The Blacks In Canada: A History [2nd printing ed.] 0300013612, 9780300013610

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The Blacks

in

Canada

THE BLACKS

IN

CANADA

A HISTORY

by Robin

W. Winks

Published with

McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal

Yale University Press,

New Haven

and London

Copyright

Second

© 1971 by Yale University.

printing, 1972.

All rights reserved. This

book may not be

reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (except by reviewers for the public press),

without written permission from the publishers. Library of Congress catalog card number: 79-1 18740 International standard

book number: 0-300-01361-2

Designed by John O. C. McCrillis

and

set in

Times Roman

type.

Printed in the United States of America by

The Murray

Printing Co., Forge Village, Mass.

Published in Great Britain, Europe, and Africa by

Yale University Press, Ltd., London. Distributed in

Canada by McGill-Queen's University

in Latin

America by Kaiman & Polon,

in India

by

in

Inc.,

Press, Montreal;

New York City;

UBS Publishers' Distributors Pvt, Ltd., Delhi;

Japan by John Weatherhill,

Inc.,

Tokyo.

To Honor Leigh and born after

this

who nagged

to Eliot,

book was begun, it

to completion

.

.

Contents

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

A Note

xiii

on Terminology

xv

List of Abbreviations

New

xvi

France, 1628-1760

1.

Slavery in

2.

Slavery, the Loyalists,

3.

"Back

4.

The Attack on Slavery

5.

The Refugee Negroes

6.

The Coming

7.

The Canadian Canaan, 1842-1870

178

8.

A

233

9.

West of

10.

to Africa,"

1

and English Canada, 1760-1801

1791-1801 in British

61

North America, 1793-1833

of the Fugitive Slave,

1815-1861

142

272

the Rockies

the Nadir,

96 114

Continental Abolitionism?

To

24

1865-1930

288

1 1

Source of Strength?—The Church

337

12.

Source of Strength?—The Schools

362

13.

Source of Strength?— The Press

14.

Self-Help and a

15.

The Black

Appendix: Table:

New

Some

413

Mosaic

470

Tile in the

How Many

390

Awakening, 1930-1970

Negroes in Canada?

Indicative Census Returns

484

486

Note on Sources

497

Index

521

Maps 1

Canada, with particular reference to the West

2.

The

3.

Atlantic Provinces

Ontario and Quebec

xviii

xx xxu

Preface

Negroes have lived States. In

in

Canada

for nearly as long as in the present United

1628, nine years after a Dutch ship unloaded the

cargo of

first

Africans at Jamestown, David Kirke, the so-called English Conqueror of

Quebec, brought a slave boy to the French shores, and Negroes were New France and in British North America thereafter. Those

present in

who were

slaves gained their

British empire.

freedom

in 1834, in

The black population grew

common

with

all

in the

numbers and sometimes

in

two decades as a result of a substantial influx from the United States. Yet other migrations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought other black men to Canada. The story of these men settlers and transients has never been told in any reasonably full way. The chief purpose of this book is to examine the history of Negro life in Canada from 1628 to the 1960s, and by so doing to reveal something of the nature of prejudice in Canada. A second purpose is to use the Negro's story as a means of examining some of the ways in which Canadian attitudes toward immigration and ethnic identity differ from the American, as a contribution to the continuing search for a Canadian identity. A third desire is to show the Negro as an actor in the context of an emerging national history, as a person who acts and reacts as well as one acted upon. Finally, since most black men in Canada came more immediately from the United States, or those British colonies that became the United States, this study also is an attempt to inquire into a neglected aspect of CanadianAmerican cultural relations. At no time in the twentieth century have Negroes comprised more than a tiny fraction of the Canadian population, and although accurate statistics are virtually impossible to find, the Negro proportion of the population probably is no more than two percent today. For this reason alone, alin strength during the next

of fugitives

—

—

though there are other reasons as well,

this

chapter of the Negro's story

has been ignored by historians of both Canada and the Negro. other hand, those Canadians find, to define,

