Mario Moore | Midnight and Canaan: Detroit

September 17 - November 5, 2022
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In 1886 Black abolitionist William Lambert was interviewed by a reporter from the Detroit Tribune about his activism before the Civil War in Detroit, Michigan. 
 
"It was a long time," said Mr. Lambert, "before we could make up our minds to make use of these scoundrels, but we at last concluded that the end justified the means. Indeed we went further than that before we got through our work, and held that the effort to secure liberty justified any means to overcome obstacles that intervened to defeat it. These men would, with the permission of the slave himself, steal him away from the owner who had a title to him, and then sell him. From this second bondage they would steal him again and deliver him to us on the line of the Ohio river. They got their profit out of the sale, although they had to commit two thefts to do it. There were no steam railways in those days. We traveled at night, or if in daytime with peddling wagons. We had at one time more than sixty tin peddling wagons with false bottoms, large enough to hold three men, traveling through the South.” [1]
 
The interview is compelling in that it reveals a covert network of freedom-makers, during the time of the Underground Railroad, that often-necessitated co-conspiring with white desperadoes. The section above in particular demonstrates one aspect of the fierce efforts taken in the pursuit of freedom by Black people in the early 1800s before the more thorough underground system was created by Lambert and other activists.  This interview illuminates questions about legacy, information and how the past continues to be an important part of my work. Growing up in Detroit, I learned a lot about the Great Migration but little about the key figures in the 1830s who helped to challenge laws and establish a safe haven for the growing Black population. Why are these not the stories we learn when it comes to the slave narrative?
 
The Detroit Tribune interview and article also makes clear the sophistication of the Underground Railroad system in Detroit and highlights the names of individuals rarely seen in today’s films and television productions that characterize a predominately white led underground movement. William Lambert was a Black man and like many other Black abolitionists during the 19th century, they were the pioneers and leaders of the Underground Railroad.
 
Inspired by, "A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Resistance and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland," I found stories often buried or ignored in Americans’ collective understanding of history. One story in particular resonated with me. It is the narrative of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, a brave, empowered young couple who escaped enslavement in Kentucky and Detroit and later settled in Canada. Their story was a cornerstone in my understanding of Detroit's Black militancy. This exhibition highlights historical figures like the Blackburns and William Lambert to ask: What place is there in contemporary Detroit, "the city of straits", for new Black pioneers? What does it mean to consider the importance of Black internationals that traveled back and forth between countries before 1865? And how do the legacies of these resistance efforts persist today in Detroit?
 

[1] Evelyn Leasher, William Lambert: An African American Leader of Detroit’s Anti-Slavery Movement, https://www.cmich.edu/research/clarke-historical-library/explore-collection/explore-in-person/bibliographies/underground-railroad/william-lambert, , (accessed August 2022)

 

The title of this show, Midnight and Canaan, refers to the code words used by the abolitionists and freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad. Midnight stood for Detroit, the last stop before freedom, and Canaan stood for that true final freedom, Canada. 

 

Water plays a critical role in this exhibition. It illustrates how the flowing border between Canada and Detroit was crossed continuously by the freedom seekers and the abolitionists. The Detroit and Windsor riverfronts are repeated throughout the work to form a sense of familiarity with this border but also to teeter on a kind of imaginary world that is embodied by crossing water. It asks the viewer to think about the paths that we cross every day like the embroidered stitching that appears in the silverpoint drawings throughout the series. A collaboration with my mother, Sabrina Nelson, the stitching traces paths that signify points and places on a journey such as Battle Creek, Port Huron, Detroit, and Amherstburg. These paths continue to be crossing sites for people seeking refuge and asylum from the Middle East and Central and South America today.

 

Using my contemporaries as models, the work flows into the present with the acknowledgement of abstractionist great, Allie McGhee and sculptor Tiff Massey. These portraits pinpoint a time in Detroit creating a stamp on the significance Black people have had within the city borders and beyond. They reflect on a moment in Detroit when gentrification continues to push the Black population out of their neighborhoods. Resisting that movement, McGhee and Massey take a powerful stance on belonging to the city they have helped to shape culturally, claiming their space on this international waterfront so significant to people like the Blackburns and Lambert.  

 

Finally, this series, my first body of work that depicts the early history of Black people in Detroit and Windsor, is about Black agency and resistance. It asks the viewer to consider the challenges, stamina, and willpower of people from the past and present within these two cities. What does the future hold for Black populations on this international border?

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