In the 1840s and 1850s, many area citizens, both Black and White, were secretly involved in helping fugitive slaves escape from the South. This complex system was referred to as the Underground Railroad.
It was not an actual railroad, but a secret network of people willing to risk legal action and the possible loss of their own property to help slaves gain freedom.
Residents of St. Joseph County, Indiana, offered their homes, barns and businesses as "stations" or safe places in which runaways could eat and rest as they made their way north. Due to the necessary secrecy of the Underground Railroad, many of the stations and their conductors will never be known.
Most notable among local Underground Railroad conductors was James Washington, a well-known and well-respected free Black in South Bend. Mr. Washington, a barber, and another barber, Mr. Sawyer, collected money from local citizens to fund the Underground Railroad.
Mr. Washington's barber shop was located on Washington Street in downtown South Bend, over Bartlett's Grocery and Bakery Store. Reminiscences by Charles Bartlett, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bartlett, tells of runaways hiding in the family store in the 1850s.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bartlett lived at 720 W. Washington Street. The women of Mrs. Bartlett's reading and sewing circle donated money to support the Underground Railroad.
Most runaway slaves did not stay in St. Joseph County, because Indiana courts upheld fugitive slave laws and fined abolitionists who were caught helping runaways. These slaves were usually returned to the slave owner.
With the assistance of local Quakers and others who were agents or conductors on the Underground Railroad, slaves made their way north to Michigan and on to Canada where freedom awaited.
There were many Quakers living in Cass County, Michigan, who helped the runaways and free Blacks establish new lives. With the support of the Quaker community, former slaves became farmers or small business owners.
African American Settlements in Cass County, Michigan
Indiana
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