From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

She was born Malinda Robinson in Paris, KY. Her mother, who was free, had been born in Maryland; her father, a slave, had been born in Kentucky. Malinda was the sixth of their nine children.

Her parents fought in the Kentucky court system for 14 years to keep the children from being enslaved. The mother finally stole away in the night with all of the children at the insistence of her husband, whom they never saw again, and settled in Terre Haute, IN.

Malinda married William Paris when she was 18 years old, and the couple eventually moved to Canada, then to Detrtoit, MI about 1845. William had escaped to Canada through the Underground Railroad; he was born free and had been captured and enslaved several times before the move to Canada.

For more see Malinda's obituary in the St. Clair Republican, 10/27/1892; the Malinda Paris memorial in Pioneer and Historical Collections, vol. XXII (1893); her grave marker and more information at the Find a Grave website; and Chapter 8 of The Underground Railroad in Michigan.