Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina
Freedom Seekers and Canada: True Bands and The Desire to Start Culturally Anew and Returning to South
SECOND SERIES - VOLUME VIII
MEETING OF MAY, 1902
Blacks in Canada:
At Buxton, in Kent County , a settlement named after Thomas Fowell Buxton , the famous philanthropist, was organized , and in 1848 the Elgin Association was incorporated. later Dr. Howe reports 2,000 acres deeded to negro owners, and two hundred neat cottages erected , with a population of about 1,000. “ There is no tavern, and no groggery ," he writes, “ but there is a chapel and a schoolhouse. Most interesting of all are the inhabitants. Twenty years ago most of them were slaves , who owned nothing, not even their children. Now they own themselves ; they own their houses and farms; and they have their wives and children about them . They are enfranchised citizens of a government which protects their rights.” A saloon was opened in the Buxton settlement, but could not find customers enough to support it, and so was closed within a year.
Other similar but less noted colonies, one bearing the honoured name of the philanthropist Wilberforce, were established. Some of the negroes ' best friends, however, considered that they would succeed better if thrown upon their own resources and encouraged to cultivate self-reliance. Their gregarious instinct, however, tended to keep them together. The refugees for the most part gravitated towards the towns and cities — Amherstburgh , Windsor, Chatham , St. Catharines, Hamilton and Toronto — where they cultivated small gardens and performed such lowly labours as wood sawing, whitewashing, hotel service , laundry work and the like. A less number found homes and occupations at Ki and Montreal, and a few at St. John and Halifax.
The negroes at Dawn were reported to be “ generally very prosperous farmers — of good morals, and mostly Methodists and Baptist. Out of three or four thousand coloured people not one, says Josiah Henson, was sent to gaol for any infraction of the law during the seven years from 1845 to 1852.
In 1852 the Anti- Slavery Society of Canada reported that there were about 30,000 coloured residents in Upper Canada, nearly all being refugees. About ten years later Principal Willis, of Knox College, who took deep interest in their condition , estimated the number at 60,000. This was doubtless an over-estimate. After the War the number very greatly decreased, many returning to the northern tier of states and some further south.
The Canadian census of 1901 reports in the whole Dominion 17,437 negroes, more than half of whom , namely , 8,935, dwell in Ontario, 5,984 in Nova Scotia, 1,368 in New Brunswick, and only 532; in British Columbia , and 280 in Quebec. A few of the refugees followed the blacksmith and carpenter trades, fewer still kept small stores, and some accumulated real estate and a degree of wealth . Many of them owned small neat homes, though sometimes the unthrift inherited from slavery days was seen in the unkempt and dilapidated premises. Dr. Howe considered their state better than that of the foreign immigrants in the same regions. Sunday schools were early established in the negro settlements, the Bible was read with interest in many humble homes, not a few learning to read and write after reaching adult years.
True Bands:
The tendency of the negroes to association was shown in the organization of what were known as “ True Bands," a sort of mutual improvement clubs ; one at Chatham had a membership of 375, and one at Malden a membership of about 600. Religious organizations were formed among them , chiefly of the Methodist and Baptist persuasion, perpetuating the modes of worship of these churches in the Southern States. Most of the meeting places were devoid of architectural pretensions and were sometimes rude and almost primitive. The worship was largely of an emotional character, marked by the vigour and often the eloquence of the address and the beauty of the singing, which were not infrequently accompanied by hand clapping and other physical demonstration.
Among their ministers were some very devout and pious men, some of them possessing much ability and persuasive eloquence. Of these we may mention the Revs. Wm . Mitchell, Josiah Henson , Elder Hawkins, and Bishop Disney of the Methodist Episcopal Church . (The latter three were born slaves.) They accomplished much good among the coloured race in Canada . A few of the negroes joined white churches, but for the most part they worshipped together. The franchise was freely given them on the payment of the same amount of taxes as was paid by the white people.
As may well be imagined many touching scenes took place as each band of fugitives reached the land of liberty . Many families long separated were re-united. “ Each new band of pilgrims as it came ashore at some Canadian port was scanned by little groups of negroes eagerly looking for familiar faces. Strange and solemn reunions, after years of separation and hardships, took place along friendly shores of Canada."