Black Canadians in Ontario

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Buxton National Historic Site and Museum, South Buxton, Ontario

Black Canadians migrated north in the 18th and 19th centuries from the United States, many of them through the Underground Railroad, into Southwestern Ontario, Toronto, and Owen Sound. Black Canadians fought in the War of 1812 and Rebellions of 1837–1838 for the British. Some returned to the United States during the American Civil War or during the Reconstruction era.

Initial immigrants

Enslaved African Americans immigrated to British North America, now Canada, following the Act Against Slavery of 1793 that stipulated that enslaved people would become immediately free upon entering Canada.[1] It also made it illegal to import slaves and children of slaves were free when they reached the age of 25.[2]

Word had spread through the United States that there were free black soldiers who served in the

Loyalists who settled in Upper Canada after 1812. They settled along the Detroit, Niagara and the St. Lawrence Rivers.[2]

Emancipation

John Beverley Robinson, Attorney General, issued an order that freed all black residents in Upper Canada in 1819. In 1833, slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire, which freed almost one million people.[2]

Further information: Emancipation Day § Canada

Underground Railroad

Beginning in

free states) or further north into what is now Canada.[1] Freedom seekers were helped on their journey north by other enslaved people, free blacks, Quakers, and other abolitionists. Jermain Wesley Loguen found freedom in what is now Ontario. He lived in Hamilton and St. Catharines from 1837 to 1841, and then he settled in Syracuse, New York, where he operated an Underground Railroad station in Syracuse.[1]

Fugitive Slaves in Canada poster for Rev. William King

There was not a major influx of blacks into Canada until the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in the United States. The law made it easier for slave catchers to apprehend African Americans, freedom seekers planned to settle into what is now Ontario.[1] Some bounty hunters came into Canada to earn a reward for capturing enslaved people and returning them to slavery. A slave holder attempted to take his former bondsman Joseph Alexander from Chatham. Black community members and Alexander talked to his former slaveholder and the crowd refused for him to be taken. The slaveholder left Chatham without Alexander, who lived free.[1] See also Chatham Vigilance Committee.

Settlements

Free Black family in front of home in Ontario

During the

Brantford, and Oakville.[1] Some people fled to Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.[1]

The

Lucan by African Americans from Cincinnati. They came to Canada because of Black Codes that established legal means to treat black people differently than white people. By 1836, poor management caused the breakdown of the settlement.[3]

Elgin settlement was settled at Buxton near Chatham by Rev. William King, who had been a slaveholder, and 15 of his former slaves in 1849. He was a Presbyterian minister who settled in southern Ontario. The Buxton settlement became known for its school. There were 2,000 residents by the 1860s.[3] Another all-black community in Ontario was Queen's Bush.[1]

African Canadians established farms, worked, and formed businesses, including blacksmith shops, livery stables, carpentry businesses, grocery stores, boutiques, and pharmacies. They developed communities with schools, churches, newspapers, and benevolent societies.[1]

Anti-slavery efforts

Henry Bibb and his wife Mary started The Voice of the Fugitive in 1851 in Windsor. It was an abolitionist newspaper that reported on the activities of the Underground Railroad. Mary Ann Shadd, the first black female publisher and newspaper owner in Canada, and her brother Isaac Shadd founded The Provincial Freeman in 1853. It became a weekly newspaper out of Toronto in 1854, after which it was published in Chatham.[3]

Black and white people founded the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada in Toronto in 1851. It sought to inform others about slavery and to help black freedom seekers.[3]

Military

Canada

Ernest C. Drury and Sir Henry Pellatt on the steps of the Ontario Legislature in Toronto. The photograph was taken at the dedication of a plaque in memory of the members of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, an all-Black non-combat battalion that served in World War I. The plaque is in the main hall of Queen's Park. Rev. Mrs. H.F. Logan and Rev. H.F. Logan, who spearheaded the campaign for the plaque, are at left of centre. Also included in the photograph is Rt. Rev. Samuel R. Drake, General Superintendent of the British Methodist Episcopal Church
Conference

Black Canadians volunteered and fought during the War of 1812 to protect their new country and to ensure that they were not returned to slavery in the United States. For their service, Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland provided many blacks with land grants in Oro Township in 1815. The land was not arable and so they did not stay on the land. During the Rebellions of 1837–1838, they served in separate "Colored Corps" units, and fought to protect the rights of African Canadians and defend the government.[3]

See also: Military history of Canada

American Civil War

Almost 1,000 Black Canadians served in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). African Americans were declared free due to the Emancipation Proclamation and slavery was officially abolished in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. Some blacks returned to the United States from Canada during the Reconstruction era.[3]

See also: Canada and the American Civil War and Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War

Popular culture

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Underground Railroad". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  2. ^ a b c "Black History-From Slavery to Settlement". www.archives.gov.on.ca. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Black settlement in Ontario". Ontario Heritage Trust. 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2021-06-04.

External links

Media related to Canadians of Black African descent at Wikimedia Commons

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