The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits

by Tiya Miles

Most Americans believe that slavery was a creature of the South, and that Northern states and territories provided stops on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. In this paradigm-shifting book, celebrated historian Tiya Miles reveals that slavery was at the heart of the Midwest's iconic city: Detroit.

In this richly researched and eye-opening book, Miles has pieced together the experience of the unfree--both native and African American--in the frontier outpost of Detroit, a place wildly remote yet at the center of national and international conflict. Skillfully assembling fragments of a distant historical record, Miles introduces new historical figures and unearths struggles that remained hidden from view until now. The result is fascinating history, little explored and eloquently told, of the limits of freedom in early America, one that adds new layers of complexity to the story of a place that exerts a strong fascination in the media and among public intellectuals, artists, and activists.

A book that opens the door on a completely hidden past, The Dawn of Detroit is a powerful and elegantly written history, one that completely changes our understanding of slavery's American legacy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, African American, American History, Race, Historical, Audiobook

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2017

About the author

Tiya Miles is from Ohio, "the heart of it all," though now she spends summers in her husband's native Montana. She is the author of All That She Carried (which won a National Book Award for nonfiction and more), and of three prize-winning works of history on the intersections of African American and Native American experience. Her forthcoming book, Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People, will be out in June 2024, right on the heels of her short but sweet exploration of childhoods in nature: Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation (September 2024). Her debut dual time period (historical-contemporary) novel based on her early career research, The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts, was revised with new scenes and released as a paperback original by Random House in June 2023; check out the new version! She has also published a study of haunted plantations and manor homes in the South that reads like a travel narrative. (And she is as surprised as you are that two of her books focus on ghosts!) Her newest book, just out from W. W. Norton, is Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation. Tiya's favorite activities are reading good books while her three teenaged kids write stories together in the background, spending time in old houses, walking along forest trails, and drinking hot chocolate. She is currently working on a history, a novel, and essays about climate change and historic sites. Check out her Substack: Carrying Capacity, for news and updates! https://tiyamiles.substack.com/

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I encountered this book in my readings about African Americans and Abolitionism in the USA. As someone who was born and raised in Detroit its title was especially appealing to me.

My public school education in the late 1950's/early 1960's taught me that Detroit had been founded as a trading post by the French, taken over by the British after the French Indian War, and then became a part of the USA after the Revolutionary War. Other than the efforts by Chief Pontiac who led a war against the settlers according to the narrative that I was taught Native Americans played no significant part in the early years of the community. Additionally, nary a word was said about African Americans ever being a part of the early years of the town. Finally, as a 'northern city' which was always self righteously presented as anti-slavery this topic was not a part of the story at all in my education.

The real story as related by Professor Miles in this book turned out to be much more complex, and interesting, than that. Mining a church registry, letters and diaries of prominent residents during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, court records, and a few other sundry sources she portrayed the very crucial role that Native American and subsequently African American slaves played in the development of the community as well as the important interactions which took place between the French and British residents. Throughout all of it the significance of the Detroit River, and by extension the Great Lakes, is noted: in the early years as a means of travel and transport for the fur trade on which the town was built and then after the Revolutionary War as a boundary across which the tensions between the US and Britain played themselves out. Miles also described families who crossed the river into Canada as a way to seek their freedom. Not noted in the book but of growing importance per other books I have read as the Abolition and Underground railroad took hold was the use of Detroit as a way station in the years leading up to the American Civil War for slaves escaping from the South to freedom.

By avoiding an academic, dry prose style for the most part the author captured and sustained my attention throughout the book. In addition to gaining a much greater appreciation for the early years of my hometown than I ever had before I also came away with two other things. First, a list of other books about Native American and African American history for me to read. These are highlighted in the footnotes and in a last chapter where she writes about her sources, etc. Second, a desire to read more of Professor Miles' work. One cannot recommend a book any higher than that.

