Politics / Business & brands
John Ladue
1804–1854 · leather manufacturer, mayor of Detroit
Leather merchant who, as mayor in 1850, defused a crisis over a jailed fugitive slave by raising money to buy the man's freedom.
- Born
Lansingburgh, New York- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 50- Detroit years
- 1847–1854
- Field
- Politics, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
John Ladue followed his brother Andrew, who ran a tannery, to Detroit in 1847 and went into leather manufacturing and wool buying, with a store on Michigan Avenue at Campus Martius. Well liked by the business community, he was elected mayor in 1850, the year Congress passed the harsh new Fugitive Slave Act. During his term a fugitive slave was arrested and held in the Detroit jail, and a crowd of residents, Black and white, gathered to free him. Ladue called out federal troops to keep order, but to avoid bloodshed he also collected donations from leading citizens, bought the man from his claimant and set him free. The episode reflected Detroit's position as a last stop on the Underground Railroad before Canada, just across the river. Ladue served a single one-year term and died in 1854, survived by four children.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit, 1850
- Raised funds to buy and free a jailed fugitive slave in 1850
- Leather manufacturer and wool buyer at Campus Martius