Chapter 5: Boyko Slavery, Segregation and Evacuation

Student Presentation: Kristal Stocki and Marie Karner

ECCU 200October 14, 2009

BLACK HISTORY IN CANADA

The history of Black immigration largely ignored by historians in this country.

Through the efforts of the descendants of our earliest Black settlers in Canada, the stories of these immigrants are now being told, and their place in the historical fabric of Canada is being recognized.

The First Black People in Canada

Mathieu de Costa: the first recorded Black person to set foot on land now known as Canada was a free man named who travelled with explorer Samuel de Champlain, and arrived in Nova Scotia some time between 1603 and 1608, and served as a translator for the French explorer Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts in Nova Scotia/Acadia and the Micmac Nation.

Oliver Le Jeune, who is believed to be the first known Black person to live in Canada.

Several Waves of Immigration in Canada

Between 1763 and 1865 most blacks migrating to Canada were fleeing slavery in the US.

At the time of the American Revolution, those loyal to the British Crown called United Empire Loyalists, came North to the colonies of the British North America to escape the political turmoil.

These white, American, United Empire Loyalists

brought their African American slaves with them.

Also during this time enslaved Black Americans also made their way to the colonies of British North America, settling predominantly in Nova Scotia.

This latter group, the free Blacks, was largely made up of trades people and laborers.

Some settled in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia where they received discriminatory treatment:

- leaders there held as slaves- charter of the city of Saint John amended in 1785 to exclude Blacks from practicing a trade, from selling goods, from fishing in the harbor, and from becoming free men.

Many left Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for Sierra Leone in West Africa:- in 1792 almost 1200 black Loyalists sailed

from Halifax to found the new settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Provisions of the charter of the city of Saint John stood until 1870, even though the British Imperial Act, which was passed in August 1834, abolished slavery in the British Empire and its colonies.

Bureaucracy taking precedence over the law =

officially-sanctioned racism.

The Underground Railroad: Harriet Tubman (“Black Moses”)

From the late 1820s until the American Civil War began in 1861, the Underground Railroad brought tens of thousands—Boyko suggests more than 60,000—freedom-seeking fugitives to Canada.

Boyko (p. 160): “Harriet Tubman was instrumental in the Underground Railroad’s success.”

Free Land and Adventures in the Far North: The Waves of Immigration Continue to Flow

Around the same time that the American Revolution ended, the Hudson’s Bay Company ceded most of Rupert’s Land and the North West Territory to the newly created Dominion of Canada under the Rupert’s Land Act of 1868.

Canada began advertising for settlers in Europe and the United States shortly after it obtained the Canadian Plains region as part of its purchase of the Hudson’s Bay Company lands in 1870.

Advertisements found their way into African-American newspapers in Oklahoma.

Ads appealed to many eager listeners among Oklahoma’s Black population, who had moved west to escape discrimination.

The lands in Canada’s west that were “set aside for settlement” were particularly attractive to African Americans because they had the opportunity to obtain land, and because the believed that their civil and political rights would be protected. They thought they were coming to the “Promised Land.”

Once again, they found themselves engulfed in the flames of racism.

However, white Europeans were also interested in coming to Canada to make new lives for themselves. As was the case for Chinese, Ukrainian, Jewish, Eastern European, and Japanese immigrants, Blacks too came to a country where racial segregation and racist policies were widespread.

Immigration Restrictions: A Government of Canada un-official, then official policy

In the late 1800s, even though the call was put out for people to come to “settle Canada,” there was an unofficial policy of restricting Blacks from immigration.

Then, in 1911, Prime Minister Laurier made his policy official, with the following parliamentary legislation:"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."

Early 20th century (1900s)

1905 to 1911, African American families continued travelling north to Canada from Oklahoma seeking the promise of free homestead land and freedom from the discriminatory "Jim Crow" laws which had been enacted following Oklahoma statehood.

