Cycling the Underground Railroad--Part 2

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 DAY 19:  BRITTON, MI (REST DAY)


The first paragraph of this plaque by the gifted Black novelist Toni Morrison, found at the Lenawee County Historical Society in Adrian, Michigan, captures so much of the spirit of my Underground Railroad experience.   Pieces of this intriguing period of our history can be found if one looks, but we'll never know the entire story,  including the countless number of human tragedies that resulted from our dark legacy of human bondage.

Today Amanda took me to this Historical Society in the nearby town of Adian, Michigan.   Although the museum was closed, there was lots of interesting information all around it.
The Lenawee County Historical Society archives and museum is housed in this amazing 1909 Romanesque building.

Adrian was strongly anti-slavery and was active in the Underground Railroad.  The quote by Toni Morrison at the top was placed by a commemorative bench in honor of those who vanished trying to escape slavery.
Statue of Laura Smith Haviland

Perhaps southeast Michigan's most revered citizen is Laura Smith Haviland.  At the age of 24, she began working for the welfare particularly of those at the bottom of the social ladder and continued her work into her 80s.  She and her husband Charles started the first school to educate blacks and equip them for employment in Michigan.  She also helped start many anti-slavery societies not just in Michigan but as far south as Cincinnati.

I also learned about others leaders in the local Underground Railroad- movement--Joel Carpenter,  Reverend Henry Tripp and Elizabeth Chandler (a powerful force, but died early due to disease that ravaged the area).

.  In 1832, Chandler formed the first Female Antislavery Society in the Northwest Territories (now the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin). She passed only 2 years later.

There was no "National organization" for the Underground Railroad.  Efforts were coordinated locally, and oftentimes they intentionally did not know many others who were working the cause, in order to protect the secrecy and viability of their mission. 

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