Michigan Freedom Trail

Isaac Bailey Burial Site at Oakhill Cemetery

647 Hall St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49507

Open to the public: Yes

Isaac Bailey (1816-1921) was born into slavery in Virginia. He escaped in 1852, immediately after protecting himself from abuse at the hands of an overseer. Quakers along the Underground Railroad helped Bailey flee to Canada, where he worked odd jobs until becoming a sailor.

When the Civil War broke out, Bailey volunteered for the First New York Cavalry as a horse keeper. He joined the 102nd Colored Infantry in January 1863, just weeks after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation permitting Black and Native Americans to officially enlist.

Bailey lived in Grand Haven after the war. There he married Clarissa Bordley. They moved to Grand Rapids around 1868 and had six children together. Isaac Bailey remained in Grand Rapids until his death at 105 years old.

Isaac Bailey’s grave is located in the north portion of Oakhill Cemetery, in Lot 1. The cemetery is open to visitors from dawn until dusk.

Stephen Bogue House and Marker

M-60 and Crooked Creek Road, Cassopolis, MI 49301

Open to the public: Yes, seasonally Website:  urscc.org 

Stephen and Hannah Bogue were Quakers and staunch abolitionists who settled in Cass County in the 1830s. By 1843, they hosted meetings for the Young’s Prairie Anti-Slavery Society in the house that still stands on this property. The Bogues and their neighbors put their values into action by supplying freedom seekers with food, shelter, financial assistance and work.

Among the people the Bogues employed was Perry Sanford. In April 1847, he fled from a Kentucky plantation and joined a group of self-emancipating people who decided to settle in Michigan rather than travel to Canada. He shared a cabin on the Bogue property with four others from the group: Rube Stephens, Joe Sanford, and Joe’s wife and daughter. In August of that year, a group of Kentuckians made their way to Cass County to recapture people they had previously enslaved.

Perry Sanford, Rube Stephens, and the Joe Sanford family were inside when they heard a knock at the cabin door. When they asked who was there, a voice answered, “a friend.” Recognizing the voice to be Jack Graves, Joe’s former enslaver, the inhabitants refused to open the door. Graves and his accomplices broke through the window and captured Joe Sanford, his wife and small daughter, but Perry and Rube Stephens ran.

Perry alerted Stephen Bogue to the attempted kidnapping, and Bogue rode away on horseback to warn others in Cassopolis. Meanwhile, Hannah Bogue hid Perry on the second floor of her home, where he watched nearby abolitionist William Jones occupy a large group of Kentuckians until Stephen returned with a warrant for the group’s arrest.

The Kentuckians were brought to Cassopolis and charged with assault, battery and kidnapping. After three days, Commissioner Ebenezer McIlvain ruled that they had provided insufficient copies of the Kentucky Statutes on Slavery and would have to return home without the people they had come to re-enslave. The freedom seekers made it safely out of Cass County with the help of other Underground Railroad members, including Zachariah Shugart, Dr. Nathan Thomas and Erastus Hussey.

Stephen Bogue lived here until his death in 1868. The house was remodeled in 1959, but the basic structure remained the same. Pleasant View Church of Christ bought the Bogue property in 1969 and used the house as a parsonage until 2016. The church donated the home to the Underground Railroad Society of Cass County in 2018. The URSCC offers tours of the Bogue House June through September.

Dr. Nathan Thomas House

613 East Cass St., Schoolcraft, MI 49087

Open to the public: Yes

When freedom seekers traveled through Kalamazoo County, they knew they could count on Dr. Nathan Thomas for help — his antislavery reputation was widely known. Dr. Thomas was the county’s first physician and one of Michigan’s most active participants in the Underground Railroad. Originally from the abolitionist-founded Quaker town of Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, Dr. Thomas assisted fugitives even before he built a home at this site in 1835. His wife, Pamela Brown Thomas, wrote: "His antislavery views were so well known that while he was a bachelor boarding at the hotel, fugitives from slavery had called on him for assistance and protection.”

Pamela Brown Thomas married Dr. Thomas in 1840 and was an equally strong contributor to the antislavery cause. According to her estimates, she and her husband supported more than 1,000 fugitives escaping enslavement. These freedom seekers often came to the Thomas home with the help of Zachariah Shugart, a Quaker living in Cass County, and departed from the Thomas' to connect with abolitionist Erastus Hussey, a Quaker based in Battle Creek.

