Flint

While it is unknown how many African Americans were legally free or had escaped enslavement from the American South, African Americans migrated to Genesee County and settled primarily in Flint. In 1850, 28 African Americans chose to settle with their families in the Genesee County area.. These individuals were employed as barbers, laborers, farmers, carpenters, and housekeepers. Notable African Americans include Boles Bradley, a "mulatto" barber and his wife Francis, William Toliver, a "mulatto" carpenter, Malin Copeland a black farmer, Lyman Fowler a "mullato" hairdresser and William Siscoe, a "mulatto" day laborer.

More well known, William Lambert, a significant UGRR activist in Detroit suggests that Robert Cromwell escaped from the enslavement of David Dunn in St. Louis Missouri in 1840, and spent three years in Indiana. Six years after his escape, Cromwell settled in Flint. Seemingly around this time, Cromwell sent a letter to Dunn seeking to buy his daughter's freedom. The postmarked letter directed Dunn's attention to Flint where Dunn reviewed a Flint paper and found evidence of Cromwell living there. Nestled in an advertisement for stray cattle, land for sale and debt recovery in the Flint Republican on Saturday January 3, 1847 rests an advertisement headed "Robert J. Cromwell Barber and Hairdresser." Cromwell's mother traveled to Flint at Dunn's demand to urge him to trade his freedom for hers. Instead, Cromwell fled to Detroit. Lambert claims that Cromwell temporarily lived in Detroit and opened a restaurant until Dunn discovered him there. Dunn attempted to recapture Cromwell, but a community of African American and Irish Americans resisted him. George De Baptiste, William Lambert and others submitted a series of resolutions in the Signal of Liberty on May 8, 1847 in support of Cromwell and others like him. Lambert suggests that Dunn was incarcerated for 6 months in Detroit.

Cromwell may reappear in Chatham in 1851. A "Robert Cromwell " is listed in the 1851 Chatham census and the American Missionary Society Papers report a story about a barber named Robert Cromwell in Chatham who publicly criticized all white people. His unfavorable comment sparked hostility among the European Canadians who destroyed Cromwell's barbershop.

William Lambert, FREEDOM'S RAILWAY: Reminiscences of the Brave Old Days of the Famous Underground Line Historic Scenes Recalled Detroit Tribune January 17, 1886.

Flint Republican.

American Missionary Society Records.

Seibert, Wilbur. Wilbur Seibert Papers. Ohio Historical Archives.