"George-DeBaptistie" (March 26,1815-1875)

He was born to free African American parents in Fredericksburg,Virginia.As a young man,he was apprenticed to a barber in Richmond Virginia.George secured employment as a manservant to a wealthy Southern.Later he served as a personal valet to General William Henry Harrison.When William become President of  the United States,George was appointed as steward in the White House.After William's death,George and his wife returned to their former home in Madison,Indiana.


Madison,Indiana overlooks the Ohio River and was destination for runaway slaves from Kentucky.The Ohio River served as a fluid boundary between free Indiana and slaveholding Kentucky.John had briefly been employed on Riverboats and may have used his knowledge to ferry slaves across the Ohio River to Underground Railroad agent in Indiana.When Riots against free African Americans broke out in Indiana in 1845 & 1846,George moved his family to Detroit Michigan.


Detriot had an established free African American community when George arrived in 1846.There was an African American Baptist Church,a school for African American children in the church building and several African American-owned businesses.George engaged in successful commercial ventures:he purchased an interest in a barber shop,owned a catering business,and bought real estate.He rose in African American political circles and became known as an abolitionist and an important agent on the Underground Railroad.


The activities of the Underground Railroad in Detriot intensified in 1850 when the federal government passed the Fugitive Slave Law.The Law permitted the apprehension and return of escaped slaves who had settled  in free states.Detriot's proximity to Canada,where African Americans lived freely,made the city a uniquely important stop on the Underground Railroad.The Detriot River was a bustling port and an avenue of escape.


In 1850,George purchased the steamship,T.Whitney,and hired a white man to pilot it.The boat could be used as a commercial vessel and as a conveyance,secretly transporting ex-slaves to freedom in Canada.On March 12,1859,George was one of the locally prominent abolitionist who met in Detriot with Frederick Douglass and John Brown to listen to John's plans for armed rebellion at Harper's Ferry,West Virginia.


When the Civil War began,George energetically worked to form the Michigan Colored Infantry and was appointed the unit's sutler.At War's end,George returned to Detriot,sold the T.Whitney,and devoted his time to political causes;notably,the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constution of the United States.George devoted considerable energy to abolish slavery in the United States and to guarantee the vote for all African American males.He witnessed the achievement of both goals by the time of his death in Detriot.