who have made

it

On

the

their special mission to

or to create a sense of Canadian identity often point with

when

was seeking escape from his paw" in the British provinces. Scores of self-congratulatory newspaper articles appear each year in Toronto, London, Hamilton, and Windsor on the theme of pride to the fact that,

the

Negro

slave

servitude after 1850, he sought out freedom "under the lion's

ix

x

Preface

how

the slave found freedom in Canada, and an official marker of the Canadian government notes the spot on the banks of the Detroit River where the Underground Railroad is said to have had its terminus. There, the monument proclaims, the fugitive "found in Canada friends, freedom, protection, under the British flag." Struck by the lack of literature on this aspect of Negro history, I thought it would be instructive to investigate the friends, freedom, and protection thus memorialized. But one could not know how the fugitives were received without understanding something of how British North Americans had dealt with slavery and with the Negro in the two centuries before the fugitives came. Nor could any real assessment be made of the meaning of the fugitive migration for Canadian history without investigating the extent of later Negro assimilation. Slowly, as its three purposes developed clarity, the study became an inquiry into Negro history, Canadian history, and Canadian- American relations. This book is the result. Some observations may also be helpful in defining what this book does not attempt to do. The writer is not a sociologist, and a graduate degree in anthropology has served chiefly to warn him of the dangers of

venturing into other professional

fields

without a

full

control of either

the discipline or the literature. In deciding to bring this account

down

and in attempting to generalize about the Negro condition as it is today, one has had to borrow on occasion from that literature, but no sociological claims are made for what is said here. Nor are many side paths followed which, were one to attempt a "definitive" study, require deeper enquiries. Perhaps one should look more fully into the influence of labor unions in general and of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in particular upon the growth of self- awareness among Negro workers. Far more can be written of the West Indian immigrants. A comprehensive study of Negro religious practices in Canada remains for someone interested in church history. Such examples might be multiplied, for judgment on the necessary extent of research into peripherally related areas will differ from scholar to scholar, since one man's thoroughness is another man's pedantry. It is, in any case, intolerto the present decade,

able to be given too

Two

much

information.

groups of historians

may

find this study of

however, the two audiences have been quite

some

distinct.

use. Until

now,

Few Canadian

be said to have read extensively in Negro history, and even fewer historians of the Negro can be expected to be familiar with Canadian history. As a result, figures who are daily companions to one group require identification for the other, and documentation must be somewhat heavier than one would otherwise wish. The author can see no way to avoid this, for not all Canadians have heard of Martin R. Delany, historians can

Preface

nor do

xi all

Negroes know of

Sir Clifford Sifton. Little

more than

half of the

material gathered has been incorporated directly into the pages of this lest data on the Negro swamp data on Canada; and with the thought someone might wish to pursue various topics further, the body of notes, correspondence, and related papers has been deposited with the Schomburg Collection of Negro History in the Countee Cullen Branch of the New York Public Library.

book, that

R.

London September 1970

W. W.

Acknowledgments

hundreds of academicians, archivists, librarians, local historians, and private individuals have helped me to gather materials, and each cannot be singled out for thanks. Some I have mentioned in the appropriate places in the notes; of many others I must ask that they take this book itself as testimony to my gratitude and as witness to the fact that their aid was not entirely wasted. Foremost among those I must thank are the many Canadian Negroes themselves who, collectively in meetings or alone across cups of tea in their homes, nearly always were responsive, responsible, and interested. What is said here will anger some of those who helped me most, for one must mention some who are still active in their work; but even those with whom I most disagree will, I trust, grant me my conclusions as I grant them the sincerity of their actions. The Social Science Research Council, through a grant-in-aid of research in 1959-60, enabled me to begin this study; and Yale University, through the award of a Morse Fellowship and supplementary travel funds for research in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Jamaica, and West Africa, helped me to complete it. The Yale University Library sought out several hundred titles through interlibrary loans and purchased at least as many more titles from its William Inglis Morse fund for Canadiana. and to the men who have made them I am grateful to these institutions what they are for their help. Brief portions of this book have appeared elsewhere. I wish to thank the Princeton University Press and Martin B. Duberman for permission to reprint paragraphs from an essay of mine in his Anti-Slavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists (1965). The Canadian Historical Review, in which, in 1969, an extended version of chapter 12 appeared, and the Canadian Historical Association, to which in 1964 I read a paper derived in part from chapters 3 and 14, also receive my appreciation. This paper has subsequently appeared in the Dalhousie Review (1969). Portions of the concluding chapter have been published in The Journal of Negro History, vols. 53 (1968) and 54 (1969). Friends and colleagues have given me much exacting and practical help Literally

