Foreword
1. The province now named Ontario went through several name changes. It was first called Upper Canada, then Canada West, and finally Ontario.
2. For the longest while, August First was dubbed West Indian Emancipation because the largest numbers of enslaved people who were freed lived in the British West Indies.
3. Eighteenth-century streams of Black migration to Canada included the African captives who were held as slaves in New France and later British North America, the Black Loyalists who arrived after the American Revolutionary War, and the Trelawny Maroons who were deported by the British from Jamaica to Nova Scotia. For the seventeenth century, the majority of Black persons in Canada were slave captives. Mention must be made of the twentieth century. During the early decades, Blacks from the American Plain States settled on the Canadian Prairie. Likewise, during the second half of the century Black Caribbeans and continental Africans migrated to Canada in large numbers.
4. Examples of enslaved people rising against the British include Tacky’s War, 1760 (Jamaica); the First Black Carib War, 1769 (St. Vincent); the Slave Rebellion of the British Virgin Islands, 1790 (Tortola); the Demerara Revolt of 1823 (British Guiana); and Bussa’ Rebellion, 1816 (Barbados).
Introduction: Background on an African-Canadian Celebration
1. Excerpt from the unpublished poem, “The True Essence of Freedom,” by Fitzroy E. Dixon.
2. For more on Charles Stuart, see Karolyn Smardz Frost et al, Ontario’s African Canadian Heritage: Collected Writings of Fred Landon, 1918–1967 (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books-Dundurn, 2009), chapter 18, “Captain Charles Stuart, Abolitionist,” 215–30.
3. A fellow Presbyterian minister in Truro named Daniel Cock owned two slaves. Reverend MacGregor published and distributed a written criticism of Cock’s slaveholding, argued the evils of the institution, and countered the popular arguments in support of slavery. Copies can be found at Dalhousie University, the Legislative Library of Nova Scotia, and the Saint John Free Library. Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 103 n15.
4. Jim Crow laws legalized racist practices that restricted the public lives of African Americans: where they could and could not go and what they could and could not do.
5. Dawn of Tomorrow, 1854. This African-Canadian newspaper was established in London, Ontario, in 1923 by James F. Jenkins and published until 1966.
6. The Fair Accommodations Practices Act of 1954 made it illegal for hotels, restaurants, theatres, and other businesses that served the public in Ontario to refuse service to individuals because of their race.
7. Black women from the English-speaking Caribbean — mainly teachers, office workers, and nurses — were recruited for emigration to Canada to work as domestic servants in White households. By 1965, almost three thousand women were admitted to work as domestics for a minimum of one year, after which they received landed-immigrant status and could sponsor family members. Ken Alexander and Avis Glaze, Towards Freedom: The African-Canadian Experience (Toronto: Umbrella Press, 1996), 178.
Chapter 1: Exploring the Meaning of Emancipation Day
1. Voice of the Fugitive, August 12, 1852.
2. London Free Press, August 4, 1896.
3. West India Day is another name that was sometimes applied to August First. Personally, I find it to be a misnomer, even though it was widely used at one time.
Chapter 2: From Enslavement to Freedom
1. For more information see Afua Cooper, The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2006).
2. After a year-long trial, there was a split decision from the judges. Therefore no judgment could be entered and Nancy Morton lost her case. She was returned to Jones as his property and was sentenced to serve fifteen years as a slave. Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 108.
3. Olaudah Equiano, a native African, was kidnapped as a young boy, enslaved, and sold to a plantation owner in Virginia. Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was later sold to Captain Pascal, a British naval officer. He was able to purchase his freedom, and then travelled throughout England lecturing about his experiences and the atrocities of slavery.
4. Frederick Douglass was an African-American abolitionist from Rochester, New York. He travelled internationally and gave speeches to inform the public on the inhumane enslavement of Africans and to motivate Blacks to mobilize and become self-sufficient.
5. The earliest recorded incident of slavery in Canada was a young African boy given the name Olivier LeJeune. David Kirke, an English merchant, was his original owner.
6. The case of Chloe Cooley was the impetus for Simcoe to push for a legal end to slavery in Upper Canada. For more information on Chloe Cooley, see Adrienne Shadd et al, The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2002).
7. Under the Limitation Act of 1793, masters also had to provide food and clothing to their charges, including when they were manumitted. Also, owners had to secure some form of employment for slaves freed after the age of twenty-five.
8. The Fugitive Slave Law, passed by the United States Congress in 1793, permitted slave owners and slave catchers to pursue runaway slaves anywhere in America and return them to where they were held. Free Blacks could also be sold into slavery with little legal protection.
9. Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada, 11.
10. Daniel Hill, The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada (Agincourt: Book Society of Canada, 1981), 20; James Cleland Hamilton, Osgoode Hall: Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar (Toronto: Carswell Co., 1904), 162.
11. J.R. Kerr-Ritchie, The Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2007), 18–20.
Chapter 3: Southwestern Ontario
1. Daniel Hill, The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada (Agincourt: Book Society of Canada, 1981), 46.
2. “Common schools” were schools that received provincial funding as well as local tax support. It provided any student with a free education. According to the Common Schools Act of 1850, “separate schools” could legally be established for children of different religions and races. A misinterpretation of section XIX of this Common School Act, which made the pre-existing segregation legal, was imposed by many local school boards wanting segregated schools for Blacks and Whites.
3. Donald G. Simpson, Under the North Star: Black Communities in Upper Canada (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2005), 152.
4. Levi Coffin published his observations on his travels, including the visit to Amherstburg in The Reminiscences of Levi Coffin: The Reputed President of the Underground Railroad published in 1876.
5. See Amherstburg 1796–1996: The New Town on the Garrison Ground (Amherstburg Bicentennial Committee, 1996), 241.
6. Daniel Pearson (also spelled Pierson), lived at the corner of George and Gore Streets. For over thirty years, Pearson officiated over Emancipation Day celebrations in Amherstburg. Amherstburg Echo, August 9, 1889.
7. Amherstburg 1796–1996, 242.
8. Caldwell’s Grove was located on the land of British Loyalist William Caldwell, at the mouth of the Detroit River off Pike Road about two kilometres east of town.
9. Delos Rogest Davis, a native of Colchester, became the second Black lawyer in Canadian history in 1885 and became the first African Canadian appointed to the King’s Council in Canada. He established a law firm with his son on Gore Street in Amherstburg.
10. Amherstburg Echo, August 8, 1879.
11. Josephus O’Banyoun was born in Brantford, Ontario. He became the pastor of the Little Zion BME Church in Owen Sound in 1856. O’Banyoun had moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by 1860, where he was appointed minister of the BME church and was the first to organize a choral group called the Jubilee Singers. While there, he met his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Goosely of Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Upon his return to Ontario, O’Banyoun was the pastor at St. Paul’s AME Church in Hamilton in 1878. During this time he formed an Ontario branch of the Canadian Jubilee Singers, which became a choral group that performed around the province. He was appointed as the first secretary of the AME Conference in Ontario serving in 1885, and again from 1887 to 1889. He passed away in 1905 while in charge of the AME church in Amherstburg.
