Emancipation Day. Natasha L. Henry
moment of freedom is finally at hand.
The patience, the faith, the journey, the battle! Oh yes, that mighty stand.
No more bondage. No more captivity.
No more being contained and confined, for it’s all faded away as we look ahead with utmost anticipation to be free once again.
— Fitzroy E. Dixon, “The True Essence of Freedom,” 1996.1
The end of the horrific, inhumane practice of African slavery in all British colonies was the result of the determination of enslaved Africans in the New World, including Canada, along with Black and White abolitionists in the Western Hemisphere and in Europe. The passage of the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Bill was a victory for those who advocated fervently, but most importantly, for the people who were emancipated. In recognition of their newly acquired freedom, which came into effect in most British territories on August 1, 1834, former slaves quickly created a venue from which to express their allegiance, elation, and gratitude. The first day of liberation was a joyous occasion, for with emancipation came freedom and much cause for great celebration. Emancipation Day observances arose spontaneously throughout the colonies of Britain, as well as those in Canada, to commemorate the piece of legislation that led to the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire and to rejoice in the possibilities new freedom would bring.
Emancipation Day celebrations of freedom have been held in many towns across Ontario and Quebec since 1834, in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick from around 1846, and in British Columbia since 1858. The locations of these events throughout each province included a range of Black settlement sites. Celebrations spread across Ontario from Amherstburg on the Detroit River, to Owen Sound and Collingwood on Georgian Bay, and Niagara on the Niagara River. Larger centres such as Brantford, Toronto, Hamilton, London, and Windsor held major celebratory days. Long-settled communities such as Buxton, Chatham, Dresden, and Sandwich — all pivotal in the days of the Underground Railroad — also hosted annual events. Areas in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick with significant Black Loyalist and Black Refugee populations such as Halifax, North Preston, and Saint John also conducted freedom festivities, but seemingly not ever in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, despite the extensive Black population that has been there for generations.
People of African descent immigrated to Canada at different times throughout the country’s early history, arriving as slaves, fugitives, Black Loyalists, Black Refugees, or individuals with free status, all of them in pursuit of a better life. Documents indicate that Mathieu da Costa was the first African slave to set foot on Canadian soil in New France (later Quebec) in 1605, and the first recorded sale of an African slave was in New France in 1628. The eastern Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, including Acadia, and places in Ontario like Amherstburg (formerly Fort Malden), the Niagara area, Toronto, and Brantford, among others, had been slave-holding territories since the early 1700s, continuing through much of the 1800s. The enslaved Blacks in these regions created the beginnings of African-Canadian communities, which soon became centres of anti-slavery activity for abolitionists, both Black and White, who were committed to the liberation of enslaved Africans in Canada, the West Indies, and the United States. Supporters of anti-slavery efforts included former slaves, free Blacks, sympathetic Whites, and White church ministers who assisted hundreds of fugitive slaves with clothing, food, transportation, and shelter along the final stages of the Underground Railroad.
Abolitionist and legendary Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman used St. Catharines as her last “station” for the runaways whom she helped to escape. Adolphus Judah, an African-American immigrant, was one of the founders of two organizations that assisted incoming fugitive slaves to Toronto and lent his support to the development of the Elgin Settlement when he moved to Chatham. Captain Charles Stuart,2 a White British officer, helped to secure land grants for refugees in Amherstburg. In Pictou, Nova Scotia Reverend Dr. James MacGregor, a Presbyterian minister from Scotland, purchased the freedom of a young enslaved girl and published an anti-slavery pamphlet, “Letter to a Clergyman Urging Him to set Free a Black Girl He Held in Slavery.”3
The headquarters of two of the African-Canadian newspapers, primarily read by fugitive slaves, were in Sandwich, Windsor, Chatham, and Toronto in Canada West (later renamed Ontario). The founders of both newspapers were also escapees. Samuel Ringgold Ward, who had escaped slavery in Maryland with his parents in 1820 and moved to Canada West in 1851, started the Provincial Freeman in Windsor in 1853. Shortly after, the paper was moved to Toronto and finally to Chatham when Mary Ann Shadd became editor in 1854. The Voice of the Fugitive, founded and edited by Henry Bibb and his wife Mary Bibb, was published out of Sandwich and Windsor between 1851 and 1853. These newspapers were very important for the times. Both fugitive slaves and anti-slavery supporters obtained valuable, detailed information from these early papers, and used this data to help mobilize anti-slavery efforts.
Religious mission settlements were established in several of these Ontario locations to assist newly arriving Black refugees become self-sufficient and prosperous through acquiring land, and obtaining education and practical training. The idea for the Dawn Settlement was created in Colchester Township near Amherstburg, the Refugee Home Society was set up in Sandwich, the Free Coloured Mission was established in London, and The Elgin Settlement (Buxton Mission) was formed in the Chatham area.
In the Maritimes, all-Black settlements populated with former slaves, free Blacks and their descendants, Black Loyalists, and Black Refugees developed into self-sufficient communities. Close-knit neighbourhoods founded in Nova Scotia included Africville and other parts of the city of Halifax, North Preston, and Birchtown. In New Brunswick, Saint John, Fredericton, and St. Andrews also had independent African-Canadian communities. In addition, these places became northern termini on the Underground Railroad, attracting many fugitive slaves escaping enslavement in the United States. These areas with their proximity to the northern states, closeness to fresh water sources, and fertile land for farming were obvious targets for settlement. Other Black Loyalists and free Blacks also migrated to these areas where early African-Canadian communities were already established.
British Columbia experienced an influx of African American and Black Caribbean immigrants in the late 1850s, all hoping for a better, freer life through prospecting opportunities in the Fraser River Gold Rush. A few hundred African Americans emigrated from California, wishing to remove themselves from the Jim Crow laws4 that denied them basic rights, increased legislated segregation, and protected the rights of slaveholders. They settled primarily in Victoria on Vancouver Island and on Salt Spring Island.
In the late 1800s and continuing through to the turn of the twentieth century, many of these rural and urban centres in Canada were sites of entrenched racial discrimination and persistent racial protest. The town of Dresden, Ontario, was well-known for practices similar to Jim Crow laws in the southern United States. African Canadians were barred from restaurants and theatres in Saint John in 1915, and, in Owen Sound, Blacks were discouraged from seeking political office. In Toronto in 1929, visiting Blacks were turned away from local hotels. During Canada’s own civil-rights movement, African Canadians confronted racism at all levels. Once “described as a stronghold of racial discrimination,”5 Dresden became a testing ground for new human rights legislation beginning in 19546 and segregated schooling was dismantled in Chatham, St. Catharines, and Halifax.
When new waves of immigrants of African origin, including West-Indian students in the 1920s and West-Indian women on the Domestic Scheme of 1955,7 they would choose cities such as London, Hamilton, Montreal, and Toronto as their homes. These settlers brought with them the influences of carnival which inspired the establishment of Caribana in Toronto. Therefore, it is not surprising that early August celebrations quickly took root in these particular communities, beginning in 1834, and grew to include numerous activities and events. Emancipation Day observances were established and continued by generations of African-Canadian descendants and recent Black immigrants throughout various time periods in Canadian history.
Abundant primary sources such as newspaper articles, personal journals, and diaries, event literature, interviews, stories, anecdotes, correspondence, and photographs accumulated over the years provide detailed, vivid accounts of