FINNEY BARN | WILLIAM DOLARSON

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FINNEY BARN

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WILLIAM DOLARSON

FINNEY BARN

Across the street from here, Seymour Finney (1813-1899) operated one of the principal safe places for the Under- ground Railroad when Detroit was an important hub for freedom seekers on their way to Canada. In 1850 Finney, a tailor and hotelkeeper, purchased the building that became the Finney Hotel. He constructed a large barn behind it, where he kept his dog and cows as well as the horses of guests. A sympathetic abolitionist, he was unable to reconcile Christian morality with the cruelty of slavery, and he left the Democratic Party circa 1852. With the help of ”George” William Dolarson, a self-emancipated man, Finney hid freedom seekers in his barn’s hay loft until it was safe for them to cross into Canada. When he needed to sneak food to them, he fed the animals in the barn himself. In 1857 Finney gave up landlordship of the property.

WILLIAM DOLARSON

“George” William Dolarson was born into slavery in Virginia in 1808. At age eighteen, he was sold three times. He lived in Natchez, Mississippi, until he self-emancipated and fled to Buffalo, New York, around 1834. There he was a sailor and encountered the Underground Railroad. He married Maria Fletcher (1819-1891) in Canandaigua, New York, before coming to Detroit in 1836 and buying a farm. They briefly lived in Canada after the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Dolarson, working and staying on this site as the Capitol School’s janitor from 1851 to 1854, aided freedom seekers brought here by abolitionists, such as Asher Array. He hid them in his home and in the Finney Barn before helping them cross into Canada. In 1854 he joined the California Gold Rush. Later, back in Detroit, the Dolarsons lived on Croghan Street, where he died on May 9, 1889.