or giving religious instruction to slaves, free Negroes and mulattoes in the day time; nor to deprive any masters or owners of slaves of the right to engage, or employ any free white person whom they think proper to give religious instruction to their slaves; nor to prevent the assembling of slaves of any one owner or master together at any time for religious devotion.  Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1831-1832, pp. 20-21.

[4] Campbell, Political History of Michigan, 246.

[4a] Slavery did not immediately cease, however.  The number of slaves in the vicinity of Detroit in 1773 were ninety-six; 127 in 1778; and 175 in 1783.  Detroit had a colored population of 15 in 1805 and two years later a number had sufficiently increased for Governor Hull to organize a company of militia among them.  The increase had been due to the coming of refugees from Canada.  The Census of 1810 showed 17 slaves in Detroit; that of 1830 shows 32 in Michigan and an enumeration subsequent to 1836 shows that all were dead or manumitted.  See Census of the United States.

[5] Laws of Michigan, 1827.

[6] This riot occurred on June 14, 1833.  Thornton Blackburn and his wife, the alleged runaways from Kentucky, were lodged in jail pending the departure of a boat.  A crowd of colored men and women, armed with clubs, stones and pistols, gathered in the vicinity of the jail.  Upon the pretext of visiting Blackburn’s wife a colored woman was admitted to the jail and by an exchange of clothing effected the escape of the prisoner who immediately crossed into Canada.  Some time thereafter the sheriff attempted to take his other prisoner to the boat, but was knocked down and badly beaten.  During the encounter the sheriff fired into the mob, but Blackburn was rescued and carried to Canada.  This caused a great disturbance among the white people.  They armed themselves and attacked the blacks wherever they could be found.  The city council convened and undertook to dispose of the trouble by enforcing the law of 1827 requiring that colored people should stay off the streets at night.  Utley, Byron and McCutcheon, “Michigan as a Province and State,” II, 347.

[7] Five years after the organization of the Detroit Anti-Slavery Society Henry Bibb, an ex-slave, came to the city and lectured for two years under the auspices of the Liberty Association, which was promoting the election of anti-slavery candidates.  Public sentiment against slavery was becoming such that the Legislature of Michigan passed a law prohibiting the use of jails to detain fugitives.  Frederick Douglass and John Brown found many friends of their cause in Detroit.  Of the many organized efforts made to circumvent the law and assist fugitives one society purchased land and established homes for as many as 50 families between 1850 and 1872.  Farmer, “History of Detroit and Michigan,” I, Chapter XLVIII.