William Lambert

William Lambert (1817 – April 28, 1890) was a prominent African-American citizen and abolitionist in Detroit during the mid to late 19th century. With a formal education and a background in the anti-slavery movement from a young age he would become a significant figure in Detroit's local black community and the city at large for over 50 years. In the late 1840s Lambert's actions in helping a fugitive slave's escape into Canada from Detroit would play a part in the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. Early life William Lambert was born free in 1817 in Trenton, New Jersey. Sources are mixed on the status of parents, but at least one of his parents was free at the time of his birth, possibly both. Crucial to his later success, Lambert was taken under the wing of a Quaker schoolmaster. This school master, Abner Hunt Francis, provided Lambert a valuable formal education and being an abolitionist himself introduced Lambert to the movement at a young age. In the 1830s the pair found themselves in Buffalo, New York, a rallying point for abolition movement at the time. From 1832 to 1838 while his mentor worked with the local abolitionist movement in Buffalo, Lambert would start making his own way in the world by traveling the Great Lakes region and Detroit by hiring out as a cabin boy on commercial steamers. Sometime between 1838 and 1840 Lambert would settle permanently in Detroit, and though only in his early 20s would quickly involve himself in the local business and civil rights communities. Lambert's first steady job in Detroit was in a tailor shop. He may have gravitated to the garments industry in part because Francis had been a tailor as well, but it would be there in that shop that he would first meet George DeBaptiste. He and DeBaptiste would become close associates within the local chapter of the Underground Railroad and other abolitionist ventures in Detroit. Additionally Lambert found success in the local garment industry eventually owning his own successful tailoring and dry cleaning business. By the time of this death in 1890, his successes in business would leave behind an estate worth approximately $24,800,000 (2018 USD) when adjustments for inflation and purchasing power parity since 1890. Abolitionist work Upon establishing himself in Detroit, Lambert soon involved himself in local civil rights and anti-slavery groups.