On March 23, 1836, Monroe decided to set the
pattern for the Church’s Wednesday night business meetings to plan to build a building for the church. Nevertheless, the Germans
built the current building of the church in 1837. However, the church didn’t sign the papers for the building until 1857 and moved into
it in 1858. The location was only one problem that the church faced.
In 1836, William Monroe became the first (church) teacher for black children. Since, at that time many black children didn’t have a
proper place to learn at. On March 18, 1839, He called a special Monday night business meeting to accept the State’s required Articles
of incorporation. Monroe also called a meeting in Canada to organize the Amherstburg Baptist Association on October 8, 1841. At
times Deacon George W. French would serve as a moderator on his absence. Monroe founded the association and served it for 60
years (15 as moderator, 19 as clerk, and 4 as traveling home missionary). Reverend William Monroe became the first out of seven of
the church’s recognized station operators for the Underground Railroad. In 1840, Monroe helped eleven former slaves organize First
Baptist Church of Sandwich, which is the church that Madison J. Lightfoot became the first minister at. He also made the report to the
Amherstburg Association on the status of the Second Baptist Church Sunday school in 1843, which was the first Sunday school
among all churches. On June 27, 1843, Monroe hosted the Concerned Colored Citizens of Detroit in the basement of Second Baptist
Church. He was also elected delegate to the National Negro Convention in Buffalo in September of the same year. Shortly afterwards,
he presided over the First State Convention of Colored Citizens, which was held at Second Baptist to demand blacks the right to vote
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and put an end to slavery.
In 1845, Reverend William Monroe and other members of his congregation from Second Baptist Church decided to organize St.
Matthew’s Episcopal Church. On December 31, 1846, Monroe left Second Baptist and became St. Matthews’s first pastor in 1847.
Not only did Reverend Monroe become a minister at St. Matthews but he also became a teacher as well. As a result, St. Matthews
replaced Bethel as the most influential black church in the city of Detroit, which ranked it second to Second Baptist Church. It is now
the second oldest African American church in Detroit and the third oldest in Michigan. St. Cyprian’s Episcopal was eventually
organized from St. Matthews in 1936. In 1854, William Monroe became President of the Negro Colonization Convention in
Cleveland, Ohio and the chairman of the Abolition Convention called by John Brown. Monroe ended up leaving Detroit that same
year to do missionary work in Liberia and in Haiti. He ended up living his last days in Haiti trying to serve the black community
worldwide. Today, only the Second Baptist Church is downtown, Bethel is on Warren St., and St. Matthews ended up merging with
St. Joseph’s, located on Woodward and Holbrook. Second Baptist Church is now located on Monroe St, which is named after
Reverend William Monroe.
1836— The Michigan Anti-Slavery Society (MAS)
The Michigan Anti-Slavery Society had several goals on the agenda to abolish slavery: they sent lecturers throughout the state to
stump for abolition, assisted in organizing local anti-slavery organizations, and promoted MAS; educated the colored people, free and
enslaved; used petitions and moral suasion to immediately abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, throughout the United States
and its dependencies; and pressured Congress to reject annexation of the State of Texas to the Union. Seventy-five delegates organized
the MAS on November 10-11, 1836, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Originally, the Society opposed the formation of a separate abolitionist
political party; however, in summer 1840 control passed from the founders to a politically oriented group located in Southeast
Michigan. From 1841 to 1848, The Signal of Liberty was the organ of the Liberty Party of Michigan as well as of the MAS, both of
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which were under more or less identical leadership. MAS passed out of existence with the demise of the state Liberty Party and that of
The Signal of Liberty, which suspended publication on February 5, 1848. However, Dr. Woodland Owen (treasurer) and William
Lloyd Garrison revived MAS in 1853 by; and Thomas Chandler was elected its president. MAS was auxiliary to the American AntiSlavery Society and its business was carried out by its president, five vice presidents, a corresponding and a recording secretary, a
treasurer, and five at-large members. The Society re-formed from the State Central Anti-Slavery Committee convention of October
1852.
1837— Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women
Uniting some of the most powerful women of the time, the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was a momentous and
often under recognized turning point in American history. Prior to the meeting in 1837, social justice work done by women consisted
of individual efforts primarily through editorials, columns, and books. Elizabeth Margaret Chandler wrote an anti-slavery column in
Benjamin Lundy’s abolitionist newspaper, Genius of Universal Emancipation, as early as 1826. Francis Wright, originally from
Scotland, made her name known as an anti-slavery activist. Wright published A Plan for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in the
United States in 1825. In 1833, Lydia Maria Child published An Appeal in favor of that Class of Americans called Africans. The
Grimke sister, Angelina and Sarah, also published newspaper articles and books calling for the end of slavery in America. However, it
wasn’t until the 1837 convention that all these powerful individual women came together to exponentially increased their power as a
societal force of change. It was this multiracial convention of women that served as a platform for progressive thinking and change in
anti-slavery and women’s right’s movements.
In the past, women struggled to have their voices heard at anti-slavery meetings that included men. The 1837 convention directly
challenged racism, slavery, segregation, and sexism through the convention’s policies regarding membership. Women’s anti-slavery
organizations offered equal membership for both black and white women, thus directly rejecting American segregation and serving as
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an institutionalized challenge to the growing American racism. White women often grieved at the convention of the hardships they
endured from their sex, without realizing African American women face both sexism and racism. Although the minutes from this
meeting do not directly address the presence of black women, a member in attendance, Sarah Pugh recalls, “About one-tenth of our
number was colored. They did not take part in the general business, but when the subject of Colonization came up they spoke with
earnestness. They responded also upon prejudice against color.” Although a small step for equality, the participation of African
American women in the convention challenged everyday racism. Future black women abolitionists developed unique, cultural
adaptations of their own anti-slavery efforts due the racism in both society as a whole and even within some women’s organizations
(Yellin).
Important women figures, such as, Maria Stewart, Lucretia Mott, the Grimke sisters, Sarah Mapps Douglass, and Lydia Maria Child
took leadership roles at the convention. The ideology presented by these respected leaders emphasized political participation of
women in the fight against slavery and at times expressed a strong women’s rights activism. They formally addressed almost every
major theme concerning women’s rights that would be explored at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848.
Occasionally, dissent arouse in the convention for the ideology challenging women’s roles as mothers in society. Abby Cox, a
dissenter, suggested “mothers should lift up their hearts to God on behalf of the captive” and “guard the minds of their own children
from proslavery and prejudice.” A resolution was passed emphasizing both women’s roles as mothers and activists in society (Yellin).
One of the main desires for holding the 1837 convention was to heighten women’s activity in the political sphere of anti-slavery
movements. Leaders of the convention clearly stressed the importance of a higher circulation of anti-slavery petitions amongst women
sent to Congress. Women ingeniously used their traditional right to petition to gain leverage in the political sphere for both antislavery awareness and women’s rights. In 1836, the United States House of Representatives passed the Gag Rule, which rejected all
anti-slavery petitions reading them. Later that year Boston Anti-Slavery Women’s Society adopted an “Address to the Women of
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Massachusetts” to petition Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. A year later at the New York convention,
Angelina Grimke called for a resolution claiming it a duty of every American woman to annually petition Congress for the immediate
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, Florida territory, and the extermination of the inter-state slave trade. Lydia Maria
Child proposed a second resolution asking American women to petition to repeal the fugitive slave laws that helped slave masters
regain fugitives in free, northern territories. By the end of the convention, the women pledged to “rise to the call” and gather
signatures in their communities. Not only had the women at the convention cleverly and forcefully used the only leverage they had in
politics, but they had helped force the topic of abolition into the nation’s political agenda.
1838— Joseph Mallory
Joseph Mallory successfully traveled the Underground Railroad from Georgia to Canada, aided by agents within Indiana and
Michigan. Joseph Mallory escaped Georgia in March and traveled for six months to reach the free state of Indiana. Upon crossing the
Ohio River, into Indiana, he changed his name to Lewis Hill. Quakers helped him through Indiana, occasionally encountering trouble
from proslavery ruffians. After reaching Michigan he traveled from Josiah Osborn to Dr. Nathan Thomas to Elder William Taylor to
Amasa Gillet. Hill lived with Gillet for the winter and crossed over to Canada via the Detroit River (Mull 46).
1839— The Amistad Revolt
The Amistad Revolt marks one of the few acts of violent resistance that resulted in freedom for slaves in the United States. On July 1st,
on a journey from Havana to Puerto Principe, Cuba, Joseph Cinque, a kidnapped African from Sierra Leone, and a group of captives
overtook the Amistad, killing Captain Ferrer and the cook. Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montez secretly steered the vessel to the
United States and after 63 days of sailing were picked up by the USS Washington. The ship docked in New London, Connecticut.
Soon followed the Supreme Court Case where John Quincy Adams represented the enslaved Africans, who were acquitted and sent
back to Africa (Stewart 26) (Hine 2008).
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1840’s— The McKinseyites
The first southern agents of the underground railway system of Detroit, the McKinseyites were a gang of some sixty or seventy rough
mercenaries, whose slave stealing services reluctantly were utilized for a time by the Railroad, beginning around the late 1830s and
early 1840s. The gang began as followers of a man named Mackenzie who had led a rebellion in Canada. William Lambert of Detroit
reported that these unscrupulous white men, the terror of the southwestern states, had no permanent homes and robbed and pillaged
wherever they could with safety. They would rove the countryside, elicit the permission from a slave that they could steal him or her
away, and then help that freedom seeker to run away, hidden in the McKinseyite’s false-bottom peddler’s wagon that could hold three
men; at the peak of the McKinseyite activity, there were more than sixty tin-peddling wagons traveling throughout the south.
Traveling at night or if in daytime with the peddling wagons, the thief would sell the captive in another town, pocketing the money
and then once again steal the man or woman from his or her new master, braving the risk of getting caught twice. Only after making
his money from the sale of the captive would the mercenary place the freedom seeker in the hands of the Underground Railroad
operatives on the line of the Ohio River. William Lambert related that the McKinseyite – Underground Railroad association was
necessarily short-lived, as gang members that were caught and arrested after some more daring robbery than usual brought some of
them to prison and dispersed the rest.
1840— American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS)
The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS), founded in 1840 primarily by the brothers Lewis and Arthur Tappan, was
an anti-slavery movement organization that resulted from an ideological schism in the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), from
which both organizations never fully recovered. Roots of the schism reached back to “clerical appeals” in 1837 that sanctioned
William Lloyd Garrison and his followers, mainly for denouncing the moral authority of the Christian church and its leaders and for
encouraging women to address public audiences. The AFASS, mostly clergymen, vigorously pursued church-focused activism of
congregations; published the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter, the Liberty Almanac, and many pamphlets; recruited
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prominent church members to critique the conservative nature of churches' opposition to the practice of slavery and to write articles
for local newspapers; and sponsored speeches by prominent abolitionists. The AFASS also tried to orchestrate international fraternity
with Christian anti-slavery organizations in Canada and Britain. However, the AFASS had difficulty generating enthusiasm and funds;
this seriously hampered international and local lecture activity, forcing the organization to hold few national events. Later, the
organization gradually turned to politics as a tool with which to fight slavery, endorsing the Liberty Party until it folded in the late
1840s. In 1855, Frederick Douglass, nominally associated with the AFASS, rebuked the organization for failing to have a single
lecturer in the field; due to financial difficulties, weak support, and too many objectives, the AFASS faded from sight. Many of its
prominent members subsequently joined the American Abolitionist Society.
1842— Pennsylvania v. Prigg
Pennsylvania v. Prigg was a case heard before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1842, where the conviction of Edward Prigg
was overturned; Pennsylvania law was held as unconstitutional in its denial of slaveholders to recover their slaves under the Fugitive
Slave Law of 1793; and Federal Law was deemed superior to State Law via the Supremacy Clause. In 1837 Edward Prigg was hired to
return to Maryland, a slave woman who had escaped into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He applied for a certificate of removal
under the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and under Pennsylvania's 1826 personal liberty law. He was refused the request. On
April 1st, 1837, without legal consent, Edward Prigg, with Nathan Bemis, Jacob Forward and Stephen Lewis tried to forcibly take the
woman away from her home and return her to her slaveholder. The woman, Margaret Morgan was violently assaulted by the group of
men, and forcibly removed to Maryland with her children, including one conceived and born in Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter,
Edward Prigg was put on trial by the Common Wealth of Pennsylvania because of his actions against Morgan. Prigg, the defendant
pleaded not guilty. On May 22nd, 1839 the jury reached a verdict citing Pennsylvania’s act to abolish slavery in its decision. The jury
claimed that Morgan had in fact escaped slavery in Maryland and that Prigg had duly been hired by her slave-owner to recapture
Morgan, but that this was in contradiction with Pennsylvania law. It cited the March 1826 Act for the protection of people of color and
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the prevention of kidnapping in its verdict. The decision of the court was to convict Prigg. Shortly after the decision of the trial court
however, Prigg’s attorneys’ submitted a writ of error to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. On May 23rd, 1840 the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania affirmed the decision of the trial court.