[KT · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Black person born and raised in Windsor, Ontario Canada, a descendent of those who travelled on the Underground Railroad from the southern United States this book was refreshing. This well researched book about the saga of slavery is welcomed. Too often Northern States and Canada whitewash the history of enslavement by using the Underground Railroad as the exemplar of that region. Canada had enslavement. Northern states had enslavement. This needs to be truthfully spoken about more. Those Indigenous and Black enslaved lives matter and need to be acknowledged and celebrated. Thank you to the author for providing an important perspective of the fluid border between Windsor/Sandwich and Detroit.

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and surprising history of slavery in the North. By telling the history of Detroit as frontier with a mix of slaves, native americans, white fur traders, and the tensions happening in the rest of the country, the book is an essential history. Tiya Miles is also a BEAUTIFUL writer! It's a poetic and well-crafted book

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent history on the formation of Detroit and the role that African and indigenous slavery played in those early years.

I enjoyed the vivid scenery that the author laid out, and to be honest this research was just as interesting as the slavery aspect which until the end lacked any individual stories.

Here are some things I learned:

1) in the early days Detroit consisted of the fort and community on the northwest side of the river AND the settlements on the opposite shore (now Canada).

2) About 10 to 15% of the population in the city proper were comprised of slaves.

3) The status of slavery did not change when the British took over Detroit following the French and Indian War.

4) Stealing and subsequent convictions were sometimes dealt with by hangings and white men were hung alongside slaves.

5) A large Moravian settlement existed some twenty miles north of Detroit for several years.

6) The fort at Detroit was one of only four in the midwest to survive Pontiac's Rebellion. This despite a 3 month siege by Pontiac and his men.

7) Even though Detroit proper only had a population of a thousand prior to the Revolutionary War, the Native American tribes complained that the river was overfished and the beaver and some other game were scarce due to too much trapping and hunting.


4 stars

[John Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

In school, we are often presented with history in a certain way and without discussion of other interpretations or viewpoints. This book has expanded my awareness of Detroit history in many ways. One is the knowledge that slavery existed in early Detroit and the dynamics of indigenous versus African slavery and the fact that despite the no slavery clause in the Northwest Ordinance, the practice continued. A surprising aspect is that there were cases of African slaves actually escaping from English masters in Canada and finding freedom in Detroit. I also learned much about the dispossession of native people and intermingling, especially with the French. Personally, I discovered that some early French settlers that are likely my direct ancestors were not only prominent Detroiters but also major slaveholders. In thinking of Detroit, its riverine nature and the fluidity of the border are often overlooked. My limited knowledge of Detroit's past is greatly expanded including the fact that the settlement burned down in 1805. I enjoy delving into history, considering alternate viewpoints and learning new aspects and, hopefully, gaining a better idea of what really happened. I like the way this account was presented and the section explaining how the author decided to delve into the subject and a perspective of general historic study methods.

[Sean Kottke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable account of slavery - African and Native American on both sides of the border - in Detroit during the city's first 120-150 years, the book hooked me with its conceptualization of Detroit as the nexus of the "skin trade" in the 18th century: furs, slaves, sexual exploitation, and the many ways in which those three commercial enterprises intersected. The significance of the War of 1812 on slaveholding in Detroit is revelatory, as is former slaveholders' responses, a microcosmic dress rehearsal for what would happen across the American South during Reconstruction. This is a great companion to last year's "Fluid Frontier".

[Ross Williamson]

really good so far—gonna come back to this when i’m not quitting smoking and can concentrate for more than 45 minutes at a time

[Antof9 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so interesting, and so sad and mostly SO SHOCKING that it is almost 100% full of history I didn't know. How could this much of America's history be left out of every history class I ever took? I think we know the answer.

Before reading this book, if you had offered me a million dollars for the correctness of my answer, I'd have said there was no way there was slavery in a place as far north as Detroit. I also feel ashamed at my lack of knowledge of indigenous slavery here too. It makes perfect sense having read it as Ms. Miles laid it out, but wow, I knew next to nothing on this topic in this place.

When I was telling one of my nieces that I was about to read this book, she said what a great historian Miles is, and that played out in this book. I feel like I just took an advanced level history class.

