Postal Service to offer Underground Railroad stamps, including Detroit abolitionist William Lambert

BY KEN COLEMAN, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—The US Postal Service [USPS] in partnership with the Detroit Postal Customer Council and The Detroit River Project (DRP) on Saturday will honor 10 people who helped guide enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safehouses in use before the Civil War.

“The Detroit River Project is honored to partner with the USPS in celebrating our heroes,” said Kimberly Simmons, Detroit River Project executive director. “The women and men of the ‘network to freedom’ as the Underground Railroad is known, worked tirelessly through fear of detection and arrest to give the dream of freedom to those who sought what was denied.”

Featured on the stamps are abolitionists Catharine Coffin, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Garrett, Laura Haviland, Lewis Hayden, Harriet Jacobs, William Lambert, the Rev. Jermain Loguen, William Still and Harriet Tubman. Lambert, a Detroit resident, was a leader in the abolitionist movement used codes, passwords and secret handshakes to help slaves gain freedom along the Underground Railroad.

In 1837, Lambert helped to form the Detroit Anti-Slavery Society. It included prominent Black abolitionists Robert Banks, and Madison Lightfoot as well as prominent whites Edwin Cowles, Robert Steward and Shubael Conant. Lambert in 1840 addressed the Michigan Legislature and challenged the body to amend the state constitution to allow for African Americans to be given full citizenship.

Rick Moreton, USPS Michigan 1 District manager, said that he is honored to participate in the effort.

“We recognize the pivotal role Detroit played in the Underground Railroad, and along with our business partners in the Detroit Postal Customer Council, are privileged to pay tribute to the brave men and women who left their mark on history,” said Moreton.

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.