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William Lambert He’s been called “the conductor” of the Underground Railroad, but an interview William Lambert gave to the Detroit Tribune in 1886, just 4 years before his death, shows that he was more aptly a member of its board of directors. Lambert, who came to Detroit as a cabin boy on a steamboat, was characterized as a man of education, wide reading, rare argumentative power, the founder of a church and a leader of his race. He created the “African American Mysteries; the Order of the Men of Oppression,” a complicated set of rituals that protected the very existence of the Underground Railroad. Lambert was a friend and confidant of well known abolitionist John Brown, who Lambert insisted was a sane and reasonable man who voluntarily sacrificed himself to fan the flames of liberty. In an 1890 article in the Detroit Free Press, Lambert was called an indefatigable worker in the cause of anti-slavery and it was at his house that many meetings were held by John Brown and his followers. At his funeral later that year, the Tribune reported that the church was filled, that many prominent people were present, and that his “remains found their last resting place in Elmwood Cemetery.” Born: Circa 1817
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