African Canadians shed light on ancestry

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Detroit Free Press

African Canadians shed light on ancestry

February 24, 2007

BY RUBY L. BAILEY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Carmen Poole was a seventh-grader when she became interested in African-Canadian history. But it wasn't until her junior year of college that a class was offered -- and it focused on the history of Africans in the United States.

"I kept asking, 'Why is there no Canadian content?' " said Poole, 28, a fourth-generation African Canadian who is now a history professor at the University of Windsor. "This whole idea of there actually being a black history in Canada is actually opening some eyes."

To many, the history of Africans and Canada begins and ends with the Underground Railroad, the series of routes and havens that enslaved Africans used to get to the northern states and Canada.

But more scholars like Poole are documenting Canada's lesser-known history of slavery, segregation and the contributions of African Canadians.

The research shows that European settlers in the 1600s brought chattel slavery to Canada. By the early 1700s, Africans began arriving in greater numbers, mainly as slaves of the French.

"Unless you really study the Underground Railroad, you'd never know" that Africans were enslaved in Canada "or that their descendants are still in Canada today," said Veta Tucker, a professor of African-American studies at Grand Valley State University. She's working with African Canadians in Chatham, Ontario, to recover their history.

The first major influx of blacks to Canada -- free individuals and slaves -- came after the American Revolution. The British kept their promise of freedom and land to some of the blacks who fought on their side and shipped about 3,500 blacks to Nova Scotia. But the British also brought in 2,000 African slaves to work on farms or as servants.

After Canada abolished slavery in 1833, it became the promised land for thousands of enslaved Africans from the United States. Numbers vary widely, but Poole estimate that 40,000 to 100,000 people escaped the horrors of slavery by fleeing to Canada before the United States abolished slavery in 1865.

Although the last stop on the Underground Railroad brought freedom, it did not necessarily bring equality. Even after Canada opened its borders to escapees, whites in the country segregated free blacks and former slaves into separate schools, churches and housing.

"Being the home of the Underground Railroad doesn't mean there wasn't racism," said Christina Simmons, a University of Windsor history professor who studies African-Canadian history.

As of the 2001 census, there were 662,215 black people in Canada, about 2.2% of the population. Members of this small but determined population persuaded Canada in 1996 to officially celebrate Black History Month. "Black History Month came into Canada sort of under the radar," said Rosemary Sadlier, president of the Ontario Black History Society in Toronto. "And just the same way that African Americans may not know their history, African Canadians don't know theirs, either. And it's usually for the same reasons. It's either hidden, lost or destroyed."

At least 20,000 former slaves remained in Canada after the American Civil War ended.

"There is this whole idea that once emancipation occurred in the United States, there was this mass exodus, but there were substantial numbers that stayed," Poole said.

Their contributions to Canadian life were largely ignored by the history books, said Poole, whose master's thesis looked at content in textbooks between 1950 and 1985.

"We're not represented. And because of that, if you say 'African Canadian' to somebody, they really have no idea what you mean," Poole said. "We're hoping to change that."

Contact RUBY L. BAILEY at 313-222-6651 or rbailey@freepress.com.

Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.