Spring 1910: dozens of these families arrived in Saskatchewan, 12 of which settled in the Eldon District north of Maidstone (near North Battleford). By 1911, the families at Eldon had started building the church which would become one of the centers of their community.

Others carried on to found the community of Amber Valley in Northern Alberta.

The flow between the United States and Canada continued early in the twentieth century.

1920s: a wave of immigration occurred in the 1920s, with Blacks from the Caribbean coming to work in the steel mills of Cape Breton.

The appearance of these early settlers did not attract much attention. However, this changed dramatically when trainloads of Black men, women and children began arriving on Canada’s border.

White Canadians reacted overwhelmingly against the Black migration.

Farmers’ organizations and women’s groups joined Boards of Trade across the region in demanding that the federal government halt the movement.

The issue was debated several times in Parliament, and the Department of the Interior began an investigation.

Similar to what happened to Chinese, Ukrainian, Jewish and Japanese Canadians, politicians once again turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed against the minority Blacks trying to live in Canada.

Once again, here we see how the desires of the bureaucrats took precedence over the laws of Canada.

Feeling pressure by the backlash of the majority white Canadians, the federal government sent an agent, a Black doctor from Chicago, to Oklahoma to work against and move back/halt the movement of Blacks to Canada.

By 1911, the Black migration from Oklahoma had halted.

An Order-In-Council approved by the Laurier government, barring anyone of African descent from entering Canada. was quietly withdrawn, when the Laurier government learned of their infiltrator’s successes to halt migration from Oklahoma.

Black Settlement in Western Canada

Alberta: established a number of settlements in an area around Edmonton, including Amber Valley

Saskatchewan: established the largest black settlement in Saskatchewan, north of Maidstone, along the N. Saskatchewan River, in what became known as the Eldon District.

The Eldon settlers also tried to create a school district so that their children could obtain an Education in their new country.

Black settlers in the Eldon district encountered racial prejudice; many were forced to take menial jobs.

A number of other Black communities in Canada, including:

Africville, a small village in Nova Scotia which was demolished in the 1960s to facilitate the urban expansion of HalifaxHogan's Alley, a neighborhood in Vancouver, which was largely demolished in 1970Wilberforce Colony in OntarioSaltspring Island in British ColumbiaNorth Preston in Nova Scotia; North Preston currently has the highest concentration of Black Canadians in Canada, many of whom are descendants of Africville residentsPriceville, Shanty Bay and parts of Chatham-Kent in OntarioMontreal's Little BurgundySt. John's Ward and York Township in Toronto

The Role of the Media in a Racially-Segregated Canada: Then—and Now

Since the roots of media took hold in Canada, they have played a key role in the demonization and racialization of Blacks (and other minority groups) in Canada.

More recently, however, it has become profitable, therefore, acceptable, for the media to focus on Black characters and communities in Canada, with television series such as Da Kink in My Hair and the inclusion of rap music and videos on the airwaves and television stations.

Embers of Racism Burn On

1900s: laws passed in Canada outlawing segregation in neighborhoods, schools, restaurants, buses, public washrooms, theatres and other venues formerly off limits to Blacks.

The restrictions on Blacks emigrating to Canada remained in effect until 1962, when racial rules were eliminated from the immigration laws.

Other laws passed making it illegal to turn down anyone for employment based on skin color.

Even with legislation, Black people living in Canada have reported in this decade that they have faced discrimination and prejudice based on the color of their skin.

September 2003 Statistics Canada’s Ethnic Diversity Survey:- when asked about the five year period from 1998 to 2002, nearly one-third (32%) of respondents who identified themselves as Black reported that they had been subjected to some form of racial discrimination or unfair treatment “sometimes” or “often”.

Afua Cooper has written that racism is one of Canada’s best-kept national secrets.

It is only within recent years that Black history and the role Blacks played in the shaping of Canadian society has been acknowledged and has slowly begun to be added to the chronicles of Canada’s history.