One of the more noted aspects of Black Canadian history is that while the majority of African Americans trace their presence in the United States through the history of slavery, the Black presence in Canada is rooted almost entirely in voluntary immigration. Despite the various dynamics that may complicate the personal and cultural interrelationships between descendents of the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, descendents of former American slaves who viewed Canada as the promise of freedom at the end of the Underground Railroad, and more recent immigrants from the Caribbean or Africa, one common element that unites all of these groups is that they're in Canada because they or their ancestors actively chose of their own free will to settle there.
First black people in Canada
African Americans during the American Revolution
Main article: Black Loyalists
At the time of the American Revolution, inhabitants of the United States had to decide where their future lay. Those loyal to the British Crown were called United Empire Loyalists, and came north. White American Loyalists brought their African American slaves, numbering approximately 2500 with them. The British also evacuated an additional 3500 formerly enslaved Black Americans, who had gained their freedom through Lord Dunmores Proclamation which guaranteed freedom to slaves which ran away from their masters and worked for the British.also made their way to the colonies of British North America, settling predominantly in Nova Scotia. This latter group was largely made up of tradespeople and labourers, and many set up home in Birchtown near Shelburne. Some settled in New Brunswick, and like those who had settled in Nova Scotia they were subjected to discriminatory treatment often at the hands of prominent landowners who held slaves. Some of the refugess had been free blacks prior to the war and fled with he other refugees to Nova Scotia relying on British promises of equality. They too had to leave the United States after the Revolution, and settled in Nova Scotia. The charter of the city of Saint John was amended in 1785 specifically to exclude blacks from practising a trade, selling goods, fishing in the harbour, or becoming freemen; these provisions stood until 1870.In 1782, the first race riot in North America took place in Shelburne with white soldiers attacking the African American settlers who were getting work that the soldiers thought they should have. Due to the unkept promises of the British government and discrimination on the part of white colonists, 1,192 African American men, women and children left Nova Scotia for West Africa on 15 January 1792 and settled in what is now Sierra Leone, where they became the original settlers of Freetown. They, along with other groups of free transplanted people such as the Black Poor from England, became what is now the Sierra Leone Creole people, also known as the Krio.
Maroons from the Caribbean
On June 26, 1796, Jamaican Maroons, numbering 543 men, women and children, were deported on board the ships Dover, Mary and Anne from Jamaica, after being defeated in an uprising against the British colonial government. Their initial destination was Lower Canada but on July 21 and 23, the ships arrived in Nova Scotia. At this time Halifax was experiencing a major construction boom initiated by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn's efforts to modernize the city's defences. The many building projects had created a labour shortage. Edward was impressed by the Maroons and immediately put them to work at the Citadel in Halifax, Government House, and other defence works throughout the city. Funds had been provided by the Government of Jamaica to aid in the resettlement of the Maroons. Five thousand acres was purchased at Preston at a cost of £3000. Small farm lots where provided to the Maroons and they attempted to farm the infertile land. Like the former tenants that were poor, they occupied horrible and unproductive land at Preston; as a result they had minor success. A reason the Maroons found farming in Nova Scotia difficult is because the climate would not allow their customary food crops such as bananas, yams, pineapples or cocoa to grow. Small numbers of Maroons relocated from Preston to Boydville for better farming land. The British Lieutenant Governor Sir John Wentworth made an effort to change the Maroons’ culture and beliefs by introducing them to Christianity. From the monies provided by the Jamaican Government, Wentworth procured an annual stipend of £240 for the support of a school and religious education. The Maroons were not interested in converting from their own religion to Christianity. They were very strong, opinionated people, and would not work for less money than an average white person.After suffering through the harsh winter of 1796–1797, Wentworth reported the Maroons expressed a desire that "they wish to be sent to India or somewhere in the east, to be landed with arms in some country with a climate like that they left, where they may take possession with a strong hand." The British Government and Wentworth opened discussions with the Sierra Leone Company in 1799 to send the Maroons to Sierra Leone. The Jamaican Government had in 1796 initially planned to send the Maroons to Sierra Leone but the Sierra Leone Company rejected the idea. The initial reaction in 1799 was the same but the Company was eventually persuaded to accept the Maroon settlers. On August 6, 1800 the Maroons departed Halifax, arriving on October 1 at Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Upon their arrival in West Africa in 1800, they were used to quell an uprising among the previous settlers mentioned above, who after eight years were unhappy with their treatment by the Sierra Leone Company.
The abolition of slavery
Main article: Act Against Slavery
The Canadian climate made it uneconomic to keep slaves year-round, unlike the plantation agriculture practised in the southern United States and Caribbean, and slavery within the colonial economy became increasingly rare. Not all owners were white. For example, the powerful Mohawk leader Joseph Brant bought an African American named Sophia Burthen Pooley, whom he kept for about 12 years before selling her for $100. In 1793 John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, attempted to abolish slavery. That same year, the new Legislative Assembly there became the first entity in the British Empire to restrict slavery, confirming existing ownership but allowing for anyone born to a female slave after that date to be freed at the age of 25. Slavery was all but abolished throughout the other British North American colonies by 1800, and was illegal throughout the British Empire by 1834. This made Canada an attractive destination for those fleeing slavery in the United States, such as minister Boston King. Furthermore, on 24 March 1837, black men in Canada were given the right to vote.The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada estimated in its first report in 1852 that the "coloured population of Upper Canada" was about 30,000, of whom almost all adults were "fugitive slaves". St. Catharines had a population of 6,000 at that time; 800 of them were "of African descent".