The case was then brought before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1841 and was decided on March 1, 1842. The justices of
the court decided with a vote of 8 to 1. Speaking for the court was Justice Joseph Story. The Supreme Court affirmed, on a writ of
error, that Pennsylvania statue was unconstitutional and void. It stated that Pennsylvania’s personal liberty law unconstitutionally
added greater requirements to the rendition process and that under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, slaveholders were implied the right
to recapture their slaves. Maryland allowed the slaveholder to recapture their slave, and no other state’s law could regulate or restrain
the slaveholder’s property rights. This was the basis of legal reasoning in the decision that Pennsylvania’s ‘protection of colored
people and prevention of kidnapping’ act, was in fact unconstitutional. The court further held that ‘the right to seize and retake
fugitive slaves, and the duty to deliver them in whatever state they were found, and the corresponding power in Congress to use the
appropriate means to enforce the right and duty, derived their validity and obligation exclusively from the US Constitution.’ It
affirmed that in the absence of any positive delegation of power to the state legislatures, the power to enforce the right belonged to
Congress. Even though Justice Story ruled that the Pennsylvania laws were unconstitutional, his opinion did open the door for further
action by the state. His opinion stated that when dealing with fugitive slaves, state officials could exercise authority in aid of the
recapture ‘unless prohibited by state legislation.’ Pennsylvania took the phrase and did what Story suggested – they prohibited state
officials from interfering with runaway slaves in any capacity. This way, the Fugitive Slave Act still stood, but only federal officers
could enforce it. By discouraging the cooperation of states in returning fugitives the Prigg decision made necessary the more brutal
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
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1844— First Congregational Church of Detroit
An advocate of the anti-slavery movement, the First Congregational Church of Detroit served as a terminal of the Underground
Railroad, according to its records. The First Congregational Society established the church on December 25, 1844. The society erected
its first building, a wooden structure, which it soon outgrew. The church members dedicated a second wooden structure in 1854 and
used its basement as a hiding place for fugitive slaves hoping to cross the Detroit River to freedom in Canada. These first two church
buildings were near the Detroit River, with the second one located at Fort Street and Wayne (now Washington) Boulevard. The church
moved to its present Detroit site at the corner of Woodward and Forest Avenue in 1891.
1847— Southwestern Michigan: Marshall, an Antislavery Community
Kentucky slave raiders often developed capricious ruses to locate and retrieve black people that had escaped slavery and found shelter
among free blacks and white antislavery supporters living in southwestern Michigan. In January 1847, a young man calling himself
Carpenter traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan. He presented himself as a law student from Worcester County, Massachusetts, the home
of some of the country’s leading abolitionists. Declaring that he opposed slavery, Carpenter gained the trust of Attorney Charles E.
Stuart, and spent time studying in his law offices. Thus, Carpenter learned the locations of the fugitive slaves in the area. He moved
from Kalamazoo on to Cass County and Calhoun County, where he pretended to represent an antislavery newspaper in back East. This
deception helped him gain entrance into the homes of blacks, Quakers, and others. Carpenter provided this information to the
Kentucky slave hunters, who soon appeared in Marshall, Michigan, at the home of Adam and Sarah Crosswhite, demanding that they
surrender their children. The couple refused. A single shot aroused the family’s neighbors who came to their rescue. Crosswhite
charged the hunters with assault, battery, and burglary, and the raiders were arrested. Meanwhile, the Crosswhites escaped to Canada
by way of Detroit and the Underground Railroad.
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1847— The Crosswhite Family Escape
The Crosswhite family escaped to Canada through the help of the Michigan Underground Railroad and citizens of Marshall. David
Giltner, Franklin Ford, John S. Lee and Francis Troutman, all slave catchers, arrived in Michigan to apprehend the Crosswhite family.
To protect the family the Marshall community, known as “Nigger Town”, of white and black abolitionists gathered around the
Crosswhite home, preventing the slave catchers from arresting them. Adam Crosswhite was encouraged to press charges against the
Kentuckians for assault and battery and breaking and entering. While the Kentuckians remained under arrest, the Crosswhites were
smuggled out of Marshall to Jackson where they left by train for Detroit and then Canada; the Crosswhites returned to Marshall after
emancipation. The slave owners later sued the aiding families for the loss of “property” (Hine 2008).
Adam Crosswhite (No Image)
Adam Crosswhite, born, circa 1800, was a fugitive slave whose attempted capture by slave hunters led to the enactment of the
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In 1843 -1844, Crosswhite and his wife Sarah (DOB circa 1796,) with their four children, escaped from
slavery in Kentucky using the Underground Railroad. They made their way to Marshall, Michigan where they became residents in a
community of approximately 200 people, of which 50 were African Americans. The African Americans residing in Marshall, were
either fugitive slaves like the Crosswhites or were free born. Approximately three years later, the Crosswhite's slave owner, Francis
Giltner and four other individuals, including Giltner's nephew Francis Troutman, broke into the Crosswhite's home while they were
sleeping and attempted to capture them. However, the townspeople having been alerted came to their rescue; Giltner and his four
cohorts were captured, charged with breaking and entering and assault and battery. During the course of the two-day trial, the
Crosswhites escaped via the Detroit Underground Railroad and made their way to Canada. Subsequently, Giltner sued the
participating citizens who had come to the Crosswhites' aid. Incidents similar to the Crosswhite incident in other areas of the States
led to the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Eventually, the Crosswhites returned to Marshall, Michigan. Adam
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Crosswhite died in 1878.
1847— Southwestern Michigan: An Antislavery Quaker Community in Battle Creek
In 1847, the task of washing clothes was so laborious that even the concept of a washing machine caused the otherwise cautious
people of Battle Creek, Michigan, to drop their guard when devious Kentucky slave hunters arrived pretending to be door-to-door
salesmen of such a device, while they secretly identified the locations of fugitive from slavery. The slave-catching posse planned to
make Battle Creek its head quarters. The City sat on the junction of two Underground Railroad routes. From there the posse would
spread out and strike the farms of Quakers who were harboring fugitive slaves. The plan, however, was flawed from the beginning.
The Kentuckians had chosen the wrong city at the wrong time, and eventually ran into the wrong people. A recent failed attempt
by slave raiders trying to catch the Adam and Sarah Crosswhite family in Marshall, Michigan, caused antislavery activists such as
Erastus Hussey to become suspicious of the group. Hussey and other antislavery activists in the community the slave hunters, and
warned them to leave Michigan.
Erastus Hussey (No Image)
Erastus Hussey, abolitionist, stationmaster and conductor on the Underground Railroad, was born in 1800 in New York State. A
Quaker and member of the Religious Society of Friends, Hussey came to Michigan in 1824 with his wife, Sarah whom he married in
1827. They returned to New York and subsequently moved to Battle Creek, Michigan in 1839 where he opened a dry goods store. In
1840 Hussey became actively involved in the Underground Railroad and assisted more than 1,000 fugitive slaves in their quest for
freedom. He secreted, transported, and fed the fugitive slaves. During the "Kentucky Raid" in Cass County, the Husseys provided
valuable assistance to approximately 45 fugitive slaves to avoid recapture by slave raiders that had invaded the community. In 1855,
along with other state senators, Hussey introduced Public Act 162, the Personal Freedom's Act. The Act restricted the legal actions of
individuals that claimed ownership of African Americans who lived in the State of Michigan by preventing both state and local
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officials from cooperating with agents of slavery, by instituting fines and jail time for individuals attempting to capture those African
Americans and by providing legal assistance to African Americans accused of escaping from slavery. Erastus Hussey died on January
29, 1899.
1847— The Kentucky Raid
The Kentucky Raid, in Cass County, Michigan, brought national focus to the Underground Railroad, creating fear, and encouraging
Congress to pass the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. In August, twenty-two Kentuckians invaded Cass County, Michigan and launched a
surprise attack on multiple cabins where African Americans who had liberated themselves from slavery in Boone and Kenton
Counties, Kentucky had settled. The Kentuckians succeeded in rounding up 9 African American men and women, but local black and
white residents gathered to prevent the raiders from leaving the vicinity. Quakers prevailed on the raiders and the crowd, discouraging
violence and appealing to the raiders to prove their property claims at the Cass County courthouse; at the Courthouse African
Americans testified against the Kentuckians and the raiders were charged with assault and battery and invading private dwellings. In
the legal proceedings over the next few days, the captured African Americans were released and they and their families left Cass
County escorted by Underground Railroad men. None of the African Americans were ever apprehended and the Kentuckians finally
went home empty-handed to lead public protests against the “scoundrels” in Cass County. The Kentuckians’ protests went from the
Kentucky legislature to the United States Congress and provided momentum for passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.
1847—Southwestern Michigan: A United Community in Calvin Township Foils Kentucky Slave Raiders
Kentucky slave raiders tenaciously sought to retrieve freedom seekers from southwestern Michigan, an area where communities
of free blacks, Quakers, and other sympathetic whites were known to harbor and protect fugitives from slavery. A group of Kentucky
raiders, led by John Leathers Graves, planned to attack farms owned by Stephen Bogue, Zachariah Shugart, and Josiah Osborn. On
August 16 the group of heavily armed men crossed into Cass County. Equipped with two-horse wagons, in which they planned to
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transport captured fugitive slaves, the raiders waited near Shavehead Lake in Calvin Township, where freedmen and fugitives were
located. The raiders first attacked the home of escapees living on the Osborn farm, capturing five men. Osborn sent messengers for
help, and a large group, including free blacks, gathered at his house. At the Shugart farm, one woman escaped the raiders and aroused
the Shugart family. As the slave hunters continued their raid, more antislavery activists gathered. By the end of the night, the pistol
and knife toting slave raiders found themselves surrounded by two hundred or three hundred black and white residents armed with
hickory clubs, scythes and other farm implements. To avoid impending violence, the Quakers convinced the Kentuckians to surrender
themselves and their captives to the courts in Cassopolis, the county seat. Unknown to the Kentucky raiders, Ebenezer McIlvaine, an
Underground Railroad agent, would preside over their case. He allowed blacks to testify, and found the raiders guilty of attempted
kidnapping, assault, and battery.
1848— The Pearl Incident
The Pearl Incident assisted the Abolitionist movement by encouraging abolitionists to actively free those enslaved by force and
overpower the Southern agenda. On April 13th to 15th, the Pearl traveled along the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. to
Philadelphia with 77 enslaved aboard. The crew of the ship included Edward Sayres, Chester English and Daniel Drayton, who funded
the escape. Daniel Bell, a free black also funded a portion of the trip to allow his wife and children a place aboard. Emily and Mary
Edmonson were two sisters aboard, who would later participate in the Great Fugitive Slave Law Convention in 1850. On April 16th the
Pearl was overturned by the steamer Salem and forced to sail back to Washington, D.C. Upon their arrival a pro-slavery riot broke out
at the New National Era Early and lasted for 3 days. Drayton and Sayres were convicted of unlawfully transporting slaves and were
jailed until they received presidential pardon in 1852. The Edmonson sisters and a few others were freed through purchase, but many
were sold back into slavery. Frederick Douglass predicted, in an issue of the North Star, that the proslavery reaction to the Pearl
Incident would encourage the work of the Anti-slavery movement (Stanley Harrold | Jan 1, 2008). Gerrit Smith encouraged escapes of
this kind and for Northern abolitionist to not only participate in these escapes, but to use them as a fear tactic. At the National Colored
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Convention in September 1848 Gerrit Smith called for his fellow abolitionists to assist escapes as a means of putting fear into the
South (Harrold 120).
1848— Giltner v. Gorham
Giltner v. Gorham was heard before the Circuit Court of Michigan in June 1848, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, after a
slaveholder from Kentucky made claim to recover the value of six fugitive slaves that had escaped to Michigan. The case of Giltner v.
