The Underground Railroad in “Indian Country”

Abstract

From the establishment of the Greenville Treaty Line in 1795 to Wyandot removal in 1843, northwest Ohio constituted a “land apart” from the waves of white settlement that overwhelmed the eastern part of the Old Northwest. Native Americans—primarily Shawnee, Ottawa, and Wyandot—constituted the dominant population there, in what was often referred to as “Indian Country.” This region lay astride the primary northbound routes traversed by fugitive slaves from Kentucky, western Virginia, and beyond, heading to Canada via the Detroit River borderland or the western half of Lake Erie, and freedom seekers were frequently assisted by Native Americans. This chapter explores two regions in particular. One is the stretch of Ottawa villages along the Maumee River, where runaways were welcomed and protected, then taken to Fort Malden, Upper Canada, each year when Ottawa warriors went to receive their annual payment of goods for fighting on the British side during the War of 1812. The other is the Wyandot Grand Reserve at Upper Sandusky, which sponsored a maroon village of fugitive slaves called Negro Town for four decades. These two case studies serve as a point of departure for arguing that “Indian Country” was a unique space of freedom.