12. Amherstburg Echo, August 9, 1889.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Amherstburg Echo, August 3, 1894.
19. John H. Alexander was the principal of the King Street School, the public school for Black children in Amherstburg for thirty years. He had been born in Anderdon, twelve kilometres north of Amherstburg on October 15, 1857. Alexander became a town councillor from 1923 to 1926 and was appointed town assessor in 1930.
20. The ministers included a Reverend L. Pierce, Reverend J.E. Allen, Reverend J.A. Holt, and Reverend C.P. Hill.
21. Amherstburg Echo, August 3, 1894.
22. Ibid.
23. Statement from the Alvin McCurdy Collection, Archives Ontario, F2076-3-34, Emancipation Day Clippings, B397059.
24. Ibid.
25. The North America Black Historical Museum was established in Amherstburg in 1975 through the efforts of Melvin “Mac” Simpson.
26. From the Emancipation Day Collection, North American Black Historical Museum.
27. In September 1792, Judge William Dummer Powell sentenced Joseph Cutten, a man of African descent, to death for stealing rum and furs. Cutten was executed by hanging. Powell also sentenced another Black man to death for his crimes, but the convicted man escaped before his sentence was carried out. Powell was later appointed chief justice of Upper Canada.
28. The Stone Barracks, the present-day site of General Brock School located at Sandwich and Brock Streets, was originally built as a school in 1808, then used as a military barrack during the War of 1812 and again in 1839 following the Rebellions of Upper Canada.
29. See Julia H. Roberts, In Mixed Company: Taverns and Public Life in Upper Canada (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009), 111–12.
30. See J.R. Kerr-Ritchie, The Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2007), 132. In 1857, Colonel Prince made some disparaging remarks against Blacks. He called them “animals” and “criminals,” and stated they were only good as slaves. Prince argued they should be shipped to Manitoulin Island and argued that Blacks couldn’t be good citizens just as the spots of a leopard couldn’t be changed. See Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 214, and Daniel Hill, The Freedom Seekers, 106.
31. John Bull represented a typical Englishman, the personification of England, equivalent to Uncle Sam in the United States. Quote from the Voice of the Fugitive, August 13, 1851.
32. Samuel Ringgold Ward escaped slavery with his parents when he was three years old. They settled in New York, where Ward received his education. He became a Congregationalist minister, and when he moved to Windsor, Ontario, he founded the newspaper, the Provincial Freeman and became an agent for the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada.
33. Voice of the Fugitive, July 2, 1851; August 13, 1851.
34. Ibid., July 30, 1851.
35. See “Windsor Communities” (www.windsor-communities.com) and “On the Road North” (virtualmuseum.ca/blackhistory/OnTheRoadNorth.html).
36. Levi Coffin, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, 150–151.
37. Ibid.
38. Liberator, August 26, 1859.
39. Sandwich Mineral Springs operated as a park between 1866 and 1888. John Gauthier owned the property. He drilled for oil on his property, but found a mineral spring instead. Around 1902 it became Lagoon Park, which existed until 1910. A hotel that was still there was used by Emancipation Day visitors. The park featured a carousel, a dance pavilion, the Electric Theatre, the Meoloscope Parlour, and the Electric Tower. Mineral Springs and Prince’s Grove Park were located at present-day Mic Mac Park at Prince and Carmichael Roads.
40. Windsor Evening Record, August 1, 1895.
41. Colin McFarquhar, “A Difference of Perspective: Blacks, Whites, and Emancipation Day Celebrations in Ontario, 1865–1919.” Ontario History 92, no. 2 (Autumn 2000).
42. Windsor Evening Record, August 1, 1905.
43. Ibid., August 1, 1913; August 2, 1913.
44. Mitchell Kachun, Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808–1915 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003), 246.
45. Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 48.
46. Voice of the Fugitive, August 12, 1852.
47. The North American League was created by James Theodore Holly, a Black abolitionist born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He had moved to Windsor in 1851 and was in attendance that day.
48. Voice of the Fugitive, August 12, 1852.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid.
53. Windsor’s first Black alderman was James Dunn, from 1887 to 1888. His brother Robert Dunn was elected alderman in 1893 and held the seat to 1903.
54. Windsor Evening Record, August 1, 1895.
55. Jack Johnson was the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion, a title he held from 1908 to 1915. He was born in Galveston, Texas, in 1878 and was the son of former slaves. He died in 1946.
56. Windsor Evening Record, August 2, 1907.
57. Windsor Evening Record, August 2, 1900; August 1, 1902; August 3, 1909; August 2, 1910; August 1, 1911; August 1, 1912; August 2, 1912; August 1, 1913; August 2, 1913; August 24, 1914.
58. The British American Association of Coloured Brothers (BAACB) was formed in Windsor in 1935. As an African-Canadian organization, the group aimed to actively challenge discrimination in the city and to organize the celebration of Emancipation Day.
59. Robert R. Moton was president of Tuskegee College in Tuskegee, Alabama, from 1915 to 1935. He was instrumental in the creation of the Tuskegee Veteran’s Administration Hospital, the first and only such hospital staffed by Black professionals.
60. Walter Perry was born in Chatham in 1899, and moved to Windsor with his mother after his father died when he was eight years old. He lived in the McDougall Street corridor where a large number of Blacks lived. Perry passed away in 1967.
61. Peggy Bristow, “A Duty to the Past, a Promise to the Future: Black Organizing in Windsor — The Depression, World War II, and the Post-War Years.” New Dawn: The Journal of Black Canadian Studies 2, no. 1 (2007): 3.
62. Toronto Star, July 29, 1947.
63. Ibid. July 29, 1947; August 2, 1948; August 2, 1949.
64. Ibid., July 30, 1950.
65. An African-American female civil-rights activist and founder of the Bethune– Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Mary McLeod Bethune to his “Black Cabinet,” which was made up of various Blacks selected to advise his administration on concerns of African Americans.
66. Daisy Bates was a civil rights activist and advisor to the Little Rock Nine. She was the selected African-American student chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
67. Fred Shuttlesworth was a Baptist minister and civil rights activist in Birmingham, Alabama. He formed the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in 1956 to fight segregation and to lobby for voting rights for Southern Blacks.
68. Myrlie Evers was the wife of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, the field secretary for the North American Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was gunned down in 1963 in his driveway in Jackson, Mississippi. His death left a widow and three sons.
69. Emancipation Day Collection, North American Black Historical Museum, FS-35.
70. “Windsor Communities” (www.windsor-communities.com), accessed on October 2009.
71. In 1938, African-American parachute jumper Dorothy Darby jumped from a plane for the thirty-eighth time onto the grounds of Jackson Park. Emancipation Day Collection, North American Black Historical Museum, FO-11.
72. Emancipation Day Collection, St. Catharines Museum.
73. Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers, scrapbook 2, folder 1, 45–46, Baldwin Room, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Public Library.
74. “Emancipation Celebration” (www.emancipationday.ca), accessed October 2009.