When you read a book like this (heck, any book), things that are familiar to you stand out, like how Woodward Avenue was named after Judge Woodward. I have been on that street. My company has an office on Woodward Avenue and I've known that address forever. This is not about an unknown, far away place. It's real and it happened, and it didn't happen very long ago.

There were so many revelations for me in this book that I will be thinking of it for a while. Here's one that hit this white person pretty hard: "There is currently no historical marker acknowledging slavery in Detroit - revealing that people were bought, sold, and held as property there. And yet, for more than a century spanning French, British, and American rule, Detroit was a place that saw unconscionable bondage, elicited inventive bids for freedom, and shaped lives not devoid of heroism."

And I've found something I really want to see when I am next in the area -- The International Underground Railroad Memorial by Ed Dwight. I'd also love to see the sister sculpture across the water in Windsor, Ontario.

This is non-fiction and as such, did go a little more slowly, but that's ok too. Also my preference as an editor would have been to leave out all the "sic"s -- that would have made it easier to read. From my perspective, quotation marks sufficed.

I ended up getting this book because I had this author's "All That She Carried" on my "want to read" list but the Hoopla app from my library didn't have that title. I am in a challenge to read 20 books by black women this year AND this is Black History Month, so I wanted to start the month with a book by a black woman. This fit the bill perfectly and I'm so glad for how it worked out.

Highly recommend if you're just trying to learn.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having lived in a small SE Michigan town with an important and large African American community has helped to open my eyes to the many blind spots of history. I see how we white people in Michigan want to laud our contributions to the Underground Railroad and emphasize our freedom-loving past. Yet, never had I heard the stories of our early slave-holding forebears and the "contribution" that slaveholding made to the founding and early history of Detroit. For instance, I had assumed that slaves were never present in Michigan (wrong). That few Native Americans would have been held in bondage because they "had somewhere to escape to" (wrong). That the northern founding fathers of Detroit were perhaps capitalist pigs and chauvinists, but at least were not slaveholders (wrong again).

In fact, I discovered through this book that so many of the familiar names that we commemorate throughout downtown Detroit were in fact its early slaveholders: Woodward, McComb, Elliott, Sterling (as in Sterling Heights), Brush, John R. (Williams), Campau, and Godfroy (closer to home), were all slaveholders. I learned that MORE Native people, lumped into a nationless category of "panis" (pawnees), were stolen from distant homelands in Kentucky and the south and held as slaves here in Detroit than were African Americans. And I learned that slaveholding was the one constant through French, then British, then American occupation of the native territory on the straits--the practice was grandfathered in when the Americans took over Detroit.

Once again we see how racism was the fetid soil on which our country was built. Until we confront and make reparations (seek justice), it will continue to contaminate all our relations, Black, White and Indigenous.

As the famous quote by Faulkner goes, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past."

I loved the personal thrust of the narrative and especially the concluding sections on the origins of Miles' research and other ongoing supportive scholarship. This writer does tend to the style of writing which goes like this: "State your central thesis. Expand on your central thesis. Re-state your central thesis." That made this book a repetitive read-aloud. My sole complaint, and yet, the ideas within were so new and absorbing that multiple repetitions really did not distract from the text.

Overall, a brilliant classic that I'll have to buy.

[Jeff VanDeusen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides the key themes highlighting Detroit's uniqueness, and the rigorous, thorough, well cited research around the content, I really enjoyed Tiya Miles' vocabulary and her commanding expression. From the first page, I began to anticipate a richness in words that drove a lot of re-reading - not for the sake of clarity, but simply for the enjoyment of appreciating her choice and composition of words. I wore out a highlighter on this one, immediately sent copies of Dawn to others, and ordered another of her books for myself. A very good read.

[Rebecca Pierzchala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well-written and painstakingly researched from an unfortunate and frustrating paucity of records, though this is also very academically written more so than for a casual reader of history. That said, I learned SO MUCH that I had never been taught.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

All cities have histories but sometimes those histories prove elusive. In The Dawn of Detroit, Tiya Miles rises to the challenge of fleshing out the early biography of the city of the straits, a challenge made more difficult by the paucity of material on Detroit's first century.

