Freedom Train

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Many black slaves, having escaped from their southern masters, came north to Michigan hoping for freedom. Laws made it illegal for people to help slaves escape and allowed slave catchers to go to free states to find them. To hide from the slave catchers, these fugitive slaves often traveled secret routes that came to be known as the Underground Railroad. In 1830, Canada's Governor Simcoe welcomed blacks looking for freedom and thus made Detroit one of the most important stops on the Underground Railroad.

Code words sprang up to describe various parts of the Railroad. A "conductor" was someone who helped protect the slaves on their journey and "depots" were houses or barns in town where slaves hid. Once such conductor was Seymour Finney, a white tavern owner who also had a barn. At the same time the slave catchers were drinking in Finney's tavern and bemoaning how hard it was to find their slaves, Finney would have them hidden in his barn.

Two churches played prominent roles in the Underground Railroad. In 1836, thirteen free black Detroiters formed Second Baptist Church with a mission to free slaves From its inception until 1865, the church served as a "station" on the Underground Railroad, receiving some 5,000 slaves before sending them on to Canada. Second Baptist is still located on Monroe in Greektown.

First Congregational Church was founded in 1844 at Fort and what is now Washington Boulevard. It's close proximity to the riverbank offered sanctuary to the escaped slaves who hid in the church basement en route to boats crossing the Detroit River. Since then, the church has moved twice, but in it's current location on Woodward in the Cultural Center is a living museum where one can walk into the basement and experience, albeit briefly, what it might have been like to ride the Underground Railroad of the 19th century.

In all, it is estimated that more than 40,000 fugitive slaves made their way to freedom through Detroit on the Underground Railroad.

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Underground Railroad Tour at First Congregational Church