The Perils of Ports
By 1850 the river passage from Detroit to Windsor bustled with steamers, freight vessels, and fishing ships. This river traffic connected the ports of Toledo, Cleveland, Niagara, and beyond to overland trade routes, east-bound for southern Ontario or west-bound for Chicago. The one-time French fur-trading fort of Detroit had transformed into a hub of Great Lakes commerce. The city, which had grown to more than 20,000 residents, was both a blessing and a curse to freedom seekers like Tom and Lizzie; during their brief stop before crossing at last to Canada, they could hide anonymously amidst the convergence of nation and trade, but the same was true of their pursuers.
Lizzie’s first sight of Canada likely occurred at the mouth of the Detroit River, near Bar Point, where vessels would pass between Sugar and Bois Blanc islands. “It ain’t, is it?” said Lizzie incredulously, and when she shared the news with Tom, they both gazed upon the headland with “tears of joy” in their eyes (119). After months of pursuit and danger, the pair equated the sight to their “House of Refuge,” that is the biblical promised land (120). Yet, this ecstatic hope of home could not erase the accumulated habits of fear, and “George and Jake had both armed themselves with deadly weapons, in case of an attempt to capture them, resolving on liberty or death” (120). It seems that the hope of freedom actually made the party’s brief final stop in Detroit the climax of its fear.
Canada represented freedom to a degree that could not be matched anywhere in the United States. Whereas many formerly enslaved were seized by bounty hunters after living peacefully in northern states for many years, Canadian sovereignty rarely was breached. Still, when George (Tom) and Jake arm themselves on the cusp of freedom, they demonstrate how thoroughly the threat of capture had worked upon their minds. If Tom prepared to face death instead of capture within sight of Canada, what anxieties would he carry with him into his new life? While Tom and Lizzie won their freedom through incredible hardship, it is likely that they would never be free of the psychological burden of relentless pursuit.