—

—

by reading portions of to C.

who

this

Vann Woodward,

study as

it

progressed. Particular gratitude goes

Sterling Professor of History at

read the entire manuscript in

Quarles, Professor of History at

its

Yale University,

penultimate version, and to Benjamin

Morgan

State College,

who

read

it

in

its

A cknowledgmen ts

xiv final

form. Professor John

Hope

Franklin of the University of Chicago,

Professor William H. Pease of the University of Maine, Professor Harold

H. Potter of

Sir

George Williams University, and Professor W. L. Morton

of Trent University read intermediate drafts of major portions and rooted

out numerous

infelicities of style and misleading nuances of meaning. Mr. Christopher H. Fyfe of the University of Edinburgh criticized chapters 3 and 5 in an early draft and directed me to most of the manuscript sources used in Sierra Leone, while Professor Edwin Redkey of the University of Tennessee helped by evaluating chapter 11. Dr. C. Bruce

Fergusson, Archivist for the Province of

Nova

Scotia, sought out errors

and Professor Marcel Trudel of l'Universite d'Ottawa read chapters 1 and 2. Dr. Daniel G. Hill of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and Professor Alexander L. Murray of York University gave me access to their unpublished dissertations, while the late Fred Landon, Professor Emeritus of the University of Western Ontario, showed unfailing interest and gave me unlimited use of his own files. Professor George A. Rawlyk of Queen's University was a most helpful commentator on an early paper, and he provided entree to private records in Halifax, while the Reverends William Oliver and Charles Coleman of that city also aided me in many ways. Mrs. Miriam Swanson and Mrs. Anne Granger typed the final manuscript and cheerfully eliminated a host of split infinitives, dangling participles, and inconsistent spellings. Barbara Folsom of Yale University Press prepared the manuscript for publication. The maps for this volume were made possible by a grant for this purpose from the Provost's Fund. To all, I owe much. That this study will nonetheless retain errors of fact, judgment, and interpretation remains solely my in chapters

2,

3,

and

5,

responsibility.

On

the occasion of a second printing,

typographical and other errors

I

have corrected a small number of

—R. W. W. (March

1972).

A Throughout the

text

Note on Terminology

Canada

is

normally used to designate the area encom-

passed by the Dominion of Canada. This term technically

many

portions of the present

land before 1949).

When

more

Dominion

prior to

technical accuracy

is

is

incorrect for

1867 (and for Newfound-

required, as in dealing with

New

France refers to the French colony prior to 1763. The Maritime Provinces are Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island; if reference is made to the Atlantic Provinces, these three provinces are joined by Newfoundland. Initially, Prince Edward Island was called Isle St. Jean; New Brunswick was part of Nova Scotia until 1784. Toronto was York until 1837. Until 1841, present-day Ontario was Upper Canada and present-day Quebec was Lower Canada; from 1841 to 1867, they were Canada West and Canada East respectively. During both periods they were referred to collectively as the Canadas, sl term that excluded the Maritime Provinces. The whole of these British possessions were the British North American Provinces and they were, despite the term provinces, colonies. The Crown Colony of Vancouver Island was proclaimed in 1849, and it did not unite with British Columbia until 1866; references to British Columbia prior to the latter date are not meant to include the island. Some Canadians regard Americans as inappropriate when applied exclusively to inhabitants of the United States, but the word is so used here. Finally, Negroes as used in this study means any people who considered themselves to be Negro, or who were so considered by the law. West Indians are included within the term except where stated otherwise. There is a substantial body of literature which traces the evolution of this word and which suggests that colored is a more satisfactory term, while many Negroes today prefer Afro-Americans or blacks. Since few white Canadians were aware of these controversies, and since many Negroes quite rightly reject colored for the value judgment it implies, Negro is given its broader, or popular, meaning here, although all of the terms are used, in context. legal matters,

precise terms are used.