The 1835 home was moved to its current location in 1868, when Dr. Thomas purchased land at the site. It passed ownership multiple times and served as a residence until 1975, when the Schoolcraft Historical Society purchased and restored the structure. The house is now a museum and open for tours by appointment.

Underground Railroad Monument in Battle Creek

Kellogg House Park of Harriet Tubman & other Underground Railroad operators 2-10 N. Monroe St., Battle Creek, MI 49017

Open to the public: Yes

While traveling across Michigan to safety in Canada, many freedom seekers found shelter in Battle Creek. Quaker abolitionists Erastus and Sarah Hussey, two of the town’s most prominent Underground Railroad participants, hid freedom seekers in their home and dry goods store. In the 1840s, Erastus was editor of the Michigan Liberty Press, an antislavery newspaper. He served in both houses of the state legislature in the 1850s and introduced the Michigan Personal Freedom Act, which protected formerly enslaved people. According to his estimates, Erastus and Sarah helped around 1,000 freedom seekers.

Battle Creek’s Underground Railroad Memorial depicts Erastus and Sarah Hussey hiding freedom seekers alongside Harriet Tubman. Although the Husseys never met Tubman, the image suggests a kinship among all who assisted people escaping enslavement. Artist Ed Dwight created the sculpture, which was dedicated in 1993. The memorial is located near the land where the Husseys lived.

Adam Crosswhite Marker

Lincoln St. and Michigan Ave., Marshall, MI 49608

Open to the public: Yes

In 1843, Adam and Sarah Crosswhite and their four children escaped from slavery at Francis Giltner’s Kentucky farm. Giltner sent a small party of men to recapture the Crosswhites in 1847, including his son David Giltner and a relative, Francis Troutman. The Kentuckians broke into the Crosswhite’s home the morning of Jan. 27, and Giltner tried to persuade Sarah to relinquish freedom of their children for her and her husband’s freedom. She refused.

The commotion surrounding the breaking and entering drew a crowd of Black and white community members who backed the Crosswhites. Marshall’s deputy sheriff arrested Giltner and Troutman for assault, battery and housebreaking. The two spent the night in jail while Marshall abolitionists helped the entire Crosswhite family flee to Canada.

In 1848, the Giltners brought charges in federal court in Detroit against seven Marshall citizens who aided the Crosswhites and in doing so violated federal law. The jury decided in favor of the Kentuckians, and the people of Marshall had to pay the Giltners $1,926. Adam Crosswhite resettled in Marshall some time after the Civil War.

The Crosswhites’ escape is commemorated with a marker on a boulder at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Lincoln Street, near the former location of the family’s cabin.

Mt. Evergreen Cemetery

1047 Greenwood Ave., Jackson, MI 49203

Open to the public: Yes

Mount Evergreen Cemetery includes the gravesite of Emma Nichols, a freedom seeker who used the Underground Railroad. Emma escaped from a plantation in Virginia in the 1850s and met her husband, Richard Nichols, not long after that. Richard had also achieved his freedom with the help of the Underground Railroad. The two lived on Biddle Street in Jackson and had four children. Richard worked as a barber, and Emma, as a seamstress.

The graves of at least seven people who assisted fugitives along the Underground Railroad are also in the cemetery. William and Mary DeLand, a husband and wife abolitionist team, harbored freedom seekers in their barn with the help of their son, Charles. Using his father’s lumber wagon, Charles transported people from Jackson to Grass Lake or Stockbridge during the night. The other Underground Railroad contributors buried here are Abel Fitch, Michigan Center’s first postmaster; Lonson Wilcox, a deacon at the First Congregational Church in Jackson; Norman Allen, a local politician who served as Jackson County Treasurer; and Seymour Treadwell, a writer who published the book "American Liberties and American Slavery" in 1838. Seymour Treadwell, William DeLand, and Norman Allen all worked for Jackson-based antislavery newspapers.

Mount Evergreen Cemetery was founded in 1843. The Greenwood Wall on the west side of the cemetery was built in 1873 and rebuilt in 1980 using the original wall’s stones. The cemetery is open to visitors during daylight hours.

