"Tower of Freedom: Underground Railway Monument" Top 5 Page for this destination Windsor Things to Do Tip by Stephen-KarenConn

This monument is officially called Tower of Freedom: International Monument to the Underground Railroad - Canada" It pays tribute to Ontario's role in the Underground Railway of the early to mid-1800's. Not an actual railroad, the term "Underground Railway" was a term used for a network of thousands of "stations" in homes, barns, churches, etc. which were a place of refuge for black Americans seeking freedom from slavery and oppression.

In the decades leading up to the American Civil War settlements along the Detroit and Niagara Rivers were important terminals of the Underground Railway. White and Black abolotionists formed this heroic secretative network. By 1861, some 30,000 freedom seekers resided in what is now Ontario, having escaped slave states like Kentucky and Virginia. After the Civil War some returned to their homes in the United States, and others remained to help forge the identity of modern day Canada.

Address: 100 Pitt Street East, Windsor, Ontario
Directions: In Windsor's Civic Esplanade, just off Riverside Drive, downtown.
Phone: 313-438-6077