Gorham was heard before a Michigan Circuit Court in June 1848. The plaintiff, a slaveholder from Kentucky, filed a suit against the
defendants, to recover the value of six fugitive slaves who had escaped to Michigan three years previously. Precedence for the suit
came under the fourth section of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which applied “when any person ‘knowingly and willfully’ hinders
an arrest of fugitives, or rescues them after they have been arrested.” Additionally the act created a legal mechanism to accomplish
what was already outlined in Article 4 of the United States Constitution – that the slaveholder was guaranteed rights to recover an
escaped slave. The Fugitive Slave Act claimed every slave a fugitive for life, and made it a criminal offense to help a fugitive slave
escape. A state or individual could demand the return of escaped slaves, no matter the territory – free or otherwise. Giltner v. Gorham
applied explicitly to section 4 of the Act, and the defendants in the case were charged in violation of the provisions of section four.
The defendants, seven in all, were charged with two counts of hindering arrest and two counts of rescuing slaves after an arrest was
made.
Charles Gorham and the other six defendants had first come into contact with the plaintiff, David Giltner, in the fall of 1846. Giltner
had sent his grandson, Francis Troutman, to recover the six slaves who had escaped and were said to be residents of Marshall,
Michigan. The slaves, the Crosswhite Family, had escaped from Carroll County, Kentucky in August 1843. In December 1846,
Francis Troutman arrived in Michigan and found it true that the slaves were residing in Marshall, and then called for the plaintiff to
send aid. David Giltner arrived in January 1847 and sought the help of the deputy sheriff before proceeding to the house of the
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Crosswhite family. Shortly after descending upon the house, a public spectacle grew outside of the house. Charles Gorham, speaking
for the mass, demanded Giltner to leave. The plaintiff claimed the right to the slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act. The defendants
however, stated that ‘these Kentucky gentleman, if such they be called, leave here in two hours or we will take them with a warrant for
trespass or housebreaking.” The deputy sheriff who had accompanied the plaintiff refused to follow through with an arrest warrant, for
fear of public outrage. Approximately two hours later the plaintiff was detained, charged and held overnight for trespass. The next
morning, upon release, he discovered that the Crosswhite family had escaped to Canada.
Over the course of the trial, twenty-four witnesses were examined, and all corroborated much of the same story. Given the facts there
seemed to be no doubt of the right of Giltner to the services of the fugitives. There was no disputed contradiction that the slaves had
been arrested and then rescued from the plaintiff’s control. The rescue was not only clearly proved, but admitted. As an arrest was
initially made, the two counts against hindering an arrest were dropped, but the charges against rescuing a slave after an arrest was
made, were fully triable. The task of the Jury was thus to determine if the defendants were guilty and if so, what amount of damages
the plaintiff was entitled to. Congress, for a rescue and hindrance on arrest of fugitives, set a penalty of five hundred dollars, and
allowed individual parties to determine the value of damages. Giltner claimed the value of the slaves to be 2,752 dollars. At the
conclusion of court proceedings, the jury was sent to deliberate the fate of all seven defendants. The jury remained sequestered all
night and returned at the opening of court the next day, and declared that they could not agree. The jury was declared hung and
discharged. In a succeeding term however, a verdict was given for the plaintiff for the value of his lost slaves.
1849— The Elgin Settlement
The Elgin Settlement, constructed by Reverend William King and his former slaves, created a safe haven for fugitive slaves and
contributed to the Anti-slavery movement in Canada. Rev. William King, an Irish potato farmer and Presbyterian Minister, along with
15 of his former slaves established the Elgin settlement in Kent County, now North Buxton, Ontario, Canada. Rev. King wanted to
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free his slaves, which he acquired through marriage, because he felt it was a sin to enslave people. When Britain emancipated all of
their foreign colonies and Canada became a free country, Rev. King decided to take the advice of a fellow abolitionist, Chalmers and
create, the “City of God,” a free black community. He felt that he must do more than just free his slaves, but also teach them to
support themselves (Tobin 119). In the process of creating this settlement the Elgin Association was born. Land was sold for $2.50 per
acre and required a down payment of $12.50 within the first year. Settlers were required to build housing at specified standards,
including a garden (Tobin 123). They built houses and farmed corn, wheat, tobacco, hemp, and maple sugar (DeRamus). King
developed these rules for settlers, no liquor allowed on the settlement, land could only be sold to blacks and had to remain in their
hands for ten years, land had to be purchased not leased, each house had to be built at least 24x18x12 feet with a porch across the
front. Each house had to be built 33 feet from the road, with a picket fence and developed garden in front; prizes were given for the
most attractive home (made from the logs cut down from the thick bush surrounding the area). These strict rules made it a prosperous
settlement in a logging and farming community with an incentive for people to stay there for decades. The Buxton settlement began
their own missionary schools and soon became one of the first integrated schools in North America because their education was better
than other schools in the area. In 5 years, forty-five families lived at the Elgin settlement, making it the most successful free black
settlement pre-Civil War (Tobin 124). This settlement was the most successful settlement in Canada because of the strict rules
allocated to residents of the land, and the proximity to the United States border. This settlement was one of the only settlements that
still exist today.
1850— The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, strengthened the rights of the slave owner and caused a mass exodus of free blacks and slaves on the
Underground Railroad. After impassioned debates on the Senate floor, Congress, with the help of Henry Clay, passed the second
Fugitive Slave Act. The law was made to strengthen the earlier Law from 1793, which Northern Abolitionists actively disregarded. It
established the following: State appointed commissioners could now quickly process fugitives, runaway slaves could not testify, U.S.
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Marshalls were fined $1,000 if they refused to aid a slave master, and citizens that refused would also be fined or arrested (Hansen
39). The law also allowed California to enter the union as a free state and eliminated the slave trade in Washington, D.C. By
increasing the rights of the slave owners in retrieving runaways, this law precipitated a mass exodus of African Americans to Canada
from cities throughout the north. Frederick Douglass called it the “Bloodhound Bill” (Tucker) (Blight).
1850— Northern Maroon communities
Though fugitive slave communities in the north were living in a freer society than runaway slaves in the South, the communities still
operated in a similar way to the maroon communities of the South. These communities were made up of fugitive slaves, but also
included free people, and the black settlements were on the outskirts of major cities. Thus, fugitive slave societies in the North can be
considered maroon communities as well since they were not integrated with society and due to the Fugitive Slave Act, the fugitive
slaves could be captured and sent back South to slavery. In the 1850s, a survey of the cities in the north showed that large numbers of
the Blacks in the North had themselves come from slavery in the South, whether by manumission of some sort or escape. One study
between 1850 and 1860 of Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago, Buffalo, and Boston found that two-thirds of those surveyed said that they
had been born in the South. Thus, many still had a taste of slavery and continued to interact with the slave world in the same way as
the maroons of the south.
Black communities did not live segregated from society, however they often set up communities and enclaves separate from others.
Their houses would be grouped in a section from a few houses to hundreds living in the same area. They were often on the outskirts
or the poor and working-class parts of cities. In rural areas, the settlements stuck out more among the sparse living in the countryside.
The enclaves were important for supporting each other in the community and forming links between communities of one city and
communities in another. They could also help keep people in contact with those who remained in slavery. By pooling the resources of
the whole community, the northern maroons thrived in their enclaves. In addition to providing a support network among themselves,
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the northern maroons were able to help those making an escape and provided a destination or stop along the way. This way the
fugitive slaves were not fleeing generally north, but to a specified destination where they could become a part of the community too.
Many of the others in the community had their own trials coming north, so they were able to help out the fugitive slaves with housing
and becoming integrated into the new city.
The northern maroons had their own unique culture as well. The enclave was not only distinct from the rest of the city by location, but
also it was distinct from the rest of the city in institutions, culture, social structure, and leadership. The enclave would have leadership
in those families that had been living longer in the North. These families would probably have had educated members and acquired
property over the years. Social hierarchies would revolve around the type of job, education level, and amount of property. The
community would revolve around churches and other societies that were well established. These communities were not always in
agreement on how to pursue the free life in the North and how to relate to slavery in the South. However, the communities were close
knit and worked together to serve each other.
Despite seeming like a permanent community within the cities themselves, they were often under attack from different sources. The
US was still a slave holding country, regardless of the northern states decision to not have slavery within them. People of African
descent in the Americas were for the most part slaves, so these communities of free Blacks living and working in cities were not the
American norm. In fact, some people who had plantations in the South might have a house in a northern city where they would and
could bring a slave with them to live. The fugitive slaves, and to a lesser extent, manumitted slaves, were still able to be captured and
taken back to slavery in the South due to the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Just because they were in the North, the maroons were not
completely safe and slave catchers could come to kidnap people back to slavery.
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There was a constant fear amongst the northern maroons of being taken south, and self-defense was necessary. Often they had
vigilance communities who worked to keep the community safe. They would keep watch and listen for information about approaching
slave catchers to take some people back South. Sometimes, they could warn the person quickly to diffuse the situation. In other times,
they fought to free caught fugitive slaves and riots erupted as in the Blackburn Escape in 1833 in Detroit. The northern maroon
communities were not safe simply because they were in areas where people did not hold slaves. Instead, they formed their own culture
and community much like maroons in the South that aimed to protect the people from being returned to slavery.
1850— The Carriage House
Vandalia, Michigan is a place of historical value because of the many locations and homes that served as shelter for slaves who were
seeking freedom. The James E. Bonine residence and the Carriage House were one of the many terminals on the Underground
Railroad. The Bonine family, who built the Carriage House, were devoted abolitionists. Many depots including the Carriage House
were built upon a ten-acre plot of land, which was given the name “Ramp Town”. While many of the sites on this settlement have
been long gone, the Carriage House and James E. Bonine home still stand as constant reminders of the community that stood strong
against slavery and also as a reminder of the intricate part that Vandalia played in the civil rights movement (Bonine House 2009).
Vandalia in Cass County, Michigan; was the home of white abolitionists. “Ramp Town” in particular had a notable number of free
blacks and fugitive slaves. Prior to 1860, there were 1,500 black people there. Due to the generosity of families like the Bonine family,
the ten acres of land was specifically set aside to serve as a settlement for runaway slaves. Many fugitive slaves felt safe there so they
would often divert from their original plans of escaping to Canada and just remain in Vandalia. Many landowners helped runaway
slaves get established by permitting them to use the ten acres of land for five years in exchange for manual labor; James E. Bonine
was among these generous landowners. Fugitives would stay in the Carriage House, which was built in the 1850s, while earning
money working the land. Many of the fugitives were able to save enough money to start their own farms. They were also able to
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attend church and school freely because “Ramp Town” had its’ own school and church for them. Chain Lake Baptist Church was
established in 1838, making it the oldest African American church in all of Cass County. The church played a major role in the fight
against slavery; it was because of Chain Lake Baptist Church that free blacks and fugitives were able to establish a way of life in
“Ramp Town”.
There was a mutual hate against slavery in Vandalia, which created bonds of trust and respect among the Quakers, free blacks, and
other abolitionists. Quaker families from Wayne County, Indiana migrated to Cass County where they formed “The Young’s Prairie
Anti-Slavery Meeting of Quakers” in 1843. (A Concise History, 2010) They also created the “Quaker Line” of the Underground
Railroad and the refuge for runaway slaves. With evidence of Underground Railroad depots still being found in Cass County, it is
estimated that over 1,500 slaves made their way to Canada by way of Cass County. Not all black people entering Vandalia were
slaves; many were free long before migrating to Cass County. With a sense of unity, they were able to found an anti-slavery society
and engage in fighting against slavery. The Bonine family and the rest of Cass County highly influenced the course of history. Cass
County was referred to “that hot bed of abolitionism” by many politicians in Washington D.C.
In 1843, James E. Bonine moved to Cass County and soon built the residence that boasts his last name. After having survived the
Kentucky Raid in 1847, James E. Bonine built the Carriage House in the 1850s. Though still standing, the Bonine residence and the
Carriage House have been neglected over the years. And while the home is one of the best examples of American domestic
architecture in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana, it is becoming dilapidated (Bonine House 2009). The Underground
Railroad Society of Cass County, Inc. recently acquired these historical sites and now wants to help preserve them. The group wants to
create a learning environment to educate people about the role those abolitionists and African-American communities played in the
Underground Railroad.
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1850— Seymour Finney Barn
Seymour Finney was an abolitionist in Detroit, Michigan. He owned and operated the Finney Hotel where he housed and served
whites, many of them slave catchers. Behind the Finney Hotel was a barn; it was here that Seymour Finney provided shelter and food
for runaway slaves. This barn proved to be a critical stop for runaways along the secret routes of the Underground Railroad. It was
most often their last stop before traveling to Canada for freedom. After Congress met in Philadelphia and passed the Northwest
Territories Act in 1787, this made Detroit, Michigan an ideal place for abolitionists like Seymour Finney. This new Act established the
areas, which are now Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin as being under federal control. Although The Northwest Territories Act
prohibited slavery in these four states, slaveholders were allowed to search for and secure their “chattel” (slaves) there. Slaves were
relatively safer in these northern states compared to the states that still supported slavery because Michigan sat on the border of
Canada where slavery was already abolished. The Act also made it easier for many of the fugitive slaves to escape to Canada through
Detroit and Port Huron with the help of depots like Second Baptist Church and the Seymour Finney Barn.
