Emancipation Day. Natasha L. Henry
meanings. Obviously, Emancipation Day feasts were a time for fellowship among African Canadians, with some people living considerable distances away from other Blacks or others coming from villages or towns that were scattered over a large territory. Shared meals provided the casual means of strengthening the African-Canadian community. They also signified the abundance and bounty similar to a harvest festival. Furthermore, there was a level of resistance symbolized by the act of eating at these banquets. Sharing meals was another way of freeing themselves from the legacy of slavery as former slaves could now buy and eat a range of foods they wanted instead of receiving small weekly rations and undesirable parts of meats from their slave masters. Feasts that were hosted on August First, like other important group meals, also contained Biblical symbols such as food binding people of faith together in God and the blessings of God being extended through the feeding of His people. These festive dinners were another means in the building of African-Canadian identity and values.
The toasts given and resolutions passed served a number of meaningful purposes. Proposed to demonstrate patriotism towards Britain and the Queen (Victoria), they illustrated how African Canadians embraced their new citizenship and the rights and privileges that came along with it. The salutations also expressed messages to fellow White citizens that they, the African Canadians, were appreciative of the opportunities afforded to them such as free soil, security from slavery, as well as education, and communicated that Blacks in Canadian provinces were good, productive citizens. Homage was always paid to the ancestors who had gone before them through toasts that recognized their sacrifices. Proclamations and resolutions invoked the future and declared new beginnings. Resolutions would be passed to chart the course of political or social action for the year to come, reflecting the issues that were important to Black cultural organizations and to the community.
Oral tradition, which has always been an integral element of African culture, was particularly maintained as part of Emancipation Day. Public addresses were extremely significant because they were used to educate attendees. Speeches were used to educate participants about the atrocities of slavery. The very early events featured storytelling by former slaves who shared their experiences of slavery and escape, and here the memories of older generations were also used to educate the general public. Black speakers stressed the importance of education for future generations of African-Canadian children, deemed as crucial to ensuring personal and community success.
Speeches also served to inspire and motivate members of the crowd to become involved in the fight against slavery, to instill racial pride through education about Black history and Black accomplishments, and to encourage self-determination. During the nineteenth century many of the individuals attending Emancipation Day celebrations could not read and were unable to get information from the newspapers, pamphlets, or other publications. Thus, speeches were very important tools of outreach, mobilization, and communication throughout the Black community. The presence of scholarly, articulate speakers of African descent, such as Henry Bibb, Frederick Douglass, and Josephus O’Banyoun further legitimized African Canadians’ pursuit for equal rights and justice.
While all speakers praised Britain for dismantling the institution of slavery and gave adulation to Canada for being a safe haven, there was a notable divergence of views between Black speakers and White speakers on the status of African Canadians. White speakers noted that Blacks had good, equal opportunities in Canada and that it was up to them to take advantage of their freedom. On the other hand, Black speakers discussed that African Canadians had not yet achieved equality and that more needed to be done for Blacks, such as the eradication of discriminatory practices. This gap in perspective would widen, especially around the 1880s.
The preservation of a collective memory has always been an important value in the communities of people of African ancestry. Emancipation Day celebrations were utilized to memorialize the experiences of slaves in the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada, and to honour the African continent. West India Day,3 or August First events, were also used to determine what should be publicly remembered or collectively forgotten. This was particularly crucial just after Emancipation when those who were once enslaved were in the process of acquiring a new identity and developing a new understanding of what it meant to be African.
Emancipation Day provided the opportunity for African Canadians to establish relationships with others in their new communities and new country. It served as a social gathering, a time to bring different classes, genders, and races together. It was a platform from which to memorialize the ancestors, to address the challenges the African-Canadian community faced, to pass on African heritage, and to set goals and expectations for the future. Many cultural and family traditions have been transmitted through this yearly community celebration. In effect, Emancipation Day celebrations became the premiere social event for African Canadians from all walks of life. In a few areas, Blacks commemorated this historic event at home with family, with simple meetings at local churches or community organizations, private parties, or even at a tavern with friends. On other occasions, however, the observances of Emancipation Day were grand public affairs. These well-organized, huge functions served as political platforms, classrooms, networking arenas, places for family reunions, and a dating scene where couples met or wed.
A couple from Detroit, Forest Nathaniel Shelton Jr. and Earlene Lucy McGhee, were married on the stage at Jackson Park in Windsor in 1954 as part of the August First celebrations. This was Windsor’s first public wedding.
By the 1850s African Canadians had created a very consistent and well-defined practice of commemoration around the international public observances of British Emancipation which continued to evolve over the decades to address the objectives of the time. The organization of Emancipation Day celebrations also became more complex as its size and importance grew, involving the booking of speakers and the various public and private venues, organizing food availability and preparation, setting up overnight accommodations and transportation, and securing event permits.
However, before an appreciation and understanding of Emancipation Day can be developed, it is important to grasp the history and background leading up to these celebrations.
Let us make our own intensions crystal clear. We must and we will be free. We want freedom now. We do not want our freedom fed to us in teaspoons over another one hundred fifty years. Under God we were born free. Misguided men robbed us of our freedom. We want it back.
— Martin Luther King Jr., from a speech given at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Crusade for Citizenship, February 12, 1958.
The trade in African peoples began in 1441 with the development of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, a complex international economic system operated by European merchants. Portugal was the first European country to establish the trafficking of Africans followed by Spain, Holland, and France. Britain entered the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1562 and became the leading slave-trading power by the early 1700s. Ships from Europe brought horses, guns, cutlery, fabrics, copper, and alcohol to West Africa to exchange for captive Africans who were then transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, on the horrific Middle Passage, along with African products such as