75. John Brown was the American leader of the Harper’s Ferry Raid in Virginia that sought to take over the American government and eliminate slavery. The convention in Chatham was organized to recruit fighters, hold training sessions at Tecumseh Park, draw financial support from sympathetic Blacks living in the vicinity, and to receive assistance in the drafting and implementation of the constitution for the provisional government Brown planned to establish.
76. Mary Ann Shadd was a writer and first full-time editor of the Provincial Freeman. The paper’s headquarters remained in Chatham until September 1857 when the last issue was published.
77. Nelson Hackett escaped from Arkansas and came to Chatham in September of 1841, where he was tracked down and uncovered a few months later by his master Alfred Wallace, and arrested. Fifteen Black soldiers tried to rescue him, but he was quickly moved to a jail in Sandwich. After court proceedings he was extradited to the United States, the first time a slave was returned from Canada West.
78. For more on Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott, see Catherine Slaney, Family Secrets: Crossing the Colour Line (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2003).
79. In Simmons vs. Chatham, 1861, the judge’s decision upheld segregation in Chatham’s public schools. See Robin Winks, Blacks in Canada, 373–74.
80. Peter C. Ripley et al, eds. The Black Abolitionist Papers, Volume II: Canada 1830–1865 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.)
81. For more on William King, see Victor Ullman, Look to the North Star: A Life of William King (Toronto: Umbrella Press, 1994). Reprint.
82. Provincial Freeman, August 19, 1854; July 26, 1856; and the Chatham Weekly Planet, July 30, 1856.
83. At the eighteenth annual AME church conference and the first annual BME Conference held in Chatham on September 23, 1856, Reverend W.H. Jones moved that the Canadian AME churches separate from the general AME conference and establish their own church, the BME church.
84. Liberator, August 30, 1860.
85. Isaac Holden was the captain of the Victoria Company No. 3, Chatham’s all-Black fire brigade that formed in 1857, and the first African-Canadian city councillor in Chatham.
86. Chatham Weekly Planet, August 3, 1871.
87. Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers, scrapbook 2, folder 1, 45–46. Baldwin Room, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Public Library.
88. Ibid.; British Colonist (Victoria), August 21, 1874.
89. Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers, Baldwin Room, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Public Library.
90. Toronto Globe, August 2, 1882; Toronto World, August 2, 1882.
91. Chatham Tri-Weekly Planet, August 5, 1891; Adrienne Shadd, “No Black Alley Clique: The Campaign to Desegregate Chatham’s Public Schools, 1891– 1893.” Ontario History 99, no. 1, (Spring 2007): 77–96.
92. Colin McFarquhar, “A Difference of Perspective,” 155.
93. Ibid., 149; Chatham Daily Planet, August 2, 1893.
94. Mitchell Kachun, Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808–1915 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003), 177.
95. Chatham Daily Planet, August 3, 1897.
96. Ibid.
97. Chatham Daily Planet, August 2, 1899.
98. Josiah Henson, a former slave from Maryland, escaped to Canada in 1830. He was a church minister and stalwart community activist, and founder of the Dawn Settlement.
99. In 1872, Frederick Douglass became the first Black to be nominated as a vice-presidential candidate, and the first Black presidential candidate at the Republican Convention in 1888. In 1889, Douglass was appointed the United States minister to Haiti. See Steve Anzovin and Janet Podell, Famous First Facts About American Politics (New York: H.W. Wilson, 2001), 226. Douglass penned his third and most known autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881.
100. There were allegations that the funds raised on behalf of the colony were used by Josiah Henson and Hiram Wilson, abolitionist and Congregational missionary from Boston, for personal benefit while the debt accumulated at Dawn continued to grow.
101. Provincial Freeman, August 26, 1854; J.R. Kerr-Ritchie, The Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2007), 159.
102. James Hollinsworth, brother-in-law of William Whipper, managed Whipper’s Inn in Dresden.
103. Aaron Highgate was a teacher at the Princess Street School in Chatham in 1859. He was a supporter of John Brown’s plan to attack Harper’s Ferry and was on his way to join Brown’s militia but turned back after receiving word that Brown had been caught.
104. William Whipper was a Black abolitionist and a well-known “stationmaster” of the Underground Railroad out of Columbia and Philadelphia. He used actual railroads to transport escaped slaves across the American-Canadian border to freedom, stowing them in secret compartments. Whipper was a wealthy businessman who ran successful lumber and coal businesses with his brother-in-law Stephen Smith in Columbia. He also invested money in the railroad company he used to smuggle slaves into Canada, and owned several railway cars. In 1853 on a visit to the Dawn Settlement, he purchased land, built a house and a warehouse, and established other companies in Dresden, including an inn. His sister’s husband, James Hollinsworth, managed all of the Dresden companies.
105. Provincial Freeman, August 22, 1857.
106. Ibid., July 25, 1857.
107. Ibid.
108. “Diary of Thomas Hughes,” MS, Diocese of Huron Archives, London, Ontario.
109. The Christian Recorder, September 7, 1861.
110. Ibid.
111. Ibid.
112. Ibid.
113. Ibid., September 7, 1861.
114. Robin Winks, Blacks in Canada, 373; James W.St.G. Walker, “African Canadians.” Magosci, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of Canada’s People (Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1999): 139–76.
115. British Colonist (Victoria), August 6, 1890; Hamilton Spectator, August 2, 1890.
116. Chatham Daily News, August 8, 2006.
117. Ibid., August 2, 2005.
118. Hugh Burnette, a second-generation African Canadian and a descendant of slaves, worked as a carpenter. He was a co-organizer of the Chatham-based National Unity Association, a Black community organization. For more on the life of Hugh Burnette, see John Cooper, Season of Rage: Hugh Burnette and the Struggle for Civil Rights (Toronto: Tundra Books, 2005).
119. Hamilton Spectator, August 2, 1890; British Colonist (Victoria), August 6, 1890.
120. Jane Rhodes, Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Ptotest in the Nineteenth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 132.
121. For more information on William Clarke, see the chapter on British Columbia in Robin Winks, Blacks in Canada, 280–82.
122. Alfred Jones and his brother, Aby Jones, arrived in London in 1833. Both had been slaves in Kentucky and had forged passes to escape slavery via the Underground Railroad. They both became some of the wealthiest men in London through various business ventures, such as a cooperative store, a pharmacy, and the acquisition of real estate. Daniel Hill, The Freedom Seekers, 158.
123. The original site of the school operated by Dillon, which opened in November of 1854, was the military barracks, somewhere on the lands of present-day Victoria Park.
124. The Second Baptist Church was located at the corner of Thames and Horton Streets. It was built on property that was purchased and donated by Aby Jones, who also gave money to help put up a temporary frame building on the site. Aby and his brother Alfred were church officers and deacons of Second Baptist. Benjamin Miller became the minister after Daniel Turner died in 1860.
125. Shadrach Martin was born in May 1833 in Nashville, Tennessee, to an enslaved mother and a free Black father who bought his future wife’s freedom. After they died when Shack was young, he was adopted by a man who gave Shadrach his name. As a teenager, he became a barbering apprentice. He later settled in London. See London Free Press, March 26, 1910.