Watkins Farm

14801 Arnold Road, Brooklyn, MI 49230

Open to the public: Yes

In 1847, Royal and Sally Watkins’ 1,000-acre farm was the site of an attempted kidnapping. The antislavery couple settled near Brooklyn in the 1830s and employed many laborers in the following decades, one of whom was a self-emancipated man named John Felix White.

White’s story is detailed in the autobiography of Laura Smith Haviland, an abolitionist and founder of a multiracial school called the Raisin Institute. In the fall of 1847, a man appeared at Haviland’s home claiming to be a teacher from Ohio and a contributor to the Underground Railroad. Haviland did not trust the stranger, and because she knew her former student John Felix White might still be pursued by his enslavers, she sent a messenger to warn White of the man’s arrival.

The stranger was J. L. Smith, a lawyer working for Kentucky enslaver John Brasher. According to Haviland’s retelling, Brasher and Smith had brought with them three men from Kentucky and recruited two of the “wickedest men in town” to help capture White. They gathered information on White’s whereabouts and headed for Watkins Farm two days after Smith’s initial meeting with Haviland.

Upon their arrival, Smith and Brasher’s team of seven men surrounded a field where John White was said to be working. They were enraged to find a “poor white man” instead and demanded that Royal Watkins account for White’s location. Watkins told them that White was likely in Canada, as he had dropped him off at the train depot the day before. Brasher and Smith were furious and threatened to have their revenge against Haviland.

Although White’s tale of escaping capture rings triumphant on its own, his story also demonstrates the tragedy that too often followed self emancipated individuals. In 1848, Haviland traveled to Kentucky and tried unsuccessfully to free White’s wife Jane, and their children. White made his own trip for the same purpose later that year. He was not only unable to free his family, but was himself caught and imprisoned until abolitionists paid his ransom. White was never able to free Jane and their children. He remarried in Canada before moving back to Michigan by 1860.

The Watkins Farm acreage remained in the Watkins family until the mid-twentieth century. Today, 405 acres belong to the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission and 717 acres are public lands managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. There are no buildings original to the Watkins Farm history, but visitors can enjoy walking trails and birding opportunities at the Watkins Lake State Park & County Preserve.

Laura Smith Haviland Commemorative Drinking Fountain

Lenawee County Historical Museum 110 E. Church St., Adrian, MI 49221

Open to the public: Yes

Laura Smith Haviland (1808-1898), one of Michigan’s prominent abolitionists, devoted her life to antislavery activism. She and her husband, Charles, sheltered fugitives on their farm in Lenawee County and in 1837, the couple founded the Raisin Institute, Michigan’s first integrated school.

Charles died in 1845, but Laura continued their efforts toward justice. During the late 1840s, she made multiple trips to southern states to try to free family members of freedom seekers who had settled in Michigan. These efforts, along with her persistence in helping fugitives evade slavecatchers, put a target on Haviland’s back — but threats from angry slaveholders did not deter her work.

After the Civil War, Haviland spent many years supporting Black communities outside of Michigan. While working with the Freedman’s Bureau in the South, she established schools, volunteered as a nurse, gave public lectures, and met with President Andrew Johnson to advocate for the release of individuals who were imprisoned for trying to escape slavery. In the 1870s, she supplied Black refugees in Kansas with supplies and acres of farmland. Haviland published an autobiography entitled "A Woman’s Life Work" in 1881.

Members of the Adrian community funded the commemorative drinking fountain honoring Laura Smith Haviland, which was constructed in 1909.

John Lowry Burial Site at Lodi Cemetery

Corner of Saline-Ann Arbor & Textile roads, Saline, MI 48176

Open to the public: Yes

Lodi Cemetery is the final resting place of ardent abolitionist Captain John Lowry and his wife, Sylvia. The Lowrys settled in Lodi Township in 1825. By mid-century their 700-acre farm had become a sanctuary for freedom seekers traveling through Michigan. The Lowrys were not quiet about their participation in the Underground Railroad. Reportedly, a large sign on their property depicted black and white figures together in a message of unity. It became a popular subject of conversation for stagecoach travelers.

The Lowrys provided freedom seekers with food, clothing and money. Captain Lowry also financially supported the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society. In 1854, at a society meeting, he argued that slavery was antithetical to the spirit of the United States Constitution. After Captain Lowry’s death, his generous actions were said to be motivated by his “feeling it to be far better to please God than man.”

