George DeBaptiste

George DeBaptiste ( – February 22, 1875) was an African-American conductor on the Underground Railroad in southern Indiana and Detroit, Michigan. Born free in Virginia, he moved as a young man to the free state of Indiana. In 1840, he served as valet and then White House steward for US President William Henry Harrison, who was from that state. In the 1830s and 1840s DeBaptiste was an active conductor on the underground railroad in Madison, Indiana. Located along the Ohio River across from Kentucky, a slave state, this town was a destination for refugee slaves seeking escape from slavery.

DeBaptiste moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1846. While Michigan was a free state, refugee slaves often preferred to continue to Canada to get beyond the reach of United States fugitive slave laws. DeBaptiste was considered the president of the local underground railroad group. During this period, he purchased a lake steamboat for carrying fugitives across the Detroit River to Amherstburg, Ontario. Historians have estimated that DeBaptiste and close collaborator William Lambert secured passage of hundreds of slaves, of the estimated 30,000 slaves who settled in Canada.

In the late 1850s, DeBaptiste worked with nationally known abolitionists Frederick Douglass and John Brown. During the American Civil War, DeBaptiste helped recruit black soldiers from Michigan for the Union Army. After the wars he continued to work for African-American civil rights, helping gain admission of black children to Detroit public schools.

Early life

George DeBaptiste was born about 1815 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Different sources identify different parents, and they differ on whether George was born free. The encyclopedia, The Underground Railroad (2015), names John Debaptist and Frances "Franky" as his parents. They were both said to have been born into slavery, but had gained freedom before their son George was born. Because his mother was free, George was born free. Betty DeRamus names George DeBaptiste and Maria as the boy's parents. She said that George legally owned Maria and their son, but set them free on March 12, 1823. William J. Simmons and Henry McNeal Turner, writing in 1887, identified the young George DeBaptiste as brother to Richard DeBaptiste, who became a noted minister in Chicago, and as son of William and Eliza DeBaptiste.

George learned the barbering trade in Richmond, Virginia. In his mid-teens he married Marie Lucinda Lee, a slave, and purchased her freedom with his earnings as a free black person.

Move to Madison, Indiana As a young man, DeBaptiste moved with his wife to Madison in the free state of Indiana. Around 1836 he invested in businesses. He also began to harbor black fugitive slaves as a conductor in the Underground Railroad. Located along the Ohio River, Madison became a destination for slaves escaping to freedom from Kentucky. It is located nearly halfway between the larger cities of Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, both of which are river cities.

DeBaptiste's network of supporters included Dr. Samuel Tibbetts in Madison and William Beard, a Quaker, in Salem, Indiana in Washington County. Catherine White Coffin and Levi Coffin were the superintendents of the ring and arranged relays of slaves to Canada.

Valet to William Henry Harrison

Before his election to US President, William Henry Harrison was living in North Bend, Ohio. DeBaptiste became his valet during his campaign and, after Harrison was elected president, he appointed the young man as White House steward.

Harrison's term was the shortest of any presidency, as he died of illness after one month in office. DeBaptiste had become very close with the president and cared for him during his illness. After Harrison's death, DeBaptiste returned to Madison. About this time, DeBaptiste, Lambert, and Coffin began working with George J. Reynolds. George's relative and possibly brother, Richard DeBaptiste, moved to Detroit from Virginia in 1846 and worked with George there, and in the 1850s in Ohio.

In 1848, DeBaptiste took work as steward on the steamship Arrow, which traveled on the Great Lakes between Sandusky, Ohio and Detroit. DeBaptiste purchased a lake steamship, the T. Whitney. He could not hold a captain's license, so he hired a white captain named Atwood. The boat ran a similar route to the Arrow. It regularly stopped at Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada to load up on lumber and, presumably, to offload fugitives. He won first prize for his wedding cakes in the 1873 Michigan State Fair.

Death DeBaptiste died February 22, 1875.