Freedom Frontier: Detroit Stories of Abolition and the Underground Railroad

The abolition and Underground Railroad movements serve as a very important and pivotal movement in antebellum Detroit. The city served as a sanctuary for freedom-seekers escaping the clutches of chattel slavery. This program will explore the stories of the city’s leading Underground Railroad station-masters and operatives and how the Detroit River became a primary terminal on the road to freedom for enslaved Africans Americans.

Presenter bio: Rochelle E. Danquah is an educator, historian, and activist known for her work in documenting, researching, and promoting American and African American history and culture, particularly the stories of the enslaved, freedom-seekers, and the activism of the antislavery and abolitionist movements from the colonial era to the Civil War. She is a leading scholar on the history of the Underground Railroad movement in Michigan, with a special focus on the topic in the southeastern region of the state. Currently, Danquah is completing her dissertation at Wayne State University in Early American History, with a special focus on slavery and Christianity, emancipation and freedom.

For more information about Rochelle and her work, visit: redanquah.wordpress.com

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