George DeBaptiste was born in 1815, into a wealthy, free black family from Fredericksburg, Virginia. He served as an apprentice to a well-known barber in Richmond, Virginia, visited the South as a valet, and worked as a steward on steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In 1837, DeBaptiste moved to Madison, Indiana, where he opened a stylish barbershop near the Ohio River. While operating the barber shop, DeBaptiste assisted enslaved people escaping from Kentucky. DeBaptiste also challenged an Indiana law that required free blacks to post $50 if they intended to stay in the state. The court upheld the law, but it did not require DeBaptiste to pay the money. DeBaptiste served as William Henry Harrison's personal valet during Harrison's presidential campaign and as a White House steward. DeBaptiste returned to Madison after Harrison died in 1841 and resumed his barbershop business. In 1845 and 1846, anti-African American riots in Indiana targeted free black leaders. DeBaptiste left Madison with a $1,000 bounty on his head and moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1846. There he worked with William Lambert and others in Underground Railroad and antislavery efforts. DeBaptiste died in Detroit in 1875.

Go to obituaries in the Detroit Advertiser & Tribune and the Detroit Daily Post.

Go back to this lesson plan:

• A Life of Action

Contact the Michigan Historical Center.

Updated 08/26/2010