Miles's focus is on slavery - of Native Americans and African Americans - and the dispossession of Native Americans. From Cadillac's founding of a fort in 1701 to the period immediately following the War of 1812, she places Native and Black people at the center of her eye-opening account.

One of the strengths of the book is Miles's recounting of how African American and Native American lives were often intertwined, demolishing any notion that Black history and Native history are discrete streams.

The Dawn of Detroit shines a light on a past that is barely known. Miles's discussion of the impact of the Northwest Ordinance on slaveholding practices, for instance, is illuminating. This book has enriched my understanding of Detroit immeasurably.

[Martha Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits (The New Press), the latest book from the historian Tiya Miles (see Page B6). I read everything Miles writes, from history to fiction, because she is among the best when it comes to blending artful storytelling with an unwavering sense of social justice. Her history of Detroit has a special sort of urgency. This year the city is marking a half-century since the 1967 uprising, and much ink will be spilled chronicling the highs and lows of the 20th century. Miles takes us back to Detroit’s 18th-century origins, which is a story of bondage and the mixing of people black, white, and native. The result radically reframes Detroit’s modern civil-rights era, and leaves me with a new sense of how the city’s struggles of today have roots way deep in its very soil.

[Don Healy · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I found this book to be a very interesting look at an under-examined historical period, Detroit’s first 150 or so years, I was frustrated by Tiya Miles’ frequent assertions to the effect that slavery built Detroit, when her research shows that it was not a central part of the city’s life. Nevertheless, she does detail that very prominent Detroiters did own and trade in human beings, particularly indigenous people. It probably would not have made as attention grabbing a narrative to report that the number of slaves in the whole of Detroit equaled a fraction of what one Virginia planter, Thomas Jefferson held.
Read it to better understand Detroit’s role in New France and what the American revolution looked like from the frontier.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was phenomenal. So much info woven into an intetesting narrative.
I'm a Detroit native and currently live in Windsor, ON. Basically all of the action is very local to my hometown and current location which made the history feel more real and relevant.
I have added the further books suggested by this author to understand more about this period.
I own this digital book and listened to the audiobook on hoopla. I liked the reader but found listening to this dry. I stopped listening and read instead and could hardly put it down.

[Steve's Book Stuff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of Detroit from the perspective of it's unfree people. The source material about slaves in Detroit is spotty, giving this history an episodic quality, and some of the episodes can't be told in full. That is a bit disappointing for the reader, but doesn't detract from the overall arc of the book. Recommended for anyone interested in the history of Detroit, of Michigan or the Michigan Territory, and of slavery.

[Jessica Layman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read only one other book by Tiya Miles, Tales of the Haunted South, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I know she just recently came out with a new book that I'll have to look into. I also definitely saw her at a conference one time and was too nervous to say hi!

The author's concepts and theorizations are so so interesting to me. I like how this book was set up, and I appreciated the chronological structure. The story of Detroit as a slave-holding city was a really intriguing way to re-think the North. Detroit really is very old (for American standards) and that absolutely influenced the way in which it was built (both culturally and physically) as a city. The dynamic between French, British, Africans, Native Americans, and Native/African mixed (termed most often as "Panis" in her book) was fascinating from a historical perspective. What I found most striking in this book came at the very end, in her conclusion and post-conclusion note. Drawing on others' ideas of borders, place, and space really forged Detroit as a very transitional space that people of all races and ethnicities co-existed and attempted to find identity and freedom in. I am fascinated by the pull of space versus place, so that really made a lot of the author's other arguments clearer.

I thought it was strange that Miles diverted from her chronological narrative when choosing not to reveal Denison's military background until a later chapter than he was introduced in. While it made for a "surprise" for those who don't know about it already (like me), I couldn't help but be a little confused that we were going back in time. I also thought Miles took some liberties with the thoughts and feelings of those we have no written record of at times. She was definitely mostly fair in her presentation of different possibilities of events, but there were times when I thought, "That seems a little like an assumption." It didn't greatly bother my reading, however.

