were free and a bond in the sum of $500 for their good behavior.[5] This
law was obnoxious to the growing sentiment of freedom in Detroit and was
not enforced until the Riot of 1833. This uprising was an attack on the
Negroes because a courageous group of them had effected the rescue and
escape of one Thornton Blackburn and his wife, who had been arrested by
the sheriff as alleged fugitives from Kentucky.[6] The anti-slavery
feeling considerably increased thereafter. The Detroit Anti-Slavery
Society was formed in 1837, other societies to secure the relief and
escape of slaves quickly followed and still another was organized to
find employment and purchase homes for refugees.[7] This change of
sentiment is further evidenced by the fact that in 1850 it was necessary
to call out the three companies of volunteers to quell an incipient riot
occasioned by the arrest and attempt to return a runaway slave in
accordance with the Fugitive Slave Law. Save the general troubles
incident to the draft riots of the Northern cities of 1863,[8] Detroit
maintained this benevolent attitude toward Negroes seeking refuge.

In this favorable community the Richards colony easily prospered. The
Lees well established themselves in their Northern homes and soon won
the respect of the community. Most of the members of the Williams family
confined themselves to their trade of bricklaying and amassed
considerable wealth. One of Mr. Williams's daughters married a
well-to-do Waring living then at Wauseon, Ohio; another became the wife
of one Chappée, who is now a stenographer in Detroit; and the third
united in matrimony with James H. Cole, who became the head of a
well-to-do family of Detroit. Then there were the Cooks descending from
Lomax B. Cook, a broker of no little business ability. Will Marion Cook,
the musician, belongs to this family. The De Baptistes, too, were among
the first to get a foothold in this new environment and prospered
materially from their experience and knowledge acquired in