Home / Full timeline / George De Baptiste is born. He would go on to become an abolitionist and one of Detroit’s wealthiest Black Americans.
George De Baptiste is born. He would go on to become an abolitionist and one of Detroit’s wealthiest Black Americans.
1817 (Mar 1)
George De Baptiste was born free in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and worked as a barber in Madison, Wisconsin, for many years until 1866, when tensions between Blacks and Whites prompted him to move to Detroit, a more tolerant area. He became a member of a secret abolition society and a leader in the underground railroad. De Baptiste was instrumental in recruiting Michigan's Black regiment during the Civil War. In 1870 he served on Detroit's first all-Black jury. De Baptiste was elected a delegate to the local republican senatorial convention and actively promoted integration of Detroit's public schools. One of Detroit's wealthiest Black Americans, he died of stomach cancer on February 25, 1875, survived by his second wife and two of his ten children.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.