In 1856, Benjamin Drew, a U.S. abolitionist, travelled to Canada to transcribe the oral stories of formerly enslaved Black refugees. Among them, 16 individuals who originally settled in London, Ont. Their narratives, recorded in Drew's book, A North-Side View of Slavery, describe their former enslavers, their escapes and how they made it to Canada.
But what of their lives afterwards?
With Drew's accounts as their starting point, Western researchers Miranda Green-Barteet and Alyssa MacLean are working to trace the paths these self-liberated individuals took after arriving in London. By documenting their journeys through an interactive website hosted by Western Libraries, Green-Barteet and MacLean aim to address a longstanding gap in the history of Black Londoners.
Professors Miranda Green-Barteet and Alyssa MacLean are using resources in Western Libraries Archives and Special Collections to support their work creating a Black Londoners Digital Archive (Chris Kindratsky/Western Communications)
Beyond the Underground Railroad
By the 1850s and '60s, British North America (Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario and New Brunswick) had become a refuge for a growing number of formerly enslaved people fleeing plantations in the American South. Many had escaped to freedom with the help of a secret network of free Blacks and white sympathizers, known as the Underground Railroad.
For those interested in the history of this period, the successful outcomes of the Railroad are the final chapter in the stories of those escaping enslavement.
For Green-Barteet and MacLean, that's where the story begins.
"One of the things we are trying to do, is to 'complicate' the idea of the Underground Railroad," said MacLean, a professor in English Studies. "There's a sense that people who were trying to free themselves from slavery would basically run across the Canada-U.S. border and once they got to the Canadian side, it was like crossing a finish line.
"We're trying to show it wasn't a terminus. People's lives continued. Once the Civil War ended (in 1865), people had to decide what to do ─ some of them went back to live in the States, some went back to collect family members."
Permanent digital exhibit
Guided by the narratives from Drew's book, Green-Barteet and MacLean are conducting extensive archival research on the formerly enslaved Black Londoners to create Western's first Black Londoners Digital Archives.
It's a project they're completing with the help of staff in Western Libraries Archives and Special Collections and their research assistants, undergraduate student Kathleena Henricus and PhD candidate David Mitterauer.
Henricus is compiling a timeline of historical events aligning with the Black newcomers' arrival while Mitterauer is combing census data and city directories to track their next steps. The researchers hope to engage more students in research opportunities with the support of the Western Black Student Leadership University Experience (Western B.L.U.E.) program.
The team is using Arc GIS Story Maps, a cloud-based mapping and analysis tool, to combine Drew's narrative text with images, maps and media to develop the permanent, interactive website.
The site will chart where these new Londoners originally lived and trace their relationships to each other and the rest of the city. This content, accessible across Western, London, and Canada, will provide a fuller historical record of Black Londoners.
"One way we can contribute to anti-racism and the university's goal to decolonize the curriculum is by making the information we find more accessible. For example, if we want to reach high school students looking to learn about Black Londoners to write a project on them, this is one way we can help."- Alyssa MacLean, professor, English Studies
The Black Londoners Digital Archives will also house past research conducted by Western history professor Michelle Hamilton, Huron University College American history professor Nina Reid-Maroney and former Western librarian and historian Fred Landon.
Green-Barteet, undergraduate chair and professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies (GSWS) and English Studies, credits their work as foundational to her and MacLean's research and is pleased to preserve it and share it more widely.
"This work needs to have a permanent platform and this relatively new system will make sure that happens," she said. "What's different about our project is that we are at a point in Western's technological history where we can do this."
"Part of the information we are gathering doesn't exist - there's no map that pinpoints where these individuals lived, but the technology allows us to create that and connect to other maps."- Miranda Green-Barteet, undergraduate chair and professor of GSWS and English Studies
MacLean and Green-Barteet plan to publish their findings and use them as the foundation for a forthcoming undergraduate course, cross-listed with English and Black Studies. The curriculum will also incorporate field trips to historical sites in London, Chatham, Buxton, Hamilton and St. Catharines.
Learning the past, understanding the present
Drew wrote his book to counter rhetoric from pro-slavery advocates in the U.S., who argued individuals who escaped from slavery faced a greater risk of poverty and were better off under the paternalistic 'protection' of their enslavers.
His accounts proved otherwise, including those provided by Black refugees who first settled in London.
"The biggest theme throughout their stories is they all portray themselves as successful," Green-Barteet said of the narratives, which range from three lines to 12 pages each.
Alfred T. Jones operated an apothecary on Ridout Street. His brother Aby B. Jones owned a house on Gray Street and other properties throughout the city.
Opportunity, however, did not mean the absence of oppression.
Alfred describes a "second-hand prejudice" from some Londoners, noting they were also immigrants, and unaccustomed to Black people, while another interviewee describes the racist remarks he encountered while attending a predominantly white church.
"Even though they were happy to be legally protected in Canada to some extent, they also pointed out the different segregation happening in London," MacLean said. "Jones also identifies problems within the community itself, like poverty, and how it can be hard to build an integrated, peaceful society in London because racial prejudice already exists here."
Sharing both the positive and the unpleasant aspects of the newcomers' experiences is a critical part of the researchers' work.
"We're interested in addressing this perpetual perception that Canada was always a welcoming, multi-cultural and anti-racist place and so much better than the U.S. in so many ways," Green-Barteet said.
"We're getting a good sense of what life was like for Black individuals living in London in the 19th century. Telling that story is important because it also helps us understand what life is like for Black individuals in 2023. The problems that existed in the 1850s and '60s didn't just magically go away."-Miranda Green-Barteet, undergraduate chair and professor of GSWS and English Studies
Completing the project comes with challenges. There is a lack of photographs, and a lack of evidence to confirm if Drew's interviewees used their real names ─ in fear of being tracked down by their former enslavers. Some of the 16 newcomers drop off the census records after 1865.
"We speculate many of these individuals left London," Green-Barteet said. "One of our goals is to determine where they went and establish what connections the Black community in London had with other locations in Ontario and with those who returned to the States."
Both she and MacLean are committed to what they see as a "forever project."
"Complicating the Underground Railroad means caring about the outcome of the full extent of the lives of these self-emancipated individuals," MacLean said. "We want to show what happened to them, if we can."
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Western acknowledges and celebrates Black History Month and encourages the campus and London communities to listen, learn and discuss. The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is hosting a number of events throughout February and March celebrating Black excellence. These events are free of charge, but advance registration is sometimes required. Learn more.