The cemetery is currently open to visitors daily from dawn until dusk.

John Felix White Gravesite at Fairview Cemetery

1401 Wright St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Open to the public: Yes Website:  a2gov.org/fairview 

John Felix White (1821-1905), a self-emancipated man who sought his freedom through the Underground Railroad, is buried in Fairview Cemetery. He escaped enslavement in Kentucky around 1844, shortly after being sold to a slave trader and separated from his wife, Jane, and their children. White escaped through Indiana into Michigan and eventually attended the Raisin Institute, a multiracial school run by abolitionist Laura Smith Haviland. In 1845, White traveled south to rescue his family — but returned to Michigan unsuccessful.

By 1847, White was working as a laborer on the Royal Watkins farm in Brooklyn, Michigan. That fall, a group of seven men sent by White’s former enslaver traveled to Michigan to bring White back to Kentucky. Haviland, Watkins, and others helped White flee and avoid recapture.

The following year, Haviland traveled to Kentucky and tried unsuccessfully to free White’s family. White made his own trip of the same purpose in the months following. He was captured and imprisoned until abolitionists paid his ransom. Tragically, White was never able to free or reunite with Jane and his children. He moved to Canada, where he remarried and started a new family. They had moved back to Michigan by 1860.

Fairview Cemetery is still active and is open to the public from dawn until dusk. White is buried in section 11.

Guy Beckley House

1425 Pontiac Trail, Ann Arbor, MI 48105

Open to the public: No

For Reverend Guy Beckley, there was no greater calling than abolitionism. After moving to Ann Arbor with his family in 1839, the Rev. Beckley founded the Michigan Wesleyan Anti-Slavery Society and gave frequent lectures on the immorality of slavery. He co-published the Signal of Liberty, a newspaper that included harrowing firsthand accounts of slavery from freedom seekers themselves. On May 19, 1841, the Signal of Liberty reported that six fugitives assisted by local abolitionists had made it safely to Canada. The paper responded to those who complained that the Rev. Beckley and his compatriots were “worse than horse thieves” and had “no regard for the civil authority” by firmly stating that their faith demanded that they do “unto others as we would they should do unto us.”

The Rev. Beckley became vice president of the Executive Committee of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society in 1845. He continued his fervent abolitionist efforts until his death in 1847 at just 42 years old, living out an 1841 declaration published in the Signal of Liberty: “Never, no never, while our lips can pronounce a word or our fingers use the quill, will we cease to plead the cause of our injured colored brother.”

The Rev. Beckley’s Georgian style house on this site was built in 1842. It became rundown over the century that followed his death, but architect Ralph W. Hammett purchased and restored the home in 1933. The house is currently a private residence.

W.W. Harwood Farm

 6356 Michigan Ave.,  Ann Arbor, MI 48108

Open to the public: No

In the 1850s, freedom seekers found refuge along what is now U.S. 12 at the farms of William Webb Harwood, Asher Aray and Roswell Preston. These three men kept wagons and supplies on hand for self-liberating people passing through the area. In 1853, Aray, an African American abolitionist, sheltered a group of 28 freedom seekers and drove them to Detroit so they could settle safely in Canada. Harwood and Aray are both buried at Harwood Cemetery.

The Harwood family’s 1848 farmhouse is the only historical structure remaining on the Preston, Aray and Harwood farmsteads. The home and cemetery are part of a private residence and not open to the public.

McCoy Cabin Site at Starkweather Farm

1266 Huron River Drive, Ypsilanti, MI 48197

Open to the public: No

Years after seeking their own freedom through the Underground Railroad, George and Millie McCoy supported fugitives traveling through Ypsilanti. The McCoys were born into slavery in Louisville, Kentucky. George was emancipated at age 2 and married Millie while she was still enslaved. The couple escaped to Canada in the late 1830s and lived there until the late 1850s, when they moved to Ypsilanti and settled in a cabin on John and Mary Ann Starkweather’s farm.

George and Millie had 12 children, including inventor Elijah McCoy. Another of their children, Anna, remembered retrieving letters from the post office sent by John Hatfield, an Underground Railroad participant in Cincinnati, Ohio. She watched as her mother, Millie, responded to the letters by preparing extra food and putting the children to bed early. George operated a cigar business and hid freedom seekers under his supply wagon’s false floor during trips to Detroit. These operations were particularly dangerous for the McCoy family because Millie could have been legally pursued and recaptured by her former enslavers at any time. In spite of the danger, the McCoys chose to assist self-liberating people on the same path they had traveled decades before — fleeing through Ohio and Michigan on their way to freedom.

