Monday, August 15, 2005

Kentucky Raid epitomizes races pulling together

By Betty DeRamus / The Detroit News

Error processing SSI file Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

In recent months, crosses have flamed on the lawns of black and biracial families in suburban communities, filling the air with the smell of old but still powerful hate.

I wonder what the cross burners would say about this week's celebration of the Kentucky Raid, an incident in which white and free black Michigan families rose up to protect their runaway slave neighbors.

A bronze plaque telling the story of the Kentucky Raid will be unveiled during a Freedom Road dedication beginning at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Southwestern Michigan College, 58900 Cherry Grove Road in Dowagiac. The plaque will be installed in Cassopolis, close to the now-demolished courthouse where Kentucky slave hunters surrendered to authorities in 1847.

This event is part of the State Bar of Michigan's Michigan Legal Milestone Program, which recognizes significant legal cases in Michigan's history. State Bar President Nancy Diehl believes the Kentucky Raid is tremendously important, especially in light of the current surge in racial incidents.

"This is really a very significant event," she says. "Too often people forget what folks did in terms of ... putting themselves in harm's way to end the practice of slavery in the United States. You'd think (these incidents) couldn't happen today, but there are still those among us who are ... trying to create problems."

In August 1847, 20 to 30 heavily armed slave catchers from Kentucky galloped into southwestern Michigan, attacking Quaker farms in Cass County and rounding up nine runaway slaves. Free blacks and Quakers in the area, a haven for escaped slaves, surrounded them. The groups traded angry threats.

Trying to head off violence, the Quakers convinced the Kentuckians to go to Cassopolis, the county seat, for a legal decision. There the raiders were indicted for assault and battery and kidnapping. The court commissioner who heard the case then ruled that because the Kentuckians lacked a certified copy of Kentucky laws showing that slavery was legal, the fugitive slaves should be freed.

A group of 45 blacks, including the nine arrested fugitives, fled to Canada. Seven Quakers were sued for the value of the fugitives. After the first trial ended in a hung jury, two defendants paid about $1,300 in damages and court costs and settled the case.

The Kentucky Raid was no one-time incident. The Underground Railroad, a secret network of people who sheltered, fed and transported escaping slaves, had routes all over Michigan, and people in several communities resisted slave hunters. Two hundred neighbors came to the aid of a Calhoun County family when slave hunters showed up.

From Oct. 21-23, Detroit historian Stewart McMillin will explore some of this history with a bus tour of Underground Railroad sites in Ohio and Kentucky.

Debian Marty, an associate professor at California State University-Monterey Bay, is a direct descendant of Ishmael Lee, one of the Michigan Quakers sued for his role in preventing the Kentucky raiders from recapturing runaway Kentucky slaves.

She believes the incident shows that "it's possible for people with different racial identities to work together to better our lives. ... It's also simply necessary ..."

Betty DeRamus' column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Metro. Reach her at 313-222-2296 or bderamus@detnews.com.