By Staff
The State Bar of Michigan literally did Cass County a monumental favor Aug. 16 by unveiling the 30th Legal Milestone at Southwestern Michigan College.
The bronze plaque will be permanently installed on the south side of the 1899 courthouse in Cassopolis.
Beginning in 1829, Calvin and Porter townships were settled by Quakers and free blacks, who enjoyed many rights not available to all blacks in the nation until the 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution made slavery illegal.
They formed the backbone of the Underground Railroad.
Even distinguished speakers the Bar assembled admitted that as youngsters they believed the network that fed and harbored those fleeing bondage while traveling the road to freedom in Canada literally must have trains traveling in tunnels.
The Kentuckians rounded up nine fugitives from four farms, but free blacks and Quakers surrounded the raiders and persuaded them to go to Cassopolis for a legal determination.
On the fugitives' assertion, 14 raiders were arrested for assault and battery, kidnapping and trespass.
A Berrien County court commissioner heard the case and let the fugitives go when the raiders could not produce a certified copy of Kentucky statutes showing slavery was legal.
While the Kentuckians stood trial, 45 fugitives, including the nine captured, fled to Canada.
Seven quakers were sued in U.S. District Court in Detroit for the value of the escapees, but the trial ended in a hung jury. Facing retrial, two defendants paid damages and court costs in the final settlement.
Such incidents infuriated southern slave owners who influenced Congress to adopt the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, making it easier to recover runaways.
Michigan countered with a Personal Liberty Act in 1855 to try to neutralize federal law.
Amendments making slavery illegal were ratified soon after the Civil War.
As dramatic as this chapter in Cass County's colorful history is, too few adults are familiar with it, let alone the youngsters who were invoked in speeches about mentoring and our responsibility to pass history on to the next generation.
Unfortunately, the timing of the August event coincided with schools' summer vacations.
A tremendous program would have been even better had it been held when students could have heard first-hand the inspiring story of local product Dennis Archer who, despite growing up in Cassopolis "too poor to pay attention," has gone on to serve as Detroit mayor and on the Michigan Supreme Court.
Archer grew up in Cass County, but apparently without hearing the Kentucky raid story as a child.
The immediate past president of the American Bar Association said, "People ought to come to Cassopolis and Cass County and see how to live and work with each other."
Dr. Michelle S. Johnson of the Freedom Trail Commission indicated that her organization is developing an Underground Railroad school curriculum.
MGTV also recorded the event, and students will likely be able to view that when they return to class.
In the meantime, The Museum at Southwestern Michigan College in Dowagiac opened an exhibit on the Underground Railroad.
Check it out this week before school starts when bored youngsters whine that there's nothing to do.
One of Cass County's proudest moments must never be forgotten.