The McCoy cabin is no longer standing, but the Starkweathers’ 1844 Greek Revival home remains. The site is private property and not accessible to the public outside of occasional planned tours.

Nathan Powers Burial Site at Quaker Cemetery

Gill Road between Cortland and State streets, Farmington, MI 48335

Open to the public: Yes

The Quaker town of Farmington was a hub for antislavery efforts from the 1830s to the 1850s. At times when Detroit was deemed too dangerous for passage to Canada, freedom seekers rested in Farmington on their way to attempt a crossing at Port Huron.

Nathan Power, whose father founded Farmington in the 1820s, was one of the town’s most active abolitionists. Power and his wife, Patience, coordinated safe travel for fugitives and provided them with food and shelter. Power was heavily involved in antislavery societies and ran for Michigan lieutenant governor with the Liberty Party in 1841. He also supported the Refugee Home Society, an organization that assisted formerly enslaved people living in Canada, by sharing his knowledge of northern farming with families living in the society’s Ontario settlements.

Nathan Power’s gravesite is located in Quaker Cemetery, which is open to the public during daylight hours.

Elijah S. Fish and George B. Taylor Burial Sites at Greenwood Cemetery

Oak St., West of Old Woodward Birmingham, MI 48009

Open to the public: Yes Website:  bhamgov.org 

Greenwood Cemetery is the final resting place of two men with connections to the Underground Railroad — George Taylor, who escaped through the network; and Elijah Fish, an abolitionist who supported freedom seekers such as Taylor. 

George Taylor fled enslavement in Kentucky in April 1855. Bloodhounds pursued him, and bounty hunters captured him in Indiana. Local antislavery justice authorized his release. After a four-week journey, Taylor settled in Windsor, Canada. He had moved to a farm outside of Birmingham, Michigan, by 1858, and had married the formerly enslaved Eliza Dosier by 1870. In the 1890s, the couple became Birmingham’s first Black property owners.

Elijah Fish founded the first Presbyterian Church in Birmingham and organized the Oakland County Anti-Slavery Society. In 1851, he helped establish the Refugee Home Society to provide freedom seekers with their own land and community in Canada. Fish also supported fugitives along the Underground Railroad and arranged for abolitionist speakers to visit Birmingham.

Greenwood Cemetery is open to the public.

Caroline Quarlls: A Family Legacy of Freedom

18435 Ohio Street, Detroit, MI 48221

Open to the public: Yes

At just 16 years old, Caroline Quarlls traveled Michigan’s Underground Railroad network alone on her way to Canada. Her journey began in St. Louis, where she was born to her father and enslaver, Robert Quarlls in 1826. By the time she was a teenager, Robert had died and left Caroline to work as a housemaid for his sister.

When Caroline was 16, her mistress punished her by cutting off her long hair. Frustrated by this injustice, Caroline, who had been considering the pursuit of freedom for quite some time, managed to acquire $100 and purchase a ferry ticket to Alton, Illinois. Her light skin allowed her to make the trip with little suspicion.

Caroline traveled from Alton to Milwaukee, where an emancipated barber named Robert Titball offered her shelter. Soon after her arrival, Titball alerted bounty-hunting lawyers to her location for a reward. Luckily, local abolitionists caught word of this betrayal in time to hide Caroline in a sugar barrel while the bounty hunters searched unsuccessfully.

Her journey continued through Wisconsin, Indiana, and finally, Michigan, where she stayed with notable abolitionist Rev. Guy Beckley. Caroline finally settled safely in Canada, where she married another emancipated freedom seeker named Allen Watkins and had six children.

St. Matthews Episcopal Church (now St. Matthews St. Josephs Episcopal Church)

8850 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48202

Open to the public: Yes

Organized in 1846, St. Matthew’s Church was one of Detroit’s first Black congregations. Its founders were two of the city’s best-known abolitionists, the Rev. William C. Monroe and William Lambert. Monroe, who had previously pastored Second Baptist Church of Detroit, encouraged antislavery activism within both congregations. Lambert, a tailor who promoted community welfare through the Colored Vigilant Committee, recalled helping more than 1,600 freedom seekers cross the Detroit River into Canada. In 1847, the Reverend Monroe and Lambert aided Robert Cromwell, a freedom seeker who had settled in Detroit. When Cromwell’s former enslaver, John Dunn, tried to recapture him, Lambert and other abolitionists ferried Cromwell to Canada and the Reverend Monroe saw to it that Dunn was arrested.

