Black Refugees in Canada: Accounts of Escape During the Era of Slavery

by George Hendrick, Willene Hendrick

Overview

Thousands of black people sought refuge in Canada before the U.S. Civil War. While most refugees encountered at least some racism among Canadian citizens, many of those same refugees also thrived under the auspices of the Canadian government, which worked to protect blacks from the U.S. slaveowners who sought to re-enslave them. This work brings to light the life stories of several nineteenth-century black refugees who managed to survive in their new country by gaining work as barbers, postal carriers, washerwomen, waiters, cab owners, ministers, newspaper editors, and physicians. The book begins with a short historical account of blacks in Canada from 1629 until the early 1800s, when the first groups of escaped slaves began to enter the country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786447336
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	03/15/2010
Series:	History/United States/Underground Railroad
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Independent scholar George Hendrick lives in Port Jefferson, New York. The late Willene Hendrick was an independent scholar from Urbana, Illinois.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface 1

1 Blacks in Canada: The Early Years 3

2 Shadrach 19

3 Josiah Henson and Eliza Harris 23

4 Madison Washington 54

5 The Shadd Family 59

6 Lewis Richardson, Formerly a Slave on Henry Clay's Plantation 73

7 The Blackburns 77

8 Ann Maria Jackson 84

9 Harriet Tubman 88

10 John Fairfield, Southern Abolitionist Who Helped Slaves Escape to Canada 92

11 Chaplain Garland H. White 97

12 Dr. A. T. Augusta 107

13 The Abbott Family 110

14 John Henry Hill 113

15 Mr. and Mrs. John Little 119

16 Narratives by Refugees in Three Canadian Towns: An Except from The Refugees: A North-Side View of Slavery (1856) 130

17 Statements by and About Black Refugees in Canada 157

18 God Save Queen Victoria 163

Chapter Notes 167

Bibliography 175

Index 179