Overall, as a Midwestern public historian, I enjoyed this quite a lot and would recommend it to others interested in a narrative of the junction of Native American and Black lives in very early American history. Especially considering the bulk of this book takes place before Michigan statehood!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was knocked out by Tiya Miles’ introduction. The existence of slavery in Detroit, much less its role in shaping the region’s history and the importance of the city, was simply never something I had considered.

I’ve now considered it.

The introduction is the highlight of the book, and that suggests to me that what Miles has is a fascinating journal article, rather than a book. It was as though she couldn’t decide if her book should be a narrative history of slavery in Detroit, or an analytical argument about the role of slavery, and we ended up with a little bit of both, and a lot of neither. It seemed like she wanted to tell a narrative, in that it’s organized strictly chronologically, even when that sacrifices significance. Oftentimes a chapter would end, and my takeaway was, “so in this period, there was some growth of slavery, but also some resistance, and some people thought about slavery differently than others did.” Rather underwhelming as argument. But it’s not really an argumentative essay either, as she introduces us to so many characters, and seems to decide partway through the book that we’re to follow a particular family’s experience. This family’s story was interesting, but again, the first few chapters had conditioned me to not pay too much attention to any one experience, since they hadn’t been dispositive so far. I was disappointed to not like this book more, but I’m just not sure there’s enough meaningful insight to take away from her thorough exploration of the role of slavery, and the relationship between Indian, African and European peoples in the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial eras.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miles has filled my mind with the stories of many of Detroit’s first and forgotten inhabitants. As someone of the privileged oppressive, white settler class now living in the 21st century of course I wouldn’t know this history and I am grateful Miles researched and wrote this beautiful and disturbing book. Just a quick sample of the impact this book has on my frame of reference of places I call home: I grew up in Macomb county (Macomb was a slaveowner who helped fund UM my university) on the shores of Lake St. Clair where many French and British colonists held indigenous and African people captive as slaves. The mouth of the Clinton River where I kayak and swim was the site of the Tucker farm where a Black family named the Denizens fought for their freedom in the face of one of Michigan’s first Supreme Court cases upholding the bondage of their children (a decision by Woodward). One can’t and shouldn’t forget this history once you’ve read it. We can’t fully analyze and challenge all the racism and displacement of Detroiters in the 20th and 21st centuries without knowing Detroit’s full history. The only criticism I have is that the beginning of the book might be a bit tedious/repetitive but after the first chapters it reads like a novel and Miles really shines as she uncovers the lives of people like Peter and Lizette Denizen whose names our streets should really be named after. I’ll never drive on J. Campeau, Macomb, Brush, Woodward or Adelaide streets again without thinking of their roles in the enslavement of people. I have to share this book with my HS students!

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detroit is a black city, though most people think of it as a Great Migration population shift, glossing over its history of enslavement - of blacks and indigenous people. This book adds to the documentation of that history, though I am not sure of its impact or reach.

The books broadens the history of a family that goes from enslaved to free as Detroit shifts from a French to British to US territory. It discusses the relationships of black and enslaved peoples, and expands the histories of the storied families of more recognized Detroit history - the surnames that grace its streets and towns.

This is a tough book to read on two counts.

1. It is an academic book that takes historical documents and crafts a narrative. This is challenging, particularly given the dearth of material that the writer uses to quilt the pieces together. This challenge increases as the writer dances with the complicated history of a region that mixed ethnicities and nationalities.

2. The history of slavery in Detroit is shadowed by its history and impact on the Underground Railroad (Railway), the network of people and places that allowed brave enslaved people to move from captivity to freedom.

As a non-academic reader, the books is readable, but the introduction and close are very long for casual reading. These sections also complicate, perhaps necessarily, the strong history that is contained in its chapters, as the writer weaves in information from indigenous scholars and those from other regions.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits by Tiya Miles (New Press, New York 2017) (977.43401) (3549).

I picked this up because I was curious about how slavery had been institutionalized in the northern United States.

