The Gateway to Freedom International Memorial to The Underground Railroad is in Hart Plaza in Detroit
(Photo: Cara Stegler)
Statuary and Memorial Commemorating Detroit's Role in
the
Underground Railroad
at the Detroit River in Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit
The picture shows the Detroit
installation
of the International Memorial to the Underground Railroad erected
in the
year of the city's tercentennial. The companion monument by the same
sculptor in Windsor is located on Pitt Street East near the Windsor
Casino.
When Congress enacted the Northwest
Ordinance in 1787 to establish a governmental system for the area that
now includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin; they
declared that there shall neither be slavery nor involuntary servitude
in the area. This was not interpreted to convey freedom upon slaves
who were already living in the area or brought there by their masters.
Indeed, censuses counted small numbers of slaves in Michigan. The
last census to enumerate slaves in the state, 1830, counted 32.
In 1793, Upper Canada became the first area
within the British Empire to abolish slavery. There were, of course,
few slaves in the area now known as Ontario. And the 1793 act called
for a gradual end to bondage since those held as slaves in that year would
not be manumitted, but all of their offspring would be freed at age 25 and their children were free at birth. In
addition, the act specified that no slaves could be imported to Upper Canada. Karolyn
Smardz Frost, in her excellent book, I've Got a Home in Glory
Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (New York; Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2007) reports that a few Canadian slaves emancipated themselves
by escaping to Michigan.
The United States and Upper Canada had no
formal extradition treaty, but in 1833, the parliament of Upper Canada,
meeting in York—nowToronto—passed a Fugitive Offenders
Act. Slaves from the United States fleeing to Canada could not be
returned to bondage, but fleeing felons could be sent back. A few,
perhaps several dozen or more, slave owners went to Canada, hired counsel,
and sought the arrest and return of their property. They could not,
of course, ask for the return of a slave, but many of those who escaped
took a horse, money or other property from their masters. This allowed
owners to request the return of a felon. In almost every case, lawyers
working for the fugitive slaves successfully protected their clients. Smardz
recounts the story of Jesse Happy, a Kentucky slave who stole a horse for
his escape. His owner went to Canadian court to get an order for
his return. However, his lawyer pointed out that Jesse Happy apparently
felt bad about stealing the animal. When he got to Toledo, he boarded
the horse and had a friend write to his owner telling him to pick up the
horse. Canadian courts let him stay, arguing that he had not been
convicted of a felony in Canada. One fugitive slave, John Anderson,
was accused of killing a white man in Missouri as he escaped to Canada. US
slave owners in Canada asserted a right to the return of a felon. Canadian
courts and legal officials generally rejected such appeals contending that
the fugitive, after punishment, would be returned to bondage. Frost,
in the book cited previously, provides immense details about the complicated
legal maneuvers used by slave owners in the Canadian courts. In
almost all litigations, the fugitive slaves prevailed. John Anderson,
for example, was allowed to remain in Canada.
Several routes of the Underground
Railroad
went through Michigan. This statue commemorates the route through
Detroit. Another favorite crossing point was south of Detroit
near
where Amherstburg, Ontario is located. This is, perhaps, the
narrowest Point in the Detroit River. And by the mid-1830s, there
was a modest population of former slaves living there who aided other
to escape to freedom.
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