List of Abbreviations

AHR

American

Historical

Review

BCA

Provincial Archives of British Columbia, Victoria

BM

The

BPL

Boston Public Library

CHA CHR

Canadian Historical Association

CMS CO FO G

Church Missionary

British

Museum, London

Canadian Historical Review Society,

London

Colonial Office Records, Public Record Office,

London

Foreign Office Records, Public Record Office, London

Governor General's Records, Public Archives of Canada,

Ottawa

HO

Home

JNH LC

Journal of Negro History

MHS

Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

MVHR

Mississippi Valley Historical

Record

Office Records, Public

Office,

London

Library of Congress, Washington

Review

NA NBM OH

National Archives, Washington

OHS OPA PAC

Ontario Historical Society

Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa

PANS

Public Archives of

PRO

Public Record Office,

PSHS

Pennsylvania State Historical Society, Philadelphia

RSC SPG TPL

Royal Society of Canada

WO

War

New

Brunswick Museum, Saint John

Ontario History

Ontario Public Archives, Toronto

Nova

Scotia, Halifax

London

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,

Toronto Public Library Office Records,

PRO

London

List of Abbreviations

xvii

titles for less frequently employed depositories, and organizations are established on the occasion of the first usage within each chapter. With most manuscript citations, a date or a whichever may be most helpful to the reader. folio number is provided

Abbreviations or short

publications,

—

CANADA,

with particular reference to the West

Cities St.

1

and Towns

— Canada

John's

2. Sydney 3. Truro

I

4. Halifax

Guysborough 6. Digby

5.

7. Shelburne 8. Saint John 9. Fredericton 1

I

0. Charlottetown 1

.

Quebec

12. Montreal 13.

4

Ottawa

14. Kingston

15. Toronto 16. Hamilton 17. St. Catharines

18. Orillia

Mattawa 20. London 2 I. Chatham 22. Windsor 23. North Bay 24. Sault Ste. Marie 25. Ft. William 26. Winnipeg 27. Portage La Prairie 28. Brandon 1

9.

29. Killarney 30. Emerson Regina 3 32. Moose Jaw 33. Saskatoon 34. Melfort 35. Prince Albert 36. Kinistino 37. North Bottleford 38. Eldon 39. Maidstone 40. Wilkie .

I.

42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 5 I. 52. 5 3. 54. 55.

Lloydminster

Wawota Kitscoty

Edmonton Fort Saskatchewan Athabaska Donatville

Amber

Valley

Clyde

Wildwood Chip Lake Drayton Valley

Breton Drumheller

56. Brooks 57. Tilley 58. Cardston 59. Peace River 60. Tete Jaune Cache

6

I

Kamloops

7

Esquimdlt

Yale

Hope Penticton

New

Westminster

Burnaby Vancouver Victoria

Prince Rupert

I.

72. Nanaimo

73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 8 82. 83. I

Calgary

Barkerviile

.

62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70.

Vesuvius

Sidney

Saanich

Duncan Ganges Harbour Sooke Shawnigan Lake Dawson Creek Whitehorse

.

Dawson Leduc

NORTH WEST TERRITORIES

ERTA

North .Saskatchewan

^ Lake Winnipeg

River

s^SSl

fetes .54 •55

56 • 57

\Sa$^ 431'

.44 ,

V^ WYOMING

N.

DAKOTA

S.

DAKOTA

Cities

r^\ ^ K

1.

and Towns - -U.S.A.

Portland

2. Concord

SV^p^

3. Montpelier

5. Providence 6. Hartford

New Haven

8. Albany 9. Ballston

vjl *&,

10. Schenectady

II. Syracuse

12. Skoneateles 13. Rochester 14. Buffalo I

5. Niogara Falls

1

(

6.

