Building Black Communities: Contributions and Obstacles

Let's start with a question

If you arrived in a new land with almost nothing, what would you build first: a house, a church, a school or a business?

Black families in British North America before 1850 built all four, often while facing people who did not want them there. Their communities are part of the foundation of Canada.

Wilberforce (from 1829)

In 1829, the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, began enforcing harsh "Black Laws" and ordered Black residents to follow them or leave. Many decided to move to Upper Canada.

• They founded the Wilberforce Settlement in Biddulph Township, near present-day Lucan, north of London, Ontario. It was named after William Wilberforce, a British anti-slavery leader.
• Other Black families joined from New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and elsewhere. Community leader Austin Steward came from Rochester, New York.
• By 1832 there were about 32 families, with a sawmill, schools and churches.
• Obstacle: the Canada Company refused to sell more land to Black settlers, so the colony never grew to its planned size. Many leaders left by the 1840s, but a core group stayed and their descendants lived in the area for generations.

Josiah Henson and the Dawn Settlement (from 1841)

Josiah Henson escaped slavery and reached Upper Canada with his family in 1830. He worked, preached and led.

• In 1841, Henson and partners bought 200 acres near present-day Dresden, and in 1842 founded the British-American Institute, a school to teach trades and academics to Black students. The community around it was the Dawn Settlement.
• During the Rebellion of 1837, Henson led a company of Black volunteers attached to the 2nd Essex Regiment, which helped guard Fort Malden at Amherstburg.
• In 1849 he published his life story. Many people think it inspired the main character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), although that novel also spread stereotypes of Black people.
• His home near Dresden is now a museum and historic site.

The Elgin Settlement at Buxton (1849)

In 1849, Reverend William King, an Irish-born Presbyterian minister, founded the Elgin Settlement near Chatham (named for Lord Elgin, the governor general). The Buxton Mission at its heart was named for British abolitionist Thomas Fowell Buxton.

• Only Black settlers could buy land there, in 50-acre lots, with 10 years to pay. Houses had to meet standards, and self-sufficiency was a founding goal.
• The Buxton Mission School taught subjects like Latin and Greek. It was so good that white families later sent their children, and graduates became doctors, lawyers, teachers and legislators.
• Obstacle: some white residents near Chatham organized to try to stop the settlement. It went ahead and grew to nearly 1,200 people in and around Buxton at its peak. Today it is a National Historic Site, and descendants still live there.

Communities in cities and on the Atlantic coast

• Toronto: After the Blackburn case, Thornton and Lucie Blackburn moved to Toronto in 1834. In 1837 they started a successful cab business, with a horse-drawn cab they named The City. They helped other freedom seekers, built houses they rented cheaply, and Lucie donated to build Little Trinity Anglican Church.
• Nova Scotia: The Black Refugee communities of Preston and Hammonds Plains finally received land grants (1834 and 1842). In 1848, two Black settlers, William Arnold and William Brown, bought land on the shore of Bedford Basin near Halifax, in the community that became known as Africville. A church opened there in 1849.
• Black churches, such as African Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches, became centres of community life, education and anti-slavery work.

Defending the colony in 1837–38

When rebellion broke out in Upper Canada in 1837 (next lesson), many Black men volunteered to defend the government. Black companies were raised in places including Niagara, Toronto, Hamilton, Chatham and Sandwich (Windsor). Most guarded bridges and key places, and some saw fighting. One Black "Coloured Corps" later worked as police during the building of the second Welland Canal, until 1850.

Why? Many Black residents had escaped slavery in the United States. Some rebels admired the American system, and many Black residents feared that if Upper Canada became more like the US, or joined it, their freedom could be at risk.