I was taken aback by the fact that the town of Detroit grew into a once-thriving city upon the backs of indigenous Native American slaves rather than Black slaves of African descent. As the author points out in exhaustive detail, there were very few Black slaves of African descent in Detroit as the eighteenth century rolled into the nineteenth. Indeed, the author has documented from the sparse record that there were fewer than two dozen Black slaves in Detroit in the 1790’s. Most likely because of the scarcity of enslaved Black people, those same records disclose that there were hundreds of enslaved indigenous natives in the city.

In hindsight, this is the kind of book that should be incorporated into Michigan’s high school curriculum in its “Michigan State History” class. One can assume that long term Michiganders (Michigeese?) have already been indoctrinated with the stories of Pontiac, Cadillac, and the original French trappers and traders. The rest of us really don't require more than a cursory introduction to the players. After all, when the events of this book were unfolding, Michigan was still the young nation's western frontier.

My rating: 7/10, finished 7/5/21 (3549).

[Bill Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I clearly didn't read the sub-title of the book, A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of The Straits, and was surprised the book's focus was slavery. As much as I thought I knew about Detroit's history, I learned more. For example, I did not know most slaves in and around Detroit were Native American. And, although I knew slavery existed past the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, I did not realize it continued until the end of the War of 1812 (and later in some parts of Michigan). Nor had I thought about slavery not being outlawed in Canada until 1833 along with the rest of the British Empire. Once the border was established in 1796, slaves from both sides used it as means of escaping slavery, at least until 1833, when the route became one-way. Nor did I know Jefferson Avenue was originally called St. Anne Street (or more likely, Rue de Ste. Anne). So it was definitely an informative book.

I don't think I read very carefully until Miles started writing about the Denison family. Their history, careers, and lawsuit for freedom, in Detroit and Sandwich (now part of Windsor, Ont.), was more interesting than many of the drier details in the book.

Detroit, slave or free, was a cosmopolitan place, with people from many places speaking many languages, French, Iroquois, Algonquin, Anishinaabemowin (an Ojibwe language) and English. Slavery, along with many other historical trends or events, had its impact on Detroit.

[Jason Hackney · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing journey through the late 18th century to the early 19th century in Detroit. Detroit was a small village at the time. It was a crossroads of imperial powers such as the French and British to the upstart American empire.

What most people, including myself, didn't realize was that slavery existed in Detroit before it was even American. Has Detroit changed hands from French to British to American, the demographics of those slaves changed from indigenous to African.

Miles masterfully paints the life of some of the few recorded slave and slave owning families in early Detroit as they manage the waves of change that came in a short 40-50 years.

Also surprising to the reader are the names that appear in the book as slaveowners and slaveowning adjacent. Beaubian, Macomb, Campau, and Woodword, to name a few notable monikers. It is also noteworthy that the University of Michigan was built on unethically bought land with the finances of Detroit's class of slaveowners. A reason indigenous peoples of Michigan have tuition and fees waived today.

As Detroit is today, more than 300 years ago, the city still is steeped in racial divide and an ever changing reflection off the river to the world.

[Barbara Heerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating analysis of the relationship between French, British, American, Native American, and Black cultures in the early years of the city of Detroit, the monograph explores the use of both Native American and black slaves prior to the War of I812. Though most of us learned that the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 had banned slavery in the Old Northwest Territory, "escape clauses" in the Ordinance and in Jay's Treaty with Britain, allowed the French and British settlers to keep their property, including slaves, after the American Revolution (post-1783). Moreover in the early 1800s, slaves held in Michigan could escape to Canada, and slaves held in Canada could escape to Michigan. Neither set of escapees would be returned.

Focusing on the stories of specific individuals, both slave and free, both merchants and government officials, Dr. Miles has created a enjoyable narrative that personalizes the story of Detroit's early history. She has used a variety of historical sources, and her moral outrage at the theft of Native lands and exploitation of both Blacks and Native Americans, enriches her research. I strongly recommend it.