Auburn

1

9. Cleveland

New

York City

Sandusky Toledo Oberlin

Columbus Cincinnati

.

33. Galesburg

34. Detroit 35. Pontiac 36. Flint 37. Lansing 38. Kalamazoo 39. Milwaukee 40. Waukesha

Philadelphia

4

Pittsburgh

42. St. Paul 43. Pembina 44. Havre 45. Browning

Harrisburg Indianapolis

Fountain City

30. Fort Wayne Chicago 3 32. Springfield 1

,

°

7. Utica 8.

20. 2 1. 22. 2 3. 24. 2 5. 26. 27. 28. 29.

4. Boston

7.

I

I

1.

Duluth

46. Bellingham 47. Seottle 48. San Francisco

Towns

—

Nova Scotia

Glace Boy 1 2 New Waterford 3 Sydney 4. Louisbourg .

.

.

5 6 7 8 9 IO I

I

1

I

2 3

.

.

.

Tracadie

Upper Big Trocadie Guysborough

BirchtownE Canso

.

Antigonish

28. Stewiocke 29. Musquodoboit Harbour 30. Porters Loke

.

Addington

31

.

Country Harbour

32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

.

.

New Glasgow

Trenton 5 16. Westville .

17. Pictou 8 River John 1

.

9 Amherst 20. Joggins 1

27. Onslow

.

14. Stellarton I

4

21. Springhill 22. Fundy 23. Five Islands 24. Parrsboro 25. Blomidon 26. Truro

.

.

Dipper's Creek

Waverley Dartmouth Preston

New Road Maroon

Settlement

Hill

Beechville

Beech

Hill

Middle Sackville

Hammond's

Plains

1.

42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

Bridgewater

62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68.

Clementsport Annopolis Royal Porf Royal

Lunenburg

69

Granville

La Have

70. Bridgetown

Greenfield

71

Parodise

72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82.

Middleton

Halifax Africville

Sambro Prospect Chester

Mahone Bay

51. Liverpool 52. Sable River

53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61.

Ohio

Shelburne

Birchtown I Barrington Port La Tour

Tusket

Salmon River Yarmouth

Weymouth

83

Weymouth Cornwallis

Digby

Wilmot Waterville Kentville Wolfvill/n

Horton HantspiYt Five M,le Plains

Folmouth Windsor

Newport

Whycocomagh

THE ATLANTIC PROVINCES

Foils

Bear River

Cape Sable

Towns 1

.

—

New Brunswick

Chatham

2. Newcastle 3. Moncton

4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Sackville

Beausejour

Fort

Hopewell Saint

John

Lancaster

9. Carleton

IO. Westfield I

I

I

.

Nerepis

2. Kingston

3. Oak Point 14. Milkish I

15. Elm

Hill

*4&

Towns

— Prince

Edward

16. Gagetown 17. Hampstead 18. Oromocto

Charlottetown

19. Maugerville

Prince

20. Fredericton 21. Kingsclear

22.

Barker's Point

23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Woodstock Prince William

Perth

Grand

Falls

St.

Stephen

St.

Andrews

Pennfield

Beaver Harbour

Summerside Little

York

Town

Island

fill * frf

II

-

bcao 1

\/l

y

x

ro

vN I

Forest Burwell

Sound Stanley Tolbot

Rowan

Bruce

Elgin Penetonguishe

>

Wilberforce

Collingwood

Ingersoll

Goderich

Meoford Petrolio

III!

e

J

London

3

Port

Port

Port

Port

Mount Lucan

Port

2 inua.

Port

Sornio

Orillio

Oro

m

t\iroo — cno inmtDioiDiDiDiDiDioiDiDr- r~

in in in in

Borrie

Owen

St.

(toiO-w

cm ro

o

Erie Queenston

Flomboro

-E

E |

CO

I

Brantford

Chippawa

Thorold

Niagcro

Waterloo

Ancaster

Wellond

Pert

Pans

Fort

Conestogo

Kitchener

Preston

Dundas

Jordan

Guelph

Gait

St.

to

m

CO OlO rO