Detroit is the largest city in Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. A sprawling metropolis situated on the Detroit River, the city is perhaps best known for its automobiles and its music. The presence of the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler) has given Detroit a worldwide reputation as an automotive center and earned the city its familiar monikers, "Motor City" and "Motown." The city of Detroit was also the birthplace of the distinctive Motown Sound, an African-American musical style popularized by Detroit's own Motown Records.

Founded in 1701 as a French outpost and fur-trading center on the bank of Rivière du Détroit("River of the Strait"), this settlement fell into British hands in 1760, at the end of the French and Indian War. The Ottawa, who had been allied with the French, laid siege to Fort Detroit during Chief Pontiac's ill-fated rebellion. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783, stipulated that Detroit should pass to the U.S. However, the British remained firmly entrenched there (and in several other forts in the Great Lakes region) in defiance of the treaty. It wasn't until the Jay Treaty, signed in 1796, that the British finally relinquished the territory and Detroit became a holding of the U.S. The settlement fell into British hands again briefly, during the War of 1812, but was recaptured in 1813. The city was officially incorporated in 1815. Prior to the Civil War, Detroit served as an important waypoint in the Underground Railroad, due to its proximity to the Canadian border.