The 12-foot-tall sculpture of Sojourner Truth in Monument Park, Battle Creek, where she died in 1883. Truth is at a lectern, representing her 40 years of public speaking for abolition and suffrage in 20 states. Photo: Grace Grogan.
By Grace Grogan
Editor’s note: This is the second of two stories about the history of slavery in Michigan. The first, “Michigan’s Hidden History of Slave Ownership,” can be found on page four of our March/April 2025 edition.
The Colored Vigilante Committee of Detroit helped more than 5,000 runaway slaves reach freedom between 1850 and 1865. (“Codeword: Midnight,” Travel Through Time, July 31, 2019.) This was one of several Detroit organizations promoting the abolition of slavery and “the elevation of our colored brethren to their proper rank as men.”
Other organizations included the Detroit Anti-Slavery Society and the African American Mysteries, a/k/a The Order of the Men of Oppression. The Refugee Home Society was founded on May 21, 1851, to help refugees in Canada and Michigan purchase land to begin their free lives.
Detroit’s code name was “Midnight” on the Underground Railroad. (“Underground Railroad,” Encyclopedia of Detroit, Detroit Historical Society.) The city’s abolitionist movements made it the primary last station on the Underground Railroad, a secret network of routes and safe houses that assisted slaves fleeing from captivity to reach freedom in the North. (“Detroit Anti-Slavery Society,” Encyclopedia of Detroit, Detroit Historical Society).
In 1832, the Quakers in Adrian, Michigan, formed Michigan’s first anti-slavery society. Elizabeth Chandler and Laura Haviland were part of that group. Elizabeth wrote articles and poems about the immorality of slavery. Following her death in 1834, Laura continued helping, which included being a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Conductors guided freedom seekers between stations or safe houses.
Michigan’s involvement was critical to freedom seekers. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed slave catchers to kidnap escaped slaves from free states and return them to their owners. Michigan residents, many of whom disagreed with the law, were legally obligated to comply. Sidestepping this requirement, Michigan passed an 1855 law prohibiting state and local officials from assisting slave catchers.
Michigan had at least seven paths to freedom between various Michigan points to the Canadian shore. An estimated 200 Michigan Underground Railroad stops existed between the 1820s and 1865, when the 13th Amendment abolished slavery. (“Doorway to Freedom: Michigan’s Role in the Underground Railroad,” Michigan.gov, State Board Meeting Minutes 2024/02/Item D.)
The Michigan History Center and Michigan Freedom Trail Commission preserve, protect and promote the story of the anti-slavery movement and legacy of the Underground Railroad in Michigan. The stories of 24 people fleeing enslavement can be found on an interactive map at: https://tinyurl.com/3um5f3ss.
Freedom seekers crossing into Michigan near Niles traveled through stop-over stations in Cass County, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. Freedom seekers crossing the Ohio River near Cincinnati traveled through Quaker settlements in eastern Indiana, north through Fort Wayne, and on to Battle Creek. They then traveled either east to Detroit, crossing the Detroit River into Canada, or northeast through Lansing and Flint to St. Clair or Port Huron, crossing the St. Clair River into Canada. (“The Underground Railroad in Michigan,” The Centennial History of Michigan, Chapter 26, edited by George N. Fuller, Lewis Publishing Co., 1939.)
Jackson, Michigan, was a “transportation network.” The Michigan Central Railroad Depot made the city a critical stop on the Underground Railroad. Using night-time as a cloak, “conductors” hid freedom seekers amongst crowds of passengers embarking on trains headed north. Today, the city contains bronze plaques marking homes, churches and businesses that provided sanctuary to slaves. (“Experience Jackson History,” https://www.experiencejackson.com/things-to-do/history/underground-railroad/)
The city of St. Clair and the township of East China were final stops on the American Underground Railroad. At least a half dozen residents in those areas served as “conductors” or supporters of the Underground Railroad. They were essential support links for freedom seekers en route to Canada. Among them were Rev. Oren C. Thompson, John and Martha Donihoo, Malinda Paris and Elizabeth Denison.
