English: Underground Railroad Monument in Windsor Ontario. Southwestern Ontario was a common stop on the Underground Railroad, an informal system of safe houses that helped people flee slavery in the southern United States. The British empire (including Canada) abolished slavery in 1833, after many northern states abolished it (e.g., five American states banished slavery by 1789), but a full 28 years before the American civil war. Among the many slaves who escaped to Ontario was Josiah Henson, a leader in his African Canadian colony, the Dawn Settlement, in Ontario. His autobiography was cited as the inspiration for the character of Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The woman in the statue is looking back across the river to the United States (Detroit MI)