Another noteworthy abolitionist was Reverend James Theodore Holly, who became a deacon at St. Matthew’s Church in 1855. Holly was co-editor of Henry Bibb’s newspaper The Voice of the Fugitive and promoted Bibb’s Refugee Home Society to advance the lives of freedom seekers who had settled in Canada.

After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the congregation’s numbers dwindled — many church members had self-liberated and felt safer in Canada. St. Matthew’s sold its building in 1864 but reorganized and moved into another building in the early 1880s.

St. Matthew’s has occupied many locations since its founding. In 1971, it merged with St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church and settled at its current location. The Gothic Revival style church was built in the 1920s and is open to the public during select hours.

Blackburn Rescue & Riots (1833) at Wayne County Jail Site

121 Gratiot Ave.,  Detroit, MI 48226

Open to the public: Yes

In 1831, Ruthie and Thornton Blackburn escaped slavery in Kentucky and settled in Detroit. They lived freely until June 1833, when a friend of Thornton’s enslaver reported seeing him in the city. The Blackburns were arrested June 14 and taken to court the next day. The judge, honoring the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, ruled that Ruthie and Thornton must return to Kentucky.

Upon hearing this ruling, community leaders from Detroit’s Black population began protesting and formed a rescue plan. On June 16, wearing their Sunday best, Caroline French and Tabitha Lightfoot visited Ruthie in her cell at the Detroit city jail. Caroline and Ruthie traded clothing, and after nightfall, Caroline stayed behind as Ruthie escaped with Lightfoot.

The next day, a crowd of protestors formed outside the jail and demanded Thornton’s release. Sheriff John Wilson brought Thornton out to begin his journey to Kentucky; the protestors advanced. During the commotion, Thornton’s supporters took him through the woods and across the Detroit River to Canada.

In response to the court decision and the Blackburns’ tumultuous rescue, white and Black protestors engaged in the city’s first racial riot. Numerous fires and street brawls resulted in dozens of arrests. Although both Black and white people were tried, only Black participants were convicted.

Meanwhile, the Blackburns awaited a court decision in Canada, where they were jailed upon arrival. Michigan tried to extradite them twice, but the Canadian lieutenant governor refused to return the fugitives — a decision that solidified Canada as the terminus (end) for the Underground Railroad. Sensing the dangers of remaining in Detroit, many of the city’s Black population moved to Canada following the riots. The Blackburns settled in Toronto and started the city’s first taxi service, and Ruthie changed her name to Lucie.

The Detroit city jail moved from its Gratiot Avenue location in the 1840s, and a public library was erected on the lot in the 1870s. The current library, built in 1932, sits on the former site of the Blackburn rescue and is open to the public. It is named the Rose & Robert Skillman Branch after the donors who funded the building’s renovation in 2000.

First Congregational Church of Detroit

33 E. Forest Ave., Detroit, MI 48201

Open to the public: Yes

Established in 1844, First Congregational Church of Detroit supported antislavery activism in numerous ways. The church outgrew its original building by 1854. Its second structure’s proximity to the Detroit River made its basement an ideal location for concealing fugitives while they awaited safe passage to Canada.

The Rev. Harvey Kitchel, who pastored the church from 1848 to 1864, staunchly advocated for the abolitionist cause during his tenure. In 1851, he was a charter member of the Refugee Home Society in 1851, an organization that supported emancipated freedom seekers by establishing settlements in Canada. He became president of the society the following year and oversaw significant monetary donations from First Congregational Church.

The church members’ activism went beyond financial support. Elder Horace Hallock sheltered freedom seekers in his home; Silas Holmes worked alongside self-emancipated abolitionist Henry Bibb; and multiple congregants served in leadership positions for antislavery political organizations. The church’s beliefs and actions furthered the antislavery cause before Michigan’s Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations officially announced their oppositions to slavery.