[Shrike58 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I thought that this book was worth my time, I also can't deny that I found it a bit slight, which is more a commentary on the paucity of material Miles had to work with than on her ability as a writer or analyst. The irony here is that, having started this book as a reaction to exemplary stories about Detroit's role in the Underground Railroad, you can feel the relief when Miles has an exemplary story to latch onto in the form of the experiences of the African-American Denison Family, whose activities really stand out in the history of the Detroit of the Early American Republic. It would also be interesting to know how old hands at the history of the First Nations responded to Miles' treatment, as she is as interested in the conditions of "Indian" slavery as she is in African bondage. Apart from that I did wind up wondering who this book was really written for, considering that it has a lot more of the structure of an academic monograph than the average general reader would normally deal with; I see a lot of AP History and Michigan history freshman being assigned this text.

[atom_box Evan G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was in the weeds for me, a bit academic. The book starts out back when Ft. Michilimackinac and Ft. Detroit were the same size: very early times. Tiya Miles does a good job considering that this is the dawn of history for this region and therefore there is pitiful little in the original documents for her to write from. She has to describe a central case of the book (Denison v. Tucker) with no direct transcripts of the case, for example.

In Denison vs Tucker, Judge Augustus Woodward (as in Woodward Avenue), 1809, issued a ruling on how to treat slavery in the Northwest Territory. The NW Territory was explicitly defined as slave free. Somehow, Woodward found this to be not clear enough and struggled for 13 pages of opinion, declaring that there could still be slaves in Detroit, for some reason.

Elijah Brush (as in Brush Street), is a pleader in that case, arguing in court in favor of freedom for the slaves.

I grew up in Michigan schools. I wish we had learned even a bit of the story in this book.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique history of Detroit that centers the conversation on the enslaved black and native people critical to the development of the northern city. Miles put forward a well researched and compelling history illuminating the importance and complexities of a black population present in Detroit over a century earlier than the common narrative of the great migration often suggests.

My historical knowledge of Detroit for the most part was limited to snippets gleaned from popular culture. I picked up this book on an effort to learn more and feel like it was a perfect place to start a deeper dive.

As a well documented academic text the early part of this book was dry at times but towards the end as more details were permitted and a narrative around the Denisons was able to develop the reading sped up considerably. I also found the notes on the historical conversations and concepts at the end as enlightening as the rest and would recommend not skipping these final remarks.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Few scholarly works have been written on the subject of slavery in Detroit..." (THIS quote caught my attention to this book initially)
This is an eye opening nonfiction historical book describing the indigenous people of the Great Lakes, African Americans, French, British and Americans-- and their connections to slavery during the colonial periods in Detroit. As a native Detroiter, and an avid reader of history, I had virtually no idea of most of the information presented. Meticulous in its explanations and details, this book is worth the read for anyone interested in American history, Detroit, slavery, and/or Native Americans.
Quote from the author- "...What I hope this book adds to the mix is an explicit and concentrated focus on enslaved people's lives that necessitates seeing African Americans and Native American history in Detroit as interrelated rather than separate streams of experience."

[Ameya Warde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a history nerd who grew up in Ohio and this book made me realize how shallow my knowledge of Midwestern history actually is. Obviously I knew Detroit is a french word, and that the midwest was heavily peppered with French traders before British ones, but I definitely did not appreciate the depth of the French history in Detroit before this book. Nor did I know basically anything about the enslavement of Native peoples (other than that it happened), which was the major type of slavery in Detroit throughout its history (though African-American slavery definitely becomes a thing as well). Really, actually, this showed me how little I knew about the history of midwestern Native nations all together.

I'd def recommend this book for anyone interested in Midwestern history/culture, or the history of Native peoples or African-Americans in general.

[Winson Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miles writes a beautiful, if dense, account of enslaved black and indigenous people in Detroit. She takes us through Detroit's time as a French fur trade outpost to right after the end of the War of 1812. Throughout, we see how Detroiters used slave and indentured labor to gain riches from the fur trade and settle in the land of the Great Lakes. She shows how enslaved and free people mediated, navigated, and subverted laws to achieve freedom.

Overall, this book was a useful, contextualizing read for anyone who lives or is from Detroit. We learn about the indigenous, French, British, American, and black histories of the city. I was most struck by how many of the prominent street names in Detroit are named for the biggest slaveowners. Even the north is not exempt from interrogations of slavery and racism.