126. William McClure, Savage, David, ed., Life and Labours of the Reverend William McClure by William McClure (Toronto: James Campbell & Son, 1872), 342.
127. The Free Coloured Mission was operated by a missionary body called the Colonial Church and School Society, under the guardianship of St. Paul’s Church, Reverend Marmaduke Dillon was the director and continued in that role until the summer of 1859. J.I. Cooper, “The Mission to the Fugitive Slaves at London.” Ontario History 46 (Spring 1954): 131–39; London Free Press, August 1, 1862.
128. Toronto Globe, August 4, 1885.
129. London Free Press, August 1, 1895; British Colonist (Victoria), August 1, 1895.
130. London Free Press, August 4, 1896.
131. See Theda Skocpol, What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008).
132. See Nina Mjagkij, Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African-American Associations (New York: Garland Publishing, 2001).
133. London Free Press, August 4, 1896.
134. Dawn of Tomorrow, August 1935; July 25, 1938; Dawn owner James F. Jenkins and a man named J.W. Montgomery (of Toronto) established the Canadian League (afterwards Association) for the Advancement of Colored People (CAACP). The organization was created to fight racial discrimination and growing anti- Black sentiment in various facets of society and to foster unity of Black cultural institutions in Canada. Branches opened in Toronto, Brantford, Niagara Falls, and Dresden. Their efforts proved most effective in London through helping Blacks continue their education, working with juveniles, and distributing food baskets in the winter. White executive members included Canadian anti-slavery historian Fred Landon (also a friend of Jenkins) and Canadian slavery scholar Justice William Renwick Riddell, both historians of African-Canadian history. For more on Fred Landon’s writings, see Karolyn Smardz Frost, Hilary (Bates) Neary, and Bryan Walls, eds. Ontario’s Black Heritage: Collected Writings of Fred Landon, 1918–1967 (Toronto: Natural Heritage-Dundurn, 2009).
135. The Dawn of Tomorrow was a Black London-based newspaper founded in 1923 by owner and editor James F. Jenkins. It was the official voice of the Canadian League for the Advancement of Colored People and was published until 1966. Fred Landon, a fellow Londoner and personal friend who researched African-Canadian history, also wrote for The Dawn.
136. The Community Family Club held weekly meetings aimed at fostering closer relationships between parents and children as well as developing skills ranging from how to build, make, and use radios to woodworking, sewing, knitting, and music.
137. The Dawn of Tomorrow, July 1948; London Free Press, July 15, 1948, August 2, 1949.
138. Paul Lewis was the president of the CAACP in 1941 and 1942. Originally from Philadelphia, Lewis came from Detroit to London in 1913. He had come to visit friends, but never went back to the United States. Lewis worked in London as a porter and a shoeshine man, and was a member of Beth Emanuel BME Church.
139. London Free Press, August 6, 1968.
140. London Free Press, March 26, 1910; August 6, 1968; August 1, 1977; August 8, 1978; August 3, 1982; August 7, 1984.
141. Information for Oxford county is from Joyce Pettigrew, A Safe Haven: The Story of the Black Settlers of Oxford County (Otterville, ON: South Norwich Historical Society, 2006).
142. The cakewalk was a popular African-American dance that originated on southern plantations by enslaved Africans. They imitated the “high society” manners of their White masters and mistresses, bowing and bending while doing a high-step promenade, a basic dance move of walking steps and figures typically involving a high prance with backward tilt. The slaves dressed in handed-down dresses and suits. The dance became a White-sanctioned performance then competition. Dances were held at the master’s house and he and his guests served as judges for the contest that awarded the winning couple with a cake, hence the phrase “take the cake.”
143. Pettigrew, A Safe Haven, 92–94; Ingersoll Chronicle, August 21, 1907.
144. Ibid.
Chapter 4: Central Ontario
1. Sophia Pooley was owned by Joseph Brant from the time she was seven years until the age of twelve when she was sold to a White Englishman in Ancaster named Samuel Hatt. When freed by her owner, she moved to Queen’s Bush Settlement. See Benjamin Drew, The Refugee: Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2008), 184.
2. Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 367.
3. Daniel Hill, The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada (Agincourt: Book Society of Canada, 1981), 100.
4. For more information on the trial, see Patrick Brode, The Odyessey of John Anderson (Toronto: Osgoode Law Society, 1990).
5. Peter Simeon O’Banyoun, Josephus’ father, donated plot of land on the north side of Dalhousie Street at the corner of Murray Street for the purpose of erecting the BME church. The senior O’Banyoun was a runaway slave from Kentucky. He was a church minister and took the oath of allegiance to become a British citizen. Josephus was born about 1842. See note 7 in chapter 3 on Josephus O’Banyoun.
6. Brantford Expositor, February 10, 2007.
7. Brantford Weekly Expositor, August 5,1859; Brantford Courier, August 4, 1886.
8. Brantford Expositor, February 10, 2007; Brantford Weekly Expositor, August 4, 1865.
9. J. Lucas was one of the sons of Andrew Lucas, an escaped slave from Tennessee owned by General Andrew “Stonewall” Jackson. While living in the Niagara region, he fought in the Battle of Queenston Heights during the War of 1812. Lucas moved to Brantford in 1845 where he operated a livery business, taking care of the horses of several local White businessmen. He and his wife had fourteen children. Brantford Expositor, June 30, 1997.
10. Brantford Courier, August 2, 1894.
11. Brantford Courier, August 3, 1903; Toronto Star, August 4, 1903.
12. Ibid.
13. Charles F.W. Snowden worked in various positions such as as a soap maker, general labourer, stationary boilerman, and construction worker on local homes and buildings of Guelph University. He was born in Brantford in 1868, and was raised from an early age by his maternal grandmother, Martha Coleman, a former slave from Kentucky, after his mother passed away and his father went to Chicago in search of work. Snowden was a member of the Grace Anglican Church and was a sought-after guitar and fiddle player for local house parties and community events.
14. These teams were part of the segregated baseball leagues in Ontario and Canada. At that time, African Canadians could not play in the White professional leagues. All-Black Canadian baseball teams included the London Colored Stars. See Bill Humber, A Sporting Chance: Achievements of African-Canadian Athletes (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2004), 45.
15. Brantford Courier, August 1, 1912; Toronto Star, August 1, 1912; Brantford Courier, August 2, 1912.
16. The Souls of Black Folks: Hamilton’s Stewart Memorial Community. Worker’s Art and Heritage Centre and the Virtual Museum of Canada.
17. Nelson Steven was born in Virginia and escaped to Canada. Shortly after, he risked his life, returning to the United States to enlist with the Union Army (25th U.S. Colored Troops, Company B) in 1865. He returned to Canada in 1866, settled in Hamilton, was married, and worked as a cigar roller. He died in 1890 and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Hamilton Cemetery. In August 2007, a grave-marker ceremony was held in Steven’s honour and a Civil War veteran’s headstone was placed at his burial site.
18. Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 103.
