Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 50

4 DETROIT FREE PRESSFEBRUARY, 1987 Blacks in Michigan waiters and blacks found if d-L it. II safe home in Cass County A By GEORGE WHITE Free Press Staff Writer a fertile, green, unsettled land in southwestern Michigan, two groups Quakers and blacks created a prosperous haven for the persecuted. The haven was Cass County, formerly known as Young's Prairie. The Quakers opposed slavery on moral and religious grounds. Many Quakers sought refuge in the territory because they had experienced religious persecution in other parts of k.

1 5.. 4 is? 4W A II Cass 1 County nj Map by NOLAN ROSS the country. Quakers established the first settlements in Cass County in 1829. Blacks were also pioneers in this region of the state. A Quaker brought the first black, a fugitive slave, to Cass County in 1836.

The former slave, William Lawson, helped establish a large and prosperous black community there. The community was largely made up of former slaves. Working together, and Quakers converted Cass County into a safe haven for former slaves. The county was a point of departure for the Underground Railroad, a secret network to help blacks escape Southern slavery. Detroit and Battle Creek were two of the other major departure points for users of the Underground Railroad.

The county also was attractive to many free blacks, persons who either purchased their liberty or were granted freedom. Most blacks settled in an area called Calvin Township. By 1860, about 58 percent of the residents of Calvin Township were black. The blacks and whites in Calvin lived in harmony. Blacks and whites attended the same school, which employed black teachers.

At least 15,000 slaves' passed through Cass County. Many of the slaves came from Kentucky and Virginia. They passed through Ohio and Indiana to reach Cass County. Most of the slaves came through the county to get to Canada, a country that prohibited slavery. However, many slaves decided to stay in Cass County when they discovered that there were many blacks in the area.

Many fugitives were able to settle because there were well-to-do blacks in Freed woman preached the sins of slavery By BEVERLY HALL LAWRENCE Free Press Business Writer Sojourner Truth was not her real name. The most well known of the American abolitionists who fought slavery with a missionary's zeal, the woman born Isabella Baumfree, renamed herself Sojourner Truth in 1843 after a conversation she said she had with God who asked her "to travel up and down the land" and preach the sins of slavery. This quick-witted woman with a deep voice was born in 1797 in Ulster County, N.Y., to a wealthy New York landowner. She spent her early childhood as an abused slave of many masters. Shortly before New York abolished slavery in that state in 1827, Sojourner the county.

Among the prosperous barks were William Allen, Littleberry Stewart and Samuel fcwks. Hawks came to Cass County from Ohio in 1853. Hawks, a free black, had earned money by cutting and selling wood. With his savings, he bought 80 acres of land in the county. Hawks made loans to blacks who needed money to settle in the county.

Stewart, who made a living by buying and selling real estate, also helped new black settlers. Stewart acquired land in the county, and leased some portions to incoming blacks. Stewart, who settled in the county in 1860, eventually acquired land in Kansas. He sold some of the Kansas property to blacks in need of a home. Allen, a farmer, was the most financially successful black in the county in the 1800s.

Allen began to invest in livestock in 1873. Eventually, he became the county's chief livestock buyer. Allen also grew sweet potatoes and sold the crops in markets in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Grand Rapids. In addition, Allen produced molasses and maple sugar for city markets. The financially successful community impressed Booker T.

Washington, a nationally prominent black educator who was a strong advocate of black economic development. After visiting Calvin Township in 1883, Washington made this observation: "There is practically no difference in the material condition of the two races in Calvin." Truth was sold to J6 Sojourner Truth Her first act as a freed woman was to wage a court battle in which she recovered her small son. Isaac Van Wagener, who set her free. In turn, she took the family's surname until she became Sojourner Truth. Between 1810 and 1827, Sojourner had borne at least five children to a fellow slave named Thomas.

Her first act as a freed woman was to wage a court battle in which she recovered her small son, who had been sold illegally in the South. Since childhood, Sojourner had visions and heard voices which she attributed to God. Obeying His call, Sojourner traveled all around singing and debating in churches and on street corners, telling her listeners to Booker T. Washington, left, said of Cass County: "There is practically no difference in the material condition of the two races in Calvin." accept the Bible message of God goodness and the brotherhood of man. It was during her travels that she met many other prominent abolitionists and began speaking on behalf of this "Great Movement" for all 1.

What rwo groups were among the God told her to do? firt tit settle in Cms Pnnntv? 6. What was her first act after being to be free. She also became active getting women the right to vote. Sometime in the 1850s, Sojourner moved to Battle Creek, but her work to aid other blacks did not stop. At the beginning of the Civil War (1861-1865), she gathered supplies for black volunteers.

In 1864 she went to Washington, D.C., where she helped integrate streetcars. That same year, she accepted an appointment with the National Freedmen's Relief Association, counseling ex-slaves who were resettling in other parts of the country. 1 Until her death in Battle Creek on Nov. 26, 1883, Sojourner spent her later years lecturing in the North. She wrote an autobiography called "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth." Two reliable biographies are "Sojourner Truth" by Arthur H.

Fauset, published in 1938, and "Her Name was Sojourner Truth'! by Hertha Pauli, published iff 1962. flAsk Uj i yourself set free? 7. What were her speeches about? 8. Name three things Sojourner Truth did to help blacks. 9.

Where was she living before she died? 2. Tell why they settled there. 3. What were free blacks? 4. What kind of reputation did Calvin Township have is terms of race relations and equality? 5.

What did Sojourner Truth say.