DETROIT – To celebrate Black History Month, let’s look back at the important role Detroit had in the Underground Railroad in the 1800s.
The Underground Railroad was a secret network of financial, spiritual and material aid for freedom seekers on their path from the south to freedom in Canada.
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Canada prohibited slavery and offered full liberation and safety. Across the Detroit River, the soon-to-be-called Motor City (codenamed “Midnight”) was one the last stops on the Railroad before enslaved people attained freedom in Canada.
There were at least seven known paths in Michigan that led freedom seekers from various points in the state to Canada, and there were about 200 Railroad stops that existed throughout Michigan between the 1820s and 1860s. Detroit was generally the final stop to achieving freedom.
George DeBaptiste, one of the most notable abolitionists in Detroit’s network, owned a barbershop and a bakery in the city before purchasing the steamship T. Whitney. He used the ship to secretly transport enslaved people from Detroit to Canada. He also created a secret organization that worked with the Underground Railroad in Detroit known as African-American Mysteries or Order of the Men of Oppression.
In 1836, 13 freed enslaved people from the First Baptist Church and established Detroit’s Second Baptist Church, Michigan’s first Black congregation. The church became an essential station on the Underground Railroad and housed about 5,000 freedom seekers for over 30 years. Abolitionists including John Brown, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth worked at Second Baptist.
The Underground Railroad ended in the 1860s with the end of the Civil War and the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.
Today, you can visit the international memorial to the Underground Railroad at Detroit’s Riverwalk, which dedicates and marks the significance of Detroit’s role in the Underground Railroad.