19. Ibid., 109.
20. Jesse Happy escaped slavery with the use of his master’s horse. He was being sought after in Upper Canada by David Castleman from Kentucky, the owner of Solomon Moseby (another fugitive who sought refuge in Upper Canada). Castleman furnished legal papers asking the Canadian government to send Happy back to slavery. Happy was ordered released from the Hamilton jail on November 14, 1837, because it was determined that he did not steal the horse, but that he used the horse to flee enslavement, a practice deemed illegal under British law. See David Murray, Colonial Justice: Justice, Morality, and Crime in the Niagara District, 1791–1849 (Toronto: Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2002), 198–203.
21. Paola Brown was part of the Black settlement in Woolwich, in the Queen’s Bush, Peel Township, in 1832. By 1851 he was in Hamilton. He stated: “Slaveholders, I call God, I call Angels, I call Men, to witness, that your destruction is at hand, and will be speedily consummated, unless you repent.” “Address Intended to be Delivered in the City Hall, Hamilton, February 7, 1851, on the Subject of Slavery, Hamilton, 1851,” as cited by Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada, 254; Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 150, 154.
22. Hamilton Spectator, August 3, 1857.
23. Charles McCullough, Essays on Canadian History: A Scrapbook of Clippings from the Hamilton Spectator. Vol 1, Hamilton Public Library, Special Collections; Montreal Witness, August 13, 1859; “Auchmar Estate Hamilton” (www.auchmar.info), accessed August 2009.
24. Ibid.; Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 183.
25. Charles H. Drinkwater, A short account of the manner in which Emancipation Day first of August was spent in the city of Hamilton, together with the sermon which was preached before the members of the Brotherly Union Society in the Church of St. Thomas, Hamilton by the Rev. C. H. Drinkwater, B.A., Rector (Hamilton: A Lawson & Co., 1864), 10.
26. The Brother Union Society was a large African-Canadian benevolent society formed in 1862. The society helped Hamilton’s Black community by paying for funerals and providing financial assistance to those in need. They celebrated their 23rd anniversary in 1885. Members included George B. Washington, Reverend J.B. Roberts of St. Paul’s AME, Alexander Doston, and George Morton.
27. Josephus O’Banyoun had recently returned from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and become the minister of the AME church.
28. In the1860s, William Butler organized a church in Bronte, which became a BME church in 1875, eventually leading to the formation of the Turner AME Church in Oakville. It still stands today and is used as an antique shop.
29. Toronto Globe, August 2, 1878.
30. Hamilton Spectator, August 2, 1878.
31. Ibid., August 2, 1884.
32. George Morton was born in Hamilton in 1859. He lived on Augusta Street and worked as a letter carrier for thirty-six years and for twenty-one of those years served as the treasurer for the local Letter Carriers’ Association. He also was the secretary for the Brotherly Union Society. Morton passed away on August 20, 1927. From the Hamilton Herald, August 20, 1927.
33. Toronto World, August 2, 1884.
34. Hamilton Spectator, August 2, 1884.
35. Ibid., August 2, 1902; Toronto Star, August 1, 1902.
36. Hamilton Spectator, August 2, 1890.
37. Ibid., August 1, 1893.
38. Ibid., August 2, 1906.
39. Ibid., August 3, 1909.
40. Enerals Griffin was an African American born in Virginia, who came to Canada in 1829, along with his wife Priscilla. Enerals bought the Griffin House and eighteen-hectare property from George Hogeboom in 1834 for 125 pounds. For one hundred and fifty years his descendants lived and worked on the valley farm. It is not known if Enerals was escaping to freedom or had already been given his freedom and was journeying to Upper Canada in search of a better life. We do know that he could read and write because of his signature on his naturalization papers. Descendants intermarried and their identity by colour disappeared, and by the mid-twentieth century their Black past was unknown to many descendants.
The Griffins are buried at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Sulphur Springs Road in Ancaster. A headstone marks their graves. In 1991, the Griffin House was designated by the Ancaster Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee for its unique historical and architectural significance, and, in 2008, the house received National Historical Site designation. Information from Anne Jarvis, Historical Interpreter. Griffin House/Fieldcote Memorial Park and Museum, personal communication through June to November 2009.
41. Hill’s home is located at 457 Maple Grove Drive. It still stands today.
42. “Oakville’s Black History,” Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate, Deborah Hudson, curator, 2000. Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton (CCAH), parts of which were reproduced online on the CCAH website (ccah.ca), accessed on September 2009.
43. The Mariner’s Home is located at 279 Lawson Street and is still standing today; see Hazel Mathews, Oakville and the Sixteen: The History of an Ontario Port (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1953), 248; C. Cross, curator of Collections, Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate, personal communication November 2009; Veronica Tyrrell, executive director of the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton, personal communication, November 2009.
44. Toronto Star, August 2, 1929.
45. Ibid.
46. From Rachel Mendleson, “Alvin B. Aberdeen Duncan: 1913–2009.” Macleans 56, March 2, 2009.
47. It took years of careful research by Ruby West Jackson of Madison, Wisconsin; Walter T. McDonald of Racine, Wisconsin; and Hilary J. Dawson of Toronto, Ontario, to uncover Joshua Glover’s complete story. In 2007, this story came to public attention in Finding Freedom: The Untold Story of Joshua Glover Runaway Slave, by Ruby West Jackson and Walter T. McDonald, and published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
48. The 1851 North American Convention of Coloured People was held in Toronto because it was decided that this city would be the safest location for a large meeting. This meeting was chaired by Henry Bibb, J.J. Fisher, Thomas Smallwood, and Josiah Henson. There were hundreds of people of African descent from the northern United States, England, and across Canada who had decided to encourage settlement to Canada rather than to Africa.
49. Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 20.
50. Ibid., 107.
51. J.R. Kerr-Ritchie, The Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007).
52. The Church, August 11, 1838.
53. Based on his regular involvement in Emancipation Day commemorations in Toronto, Henry James Grasett is likely to have been an anti-slavery activist of the Anglican Church in Toronto. He participated in local Emancipation Day events for over twenty years, delivering speeches and sermons.
54. Black Abolitionist Papers, Vol. 2: 76–83.
55. St. Catharines Journal, August 6, 1840.
56. Thomas Smallwood was a former slave from Maryland. After arriving in Canada he assisted other fugitives to escape slavery and set up new homes. He operated a saw factory on Front Street. Smallwood self-published his personal story in 1851, the first slave narrative written in Canada. See Thomas Smallwood, A Narrative of Thomas Smallwood (Coloured Man) (Toronto: Mercury Press, 2000).
57. Black Abolitionist Papers, Vol. 2: 2, 295–96.
58. Provincial Freeman, August 5, 1854.
59. Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 183.
60. Brantford Semi-Weekly Expositor, August 5, 1856.
61. Owen Sound Comet, August 2, 1860.
62. Toronto World, August 2, 1883; August 3, 1883.
63. The Globe, August 2, 1892; Toronto Daily Mail, August 2, 1892.
64. Donald G. Simpson, Under the North Star: Black Communities in Upper Canada (Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2005), 122.