Escaped slaves in Canada could not be captured and returned to bondage after England abolished slavery in 1837, this made the
Seymour Finney Barn a perfect depot on the Underground Railroad (Finney Hotel 2010). Although slavery was prohibited in many
Northern states, including Michigan, the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act made it a federal offense to aid slaves in their escape in the United
States. Despite such federal laws, Seymour Finney was not deterred from doing his part as an abolitionist. As a matter of fact, it is
suggested that Detroit’s code name, “Midnight” came as a result of fugitives hiding out in Seymour Finney’s barn. Often times,
runaway slaves would hide out in Finney’s barn awaiting their chance at freedom while their pursuing owners were patronizing the
Finney Hotel and tavern (Doorway to Freedom 2010).
Seymour Finney, originally from New Windsor, Orange County, New York, became a successful businessman and politician in
Detroit. With very little education, Finney had apprenticed as a tailor in Geneva, New York before he moved to Detroit, Michigan in
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1834. He initially worked as a tailor in Detroit and in London, Canada. In 1838, after Seymour Finney became ill, he began working
as a hotel clerk and in 1850 he purchased a plot of land, which is now Capitol Park in downtown, Detroit, Michigan. Soon after,
Seymour Finney erected a tavern and the Temperance Hotel that was later named the Finney Hotel (Bersey 1900). He also built his
historical barn that served as the hideout for those slaves who were fortunate enough to make it to the end of the Underground
Railroad; The Finney Barn was one of the last stops for runaway slaves who looked to cross into Canada. Originally a democrat, in
1854 Finney began working towards the coalition of the Whigs and Free Soilers, which was the start of the Republican Party. Then in
1874, he served as the republican alderman from the fifth and later the second wards. He also served as a council member for fourteen
years and acted as chairman of the committee for claims and accounts. After playing such a prolific role in the escape of hundreds of
slaves and having been afforded much business and political success, Seymour Finney passed away May 26, 1899. As a husband and
father of six children, this was probably one of the contributing factors that helped strengthen Finney’s belief that all people should be
treated fairly.
Helping slaves escape was risky, even for free white men. Since Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin were under federal control, it
was a federal offense to provide hiding places for runaway slaves. To let people know that this was a serious charge, Congress passed
laws like the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, which made it clear that abetting the escape of slaves, was a punishable crime. Such laws
did not deter Seymour Finney or even free black people who lived in Detroit. Seymour Finney was passionate about helping slaves
gain their freedom. The Underground Railroad was developed in the 1840s and 1850s after England abolished slavery in their entire
empire. Churches, barns, organization’s buildings and people’s homes were used as secret “depots” on the Underground Railroad. The
Seymour Finney Barn located at State Street and Griswold in Detroit, Michigan was not far from the water which separated the United
States from Canada and slaves from freedom; the freedom that would only come after crossing over into Canada. Finney would harbor
runaway slaves in his barn; then around midnight when the slave catchers were sleeping or entertaining in the hotel, they would sneak
to the Detroit River and flee to freedom in Canada by way of anticipating rowboats. Detroit abolitionists made inside jokes about
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unknowing slave catchers being guests at Finney’s hotel while their runaway slaves were nearby in Finney’s barn awaiting their
escape (Bersey 1900).
1850— Michigan State Constitution, Revised
In 1850, delegates of Michigan convened a Constitutional Convention to amend the Constitution of 1835, and adopted the revised
constitution to better meet the needs of residents in the state. On March 12, 1849, the Michigan Legislature passed Joint Resolution
number 21 recommending a revision to the Constitution of the State, following the next election. The resolution stated that under
article 13 of the Constitution, it was the duty of the Senate and House of Representatives to recommend a vote for a Convention.
When the elected found it in the best interest of the government to make necessary changes to daily operation, then it was their elected
duty to bring it before a vote on the ballots. The Constitutional Convention made its way onto the ballots on Election Day that
November. Upon tallying the votes 33,193 citizens voted for a convention, 4,095 voted against the convention and 3 left the choice
blank. With a clear majority, the Convention had been duly called.
Following the public vote, an act of the legislature was issued on March 9th, 1850 to determine the time, place and manner of holding
the Convention. The election for delegates to the Convention was held on the first Monday in May, in the same manner as would have
been used for a State Legislature election. The number of delegates was set at 100, with districts being apportioned representatives
based on population. Once the delegates had been selected they would convene at the capitol in Lansing on the first Monday in June.
Delegates, once elected, would be able to decide the rules of engagement and could elect officers to guide the convention. That year,
Daniel Goodwin was elected as president for the duration of the convention. From there, delegates divided themselves among 24
committees that pertained to sectors of the State that would be amended in the Constitution. Such committees included, the bill of
rights, the executive, county officers and county government, miscellaneous provisions, salaries etc.
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The Constitutional Convention concluded on August 15th, and then went before electors just three months later – in the November
general election. Voters had the decision of adopting or rejecting the newly revised constitution, but also of voting on an additional
resolution that came out of the convention. When citizens voted to adopt the constitution they were also given a separate ballot that
included an additional amendment to the constitution. The words ‘Equal Suffrage to Colored Persons?’ appeared on the ballot and
voters could check yes or no. Delegates of the Convention feared that including such a phrase in the constitution would mean a
rejection of the entire document, so it was included as a separate amendment that was only offered to those that had adopted it. The
results of the election were overwhelmingly in favor of adoption of the new constitution. 36,169 people voted for adoption, 9,433
voted against and 25 abstained. The constitution came into force on December 9, 1850.
The revised constitution included 20 Articles. The first pertained to the territorial jurisdiction and boundaries of the State. Article 2,
which was not included in the first constitution, established the new capitol in Lansing. Article 3 dealt with the division of powers in
the government, just like the constitution in 1835. Articles 4, 5 and 6 amended the provisions pertaining to the legislative, executive
and judicial branches respectively and included an expansion on the procedures and powers of the three branches. Article 7 established
the qualifications and privileges of electors. Articles 8 and 9 pertained to term of office and salaries of state officers. Article 10 dealt
with counties – their officers, townships, and boards of supervisors, taxation powers and their supervision in construction of county
highways. Article 11 dealt specifically with townships; Article 12 dealt with impeachment and removal from office; and Article 13
dealt with the education system. Article 13 established primary schools, school terms, regents of universities, state boards, and
township and city libraries. Article 14 handled finance, taxation and debt within the state. Article 15 established the right to form
corporations and laid out guiding principles for doing such. Article 16 handled exemptions of debt after death, and exemptions of a
widow after the death of her husband. Article 17 pertained to the Militia. Article 18 contained miscellaneous provisions such as the
right of eminent domain, the use of English in all public records, the right to bear arms, the prohibition of slavery and the right of
resident aliens to hold property. Article 19 established rights of the Upper Peninsula and prohibited discrimination based on color in
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transportation fees of railroads. And lastly, Article 20 of the constitution provided procedures for further amendment and revision to
the constitution.
1851— The Christiana Riot
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act gave slave-owners power to recapture runaway slaves and impose strict fines on those private citizens
that assisted the fugitives. The Christiana riot became an indicator of the struggle over the new law as well as the growing tension
between the North and the South. The Christiana Riot occurred on September 11, 1851 in Christiana, Pennsylvania at the home of
William Parker. William Parker was a local that had lived in Christiana since he escaped slavery earlier in 1839. Parker decided at an
early age that he wanted to be his own master and at the age of seventeen he and his brother escaped slavery where they were raised in
Maryland to Christiana, Pennsylvania. Parker established a group of local blacks in the early 1840s to start riots and help other
fugitive slaves remain free. He played an active role in freeing runaways from slave catchers; he attacked any blacks that were
suspected informers and also arranged the barn burning of a tavern-keeper who said they would welcome slave-catchers (The
American Civil War 2010).
Four slaves (Noah Buley, Nelson Ford, George Hammond, and Joshua Hammond) that were inherited by a Maryland farmer, Edward
Gorsuch had escaped late in 1849 to the Christiana area (The Christiana Riot 2010). In August 1851, Gorsuch was told by an informer
of his slave’s location in Pennsylvania and decided to make the trip to retrieve his property. Gorsuch obtained the proper papers in
Philadelphia and gathered his son, cousin, nephew, and two neighbors whom U.S. Marshal Henry Kline and two officers joined. The
group took the train to Christiana to retrieve Gorsuch’s slaves. Also on the train was, Samuel Williams a black man from
Philadelphia. He served as an informant to the refugees that they were being sought and also a threat to the group to let them know
their plans was exposed (The American Civil War 2010). This indirect threat intimidated Kline’s two officers, they returned to
Philadelphia leaving the seven men to retrieve Gorsuch’s slaves.
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The warning from Samuel Williams had time to circulate through the community preparing them for the arrival of Gorsuch and his
men. They arrived at and entered the home of William Parker at dawn on September 11, 1851. The runaway slaves were told that
they would not be punished if they returned with him peacefully; Gorsuch was met with resistance as items like axes and spears were
thrown at them until they finally retreated. There was a standoff outside of the Parker home and Kline suggested they leave. At that
time a large number of well armed local blacks and three Quakers; Elijah Lewis, Joseph Scarlett, and Miller Castner Hanway met at
the Parker home to encourage Gorsuch’s group to retreat and return home. Instead Gorsuch moved toward the house where he was
attacked and killed by the blacks in the home. Parker, the fugitives, and two blacks that were injured in the attack fled to Canada.
Rumors spread that Frederick Douglass hid Parker in upstate New York. As a result of the violence blacks in the area were gathered
and as many as six of them were remanded to slavery. Thirty-seven blacks and one white man were arrested and charged with over
one hundred counts of treason (The Christiana Riot – This day in history 2010). The four fugitives that started this riot would have
been freed in a few years according to the terms of the will in which Gorsuch inherited them (The Christiana Riot 2010). Although
they knew this, the four men still decided to leave and obtain freedom on their own terms.
The Christiana riot became known as the first direct reaction to the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act (National
Newspaper Reaction to the Christiana Resistance 2010). This riot was said to cause people to choose whether or not the Fugitive
Slave Act would be recognized in “free” states. In order for this new law to be effective, northern states would need to suppress their
individual beliefs concerning slavery. Southerners felt the events that took place at Christiana were the first open and violent defiance
of the Fugitive Slave Law and the first indication of the willingness to defy the Compromise of 1850 with bloodshed when necessary
(National Newspaper Reaction to the Christiana Resistance 2010). The response to the Christiana Riot in Pennsylvania was viewed as
crucial to the success of the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act.
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1854— The Kansas Border Wars
The Kansas Border Wars, sparked by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, resulted in the admission of Kansas into the Union as a free state. The
Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the anti-slavery provisions of the Missouri Compromise that Kansas would be let into the union as a
free state. Instead the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the citizens of Kansas and Nebraska to vote, through popular sovereignty, on
whether the states would be free or slave. Both pro-slavery and anti-slavery immigrants converged on Kansas each trying to influence
the state’s constitution. A civil war broke out with skirmishes throughout the state and the sacking and burning of Lawrence, Kansas,
home of the anti slavery Jayhawkers. This became known as the Kansas Border Wars or “Bleeding Kansas” (Blight 89).
1855— Michigan Personal Freedom Acts 162 and 163
The Michigan Personal Freedom Acts of 1855 were the first explicit legal actions taken on behalf of the State of Michigan to provide
certain liberties to those inhabitants that could be deemed as fugitive slaves. On February 13, 1855, the Michigan Legislature adopted
the Michigan Personal Freedom Acts 162 and 163 in response to the Federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The federal law adopted by
President Fillmore in September 1850 was an amendment to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. The Act of 1850 enacted harsher
punishments and restrictions on those that could be deemed runaway slaves. It was highly controversial in Northern states and
declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their owner. It sought to force authorities in free states to return fugitive slaves to
their slaveholders. The Act spurred many reactions throughout the nation and the passage of personal liberty laws was one way in
which Michigan responded to the harsh procedures required in it. Michigan Legislators sought to restrict the federal laws within the
State, and Acts 162 and 163 did just that.