War of 1812
The next major migration of blacks occurred between 1813 and 1815. Refugees from the War of 1812, primarily from the Chesapeake Bay and Georgia Sea Islands fled the United States to settle in Hammonds Plains, Beechville, Lucasville[disambiguation needed], North Preston, East Preston, and Africville. A Black Loyalist named Richard Pierpoint, who was born about 1744 in Senegal and who had settled near present-day St. Catharines, Ontario, offered to organize a Corps of Men of Colour; this was refused but a white officer raised a small black corps. This "Coloured Corps" fought at Queenston Heights and the siege of Fort George, defending what would become Canada from the invading American army.The Underground Railroad
There is a sizable community of Black Canadians in Nova Scotia and Southern Ontario who trace their ancestry to African American slaves who used the Underground Railroad to flee from the United States, seeking refuge and freedom in Canada. From the late 1820s until the American Civil War began in 1861, the Underground Railroad brought tens of thousands of fugitive slaves to Canada. While many of these returned to the United States after emancipation, a significant population remained, largely in Southern Ontario, widely scattered in both rural and urban locations, including Toronto.West Coast
In 1858, James Douglas, the governor of the British colony of Vancouver Island, replied to an inquiry from a group of blacks in San Francisco about the possibilities of settling in his jurisdiction. Governor Douglas, whose mother had been a Creole, replied favourably, and, at the outbreak of the Cariboo Gold Rush, several dozen of these African American migrants travelled to Victoria. Two of them, Peter Lester and Mifflin Gibbs, became successful merchants there, and Gibbs was elected to the City Council in the 1860s.Immigration restrictions
In the late nineteenth century, there was an unofficial policy of restricting blacks from immigration. The huge influx of immigrants from Europe and the United States in the period before World War I included only very small numbers of black arrivals. This was formalised in 1911 by Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier: "His excellency in Council, in virtue of the provisions of Sub-section (c) of Section 38 of the Immigration Act, is pleased to Order and it is hereby Ordered as follows: For a period of one year from and after the date hereof the landing in Canada shall be and the same is prohibited of any immigrants belonging to the Negro race, which race is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada." (Compare with the White Australia policy.)Early 20th century
The flow between the United States and Canada continued in the twentieth century. A wave of immigration occurred in the 1920s, with blacks from the Caribbean coming to work in the steel mills of Cape Breton, replacing those who had come from Alabama in 1899. Some Black Canadians trace their ancestry to people who fled racism in Oklahoma, Texas, and other American Great Plains states in the early 1900s to move north to Alberta and Saskatchewan. (See for example those buried in the Shiloh Baptist Church cemetery in Saskatchewan.) Many of them encountered racism when they arrived in Canada, which they had regarded as the Promised Land.[38] Many of Canada's railway porters came from the U.S. as well, with many coming from the South, New York City and Washington, D.C., and mainly settling in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. A noted cause célèbre in the 1920s was the case of Matthew Bullock who fled to Canada to avoid a potential lynching in North Carolina and fought extradition.
Late 20th century and early 21st century
The restrictions on immigration remained until 1962, when racial rules were eliminated from the immigration laws. This coincided with the dissolution of the British Empire in the Caribbean, and over the next decades several hundred thousand blacks came from that region, establishing themselves as the dominant black population in Canada. Since then, an increasing number of immigrants from Africa have been coming to Canada, as is also the case in the United States and Europe. This includes large numbers of refugees, but also many skilled workers pursuing better economic conditions. Today's Black Canadians are largely of Caribbean origin, with some of recent African origin, and smaller numbers from Latin American countries.However, a sizable number of Black Canadians who descended from freed American slaves can still be found in Nova Scotia and parts of Southwestern Ontario. Some descendants of the freed American black slaves have mixed into the white Canadian community and have mostly lost their ethnic identity. Some of the descendants went back to the United States. Bangor, Maine, for example, received quite a few Black Canadians from the Maritime provinces.
Like other recent immigrants to Canada, Black Canadian immigrants have settled preferentially in provinces matching the language of their country of origin. Thus, in 2001, 90% of Canadians of Haitian origin lived in Quebec,while 85% of Canadians of Jamaican origin lived in Ontario.
In 1975, a museum honouring Black Canadians, as well as African Americans, was established in Amherstburg, Ontario, entitled the North American Black Historical Museum. Though closed for several years, it re-opened in 2001. In Atlantic Canada there is the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, a similar establishment located in Cherrybrook, Nova Scotia.
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