Rev. Oren C. Thompson, an abolitionist before the Civil War, opened an academy and lived in an adjacent home in St. Clair that served as a station on the Underground Railroad. Rev. Thompson would row slaves across the St. Clair River to Canada at night. (“Whispers of the Underground Railroad Linger,” The Voice, June 17, 2021.)
John and Martha Donihoo owned 725 acres and 19 slaves in Virginia in 1830. Within five years, they became abolitionists, purchasing 187 acres on Recor’s Point in China Township, Michigan. They farmed the land and built a steamer dock for unloading freight and people. In the winter, escaping slaves walked across the ice of the mile-wide St. Clair River into Canada.
Malinda Paris was a freed Black woman whose husband, William, escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad. They fled to Chatham, Ontario, Canada, then later returned to St. Clair, Michigan, to work in a hotel owned by General S. Brown. Their son, William Henry, fought in the Civil War in the First United States Colored Regiment.
Elizabeth Denison was the daughter of Peter and Hannah Denison, enslaved people owned by William Tucker, a British loyalist. Tucker owned a 3,300-acre farm on the Clinton River near modern-day Mt. Clemens. Tucker bequeathed Peter and Hannah their freedom, but their children were to remain enslaved to his sons. The Denisons sued for their freedom. Judge Woodward, himself a slave owner until 1824, (“Slaves, Judge Woodward, and the Supreme Court of the Michigan Territory,” Edward J. Littlejohn, Michigan Bar Journal, July 2015), ruled in 1807 that the children remain slaves due to legalities of treaties and property of British citizens. Elizabeth and one brother escaped to Canada following the 1807 Michigan Territory Supreme Court ruling that said escaped slaves living free in Canada could not be returned to slavery after returning to the U.S. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, abolishing slavery, about two-thirds of Black people in Canada returned to the United States. (“To Canada and Back Again: Immigration from the United States on the Underground Railroad, 1840-1860,” Western Ontario University’s MA Public History Program Students, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21: https://tinyurl.com/mwkssmr3. )
Elizabeth returned to Michigan, was emancipated, and was one of the first Black women to own property in Michigan and the first to own land in Oakland County. When she died in 1866, she bequeathed her life savings of $1,500 to build a church in which the rich and poor could worship together. The chapel is St. James Episcopal Church on Grosse Isle, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1971. Elizabeth Denison’s name was added to the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Underground Railroad ended in 1865 after the Civil War and the 13th Amendment abolished slavery. Battle Creek is home to two statues honoring abolitionist efforts. One depicts Sojourner Truth, born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, who escaped with her daughter and later sued for her son’s freedom. She is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Battle Creek. The other is the largest Underground Railroad Memorial in the U.S. It pays tribute to those who risked their lives helping enslaved people achieve freedom.
Michigan has 34 confirmed sites and likely more unofficial sites linked to the Underground Railroad. Using the Freedom Trail online interactive map (https://tinyurl.com/52hf8vkm), you can take a virtual tour of 24 sites highlighting people and places active in Michigan’s Underground Railroad. Locations are as far north as Grand Rapids and Muskegon, then have stops in Cassopolis, Schoolcraft, Battle Creek, Jackson, Marshall and Brooklyn, with a heavier concentration on the state’s east side. (“Michigan’s role in the Underground Railroad,” Michigan History Center).
The National Park Service operates the official Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. About 700 sites in 39 states are listed on this interactive map: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/undergroundrailroad/ntf-listings.htm). (Source: “Local historians still digging into Michigan’s Underground Railroad sites,” WXYZ Detroit, January 27, 2023.)
Michigan can be proud of its history during this period and of the citizens who risked their safety to help enslaved people obtain freedom.
Grace Grogan is a freelance writer and photographer who lives and travels full time in a motorhome with her partner, Paul Cannon.