Number 162 was an act ‘to protect the rights and liberties of the inhabitants of the state.’ It was approved on February 13, 1855. After
the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, many Michiganders feared that free slaves in the State would be kidnapped into slavery,
so Act 162 mandated that a jury trial be held before alleged slaves be moved. The Act was divided into 10 sections. Section 1 declared
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that every inhabitant of the State, when claimed as a fugitive slave, be given all lawful means to be protected and defended. Section 2
entitled every person the benefits of a writ of habeas corpus and trial by jury. The writ of habeas corpus gave those claimed as fugitive
slaves, the right to seek relief from unlawful detainment. Section 3 guaranteed anyone seeking a writ of habeas corpus the right to
appeal to the circuit court in the county they were charged and to have their case heard by a judge in a reasonable and proper manner.
Section 4 allowed for a direct trial by jury upon the appeal of a writ of habeas corpus and made the costs of the trial chargeable to the
State. Section 5 guaranteed that no person arrested and claimed as a fugitive slave be imprisoned in any jail or prison in Michigan.
Section 6 declared that every person who falsely presented a free person as a slave was subject to imprisonment. Section 7 added a
fine and imprisonment to any person who wrongfully seized a free person with the intent to hold them in servitude. Section 8
established procedures for those that have been claimed as fugitives to clear their name. Those that had been named could be exempt
through testimony from two credible sources and from the presentation of legal evidence. Section 9 declared that no person who ‘owes
or did owe service as [an] apprentice for [a] fixed term’ shall be prohibited by the act. Section 10 stated that all other acts or parts of
acts conflicting with the provisions of said act would be repealed. And lastly, Section 10 established restrictions to the federal law and
gave fugitive slaves greater rights than what was being offered by the federal government.
Number 163 of the Personal Freedom Acts was an act ‘to prohibit the use of the common jails and other public buildings…for the
detention of persons claimed as fugitive slaves.” Like number 162, it was passed on February 13, 1855. Similar to the reactions of
other states in the North, it forbade the use of local jails or the assistance of state officials in the arrest or return of fugitives. Section 1
of 163 established the duty of sheriffs to discharge prisoners through due process of the law, no matter the claim against them. A
prisoner could not be held, and a sheriff was not required to detain, any person solely on the claim that they were a fugitive slave. Any
sheriff or other officer that offended the aforementioned provision was liable to indictment of a misdemeanor and upon a conviction
was subject to imprisonment and a fine. Section 2 defined the common use of jails as: 1, for the detention of persons charged with
offenses, and committed for trial; 2, for the detention of persons who may be committed, and to secure their attendance as witnesses
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on trial; and 3, for the confinement of persons committed in accordance to a sentence of conviction. Section 2 reiterated that no sheriff
was required to detain any person claimed as a fugitive slave. Section 3 of the Act required the immediate effectiveness of said
provisions. Both Acts 162 and 163 were important measures for Michigan because they restricted the ways that the Federal
government could negatively impact citizens within the state, no matter the color of their skin.
1857— Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford was a case heard before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1857 that overturned the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787 and ruled that African men could not be afforded the right of citizenship based on the interpretation of the U.S.
Constitution. The case of Dred Scott v. John Sandford was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States in December 1856.
The case was brought up, by writ of error, by the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Missouri. Before reaching the
Supreme Court, the case had been heard before two previous courts that offered two different verdicts on the case. At the Circuit Court
in Missouri, where the case was initially filed, Dred Scott was granted a verdict in favor of his own freedom. The case was then sent,
on writ of error, to the Supreme Court of Missouri where the judgment from the Circuit Court was reversed.
Dred Scott and his wife Harriet had been the slaves of Dr. John Emerson, but after Emerson’s death in 1843 were sold by his widow to
the defendant John Sandford. Under the ownership of Emerson, both Dred and Harriet Scott had resided within Illinois and Wisconsin,
which were free states at the time. Because of his residence in those states Scott had legal standing to make a claim for his freedom,
but didn’t file a claim with the courts until after his ownership had been transferred to Sandford. His initial trial involved three counts
against the defendant, John Sandford. One, that Sandford had assaulted him; one, that Sandford had assaulted Harriet; and one, that
Sandford had assaulted their children, Eliza and Lizzie. The St Louis Circuit Court ruled in favor of Scott and subsequently freed his
family. A writ of error was filed, and two years later the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Circuit Court. During
the second trial, the jury gave verdict that Sandford was not guilty and that at the time when the first case was filed, Dred Scott and his
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family were lawful property of Sandford. The court ruled that Sandford was not liable to Scott for assault, and that the case should be
dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Scott, the court claimed, was a slave and therefore could be treated as Sanford thought appropriate.
The case was subsequently brought back to the Circuit Court where the decision of the State Supreme Court was upheld. Scott then
appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The decision of the Supreme Court was read on March 5th, 1857 and Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney wrote the ‘majority opinion’ for the court. The decision of the court stated that Dred Scott was not a citizen because of
his African descent and therefore had no right to sue. The opinion claimed that Scott was not a citizen of Missouri, as previously
claimed, and that he was not permitted to become one. Taney’s opinion claimed that no state had the power to grant him citizenship
because citizenship existed at ‘two levels’ – state and federal. State citizenship, Taney wrote, did not permit an individual to bring suit
in a federal court as the US Constitution defined blacks as a ‘subordinate and inferior class of being.” The court also ruled that a slave
in a free state did not become free by residing in a state or territory that did not recognize slavery. It also stated that the federal
government had no right to interfere with the property rights of slaveholders. Taney asserted under Article IV, Section 3 that the US
Constitution only applied to territories that existed when the Constitution was drafted in 1787. He acknowledged that the federal
government of the new territory could acquire new territories, but only for the benefit of the established states. And lastly he claimed,
that the 5th Amendment of the United States obliged Congress to respect the property rights of all citizens and this protection
expanded to the property of slaveholders.
Taney’s opinion represented the ultimate decision of the Supreme Court, but of the 8 other Supreme Court Justices almost all had
dissenting views on the decision. One justice wrote, “national citizenship followed state citizenship: if blacks were citizens of a state
they were, in the meaning of the Constitution, citizens of the United States.” His view was shared with other justices as well as
political opponents throughout the United States. Taney’s decision did anything but resolve the issue and set off further political
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turmoil within the country. His decision was fuel for anti-slavery proponents throughout the country, and ignited the fire in the move
towards civil war.
1857— Emmendorfer House
Located in Oakland County, Michigan, the Emmendorfer House served as a hideout for slaves who had escaped and wanted to go to
Canada in search of freedom. Construction of the house started in the 1830s by William Gilmour. In the 1830s and 1840s, Gilmour
would sometimes host the township meetings at the Emmendorfer house (Francis A. Emmendorfer 2010). After changing owners a
few times throughout the years, Francis A Emmendorfer and his family purchased the home in 1864 until the 1950s. It was after this
heroic family that the house established its name, the Emmendorfer House. The strategically located house had two secret rooms; one
of the secret rooms is only accessible through the back of a closet and the other through a small opening behind built-in bedroom
drawers. These secret rooms were believed to be provided to runaway slaves as shelter (Ashlee 2005).
In 1852, Francis A. Emmendorfer came to the United States from Germany and then moved to West Bloomfield, Michigan in 1857,
which is near Orchard Lake where the Emmendorfer House is located. After successfully working for Judge Joseph Copeland,
Emmendorfer purchased ninety acres of land on Orchard Lake in 1864. He used the land to grow fruits and grains. Then in 1893,
Francis A. Emmendorfer started the Pontiac Buggy Company with Edward M. Murphy and S. E. Beach. The company eventually
became Pontiac Motor Division in 1933 after being bought by General Motors (Ashlee 2005). Despite all that he had to lose,
Emmendorfer continued to stand for what he believed in which was to help free slaves and end slavery.
1858— Oberlin-Wellington Rescue
One of the last attempts to rebel against the Fugitive Slave laws of the United States occurred in 1858, which is known as the OberlinWellington Rescue. This attempt to rescue a fugitive slave from returning to the horrible reality of slavery caused a series of famous
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trials. These unforgettable trials took place in Oberlin and Wellington, Ohio, forty miles from Cleveland. Many slaves escaped to the
free state of Ohio especially those in the four-bordered slave states of Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. As a result, by
1858 about one-fifth of the population of Ohio was African Americans.
The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue began with a young man named John Price who escaped from his slave masters in Kentucky in the
mid-1850s. For two years, he lived and worked with James Armstrong, a black laborer, in Oberlin, Ohio. In the fall of 1858 two slave
catchers, Anderson Jennings and Richard Mitchell conspired to kidnap John Price and return him to his slave master in Kentucky.
They received help from the small proslavery community in Oberlin, although the majority were abolitionists. At this time, Price was
only eighteen years old. Kidnapping slaves was common, due to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850; slave-catchers received a reward for
returning fugitive slaves back to their owners. On September 13, 1858, Shakespeare Boynton, the son of a wealthy landholder,
approached Price about working his farm during the harvest. At the time, Price couldn’t provide for himself so he considered this
opportunity to make money. However, Boynton was working with the two Kentucky slave catchers (Jennings and Mitchell) and two
Columbus deputies. These men intercepted Price’s buggy, holding guns and knives, and traveled eight miles to Wellington, Ohio to
avoid Oberlin’s abolitionists’ community. They planned to catch the 5:13 pm train back to Kentucky.
Shortly after their departure, news broke out about the kidnapping of John Price. White and black abolitionists from Oberlin and
Wellington went to rescue Price from slavery. Many of them traveled in buggies, carriages, and even on foot. The first to arrive was
John Watson, a black storeowner from Oberlin, Ohio. Soon afterwards, 200 to 500 men crowded outside of the Wadsworth Hotel
where John Price was held. In the meantime, Charles Langston, John Watson, O.B. Wall, and another man from Oberlin sought legal
action to persuade the village to arrest the men who kidnapped John Price. Many of the people in the crowd were determined to rescue
Price no matter what the consequences were. Nevertheless, Langston tried to find a non-violent solution by first calming the crowd
and then by talking to Jacob Lowe, one of Price’s captors. Soon after, Langston realized that the kidnappers wouldn’t release Price,
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but told Lowe that, “we will have him anyhow.”
When the southbound train arrived, the crowd forced their way into the Wadsworth Hotel and helped Price escape from his captors.
Excited about their success of the rescue, many Oberlin residents rejoiced back to Oberlin from Wellington. However, the joy of the
situation was short lived, because the thought of Price being captured entered the minds of the abolitionists. After his escape, John
Price first hid in the house of James Fitch, who was known as an agent of the Underground Railroad. He then moved to the home of
James Fairchild, who was known as a law-abiding citizen that disapproved of slavery. As everyone expected, Fairchild’s home was
not searched. Not long afterwards, Price’s rescuers took him to Canada. However, the story of his life afterwards is unknown.
A year after the rescue, in 1859, thirty-seven of the rescuers, white and black were charged with of breaking a federal law. Twentyfive of the men were from Oberlin and the rest were from Wellington. There was little hope of acquittal since the Cleveland-based
jury was full of Democrats that accepted slavery. Nevertheless, the lawyers for the defense argued the horrors of slavery. In April
1859, Simeon Bushnell and Charles Langston were convicted of violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Bushnell received a total of
sixty day in jail, while Langston received twenty days. In response, Simeon Bushnell wrote, “They may do their worst, and when I am
again out, I will rescue the first slave I get a chance to rescue”, which was the mindset of the other prisoners. On May 24, 1859,
thousands crowded Cleveland’s Public Square to support the prisoners. Eventually the captors of John Price were arrested for
kidnapping. However, a deal was made in return for the charges being dropped; they had to free the rest of the rescuers. So on July 7,
1859, all of the prisoners were released except for Simeon Bushnell, who was still in the process of serving his sentence. When he was
released on July 11th a crowd greeted him. These men risked their lives to do the right thing by helping a fellow neighbor to escape
from the harsh reality of slavery.
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1859— William Webb’s House
The William Webb House was the site of a meeting between John Brown and Frederick Douglass on March 12, 1859. Webb was an
active member of the Second Baptist Church and the Detroit community. It is believed that two hundred feet north of this spot, Brown
and Douglass met several Detroit African American residents on the 12th of March, to discuss methods of abolishing slavery. Those
residents were William Lambert, George de Baptiste, Dr. Joseph Ferguson, Reverend William S. Monroe, Willis Wilson, John
Jackson and William Webb.
1859— John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry
Angry about slavery, John Brown’s ultimate plan was to enlist the men, financial backers and arsenal to wage a war against slavery.
