tower of freedom

Officially called “Tower of Freedom, International Monument to the Underground Railroad – Canada”, this monument pays tribute to the sacrifices of an estimated 30,000 black slaves who fled oppression in the United States to find safety in Canada West. They began to make their way to Canada in the early 19th century, particularly after passage of the American Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. The Underground Railroad was a term used for a network of thousands of “stations” in homes, barns, churches and other places of safety and refuge for black Americans seeking freedom from slavery and oppression. Towns along the Detroit River served as major terminals of the Underground Railroad. More than half the fugitives returned to the United States following “emancipation” after the Civil War. The monument carries the names of participants and operatives on the Underground Railroad as well as the areas of Ontario in which they settled.