Georgetown

Georgetown: Madison's first community for free blacks

While many communities throughout Indiana had black settlements before the Civil War and the Emancipation, Madison had a whole district of prominent black residents that can still be visited today.
The Georgetown District was home to freed slaves and black indentured servants during the 1820s. A few white families lived in the town, but Georgetown primarily consisted of a number of businesses that were predominantly owned and operated by free blacks living

Georgetown was also a neighborhood active in the Underground Railroad and was the target of pro-slavery mobs from Kentucky who attempted to destroy the community.

"It's a major part of Madison's history," said Sue Livers, a board member of the African American Landmarks Committee and Historic Madison Inc. who did early research on Georgetown. "This is one of the areas that is well-preserved and intact. It played an important role in the Underground Railroad. So many blacks reached freedom because of Georgetown."
In 2004, Georgetown was the first district to be placed on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Later that year, an Indiana Historical Bureau marker was placed at Jefferson and Fifth streets.

River shallow and narrow

Before locks and dams were built on the Ohio River in this region, the river was shallow and narrow at Madison. During the time when slavery was a tense issue, the Ohio River experienced seasonal lows, with river depths being less than 4 feet at some times in the 19th century.

Since Georgetown was the epicenter for the Underground Railroad in Madison, many Underground Railroad leaders lived in Georgetown or were associated with the area. The community of free blacks helped hundreds of slaves escape to freedom.

"At that time, Georgetown was mostly inhabited by a good class of colored people, who lived from the north side of the alley north to the Miller alley, along both sides of the street. The colored people I refer to were industrious and worthy citizens, all owning their own homes and were highly respected by the better class of white people," Mary C. Johnson wrote in a letter to the editor in The Madison Courier in 1916.
Eight sites in Georgetown have been identified as connected with the Underground Railroad. They are the home of Charles and George Hopkins on East Fifth Street; the African Methodist Episcopal Church at 309 E. Fifth St.; the second home of William Anderson at 313 E. Fifth St.; the home of Archibald Taylor on the northwest coroner of East Fifth and Walnut streets; the Walnut Street Methodist Church at 711 Walnut St.; the first home of William Anderson at 713 Walnut St.; the home of Elijah Anderson at 626 Walnut St.; and the home of David Lott at 624 Walnut St.

"As it is not generally known for whom that part of Madison known as Georgetown was named," Johnson wrote in The Madison Courier in 1916. "A colored family by the name of Hopkins owned and lived in the house were Mr. Enos Baglan's widow now lives. There were two brothers, George and Charles, living in the house and the name 'Georgetown' was originated from the first brother's name."

Literacy leads to freedom

William Anderson moved to Madison in 1836 but was born in Hanover County, Va., to a free black woman. Anderson was bound to a slaveholder as a child and recalled being sold or exchanged eight times. Even though he was a slave at one time, he learned to read and write. It was through his literacy that he was able to escape slavery by writing his own pass.

When Anderson first moved to town, he was asked to stop his activities with the Underground Railroad by the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, which was the first church he built at 711 Walnut St. Anderson, a minister, declined to stop, so he switched to the African Methodist Episcopal Church on East Fifth Street.
But Anderson's reputation of helping slaves to freedom caught up with him in Kentucky. In December 1856, Anderson was arrested aboard the Telegraph because a reward was offered for him in Carrollton, Ky., for running off slaves. Anderson was acquitted of the charge, but he had to sell his first home to pay for the court costs.
"My two wagons, and carriage, and five horses were always at the command of the liberty-seeking fugitive," Anderson said in the Madison Daily Courier in 1867.

A conductor in masquerade

Elijah Anderson, a blacksmith, owned a shop on the corner of Walnut and Third streets in Madison. He moved to Madison in 1837 and built a two-story federal style house on Walnut Street in 1840. Anderson was a conductor for the Underground Railroad and was able to travel with slaves to freedom in Canada in boats and trains because of his light complexion. He would often masquerade as a master traveling with his slaves. He brought 800 slaves to freedom while in Madison and 1,000 while in Lawrenceburg. A $1,000 reward was placed on his head by Kentucky residents.

"Once there was a crowd of runaway slaves crossed the Ohio river to this city and Mr. Anderson went with them to Cincinnati. After placing them in the hands of other conductors, they went safely to Chatham, Canada," Johnson said in The Madison Courier in 1916.
Anderson and Chapman Harris, a reverend in the Eagle Hollow area who worked on the Underground Railroad, were tried at the Jefferson County Circuit Court for being engaged in a riot where a group of men whipped another man, John Simmons, for betraying the whereabouts of a fugitive slave. Harris' lip was bitten off by Simmons in the fight.
In the 1850s, Anderson was captured on an Ohio River steamboat and arrested by Louisville police officers for taking slaves from Lawrenceburg to Cleveland. He was found guilty in Kentucky and sentenced to eight years in jail. He was to be released from Frankfort, Ky., in 1861, but he was found dead in his cell.

George DeBaptiste was another one of Georgetown's main conductors on the Underground Railroad. DeBaptiste moved to Madison in 1837 and became known for challenging the Indiana state government for trying to make him pay a bond as a free black man trying to settle in the state.

He enlisted the help of abolitionist Judge Stephen Stevens and was able to win his case.

DeBaptiste owned a barbershop for six years at the corner of Walnut and Second streets. The barbershop was a center for Underground Railroad dealings, and DeBaptiste was able to help more than 180 slaves reach the next station at Lancaster, located about 12 miles north of Madison.

Years later, DeBaptiste was forced to leave because of his activities in the Underground Railroad. DeBaptiste was the personal valet of Gen. William Henry Harrison, who later became the ninth president in 1840. DeBaptiste went with Harrison to the White House, where he worked as a steward.

After Harrison died in office in 1841, DeBaptiste moved to Detroit and had several successful businesses in Michigan. He also served as a delegate to the Cleveland National Convention of Colored Citizens and an agent for the Freedman's Aid Commission. During the Civil War, DeBaptiste was an organizer of Michigan's Colored Regiment. He died in 1875.

Today, a monument about the Underground Railroad in Detroit features DeBaptiste's image.

Griffith Booth, born a slave in Virginia, lived in Madison for years before he was forced to move. He lived in Georgetown and was active in the community and helped many slaves escape to Canada through the Underground Railroad. Booth was also the faithful carriage driver for Madison resident Victor King.

But, Booth became the victim in some of the pro-slavery mobs that entered Georgetown during those days. Booth was taken to the river by a mob and dunked in the water until he almost died. The group was trying to get him to divulge the hiding place of several slaves who had made their way through Kentucky via the Underground Railroad. He was saved by John Sheets and Marshal Amzi Foster before the mob could kill him.

Booth's activities in the Underground Railroad made it too dangerous to live in Madison, so he moved to Kalamazoo, Mich. and then to Canada. Eventually, he was able to return to the U.S., and he died at the age of nearly 90 in Michigan.

Mobs of pro-slavery people repeatedly went into Georgetown and attacked residents. Several of these attacks resulted in some of Madison's prominent black residents fleeing the city.

The story of Georgetown remains immortalized on a historic marker on Jefferson Street.

from a Facebook post by Jarvis Jenkins, June 19, 2020