Brown was so angry; he was willing to recruit his own sons to kill and eventually die for the cause. Seen as a martyr, John Brown and
his army’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia catapulted the start of the American Civil War. Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West
Virginia) and Springfield, Massachusetts were selected by President George Washington as the new sites for national armories in
1794. John H. Hall was contracted to manufacture his patented rifles for the government in 1817 at Harper’s Ferry. It seemed the
ideal target for John Brown to carry out his war plan. John Brown was born in 1800 to a highly religious family in Connecticut.
Trying to take care of his wife and twenty children, John Brown struggled at many occupations including real estate, farming and
tanning (John Brown, 2010). He became famous for his passionate work as an abolitionist; this passion grew as a result of being
raised by his father to despise slavery. His hate for slavery deepened as he listened to the horrible stories of former slaves whom he
lived among in upstate New York. It was in New York that Brown and his wife gave land to fugitive slaves and even adopted an
African American child (John Brown 2010).
Kansas was the next destination for John Brown and five of his sons. They killed five men in Pottawattamie in retaliation of Senator
Charles Sumner being beaten into a coma by South Carolina Senator, Preston Brooks in May of 1856 on the Senate floor. John
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Brown was enraged that none of the other abolitionists fought back after the area where the abolitionists lived in Lawrence, Kansas
was attacked and the governor’s house was burned. They were, however, never charged with the murders of those five men. John
Brown was praised in the north for standing up and taking action against slavery. The souths’ view was the complete antithesis of the
norths’; the south viewed Brown and his sons as terrorists. John Brown was convinced that if slavery was to ever end, it would have
to be removed with violence and it was then that he came up with his idea to capture the U.S. government arsenal at Harper’s Ferry.
Due to President George Washington’s earlier decision to make Harper’s Ferry, a site for armories, there was a large stock of arsenal
there. It was considered a “state of the art” facility for weapons and research.’ The Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers also provided
great waterpower. Along with John Hall’s rifles, other arsenal was heavily manufactured at Harper’s Ferry.
John Brown was able to collect money from wealthy abolitionists to carry out his work against slavery. He strategically moved to a
farm in Maryland, near Harper’s Ferry; He used the alias Isaac Smith there (John Brown and the Harper’s Ferry Raid 2010). Brown
personally trained twenty-two men in military maneuvers but only nineteen of them actually marched on with him to Harper’s Ferry
on October 16, 1859. The raid began successfully; the raiders cut the telegraph lines and began their killings with the murder of
Hayward Shepherd, an African-American baggage handler. They were able to capture several other prisoners. There were a few
mistakes made during the attack, which proved to be detrimental. After detaining a train for five hours, the men let the train go. Of
course when the train reached Baltimore the next day around noon, the conductor informed the Washington authorities (The Raid on
Harper’s Ferry 2010). Before the authorities arrived, the citizens began attacking John Brown and his raiders. Brown expected the
local slaves to join in and revolt against their masters but they didn’t. A few citizens were shot and killed during the attack. The
armory was soon surrounded by the military. There was no way for the raiders to escape; John Brown took nine of the prisoners and
moved them into the armory’s fire engine house. The engine house was later given the name John Brown’s Fort in memory of John
Brown.
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Forces of marines were sent in to capture Brown and the other raiders; his plan was quickly falling apart. Colonel Robert E. Lee’s
first action was to shut down all of the town’s saloons because the random acts of violence of drunken locals was making the situation
worse. Some of the raiders tried to escape by swimming across the river. Among them was William H. Leeman who was shot to death
as he tried to swim away. Nine of John Brown’s men were killed: John H. KagI, Jeremiah G. Anderson, William Thompson, Dauphin
Thompson, Oliver and Watson Brown, Stewart Taylor, William H. Leeman Lewis S. Leary and Dangerfield Newby. Kohn E Cook
and Albert Hazlett were returned to Charles Town after a failed attempt to escape to Pennsylvania. Aaron D. Stevens, Edwin Coppoc,
John A. Copeland and Shields Green were imprisoned. Five men escaped: Brown’s sons Owen, Charles P. Tidd, Barclay Coppoc,
Francis J, Merriam, and Osborne P. Anderson. The sword of Lieutenant Israel Green seriously wounded John Brown before he was
taken to Charles Town for trial. John Brown stood trial on October 26 at the Jefferson County Courthouse and was found guilty of
treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia by a jury. Sentenced to death, Brown was hung on December 2. His famous last
words were, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood” (John
Brown Biography 2010). John Brown went down in history as a martyr.
John Brown
John Brown, American abolitionist, who became a martyr to the anti-slavery cause, was born in 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut to
Owen and Ruth Brown. Brown's father was a devout Calvinist who hated slavery. John Brown married Dianthe Lusk in 1820 and
moved to Pennsylvania; following her death, he married Mary Day and moved to Ohio. One year later, in 1837, Brown gave a speech
vowing to end slavery. In 1855 after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, that swept the Missouri Compromise aside, Brown
moved to Kansas. Within a year, he went to Pottowatomie Creek, Kansas and directed the murder of pro-slavery settlers. The
abolitionist, Franklin Sanborn introduced Brown to influential abolitionists in the Boston area in 1857, some of whom would later
form the "Secret Six" that assisted in the financing of his anti-slavery cause. The following year, Brown went to Missouri, attacked
pro-slavery homesteads, liberated eleven slaves and escorted them to Canada. Brown conceived of an idea to overthrow slavery by
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invading the South and liberating the slaves as he and his fellow anti-slavery forces moved through the South. He discussed his plan
with Frederick Douglass and attempted to convince Douglass and Harriet Tubman to join him in his raid on the federal arsenal located
at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia); however, neither was present during the raid. Brown's October, 1859 raid on Harper's
Ferry failed; less than two months later, Brown and his surviving cohorts were hanged. Despite his failure, his death provided antislavery crusaders with a martyr; thousands, who had been silent or indifferent, were now convinced slavery had to be abolished.
1861-1865— The American Civil War
Almost 150 years have passed since the Civil War began in 1861. The causes of the Civil War were said to stem from four different
struggles: States Rights, Slavery, Political and Economic Considerations (Overview 2010). Although slavery is listed as a separate
cause it had a strong influence on the other three. Slavery was banned in the Northwest Territory with the Northwest Ordinance of
1787 and by 1804 all Northern states had passed laws to abolish slavery. Congress banned the African slave trade in 1808, but slavery
still grew in new states in the Deep South (Hart 1906). Although there were compromises in 1820 and 1850, slavery was still an
explosive issue. Lincoln did not propose federal laws against it where it already existed, but he definitely expressed preventing new
states from adopting the practice of slavery as well as the abolishing of slavery throughout the country (Jones 1999).
The American Civil War or the War Between the States began shortly after seven southern states decided to secede and form their
own country the Confederate States of America in the year of 1861. This split was brought on by an election that was won by the
Republican Party. Abraham Lincoln campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the states that it already existed in. This
Republican victory ensured a dismal expectancy for the growth and continuance of slavery in the United States thus leading the
southern states to separate and form their own country. (Jones, 1999) Tensions began to grow between the (Union) United States and
the (Confederacy) Confederate States of America and on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at
Fort Sumter in South Carolina. President Lincoln called for volunteer armies from each state to recapture the federal property, after
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which four more slave states made declarations of secession bringing the total to eleven. The Union and the Confederacy both raised
armies as the Union made clear its goal of ending slavery in the South.
The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, more than 3 million Americans fought in it and over 600,000 men (2% of the population)
died in it (The War 2010). Homes of fellow Americans became the headquarters for troops, churches and schoolhouses served as
shelter for wounded and dying men and epic battles were fought on this land to ensure freedom for all (The War 2010). This Civil War
was marked by many ironies. Robert E. Lee became a legend in the Confederate army only after turning down an offer to command
the entire Union force. Four of Lincoln’s own brothers-in-law fought on the Confederate side, and one was killed. The little town of
Winchester, Virginia, changed hands seventy-two times during the war, and the state of Missouri sent thirty-nine regiments to fight in
the siege of Vicksburg: seventeen to the Confederacy and twenty-two to the Union (The War 2010).
Although the battles were fought far south of Michigan their presence was paramount in the war. They were asked to supply no more
than four regiments; Governor of Michigan Austin Blair sent seven regiments (The Civil War 2010). More than 90,000 Michigan men
served in the Civil War, including whites, blacks and Native Americans (The Civil War 2010). There were many celebrated units that
hailed from Michigan; of them was the 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, which as part of the Iron Brigade, suffered considerable
losses at the Battle of Gettysburg while defending McPherson’s Ridge (The Civil War 2010). Also several Union generals hailed
from Michigan, including: Custer, Elon J. Farnsworth, Byron Root Pierce, Orlando Metcalfe Poe, Israel Bush Richardson, and
Orlando B. Wilcox (The Civil War 2010). 1 of every 6 Michigan soldiers that fought in the war died in service totaling nearly 15,000
soldiers. While roughly 4,400 of these were combat deaths, the majority of soldiers (over 9,000) died from disease (The Civil War
2010). With poor diets and sanitation being at an all time low, disease was the culprit among soldiers on both sides. After four years
of fighting, the war came to an end with the confederacy surrendering on April 9, 1865. Reconstruction began during the war and on
through 1877, Southern states were reintegrated into the Union and slavery was eliminated (Jones 1999).
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1863— The Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln, abolished slavery in the Confederate states and gave the
Union leverage to win the Civil War. On January 1st, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing
slavery in the Confederate States (Schneider 302). A few months prior on September 22nd, Lincoln announced a preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation in an effort to get Confederate States to re-join the union. Lincoln felt confident, after the Union won the
Battle of Antietam on September 17th, that the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation would seduce the Confederate States. By
abolishing slavery only within the rebellious states and not within the Union, Lincoln hoped that Confederate states would want to rejoin the union and end the war. Nevertheless, Lincoln had no such luck and at the beginning of the year no Confederate States came
forward. The Emancipation Proclamation, although would prove beneficial, at the time of issue was a political tactic to ensure the
following: Southern destabilization, black troops, anti-slavery support within Lincoln’s cabinet, British contention, and romantic war
propaganda. As a result of the Proclamation the Civil War shifted from re-establishing the union to ending slavery. The Union became
strong in numbers through freedom seekers flooding to the North, confusion, and abolitionist support (Stewart 98).
1863— Detroit Race Riot
March 6th 1863 marks Detroit’s second race riot, in the midst of a controversial court case and Civil War draft antagonism. 1863 was
a contentious time in the United States. The union was on the verge of secession as the South fought to keep the institution of slavery
legal. In the North, recent rumors of a draft started to circulate, pulling men into a war who may have been opposed to emancipating
slaves. During this time, on February 26, Thomas Faulkner was arrested for his “outrage” on Mary Brown, a ten-year-old white girl,
and Ellen Hover, a colored girl of about the same age, near a post office. As an aside, Faulkner’s racial identity is still contested. Many
reports suggest that he was a mulatto, whereas others suggest that he was a “regular voter” and property holding white. Nonetheless,
union soldiers held Faulkner on trial March 5, as growing agitation for the assault grew among white Detroiters. A hostile crowd grew
both inside and outside City Hall the first day of the trial. When Faulkner was escorted out of City Hall, a crowd member hit Faulkner
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in the head with a large pavement stone, knocking him to the ground. Though the crowd attempted to seize Faulkner, the officers
successfully transferred Faulkner into jail.
Learning from the agitated crowd, officers decided to transfer Faulkner to the courthouse before dawn on March 6; however, the
tensions from the day before only grew more hostile during Faulkner’s court proceeding both inside and outside the courthouse. Upon
Faulkner’s transfer to jail after the trial that day, a squad of the provost-guard escorted Faulkner to ensure that the crowd would not
attack Faulkner as they had done the day before. Instead, the crowd turned their aggression onto the guards. To scare the crowd, the
sheriff ordered the guards to fire blank shots in the air, but the unrest continued until the guards fired real bullets into the air. One of
these bullets shot and killed an innocent by-stander, Charles Langer, who happened to be standing on a nearby sidewalk.
Langer’s death only enraged the crowd more, turning their aggression onto innocent blacks in the surrounding neighborhoods. The
white crowd senselessly beat several blacks, set fire to black owned business and homes in whole neighborhoods, and threw pavement
rocks at blacks who tried to escape from the burning buildings. One such victim was Joshua Boyd, who was struck in the head with an
axe while trying to flee a burning cooper shop. He and Langer were the only victims killed in that night. Federal troops were called
into Detroit and the violence was quelled before midnight. Following the riot, the Michigan legislature decided to modify martial law
by requiring that Detroit have a paid police force, which would prevent riots from escalating to the levels on March 6. In all, between
thirty and thirty-five buildings were destroyed; countless people were wounded; and over 200 people were left without shelter.
