Michigan Central Railroad stations between Chicago and Detroit formed a freedom corridor that helped self-liberated persons escape slavery before the Civil War. Jackson's Michigan Central Railroad passenger station played a key role in the lives of the Crosswhites, who had escaped slavery in the early 1840s and settled in Marshall, Michigan. On January 27, 1847, four Kentuckians broke into the Crosswhite home to re-enslave them. Marshall abolitionists helped them escape and hid them in the woodyard of the Jackson station that night. George Ingersoll boarded the train in Marshall the next day to make sure the Kentuckians were not aboard, then signaled to the Crosswhites that it was safe to board by standing on the train's rear platform when it arrived, and the family soon reached Canada. Jackson's central location in Michigan helped develop the city into a prominent rail hub. When the Michigan Central Railroad reached Jackson in 1841, it built a passenger depot a block and a half northwest of here, followed by a freight depot at this location. Before the Civil War, both were part of a freedom corridor used by the Underground Railroad to help self-liberated people reach Canada. After the Civil War, Jackson led the Michigan Central Railroad in passenger traffic and ranked second in freight shipped. In 1873 the railroad replaced its old Jackson depots with this Italianate-style union station, which served most of Jackson's rail lines. The Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 created Amtrak, which took ownership of the station in 1976.