Amherstburg, Ontario
Description
Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, becoming the heart of the settlement. It has been designated as a National Historic Site.The city is approximately south of the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan, facing Wyandotte, Grosse Ile Township, Brownstown Charter Township, and Gibraltar, Michigan. It is part of the Windsor census metropolitan area.HistoryAcross the Detroit River from what developed as the state of Michigan in the United States, the town was permanently established in 1796 as a British military fort. Fort Malden was occupied as a garrison. The town was developed by Loyalists who were granted land by the Crown in Ontario after the British lost the American Revolutionary War. They built many of their houses in the French style of a century before, giving the new town a historic character.During the days of the Underground Railroad before the American Civil War, fugitive African-American slaves often crossed the river to escape to freedom in Canada, after slavery was abolished there. Detroit abolitionists William Lambert and George DeBaptiste were key and DeBaptiste owned a lake steamboat which was used to offload fugitives in town while docked ostensibly to load lumber They used Fort Malden as an entry point.
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