First Congregational Church moved into its current building in 1891. It opened an Underground Railroad Living Museum in 2001, allowing visitors to experience what the journey to freedom might have felt like. The church is open to the public during select hours.

Finney Barn Site

1212 Griswold Street, Detroit, MI  48226

Open to the public: N/A

Situated about a 1/2 mile from the Detroit River, Seymour Finney’s barn was often the last stop for freedom seekers on their way to Canada. In the early 1850s, Finney built the barn to serve the guests at his hotel, Finney House. Fugitives took cover in the barn’s hayloft until nightfall, when abolitionists coordinated secret trips across the river.

Finney was a member of the Free Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. He exemplified his steadfast abolitionism during an 1864 speech in Coldwater, declaring: “The war is not to cease until the shackles fall from every slave in the United States, if it took every dollar and every drop of blood of the North to do it.”

Finney’s barn was torn down and replaced with a commercial office building in the 1890s. Visitors can access a historical marker about Finney at Capitol Park, which is across from the barn’s former site. 

Second Baptist Church of Detroit

441 Monroe St., Detroit, MI 48266

Open to the public: Yes

At Second Baptist Church of Detroit, free and self-emancipated congregants who had survived the hardships of escaping enslavement provided food, shelter and transportation to fugitives on their way to Canada. Founded in 1836, Second Baptist was the first Black church in Michigan. Its founders organized after facing discrimination and segregation at First Baptist Church. William C. Monroe, Second Baptist’s first pastor, made assisting freedom seekers a top priority. His actions inspired a line of pastors and church leaders who organized, funded and executed plans for escape along the Underground Railroad.

In 1842, a group of Black Detroit citizens formed the Colored Vigilant Committee. In addition to supporting members of their community educationally, politically and socially, the CVC assisted more than 1,000 freedom seekers escaping to Canada. Several congregants of Second Baptist Church were part of the CVC, including prominent abolitionist George DeBaptiste.

Second Baptist Church originated in congregants’ homes and occupied a building on Fort Street by 1839. It moved to its current location in 1857, but the existing structure was built in 1914. The church is open to the public and welcomes visitors.

George DeBaptiste House

441 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, MI 48226

Open to the public: Yes

George DeBaptiste contributed to the antislavery cause in remarkable and multifaceted ways. DeBaptiste was a Black man born free in Virginia in 1815. He moved to Madison, Indiana, with his wife, Lucinda, around 1838 and sheltered freedom seekers escaping from Kentucky via the Ohio River. DeBaptiste worked as President William Henry Harrison’s steward in 1840 and moved to Washington, D.C. He returned to Indiana after Harrison’s death in 1841.

DeBaptiste continued his Underground Railroad activity in Madison until harassment from slavery supporters forced him out of town. In 1846, he moved to Detroit and continued to assist freedom seekers, while working as a barber, operating a bakery and becoming a salesclerk. DeBaptiste purchased the steamship called the T. Whitney in 1850 and hired a white captain to transport cargo to Canada. The ship also ferried freedom seekers to safety, despite the Fugitive Slave Act making this assistance more dangerous.

DeBaptiste was involved with multiple antislavery organizations in Detroit. He worked closely with William Lambert in the Colored Vigilant Committee and the Order of the Men of Oppression. In 1859, DeBaptiste met with John Brown and Frederick Douglass as they discussed Brown’s plans for the raid at Harper’s Ferry. During the Civil War, DeBaptiste helped organize the first Michigan Colored Regiment and provided supplies for them. After the war, he campaigned for Black education and the right to vote. DeBaptiste died of cancer in 1875 and is buried in Detroit’s Historic Elmwood Cemetery.

During the 1850s and 1860s, George DeBaptiste lived at what is now the intersection of Beaubien and Larned streets in Detroit. His home is no longer standing, but the site is marked with a Michigan Historical Marker.

Elmwood Cemetery

1200 Elmwood Ave., Detriot, MI 48207

Open to the public: Yes

Founded in 1846, Elmwood Cemetery is the final resting place to both freedom seekers and abolitionists who supported their plight.

At least three formerly enslaved individuals are interred in the cemetery. Elizabeth Denison Forth was born into slavery in Macomb County around 1793 when Michigan was still a territory and later became Pontiac’s first Black landowner. Amanda “Minda” Lynch’s emancipation story is unknown, but she was born into slavery in the South around 1755 and obtained her freedom some years before her death in 1865. The Reverend James Robinson served in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 before northern sympathizers arranged his freedom.  

