With the beginning of the Mackenzie Rebellion, black enlistees were encouraged to join the military. When a call was issued for volunteers by Captain Thomas Runchey and Captain James Sears, fifty black men joined within four days.
1838
Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Bond Head praised the brave service and loyalty of the black volunteers during the Mackenzie Rebellion.
1841
The British North America Act united Upper and Lower Canada as equals; together Canada West and Canada East, as they are now called, formed the Province of Canada.
1842
On a slave ship called the Amistad, Africans led an uprising as the ship was nearing Cuba. Eventually, they landed in the United States and waged a legal battle over their situation that raised awareness about the slave trade and the people being enslaved.
1844
The Globe newspaper in Toronto and its anti-slavery/abolitionist editor George Brown used the power of the press to attack events and situations that were oppressive towards free and enslaved black people.
1846
The Oregon Treaty set the forty-ninth parallel as the border between British North America and the U.S. from the summit of the Rocky Mountains west to the Strait of Georgia.
1849
The Elgin Settlement was challenged by the bias of Chatham’s Edwin Larwill. Larwill was opposed to the Elgin Settlement and attempted to organize resistance to its growth resulting in a debate with Reverend William King, a debate that turned favour towards the continuation of the settlement.
1851
The publication Voice of the Fugitive was published by Henry Bibb in Windsor with a focus on colonization schemes and the Refugee Home Society.
The first Convention of Colored Freemen held outside of the United States met in Toronto at St. Lawrence Hall. Hundreds of black men, encouraged by the abolitionist hub that Toronto had become, joined the event, including Josiah Henson, Henry Bibb, and one woman, Mary Ann Shadd.
1853
The first issue of the Provincial Freeman was produced by Mary Ann Shadd, effectively making her the first black woman to found and edit a newspaper, although initially she had to conceal her identity. The first masthead indicated that Reverend Samuel Ringgold Ward was the editor, but his name was just a front for the work carried out by Shadd knowing that her gender would be problematic at that time.
1857
Through the debates connected to the Dred Scott case, it was determined that Congress could not ban slavery in the United States and that enslaved Africans were not citizens of the United States.
Navy man William Hall was awarded the Victoria Cross for his efforts to defend British interests in India. He was the first recipient and the first black man to be so honoured.
1858
James Douglas, the governor of British Columbia and himself a person of African origin, extended an invitation aimed at the black people of California to settle in Victoria. Within a short while, eight hundred black people came by boat and settled in British Columbia.
1860
In the U.S., Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The Civil War broke out, pitting northern Union forces against the southern Confederates. The abolition of slavery in the South was at the heart of the conflict.
1861
The Anderson Case had aspects of slavery questioned. In the process of making himself free, John Anderson killed Seneca Diggs, who pursued him. Captured, tried, and ordered extradited, the case was handled by abolitionists who saw the case discharged on a technicality.
Anderson Abbott was the first Canadian-born black doctor and served on the Union side during the American Civil War.
1865
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared passed on December 18 by Secretary of State William H. Seward. This proclamation outlawed slavery.
U.S. Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau to assist newly freed enslaved Africans deal with life in their new status.
Shortly after the South surrendered, ending the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Washington.
With the end of the Civil War, the Underground Railroad essentially came to an end. While the numbers are not exactly known, at least 20,000 and as many as 100,000 enslaved Africans may have found their way to Canada, largely Ontario, on the secret routes and connections of the Underground Railroad.
1866
Mifflin Gibbs, a businessman in Victoria, helped to raise a company of black militia men and then ran for office. While initially unsuccessful in 1862, he was later elected to the Victoria Town Council in 1866. Gibbs was the first elected black politician in Canada.
1867
On July 1, Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were officially united to form the Dominion of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald became the country’s first prime minister.
1870
Manitoba joined Confederation.
The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed, giving black men the right to vote.
1871
British Columbia joins Confederation.
1873
Prince Edward Island joins Confederation.
1891
1905
Alberta and Saskatchewan joined Confederation.
1909–1911
Black Oklahoma residents accepted the invitation offered by Canada to help to settle the prairies. Hundreds were ultimately allowed to enter since they were of good health, had financial resources and the skills to develop the land although racist attitudes tried to keep them out.
Selected Bibliography
Berlin, Ira. Slaves without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South. New York: The New Press, 1874.
Bertley, L.W. Canada and Its People of African Descent. Pierrefonds, Quebec: Bilongo Publishers, 1977.
Blockson, Charles. The Black Abolitionist Papers. Edited by C.P. Ripley. Volume 5. Afro-American Collection, Temple University Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 1985–92.
Bradford, Sarah E. Hopkins. Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. Auburn, New York: Self published, 1869.
Bramble, Linda. Black Fugitive Slaves in Early Canada. St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing Ltd., 1988.
Clinton, Catherine. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2004.
Conrad, Earl. Harriet Tubman. Washington: Associated Publishers, 1943.
Hill, Daniel G. The Freedom-Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada. Agincourt, Ontario: Book Society of Canada, 1981.
Larson, Kate Clifford. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004.
Lowry, Beverly. Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life. New York: Doubleday, 2007.
McGowan, James A. Station Master on the Underground Railroad: The Life and Letters of Thomas Garrett. Moylan, Pennsylvania: McFarland & Company, 2004.
Quarles, Benjamin. “Harriet Tubman’s Unlikely Leadership,” in Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century. Edited by Leon Litwack and August Meier. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1988, 43–57.
Sernett, Milton C. Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History. London: Duke University Press, 2007.
Shadd, Adrienne, Afua Cooper, and Karolyn Smardz Frost. The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2002.
St. Catharines Museum. Harriet Tubman file. St. Catharines, Ontario.
Winks, Robin W. The Blacks in Canada: A History. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000.
Copyright © Rosemary Sadlier, 2012
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Sadlier, Rosemary
Harriet Tubman [electronic resource] : freedom seeker, freedom leader / Rosemary Sadlier.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Type of computer file: Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4597-0151-9
1. Tubman, Harriet, 1820?-1913. 2. Women slaves--United States--Biography. 3. African American women abolitionists--Biography. 4. Underground Railroad. 5. Underground Railroad--Canada. I. Title.
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