Many people see the United States as the gateway to freedom. Canada was freedom for many African Americans during pre-Civil war times, to which Detroit was a gateway. Today in Detroit along the Detroit River there is a statue to commemorate the people who gained freedom to Canada. (For more information on the sculpture’s history and meaning click here.)
It wasn’t enough for a runaway slave to be in a free state. The north was not a stopping point, but the first on a long journey to Canada where runaway slaves would not be bound by US law. The fugitive Slave Act (1850) passed by U.S. Congress basically enforced the southern law of slavery in the north, therefore making a runaway slave in free-soil anything but free.
It’s an amazing story of thousands of people who sought freedom. In Michigan many home are preserved in such cities as Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor, and Saline, my hometown. Michigan routes vary (as seen on this map), but evidence shows that many routes were north of Jackson and Detroit. Historical writings and houses are along routes three and four of the map along Old Sauk Trail and Old Territory Road Trail. These same trails that brought slaves to freedom were first created by area Michigan tribes that were pushed out of the territory a generation earlier.
There is a lot of history about the underground railroad. I would encourage you to go beyond the typically reading of Harriet Tubman and check out your local library. There you can look into the history on the underground railroad such as journals of first-hand accounts of people who made the journey, or writings of people who had stations along the route.
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