65. Toronto Evening Star, August 1, 1895.
66. Toronto Star, August 2, 1946.
67. Toronto Star, August 1, 1947; Toronto Star, July 30, 1951.
68. Donald Moore, Don Moore: An Autobiography (Toronto: Williams-Wallace Publishers, 1985), 182. The TEC developed its own colour guard and drill team, and supported several women’s auxiliaries. Their slogan was “Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.”
69. Ibid.
70. Donald Moore, Don Moore, 188.
71. Violet King graduated from the University of Alberta and became a member of the Alberta Law Society. She was a descendant of one of the African-American immigrants from Oklahoma who settled in the prairie provinces between 1908 and 1911. For more information, see Gwen Hooks, The Keystone Legacy: Reflections of a Black Pioneer (Edmonton, AB: Brightest Pebble, 1997).
72. Toronto Star, August 5, 1958.
73. Globe and Mail, July 27, 1964.
74. Share, July 31, 2008.
Chapter 5: The Niagara Region
1. In 1840, the militia under the command of Captain Alexander MacDonald attempted to rescue and free two enslaved African women from a small group of Southerners having dinner at a local hotel in Niagara, but were unsuccessful and withdrew. The corps disbanded in 1851 after the completion of the Welland Canal. These servicemen then settled around the Niagara Peninsula and some assisted in the movement of refugees on the Underground Railroad and helped to settle the newcomers.
2. In 1983 the BME Church was rededicated in honour of Robert Nathaniel Dett. Born in Drummondville, he was a composer, pianist, and music educator in both Canada and the United States. Dett was the church’s organist from 1898 to 1903. In 1998 Brainerd Blyden-Taylor founded the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, named in honour of the talented Niagara-area musician. The choral group performs various forms of Afro-centric music. In 2009, they were invited to perform at the inauguration of United States President Barack Obama, the first African-American president.
3. The land for these two churches and other lots used for homes was sold to members of the community by William Hamilton Merritt, a White abolitionist in St. Catharines. He was a local politician, the chief engineer of the Welland Canal, and architect of the first Niagara Suspension Bridge.
4. The passage of the legislation on July 9, 1793, provided that Africans already enslaved in Upper Canada would remain the property of their owners for life, children born to slaves would be freed at age twenty-five, and their children would be free at birth. Also, the importation of slaves into the province was prohibited and any slaves entering into Upper Canada would be freed automatically. Lastly, owners of freed slaves had to provide for their security.
5. Michael Butler and Nancy Power, Slavery and Freedom in Niagara, 69. In the early nineteenth century, pamphlet writing was a form of public protest in the abolition movement. Pamphlets were used to conscript Blacks to fight slavery, to provide advice to fellow Africans, and to record history (speeches, sermons, etc.). See Richard Newman et al, eds., Pamphlets of Protest: An Anthology of Early African American Protest (New York: Routledge, 2001).
6. Henry Gray was very active in the organization and execution of Emancipation Day celebrations in St. Catharines. He hosted the communal meals for a time at his property on Cherry Street and was on the planning committee in 1843.
7. St. Catharines Journal, August 2, 1838; The Church, August 11, 1838.
8. Henry Garrett was one of the fugitives who gradually moved inland further from the border. After escaping enslavement in Virginia, he seems to have settled first in Drummondville, moved to Brantford briefly, then settled in London where he operated a bakery.
9. Niagara Chronicle, July 17, 1844.
10. Liberator, August 23, 1861.
11. Colin McFarquhar, “A Difference of Perspective: Blacks, Whites, and Emancipation Day Celebrations in Ontario, 1865–1919.” Ontario History 92, no 2 (Autumn 2000):152.
12. B.J. Spencer Pitt appears to be the fifth Black lawyer in Ontario. He came to Canada in 1928 to attend Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia before going to London, England, to obtain his law degree in international law and constitutional history. He was called to the bar in 1928 and opened a law office on Dundas Street West in Toronto. Spencer Pitt was recalled as a mentor and an advocate by many. Lance C. Talbot, “History of Blacks in the Law Society of Upper Canada,” The Law Society of Upper Canada Gazette 24, no. 1, March 1990: 67–68; Roy Vogt. Whose Property? The Deepening Conflict Between Private Property and Democracy in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999), 376; Sheldon Taylor, “B.J. Spencer Pitt: A Forgotten Icon.” Share News, February 21, 2002: 9.
13. “Emancipation Days: The ‘Big Picnic.’” Dalhousie Peer 1, no. 7, (August 1997). Emancipation Day Collection, St. Catharines Museum.
14. Information from Wilda Hypolite, “The Big Picnic: Lakeside Park, Port Dalhousie,” Emancipation Day Collection, St. Catharines Museum; this is a page of transcribed interview notes.
Chapter 6: Around the Northern Terminus
1. See Peter Meyler, ed., Broken Shackles: Old Man Henson From Slavery to Freedom (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2001), Appendix “The Old Durham Road Pioneer Cemetery Committee,” 201–04.
2. For a video on the story of this cemetery and the surrounding area, see Speakers for the Dead, produced by David Sutherland and Jennifer Holness, and distributed by NFB.
3. John Frost Jr., a member of one of the leading families of Owen Sound, recorded Henson’s oral history, and put it together as a collection of anecdotes set in an historical context for publication in 1889. A new edition of Broken Shackles was edited for today’s reader, annotated, and republished in 2001. See Peter Meyler, ed., Broken Shackles.
4. John Hall was born in Amherstburg, Ontario, in 1807. John, his mother, and ten siblings were kidnapped by slave hunters along the Upper Canada–Detroit border and sold into slavery in Kentucky. He escaped his enslavement, using the Underground Railroad to return to his native land.
5. “Presque Isle.” Northern Terminus: Northern Terminus: African Canadian History Journal 5, (2008): 19–20.
6. Lisa Wodhams, “To Enlighten our Hearts: The 145th Emancipation Celebrations,” Northern Terminus: African Canadian History Journal, Volume 5, 2008: xiii-xix; Amelia Ferguson. “146th Emancipation Festival: Community, Roots, and Culture.” Northern Terminus: African Canadian History Journal 6 (2009): ix-xiii.
7. Research on the Queen’s Bush Settlement was initiated by Linda Brown-Kubisch when she was the research librarian at the Kitchener-Waterloo Public Library. Her original work culminated in the publication of The Queen’s Bush Settlement: Black Pioneers 1839–1865 (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2004). For names of Black pioneers, see pages 190–235.
8. “The Queen’s Bush Settlement: 1820–1867.” Featured Plaque of the Month, Ontario Heritage Trust, September 2008.
9. Elmira Independent, August 25, 1997; Dumfries Reformer, August 5, 1863.
10. Elmira Independent, October 26, 1992.
11. Hamilton Spectator, August 1, 1890.
12. Personal communication with Stacy McLennan, registrar/researcher, Doon Heritage Crossroads, Kitchener, August 2009.
13. Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 245; Daniel Hill, The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada (Agincourt: Book Society of Canada, 1981), 58.
14. Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 175)
15. Ibid., 177, 226n42.
16. This account was written in 1885 by Marion Keith (real name Martha Graham), a novelist from Oro. See Tim Crawford, ed., The Oro African Church: A History of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Edgar, Ontario, Canada (Oro, ON: The Township of Oro-Medonte, 1999), 28.