Newspaper reports on the subject less than a week later began to focus less attention on the racist nature of the riot. Instead, authors
focused on the implications that the riot had on the war in the South. The Radical Republicans, through the Detroit Advertiser and
Tribune, insisted that the riot was a deliberate plot by secessionists. They argued that these “copperheads” wanted to compromise the
stability of the union in the North. Recent analysis of the explosive tensions of the riot suggest that the riot was caused by “an
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unjustifiable feeling against colored people caused by the idea that they were in some way responsible for the war and its attendant
evils.” Whatever the cause of the riot, scholars seem to agree that the Detroit Riot of 1863 was one of the “darkest pages in the history
of Detroit.” The violence of this riot remained unchallenged by any other act for eighty years, until the race riot of 1948.
As for Faulkner, seven years after he was sentenced to a life imprisonment, leaders in Detroit still doubted his guilt. These men set up
trial in Detroit and called the two girls, Mary Brown and Ellen Hover, back to testify. They denied the incident ever happened and
admitted to lying about the incident. Faulkner was released from Jackson State prison and given enough money to set up a produce
stall in the central market of Cadillac Square, which he operated until his death in 1878.
1865— Equal Rights League of Michigan Convention
The Equal Rights League of Michigan Convention was called to order in September of 1865 to align civil rights leaders on strategies
for black suffrage and full citizenship after the civil war. This convention was part of a series of conventions organized under the
National Equal Rights League. On October 19-21, 1864, the National Convention of Colored Citizens met in Syracuse, New York and
resolved to establish the National Equal Rights League. Among these leaders was John D Richards from Detroit, who served as one of
the four members on the executive board. The formation of a National Equal Rights League was largely brought on because over
200,000 blacks had served in the Civil War, yet were denied civil rights upon returning home. The plan was to organize State
conventions that established State Equal Rights Leagues in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. These
state leagues would pioneer the formation of an organized National League and would also petition state legislatures for equal rights
within the State constitution to make way for a national agenda.
In fact, two different groups responded to the call for State conventions to promote equality before the law. On January 25, a group of
blacks met in Adrian, Michigan and established the Michigan State Equal Rights League of Colored People, resolving to establish
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only a bureau in Detroit. Another group including John D Richards, met in Detroit in September of 1865 to organize the Equal Rights
League of Michigan. Despite this separation, both conventions agreed on the basic struggle for enfranchisement and the necessity of
self-improvement. The objectives for the Equal Rights League of Michigan aligned largely with the former agenda of the Convention
of Colored Citizens. Leaders sought to amend all legislation that was against any civilized group of people based on race or color. This
would include both naturalized and un-naturalized citizens, immigrant populations and the like. They also sought to advance complete
Negro equality before the law. Other goals of the organization were to advance self-improvement in an effort to lift the race through
education, industry, and morality, among other things. Leaders of the organization also spoke extensively of unity, harmony and
fraternity among the black race to show an indivisible front. The means for achieving their goals would almost exclusively be through
radical political action, which largely meant aggressive lobbying and petition politicians. The main actor of the convention were
William Lambert, who led the convention as its chairman. The state convention was important to outline the principles of pursuing
equal. Following the convention, the league delegation won some important small battles. Shortly after, three members of the
delegation—Richards, Cullen, and Carter—were invited to sit within the bar of the House of Representatives; however, the delegation
refused to join in an effort to show their contempt for those who opposed furthering black rights.
The separation between these two conventions actually became contentious at the First Annual National Equal Rights League on
October 19-21, 1865. Part of the agenda during the convention was dedicated to resolving who would serve as the proper
representatives of the Michigan State League, “as several gentlemen were contending for that honor.” At the time, only George de
Baptiste, B. D Paul, O. P. Anderson, James W Johnson, and John D Richards (all from the Equal Rights League of Michigan
Convention) were the only men entitled to seats on various National committees. Mr. J Henry Harris of North Carolina argued that
there were well-qualified delegates from Michigan who were not mentioned as entitled to any seat on the National Equal Rights
League committee; however, John D. Richards opposed the motion and was supported, largely because of his relation to the executive
committee that formed the National Equal Rights League. This internal division was a reflection of further divisions over where to
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locate its headquarters, the direction of its political policy, and its financial and organizational structure. These divisions made
organization and progression within the league difficult and nearly caused its demise in 1890 after criticism from Booker T
Washington. The organization officially disbanded in 1915 after the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP).
People
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony, American abolitionist, activist, reformer and suffragist was born in 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts to devoted
Quakers, Daniel (a 6th generation Quaker) and Lucy Reid Anthony. She attended a private Quaker boarding school in Philadelphia
and later taught at Eunice Kenyon's Friends Seminary in New York and the Canajoharie Academy. The Anthony family was active in
several reform movements including the Anti-Slavery Movement. At the age of 29, Anthony became involved in abolitionism and
later temperance and the suffragist movements. As the Civil War approached she began working for the abolitionists; in 1856 until the
end of the war, she was the principal New York agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. Anthony lectured endlessly against the
evils of slavery and with the assistance of her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she organized the Women's National Loyal League. The
League assembled petition drives for the freedom of slaves in an effort to push passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. Through their joint efforts, hundreds of thousands of signatures were secured. In addition to friendships with several
abolitionists, Anthony was a friend of Harriet Tubman and referred to her in a note written in 1901 as "This most wonderful woman."
Following the end of the war until her death in Rochester, New York in 1906, she devoted her life to the Women's Suffrage
Movement.
Henry Bibb
Henry Bibb was born enslaved to Mildred Jackson in Shelby County, Kentucky; his father was alleged to have been Senator James
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Bibb. In 1833, Bibb married a mulatto slave, Malinda, who lived in Oldham County, Kentucky. From their union a daughter, Mary
Frances, was born. Bibb escaped to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1831 and returned several times to Kentucky to assist his wife and daughter
escape but was unsuccessful. After several unsuccessful attempts to free his wife and daughter and after having been recaptured
several times, Bibb escaped for a final time. He settled in Detroit, Michigan where he worked as an abolitionist and lecturer. In 1848,
after having finally given up the possibility of reuniting with his wife and daughter, he married Mary Miles. Two years later, when the
Fugitive Slave Act was enacted in 1850 he immigrated to Ontario, Canada for safety. There he established the first black newspaper,
the "Voice of the Fugitive," a newspaper that was the "central voice" of advocates of colonization in Canada. Additionally, Bibb
founded the Refugee Home Society, a Canadian black colonization project; he also organized the North American Convention of
Colored People, a group opposed to colonization of African Americans back to Africa. Bibb is best known for authoring in Canada, in
1849, the "Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself." Henry Bibb died in 1854.
Mary Ann Shadd Cary
Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893), African American abolitionist, journalist, educator and the first black female editor and publisher
of a newspaper in North America. Mary Ann Shadd was born to freeborn blacks, Abraham and Harriet Shadd, leaders of a free black
community on October 9, 1823, in Wilmington, Delaware. Her father was active in the Underground Railroad and their home was a
station on the Underground Railroad. Her father served as a subscription agent for the anti-slavery newspaper, "The Liberator."
Referred to by her close friends as "the Rebel", Shadd Cary was well known in abolitionists' circles as an outspoken proponent of the
Anti-Slavery Movement. Educated in a Quaker Boarding School in Pennsylvania, she taught school in Delaware (at the young age of
sixteen), in New York and in New Jersey. In 1840 influenced by her Quaker Education there, she returned to West Chester,
Pennsylvania to open a school to teach Negro children. Active in the Anti-Slavery Movement, she fled to Canada in 1851 following
the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. In Canada, she met and married Thomas Cary in 1856. While in Canada, she and
fellow abolitionist Samuel Ward, of the Anti-Slavery Society, worked together to publish "The Provincial Freeman," in doing so she
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became the first black female to own and operate a newspaper in North America. Shadd Cary lectured in Canada and the States to
increase the publication's circulation and to publicly solicit funds for fugitive slaves residing in Canada. During the Civil War, she
moved to Indiana where she recruited blacks to serve in the Union Army. After the war, she lived in Washington, D.C., enrolled in
Howard University's Law School and subsequently practiced law. Shadd Cary died on June 5, 1893.
Martin R. Delany
Martin R. Delany, explorer, physician, author and first black officer commissioned in the Civil War, was born in 1812 in Charles
Town, Virginia (now West Virginia) to Samuel and Pati Delany. To defend against an attempt to enslave her family, Delany's mother,
walked twenty miles to a Winchester courthouse and later travelled to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with her children; Delany's
father, purchased his freedom and subsequently joined his family. Martin Delany was an accomplished man, he studied at Harvard
Medical School but was expelled because of his race; he also studied at Jefferson College. Delany was an advocate for the voluntary
colonization of African Americans, a prolific writer and for a time, he was a newspaper editor. Delany participated in the
Underground Railroad in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Additionally, he was secretary of the Executive Commission of the Philanthropic
Society, an organization that rescued, protected and transported fugitive slaves. In 1847, he met abolitionists Frederick Douglass and
William Lloyd Garrison; as a result of their meeting, Douglass and Delany co-edited "The North Star," an anti-slavery newspaper that
was first published in 1847. From 1856 - 1861, Delany was an expatriate; however, by 1863 he had recruited 7,500 black men for the
Union Army and in 1865 he became the first black officer to be commissioned in the Civil War as a line field officer. Martin R.
Delany died on January 24, 1885.
Margaret Garner
Margaret Garner was an enslaved woman mulatto woman from Boone County, Kentucky. On January 28, 1856, Margaret who was
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pregnant, husband and four children escaped from the Gaines plantation by escaping to Cincinnati, Ohio. Robert stole horses from
their masters and a sleigh. The family traveled through Covington, Kentucky and from there they crossed the Frozen Ohio River.
Margaret and her family received help from Joe Kite, Margaret’s uncle who was a former slave living in Cincinnati. Kite was not sure
of how to assist the Garners, so he sought help from Levi Coffin, however before he could return home with the instructions that
Coffin had given him the Garners had been found by slave catchers (Weisenburger 1998).
At the arrival of the slave catchers, the family barricaded themselves in the house. As the men approached, Robert Garner fired shots
at them and was able to wound one of the men. Margaret rounded up the children. At this time she brutally stabbed her 2-year old
daughter. She also wounded her other children in preparation to kill them. She preferred the children to die free rather than be returned
to slavery. The Garners along with the slave catchers were taken to jail. A trial that last 2 weeks resulted. This case was unlike other
slave cases because of the length of time that it lasted -most cases lasted less than one day-and the charges that were being brought
against the Garners. The issues were if the Garners should be tried as people and should they be charged for the murder of their 2-year
old daughter or should they be tried as property under the Fugitive Slave Law (Weisenburger 1998).
It was proposed that Margaret be charged murder so that the case would be tried in a free state, however, it was believed that the
fugitive slave law held precedents over the murder trial. Antislavery Activist Lucy Stone testified on Margaret’s behalf. Margaret was
not immediately put on trial for murder. Instead she, her husband Robert and their youngest child were returned to slavery. On March
11, 1856, while traveling back to Kentucky the boat that the Garners was on got into a collision with another boat. Margaret and her
baby daughter were thrown over board. The child drowned and Margaret attempted to drown herself but was unsuccessful. The
Garners were later taken to Arkansas to work on one of their master A.K. Gaines plantations (Weisenburger 1998).
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Thomas Garrett
Thomas Garrett, Quaker, abolitionist, Underground Railroad stationmaster, and philanthropist, was born on August 21, 1789 in Upper
Darby, Pennsylvania. Often referred to by those he had helped as "Our Moses" and viewed as one of Delaware's greatest
humanitarians, Garrett has been credited with assisting more than 2,700 slaves secure their freedom over the course of forty years. He
began helping fugitive slaves during the 1820's. He married Sarah Sharpless and used her family's fortune to help fund his anti-slavery
efforts. Garrett usually delivered the fugitive slaves to the Philadelphia Vigilance Commitee. On more than one occassion, Harriet
Tubman sought his assistance at his home. Convicted in 1848 of illegally assisting six slaves, Garrett was fined the enormous sum of
$4,500.00. Despite the amount of the fine, Garrett redoubled his efforts of assisting fugitive slaves. A friend of William Still, with
whom he corresponded, Garrett's home was a key station on the eastern line of the Underground Railroad. So skillful was Garrett at
assisting fugitive slaves, slave owners often gave up their chase when they became aware the slaves were in Garrett's protection. After
the Civil War, he continued working for minority groups and was often referred to by African Americans as "our Moses". Thomas
Garrett died in Wilmington, Delaware on January 23, 1871.
