Many abolitionists lived in southern Michigan. About 1,500 fugitives passed
through Cass County on their way to Canada. Sometimes they settled there.
Abolitionist Issac A. Bonine owned 1,500 acres of land in Cass County. He
established a settlement called Ramptown with 100 cabins. Fugitives lived in
these cabins and farmed his land. They could also farm five acres of land for
themselves.
In 1847, Kentucky Slave Raiders came to southwest Michigan and captured a
wagonload of African Americans. The townspeople arrested the raiders. They held
them at the courthouse overnight while the runaways fled to Canada. The raiders
went to court and won, but the African Americans were beyond their reach.
Virginia
Springsteen and her brother Warren Wooded found these pieces of pottery on the
farm where they lived as children. They may have belonged to people who lived in
Ramptown. See "Uncovering Clues to Ramptown."