17. Joanna McEwan, The Story of Oro (Oro: Township of Oro, 1987).
18. Tim Crawford, The Oro African Church, 37.
19. John Nettleton was a tailor and opened a tailor shop on Main Street in 1857. He became involved in local politics.
20. John Nettleton, “Reminiscences, 1857–1870,” Papers & Records, Huron Institute 2: 13–19.
21. Gary E. French, Men of Colour: an Historical Account of the Black Settlement on Wilberforce Street in Oro Township, 1819–1949 (Stroud: Kaste Books, 1978), 56.
22. Owen Sound Comet, August 2, 1860; Daniel Hill, Freedom Seekers, 184.
23. Collingwood Enterprise-Messenger, August 4, 1898.
24. Personal communication with Janie Cooper Wilson, executive director of the Silvershoe Historical Society, ongoing June through November 2009.
Chapter 7: Quebec: Montreal
1. Article 47 of the Articles of Capitulation stated that: “Negroes and Panis of both sexes shall remain, in their status as slaves, in possession of the French and Canadians to whom they belong; they shall be at liberty to keep them in their service in the colony or sell them; and they may also continue to bring them up in the Roman religion.” Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 24.
2. See Afua Cooper, The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2006.)
3. Dorothy G. Williams, The Road to Now: A History of Blacks in Montreal (Montreal: Véhicule Press, 1997), 26.
4. Anthony Grant came from New York City in 1830 at the age of twenty-nine. He was a self-employed launderer. He advertised his services (the earliest newspaper ad in Montreal for services by a Black person). Grant was very active in the local Black community in the movement against slavery and racial equality. On July 23, 1833, he hosted a meeting of twelve men of African descent at his house on St. Paul Street to discuss the implications of the passage of the Emancipation Act. They publicly endorsed the bill by publishing a statement of resolutions in the newspaper. Then, in May 1834, he wrote an open letter to Montrealers, both Black and White, to expose that African Canadians in the city were being denied certain rights, particularly serving on juries, because of their race. Grant died in 1838 following an accident. Frank Mackey, Black Then: Blacks and Montreal 1780s–1880s (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004), 92.
5. Frank Mackey, Black Then, 199.
6. Ibid., 197.
7. Montreal Gazette, August 2, 1834.
8. Shadrach Minkins escaped slavery in Virginia and eventually arrived in Montreal in 1851. See Gary Collison, Shadrach Minkins: From Fugitive Slave to Citizen (Cambridge:Harvard University Press, 1998).
9. John Dougall was the editor of the Montreal Witness from 1851 to 1871. He was an executive member of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada during the 1850s, acting as a “one-man corresponding society” for the group in Montreal. As a philanthropist he donated to the Refugee Home Society in the Windsor and Elgin areas. Dougall used his newspaper to attack American slavery. See Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada, 222, 254, 258, 261–62.
10. D.S. Janes, a Montreal merchant, was a staunch abolitionist. A member of the American Presbyterian Church, Janes was very active in assisting African-American slaves who escaped using the Underground Railroad, so much so that he was called “the African consul.” He was also one of fourteen vice-presidents of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada in the early years of the organization.
11. The YMCA in Montreal was formed in 1851. A motion against American slavery was first put forth in the winter of 1857. Then, a few months later when asked to place their vote on whether the upcoming North American conference should be held in Richmond, Virginia, the Montreal association unanimously adopted a resolution moved by Francis Grafton against holding the convention in Virginia. They also agreed to sever ties with affiliations in southern slaveholding states to express the group’s opposition to slavery. Alfred Sanham, History of the Montreal Young Men’s Christian Association (the First Formed on the Continent), Also, an Account of the Origin of Men’s Christian Associations, and Subsequent Progress of the Work in America (Montreal: D. Bentley & Co., 1873).
12. Montreal Witness, August 7, 1861.
13. Ibid., August 2, August 6, 1862.
14. Montreal Witness, August 2, 1862.
15. Toronto Globe, December 7, 1859.
16. Ibid.
17. Gary Collison, Shadrach Minkins, 216.
18. Montreal Gazette, August 1, 2009.
Chapter 8: The Maritimes
1. For information on Blacks in Nova Scotia, specifically in Yarmouth County, see Sharon Robart-Johnson, Africa’s Children: A History of Blacks in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books-Dundurn, 2009).
2. Richard Preston was an active church and community leader in the African-Canadian community in Nova Scotia. Preston escaped from slavery in Virginia as a young boy and settled in Nova Scotia. In 1832, he founded the African Baptist Church on Cornwallis Street in Halifax. The church is now known as the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church.
3. Amani Harvey Whitfield, Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America 1815–1860 (Burlington: University of Vermont Press, 2006), 1.
4. Ibid.; James W.St.G. Walker, “African Canadians.” Paul Magosci, ed. Encyclopedia of Canada’s People (Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1999), 154.
5. Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 129; “African Nova Scotians: In the Age of Slavery and Abolition.” (www.gs.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/africanns), accessed on August 2009.
6. Morning Chronicle, July 9, 1844.
7. Government House was the home of the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, John Wentworth. It is the first official government residence in Canada. See Novascotian, August 9, 1847; Amani Harvey Whitfield, Blacks on the Border, 113.
8. Morning Chronicle, July 9, 1844: Novascotian, August 9, 1847.
9. Ibid.
10. The African School House opened in 1836 and was supported by Dr. Robert Willis, rector of St. Paul’s (Anglican) Church on Argyle Street, Halifax.
11. British Colonist (Halifax), August 3, 1850.
12. Ibid.; British Colonist (Halifax), July 30, 1850; August 1, 1850; August 6, 1850; Novascotian, August 5, 1850.
13. Melville Island was the site of a former prison during the War of 1812. It was subsequently used as a receiving depot for incoming Black refugees between 1814 and 1816. Almost one thousand refugees were housed in the former prison during that time but were relocated once they obtained land grants.
14. Novascotian, August 9, 1852; August 15, 1853; British Colonist, August 4, 1855.
15. Acadian Recorder, August 5, 1867.
16. See Adrienne Shadd, “Where Are You Really From? Notes of an Immigrant From North Buxton, Ontario.” Carl James, Adrienne Shadd, eds., Talking About Identity: Encounters in Race, Ethnicity, and Language (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2001) for a discussion and analysis based on personal experience.
17. According to Robin Winks, about 1,800 African Canadians resided here in segregation in the largest all-Black community in Canada. In 1879, this congregation was reorganized at the New Road settlement, now called North Preston. The parish became known as St. Thomas United Baptist Church. Robin Winks, Blacks in Canada, 456; Final Heritage Report, 56. See also Cam Robertson, Report on Early History of the Preston Area: Cherry Brook, Lake Loon, Lake Major, East Preston, and North Preston (Halifax Regional Municipality Department, 2004), 56.