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist leader and perhaps the most influential American anti-slavery advocate, was born in Newbury,
Massachusetts on December 10, 1805 to Abijah and Frances Maria Lloyd Garrison. His education, though limited, was supplemented
by his work at various newspapers. At the young age of twenty-one, he opened the "Newburyport Press"; although it failed, five years
later he founded "The Liberator," the most influential anti-slavery newspaper. Garrison became its editor and remained with the
newspaper until 1865 when the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery was adopted. One of the most ardent
supporters of the Anti-Slavery Movement, Garrison helped establish the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. He was its guiding
voice and its president for 22 years. Garrison supported the immediate emancipation of the slaves and openly praised Nat Turner's
insurrection. His perceived radicalism resulted in Garrison almost being lynched; additionally, he was mobbed several times and a
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$5,000.00 reward was offered by the State of Georgia for his capture. After the enactment of the Civil Rights Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution (the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments), his support for the rights of African Americans became less vocal. While raising
funds to relocate African Americans in Kansas, Garrison became ill and died one month later in New York on May 24, 1879.
Josiah Henson
Josiah Henson, African American Underground Railroad conductor and abolitionist, was born on June 15, 1789 in Charles County,
Maryland. He had a unique relationship with his slave master, Isaac Riley. Henson was treated well and made an overseer by Riley
who placed Henson as the head of an "expedition" to transport some of Riley's slaves out of Riley's creditors' reach. Although he was
seemingly treated well, Riley cheated Henson when he escalated the cost associated with Henson's attempt to manumit himself. When
it became clear he would never be able to pay the manumission sum, Henson and his family fled to Canada. Henson subsequently
returned to Kentucky and assisted fugitive slaves in their efforts to reach freedom. Henson established the Dawn Colony located in
Ontario, Canada where he hoped a permanent community of African Americans would exist where work ethics and morals would be
fostered. Unfortunately, it was a temporary community; nonetheless, it helped fugitive slaves make their transition to freedom. Henson
wrote his autobiography "Truth is Stranger Than Fiction" which some believe inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
Henson spoke on the abolitionist lecture tour circuit, continued working as an Underground Railroad conductor along the Tennessee
and Ontario routes, and served as a militia officer in the Canadian army. He died in Dresden, Ontario on May 5, 1883. He is the first
black person to be featured on a Canadian stamp and has been designated as a "Canadian of National Historical Significance."
John Percial Parker
John Percial Parker, African American Underground Railroad conductor, abolitionist, businessman and inventor, was born enslaved in
Norfolk, Virginia circa 1827. His mother was a slave and his father was white. At the early age of eight he was sold South to a "slave
caravan" that transported him to Mobile, Alabama. In Mobile, he was purchased by a physician and worked as his house servant. In
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1845, at the age of eighteen, Parker, who learned to read and write (sometimes apparently with the physician's sons) and purchased his
freedom. He settled near Ripley, Ohio, where he became an Underground Railroad conductor. Parker is credited with assisting more
than 1,000 slaves escape from Kentucky to freedom in Ohio. Parker travelled to Kentucky repeatedly and led slaves to freedom across
the Ohio River. He is known for making the Ripley, Ohio Underground Railroad more aggressive. Parker was one of the first African
Americans to receive a U. S. patent prior to 1900 for inventing a screw for a tobacco press. In 1888, at the Centennial Exposition of
the Ohio Valley and Central States, he was awarded a Bronze medal for his invention. In addition to the tobacco press screw, he
invented a sugar mill and a soil pulverizer. Parker built and operated the Phoenix Foundry and Machine Company; there, Parker
manufactured approximately twenty different products. His ingenuity and inventions are credited with contributing significantly to the
Ripley, Ohio economy as well as the surrounding communities. John P. Parker died in 1900.
John D. Richards
John D Richards was a Detroit leader and executive board member of the National Equal Rights League Convention, most noted for
his role in advancing abolition and civil rights. John D. Richards was recognized as one of Detroit’s established elite Negros during
the ante- and early post-bellum years. He was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1830 (US Census Data) to Maria Louise MooreRichards and Adolphe Richards, both of mixed ancestry. His mother, Mrs. Moore-Richards was an educated woman born to a Scottish
non-slaveholding white man and a free woman of color from Canada. Mr. Richards was originally from the Island of Guadeloupe and
educated in London. The family raised fourteen children in Fredericksburg, Virginia where a small group of free blacks settled. Mr.
Richards Sr. ran a woodturning; painting and glazing shop, and Mrs. Moore-Richards spent much of her time educating their children
and others of the Fredericksburg community. Despite Virginia’s history as a progressive southern state, black education became
increasingly difficult to attain. In 1851, Adolphe Richards died in Fredericksburg, so Maria Louise moved her family to Detroit where
a number of free blacks from Fredericksburg were starting to settle (Hartgrove 2010).
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Before the Civil War, Maria Louise sent her son, John D. Richards, to Richmond, Virginia to continue his education and learn a trade.
During this time, he met some future black leaders, including Judge George L. Ruffin. Upon returning to Detroit in 1851, Richards
gained prominence as an educated Negro abolitionist and leader of the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War Richards served
as a sutler (someone who follows an army and sells goods to the outfit) of the 102nd United States Colored Infantry. He also built up a
reputation as “the most eloquent black orator in Detroit” (Katzman 1973). On March 12, 1859, following a lecture by Frederick
Douglass, Richards and several other prominent abolitionists met to discuss a potential slave uprising in the South. Among these men
were Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Elijah Willis (a negro publisher and leader who was regarded as the head of the Negro
community in West Canada), William Webb (a business owner whose house was host to this meeting on 185 E Congress Street), Rev.
William C Monroe (the pastor of Second Baptist Church, which played a pivotal role in the escape of many freedom seekers to
Canada), William Lambert (a business owner and one of the pioneers of the Underground Railroad in Detroit), Joseph Ferguson (a
prominent Doctor in Detroit and brother-in-law to Richards), and George De Baptiste (who was also born in Fredericksburg, Virginia
around the same time as Richards. He was known as “the firebrand” of the abolition movement and was in support of violent means of
emancipation. His family settled in Detroit just prior to the Richards’ family exodus).
These men met to hear about John Brown’s plan for a violent raid on a weapons arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, which would
supply enslaved African Americans with weapons to revolt throughout the South. While some historians believe this meeting of
abolitionists was the birthplace of the famous raid on Harper’s Ferry, other evidence suggests that Brown had already planned his raid
and was looking for advice, money, man-power and moral support. Little is discussed in transcriptions of Richards’s role in the
meeting, but his relationships with De Baptist and Brown suggest that Richards served as an important contact in the Underground
movement and a potential supporter of violent methods of abolition (Woodford 1961). Following Brown’s death in the aftermath of
the raid on Harper’s Ferry, Richards was asked to give a eulogy in honor of Brown’s service at Second Baptist Church on December
2, 1859. A declaration in honor of John Brown was crafted at the service to continue his work and live out his ideals, to which
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Richards “responded so ably and eloquently to the declaration that the fire of liberty was kindled in the hearts of the whole assembly”
(Detroit Remembers John Brown). Richards stayed engaged in the abolition movement, eventually serving on the executive board of
the National African American Convention, which met in Syracuse, New York in October 1864 to discuss abolition and Negro
suffrage among black and white abolitionists. He also served as interim secretary of the National Equal Rights League in 1865, along
side George De Baptiste, B.D. Paul, O.P. Anderson, and James W Johnson. The National Equal Rights League served to obtain equal
rights for blacks, especially in during the reconstruction era, after 200,000 blacks had fought in the civil war but were denied basic
civil rights upon their return (Farmer 1884), (National Equal Rights League).
Beyond his involvement in the abolition movement, Richards was a barber in Detroit and married to Cecelia Richards, who hailed
from Kentucky. His sister, Fannie Mae Richards, was also a pioneer of the black community. In 1863, she opened her own private
school for Colored children as a way to lift the black race, and continued to educate in an integrated community under the Michigan
school laws of 1871.
William Still
William Still, African American abolitionist, entrepreneur, community leader and author, known as the "Father of the Underground
Railroad, " was born in 1821 in Indian Mills, New Jersey. Born free to parents Levin Steel, a fugitive slave (who later changed his
name to "Still") and Charity (formerly "Sidney") Steel a fugitive slave, Still worked on the family farm until 1844 when he moved to
Philadelphia. Within three years he taught himself to read and write. In 1847, he married Letitia George. He worked as a clerk for the
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia and for over 14 years he worked in the Underground Railroad. He became
Chairman of the Acting Vigilance Committee of Philadelphia that harbored fugitive slaves and assisted them in their efforts to reach
Canada. In 1851, he became Chairman of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. During the 1850s, despite penalties attached to violating
the Fugitive Slave Laws, Still and members of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee helped hundreds of fugitive slaves reach Canada.
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Still maintained records of his interviews with the escaped slaves, which formed the basis for his book "The Underground Railroad",
a comprehensive record of the Underground Railroad. (To avoid discovery, he hid his notes in a loft and in a graveyard.) His
depictions of the fugitives were of courageous individuals, neither helpless nor passive passengers on a white underground. William
Still died on July 14, 1902 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Charles T. Torrey
Charles T. Torrey, American abolitionist, was born on November 21, 1813 to Charles Torrey and Hannah Tolman (Turner) Torrey. He
attended Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire and Yale College, graduating in 1833. Following graduation he attended the
Theological Seminary in Andover, Massachusetts and was licensed to preach in 1836. In 1837, he married Mary Ide. While living in
Massachusetts, Torrey held a pastorate but later abandoned the ministry after he became an avid opponent of slavery. He became a
lecturer for the Massachusetts Abolition Society and lectured extensively from 1839 until 1842. In the Fall of 1842, he became the
Editor of the "Tocsin of Liberty" (later the "Albany Patriot,") a newspaper in Albany, New York. In 1842, while attending a
Slaveholder's Convention in Annapolis, Maryland as a reporter, he was grabbed by a mob and taken to a felon's prison where he was
subsequently released. Torrey assisted in the operations of the Underground Railroad and travelled extensively to the South freeing
slaves. From his home in Baltimore, Maryland, he helped more than four hundred slaves gain their freedom. In 1843, he made his last
attempt to free slaves and was arrested in Baltimore. He was charged with aiding slaves to escape, tried and found guilty. Torrey was
sentenced to six years hard labor. Charles T. Torrey died in prison in 1846. More than 3,000 people attended his funeral.
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree), African American abolitionist, was born enslaved on the Hardenbergh Estate in Swartekill,
New York in Ulster County in 1797. Her parents were Elizabeth ("Betsy Mau-Mau Bett ") and James Baumfree ("Bomefree"). Sold at
the early age of nine, she was sold again to a fisherman and again in 1810 to the family of Issac Dumont. In 1815, she was given to
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Thomas (last name unknown) as his wife; from their union five children were born. In the Fall of 1826/27 she escaped to an antislavery family who purchased her freedom. Originally a pacifist, she became an activist for the abolishment of slavery. She did not
align herself with one particular anti-slavery group and was not an active participant in the Underground Railroad, although she
provided assistance to fugitive slaves by helping them find new homes. In 1843, she left New York and moved to Springfield,
Massachusetts. In 1844/45 she met abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass; as a result of their meeting, she
became a champion of both abolition and women's rights. She travelled extensively as an anti-slavery speaker in the 1840s and 1850s
and in 1843 changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Seven years later her autobiography, "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A
Northern Slave" was published. In 1857, she purchased a home in Battle Creek, Michigan. During the Civil War she recruited black
troops and in 1864, was invited to the White House by President Abraham Lincoln. Sojourner Truth died in Battle Creek, Michigan in
1883.
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (aka Araminta Ross), African American abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad, was born enslaved
in Dorchester County, Maryland in 1820. Although her birth name was Araminta Ross, she changed her name to that of her mother Harriet. One of the most successful conductors on the Underground Railroad, she was often referred to as "Moses" and "General
Tubman", a name given to her by her friend, the abolitionist, John Brown. Although married in 1849 to John Tubman, a free black
man, she was fearful she would be sold. Fearing she would be sold, she escaped and travelled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During
the next ten years, she made 19 trips to the South and assisted more than 300 fugitive slaves to freedom including her sister, brother
and elderly parents. Tubman resided in St. Catharine's, Ontario from 1852 until 1861; During the Civil War she served the Union
Army as a scout, cook, nurse and spy. In 1869 she married Nelson Davis; they made their home in Auburn, New York where Tubman
spent the balance of her life. Harriet Tubman died in Auburn, NY in 1913 and was buried with military rites.
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