Michigan's Personal Liberty Act of 1855 was passed in the state legislature to prevent the capture of formerly enslaved people that would return them to slavery.
They became a network of people who provided freedom seekers with food, shelter, and transportation along the Underground Railroad to sites in Canada, where slavery was illegal.
Stations were at Climax, Battle Creek, Marshall, Albion, Grass Lake, Ann Arbor, Plymouth, and Detroit,[3][4] where they crossed into Canada (Sandwich First Baptist Church).
William Holman Jones of Calvin Township and Wright Modlin of Williamsville brought many bondspeople into the county, frustrating the slaveholders in Kentucky.
[6][b] Outnumbered and believing that they were in the right due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, the Kentuckians agreed to stand trial in Cassopolis and posted bond to get out of jail.
The defendants were Commissioner Ebenezer Mcllvain, William Jones, and David T. Nicholson, as well as Quakers Zachariah Shugart, Joel East, Ishamel Lee, Steven Bogue, and Josiah, Jefferson, and Ellison Osborn.
Jacob Merritt Howard, who later drafted the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that abolished slavery, represented the defendants.
[9] Erastus Hussey, an Underground Railroad stationmaster and state senator, helped enact Michigan's Personal Liberty Act of 1855 to prevent returning people to slavery.
[7] Sanders became the largest landholder in Cabell County, West Virginia, and was a large slaveholder, with 51 enslaved men, women, and children.