18. The City of Saint John was the first incorporated city in Canada.
19. Becoming a “freeman of the city” required men to take an oath declaring loyalty to the British Crown, that they would obey the laws of the city, they owned land, and paid a collective. The “freeman” status allowed a person to trade freely and exercise their crafts.
20. The Daily Sun, February 26, 1885.
21. Novascotian, August 8, 1853.
22. See W.A. Spray, The Blacks in New Brunswick (Fredericton: Brunswick Press, 1972); “Heritage Resources Saint John” (www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/Heritage), accessed September 2009.
23. The Mechanic’s Institute was located on Carleton Street in Saint John; Novascotian, August 15, 1859.
24. Halifax Sun and Advertiser, August 12, 1863.
25. Richard Crawford, America’s Musical Life: A History (New York: W. W. Norton &Company, Inc., 2001); Richard Crawford, ed., The Civil War Songbook: Complete Original Sheet Music for 37 Songs (New York: Dover Publications, 1977).
26. “Get Off the Track!” was written in 1844 by Jesse Hutchinson Jr. of the Hutchinson Family Singers. The group was a professional quartet made up of three brothers and two sisters from New Hampshire. They engaged social issues such as slavery through song. “Get Off the Track!” remained popular into the 1860s and became an anti-slavery anthem. John Hutchinson sang over Frederick Douglass’s grave when he died in 1895. See Appendix B.
Chapter 9: British Columbia
1. See Leland Donald, Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). Donald provides an in-depth examination of Native slavery along the Northwest coast; Barry Gough, Gunboat Frontier: British Maritime Authority and Northwest Coast Indians (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984), 85–94; James Edward Fitzgerald, The Examination of the Charter and Proceedings of the Hudson Bay Company (Vancouver: Trelawney Saunders, 1849); John Adams, Old Square Toes and His Lady: The Life of James and Amelia Douglas (Victoria, BC: Horsdal & Schubart, 2001), 48–49.
2. Barry Gough, Gunboat Frontier, 85–94.
3. For more information on James Douglas, see Julie H. Ferguson, James Douglas: Father of Confederation (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009). The Quest Series.
4. See James Edward Fitzgerald, The Examination, The Examination of the Charter and Proceedings of the Hudson Bay Company (Vancouver, BC: Trelawney Saunders, 1849).
5. John Adams, Old Square Toes and His Lady, 122.
6. Several landmarks were named after John Giscome and Henry McDame e.g. Giscome Portage, Giscome Rapid, Giscome Canyon, McDame Creek, Mount McDame; Giscome’s detailed journals of his prospecting expeditions were published in the British Colonist newspaper, see the British Colonist, December 14, 1863, 3.
7. Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 281.
8. Ibid., 280–82.
9. British Colonist, October 24, 1859.
10. Sherry Edmunds-Flett, “Abundant Faith: 19th Century African Canadian Women on Vancouver Island,” in Telling Tales: Essays in Western Women’s History edited by Catherine A. Cavanaugh and Randi R. Warne (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2000), 273.
11. Malcolm Edwards, “The War of Complexional Distinction: Blacks in Gold Rush California and British Columbia.” California Historical Quarterly 56, no. 1, (Spring 1977): 43.
12. Also known as the African Rifles, these Black men organized themselves, with financial support from Vancouver Island’s African-Canadian community, to protect against Native attacks and American expansion threats. They trained at the Drill Hall or on Beacon Hill and were the only armed forces in Victoria for almost one year. They remained in operation until 1864, then disbanded because of lack of financial support from the new governor.
13. British Colonist, August 2, 1861; August 2, 1862; August 1, 1863.
14. Ibid., December 31, 1866.
15. Lynne Bell, “Artist’s Pages: Decolonizing Tactics in Writing Space.” The Future of the Page, edited by Peter Stoicheff and Andrew Taylor, eds., (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), 255–69; Andrea Fantona, “In the Presence of Absence: Invisibility, Black Canadian History, and Melinda Mollineaux’s Pinhole Photography.” Canadian Journal of Communication 31, no. 1 (2006): 227–38.
16. Crawford Killian, Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 1978).
Chapter 10: The Role of Women in Emancipation Day Celebrations
1. St. Catharines Journal, November 12, 1835.
2. Jim Bearden and Linda Jean Butler, The Life and Times of Mary Shadd Cary (Toronto: NC Press, 1977), 150; Jane Rhodes, Mary Ann Shadd Cary: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 93.
3. Hamilton Spectator, August 2, 1884.
4. Emancipation Day Collection, North American Black Historical Museum, Amherstburg, Ontario.
Chapter 11: Dissent and Diminution
1. Anderson Ruffin Abbott Papers, Baldwin Room, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Public Library, scrapbook 2, folder 1:17.
2. See Mitchell Kachun, Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808–1915 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003).
3. Colin McFarquhar, “A Difference of Perspective: Blacks, Whites, and Emancipation Day Celebrations in Ontario, 1865–1919.” Ontario History 92, no 2 (Autumn 2000): 152.
Chapter 12: The Evolution of Emancipation Day
1. St. Catharines Journal, October 15, 1835.
2. McKivigan, John R. and Jason H. Silverman, “Monarchial Liberty and Republican Slavery: West Indies Emancipation Celebrations in Upstate New York and Canada West.” Afro-Americans in New York: Life and History 10, no. 1 (January 31, 1986): 14.
3. Ibid., 14.
4. Windsor Evening Record, August 2, 1912.
5. Chatham Evening Record, August 2, 1911.
6. Windsor Evening Record, August 2, 1912.
7. Ibid., plus other Ontario newspapers, the Brantford Expositor, etc.
8. Colin McFarquhar, “A Difference of Perspective: Blacks, Whites, and Emancipation Day Celebrations in Ontario, 1865–1919.” Ontario History 92, no 2 (Autumn 2000): 155.
9. Brantford Expositor, August 5, 1859.
10. Acadian Recorder, August 5, 1867.
11. Windsor Evening Record, August 2, 1913.
12. Peggy Bristow, “A Duty to the Past, a Promise to the Future: Black Organizing in Windsor — The Depression, World War II, and the Post-War Years.” New Dawn: The Journal of Black Canadian Studies 2, no. 1 (2007): 17.
13. Ibid., 16.
14. Ibid.
15. Written by Bob Marley, 1980, and published by Island Records Inc. 1980.
16. MacDougall, Paul. “Marcus Garvey and Nova Scotia: Birth of a Movement, Birth of a Religion, Birth of a Church.” Shunpiking Magazine 5, no.32 (February/March 2000).
17. B.W. Higman, “Remembering Slavery: The Rise, Decline, and Revival of Emancipation Day in the English-speaking Caribbean.” Slavery and Abolition 19, no.1, (1998): 93.
Epilogue
1. Bill 111 was the first bill co-sponsored by members of two different political parties in the provincial Legislature, Wellington-Halton Conservative MPP Ted Arnott and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex Liberal MPP Maria Van Bommel; Emancipation Day Collection, Ontario Black History Society.
2. Hamilton Spectator, August 2, 2007.
3. Personal communication with Anne Jarvis, Historical Interpreter, Griffin House/ Fieldcote Memorial Park and Museum, June through November 2009.