The Underground Railroad contributors buried in Elmwood include notable Black abolitionists. William Webb served as secretary for the Refugee Home Society, an association that supported fugitives once they settled in Canada. Webb worked with William Lambert, who helped an estimated 1,600 people attain freedom. Both Webb and Lambert collaborated with George DeBaptiste, whose antislavery activity ranged from operating a steamer that transported freedom seekers to leading abolitionist organizations. Dr. Joseph Ferguson, one of Michigan’s first Black physicians, was also involved in Detroit’s Underground Railroad network.

Other antislavery advocates include Horace Hallock, the Reverend Oren Cook Thompson, Samuel Zug, and Captain Eber Ward. These men were involved in Michigan antislavery societies and assisted freedom seekers by offering shelter, transportation, or supplies.

Some of the men interred in Elmwood used their professional status for the antislavery cause. Attorney James Frederick Joy represented the citizens of Marshall after they helped the Crosswhite family escape re-enslavement. Senator Jacob Merritt Howard represented residents of Cass County who protected freedom seekers. He later helped draft the 13 ^th  amendment to the U.S. Constitution which abolished slavery. Judge Ross Wilkins warned the Hamilton family that former enslavers had obtained a warrant for their capture. Senator Zachariah Chandler, who co-founded the Republican Party, donated money to Underground Railroad efforts. 

Elmwood Cemetery is open to the public from dawn until dusk. The Historic Elmwood Foundation, established in 2005, offers educational programs about the cemetery’s rich history. The organization’s website contains information for self-guided walking tours, including an Underground Railroad tour.

Henry and Elizabeth Hamer Burial Site

Henry Hamer (c. 1816-1899) and Elizabeth Hamer (c. 1824-1913) were enslaved by Henry Bruce, Jr. in Covington, Ohio. The Hamers served the members of the Bruce household as a “husband and wife team”.

After discovering Elizabeth was pregnant, Henry and Elizabeth quietly escaped the Henry Bruce property on August 27, 1856. There is no written record detailing their escape. With no information about who assisted the Hamers or if anyone harbored them, assumptions can be derived from the well-documented Black and abolitionists communities in Cincinnati. Black people in Cincinnati were forced to live in three areas along the Ohio River’s edge, all three which became an important part of the abolitionist movement. The Hamers more than likely sought help from these communities in their escape.

The details for the Hamers escape to freedom has been passed down as oral history to their descendants. According to a 1973 recount by the granddaughter of Henry and Elizabeth, the pair escaped with another couple and traveled along the Underground Railroad networks. They hid in wagons, buildings and the homes of UGRR operatives. They eventually found shelter in Windsor, Canada West. On March 11, 1857, Charles Henry Hamer, their first child after self-emancipating, was born.

Henry eventually found work in Royal Oak Township and by 1860, the family settled in the township. After farming rented land and working odd jobs, Henry and Elizabeth were able to save enough to purchase 5 acres of land. Elizabeth was a homemaker and wife. The couple had a total of six children after self-emancipating, five of whom were born in Royal Oak.

Henry, Elizabeth and their children are all buried at the Royal Oak Cemetery.

Southfield Reformed Presbyterian Church

In the nineteenth century, the Southfield Reformed Presbyterian Church (SRPC), located in Southfield, Michigan, was committed to abolitionism and aiding enslaved persons on their journey to Canada West.

Rev. James Saurin Turretin Milligan (1826-1912) acknowledged that he and the members of the congregation always assisted freedom-seekers. Self-emancipated Black people were consistently sheltered as individuals or in small groups at the church or at Rev. J.S.T Milligan's home.

In 1834, SRPC was organized as a congregation by the Western Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), in Southfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan Territory. Members of the RPCNA, known as Covenanters, established churches in the Midwest dedicated to ending slavery immediately. The SRPC and RPNCA goals were to eradicate slavery and influence the U.S. government to honor African Americans' God-given rights to freedom, justice and equality.

By 1800, the RPCNA was the most radical white abolitionist denomination in America. The Covenanters were immediatists and advocated the immediate end to chattel slavery and advocated for enslaved people had the right to use force to gain their freedom, by any means necessary.