Henry Bibb

After leaving Detroit to move to Canada with his family, due to issues with the legality of his assistance in the Underground Railroad, he founded the abolitionist newspaper, Voice of the Fugitive.

[4][5] Bibb was born on May 19, 1816,[6] to an enslaved woman, Mildred Jackson, on a Shelby County, Kentucky plantation.

This is the only owner whose name Bibb left out of the narrative, and he credits this to the treatment he received while in his care.

[3] In 1842, Bibb managed to flee to the Second Baptist Church in Detroit, an Underground Railroad station operated by Rev.

[9] After finding out that Malinda had been sold as a mistress to a white planter, Bibb focused on his career as an abolitionist.

[7] Bibb traveled and lectured throughout the United States[9] with Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.

[3] In 1849–50 he published his autobiography Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself.

[12] The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 increased the danger to Bibb and his second wife, Mary E. Miles.

[14] Henry and Mary E. Bibb were huge supporters of Canadian emigration[15] and together they managed the Refugee Home Society, which they helped found in 1851 with Josiah Henson.

[7][16] Due to his fame as an author, Bibb was reunited with three of his brothers, who separately had also escaped from slavery to Canada.

Bibb spent the remainder of his life after escape assisting in the Underground Railroad, and later publishing about the abolishment of slavery, while living in Canada.

Bibb assisted in establishing the Detroit River region as a safe haven and symbol of freedom for African American's escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad.

[1] Even after Bibb moved to Canada to avoid prosecution for his assistance in the Underground Railroad, he still aided those escaping slavery through his publications.

Bibb believed, at the time which he wrote his narrative, that most of these slaves who practiced witchcraft were only pretending to know how to use it.

[1] The letter speaks of the successful escape of a man named Lewis Richardson, and details the following.

[1] A letter which Henry Bibb wrote in Windsor on June 19, 1850, to a man named John Calkins has been saved in his original handwriting, and is available to read online.

This letter is three pages in length, and details his financial assistance to slaves whom were fleeing to Canada via the Underground Railroad.

Bibb explains, in short, that he was telling the truth in his narrative, and that he appreciated Birney's honest review of his work.

Bibb continues the letter addressing all of the horrendous acts associated with enslaving people, which go against the word of God.