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<H1><CENTER><IMG SRC="images/micon4.gif" WIDTH=144 HEIGHT=144 ALIGN=bottom naturalsizeflag=3><BR>
Black History in Early Toronto*</CENTER></H1>

<H3><CENTER>By: Daniel G. Hill<BR>
<BR>
From: <I>Polyphony </I>Summer 1984 pp. 28-30<BR>
&copy; 1984 Multicultural History Society of Ontario</CENTER></H3>

<P><BR>
</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE><I>*This is an abridged version of an address given to
   the Black History Conference held at the University of Toronto,
   February 18, 1978.</I><BR>
   <BR>
   Slavery in Upper Canada existed before the separation of the upper
   and lower provinces in 1791. A British Act of 1790 allowed new
   settlers to bring slaves into what would become Upper Canada at a
   value of "forty shillings for each one." There were, however, only
   five or six hundred slaves in Canada during the eighteenth
   century. Blacks and Pawnee Indians made up the slave population
   and for the most part they were located around the Niagara
   District. Here are a few examples of slave advertisements found in
   Upper Canada newspapers:</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>

<HR>

</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE><B>July 11, 1793: Five Dollars Reward</B><BR>
   <BR>
   Ran away from subscriber on Wednesday the 25th of June last, a
   Negro manservant named John, who ever will take up the said Negro
   man and return him to his master shall receive the above reward
   and all necessary charges.<BR>
   <BR>
   Thomas Butler, Niagara<BR>
   <BR>
   <B>August 17, 1793:</B><BR>
   <BR>
   Ran away from the subscriber a few weeks ago a Negro wench named
   Sue: This is therefore to forewarn all manner of persons from
   harboring said wench under penalties of the laws.<BR>
   <BR>
   James Clark, Senior, Niagara</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>

<HR>

</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE>Many distinguished persons were slave owners, including
   Peter Russell, who held positions in the executive and legislative
   councils and became administrator of Upper Canada; Secretary
   William Jarvis; and Upper Canada' s first Solicitor General,
   Colonel James Gray. Indeed, six of the sixteen legislators in the
   first Parliament of Upper Canada were slave owners. In 1793 the
   first Parliament of the Province of Upper Canada passed
   legislation intended to contain slavery. There were strong
   feelings at the time favouring total abolition in the province.
   Governor Simcoe and his wife led the abolitionists, while a strong
   block of farmers and wealthy landowners maintained that slaves
   were essential to the agricultural welfare of the province. The
   1793 Statute confirmed the ownership of slaves then held, but
   provided that the children of slaves, at the age of twenty-five
   would be set free. It also prohibited any extension of the slave
   trade into Upper Canada. Although compromise legislation, it is
   considered the first distinctly human rights statute explicitly
   dealing with slavery in the British Empire.<BR>
   <BR>
   In 1799 in the town of York-as Toronto was then called- fifteen
   Blacks were enumerated, with no distinction between slaves and
   freedmen. In the same year a free Black, Peter Long, and ten
   members of his family lived east of the Don River, outside the
   town limits. The first Black businessmen were two contractors-Jack
   Mosee and William Willis-who ''under took &#91;in 1799&#93; to
   open a road from Yonge Street, York, westward through 'the
   Pinery'; and although at first the senior surveyor of the province
   found the road too narrow and improperly cleared, in time it was
   completed satisfactorily." In 1802 eighteen free Blacks were
   living in York, including six children. Several fought in the War
   of 1812, including Sam Edwards, a member of Cap tain Runchey' s
   Coloured Corps, and Solomon Albert, a gardener, who served earlier
   as a private in the 10th Regiment.<BR>
   <BR>
   Slavery in Canada and the British Empire was completely abolished
   in 1833. Long before that time, however, this country had beome a
   haven for fugitive slaves from the United States. With the help of
   the abolitionist groups who created the famous Underground
   Railroad, thousands of Black people found their way into the
   Province of Upper Canada during the first sixty years of the
   nineteenth century. This number swelled especially during the
   decade 1850-60, after the enactment by the United States Congress,
   in 1850, of the notorious Fugitive Slave Act, which reversed
   previous judicial decisions granting freedom to escaped slaves
   reaching "free" states, providing instead for the return to
   slavery of any Blacks who were detected and claimed by their
   masters or agents. Estimates of the number of Blacks in Upper
   Canada, from 1850 to the end of the American Civil War in 1865,
   range from 35,000 to 50,000. Thus, the original Black community in
   Ontario can be traced first to slaves owned by well-to-do people
   and, subsequently, to refugees from American slavery. The
   following statement was found in the records of one old Toronto
   Black family:<BR>
   <BR>
   The consequences of intolerable conditions induced many Negroes
   from Virginia to flee slavery and settle in Toronto. After
   settling, many accumulated wealth and real property. Others had
   come as free men and could trace their ancestry for several
   generations. In 1837 there were about 50 families of refugees
   settled in Toronto. Additions were made to the colony from time to
   time from most southern states until 1850 when almost every
   southern state was represented. The majority, however, were from
   Virginia, where many had been engaged in useful employment such as
   waiters, cooks, house servants, barbers, mechanics, hairdressers,
   blacksmiths, carpenters, and shoemakers. Many of them had brought
   sufficient means with them to purchase homes. They buiIt churches
   and organized benevolent and fraternal organizations. By
   Providence and industry, most of the Negroes not only secured
   homes of their own, but educated their children, and by loyalty to
   their adopted country and moral rectitude, they secured the
   respect and esteem of their fellow citizens, and left behind them
   a record of which their descendants need not be ashamed.<BR>
   <BR>
   Most of the runaway slaves and freedmen who came to Ontario during
   the mid-nineteenth century had skills and trades, and having
   broken the bonds of servitude, they found in this city a social
   climate that allowed them to prosper. John Dunn, Receiver General
   for Upper Canada during the 1840s, stated in a letter to an
   American abolitionist that, ' 'Negroes ask for charity less than
   any other group and seem generally prosperous and industrious.''
   This observation was certainly justified, for in Toronto alone-to
   say nothing of Windsor and Chatham where coloured communities also
   flourished-Blacks owned and operated three hotels and taverns, two
   livery stables, three restaurants, a hardware store and a women's
   dress shop. The very first ice houses in Toronto were started by
   two enter prising Blacks in the late 1840s-Mr. T.F. Carey and Mr.
   R.B. Richards. They drew their stock from the mill ponds north of
   what is now Bloor Street. Later they expanded their enterprises to
   four ice houses, a barber-shop and a bathhouse. W.H. Edwards also
   operated a successful barber-shop at 102 and then 77 King Street
   as early as 1839, with rooms set apart for ladies and children for
   perfuming and barbering . He advertised that he used, "Vegetable
   Extract, for Renovating and Beautifying the Hair, cleansing it
   from all Dandruff, dust, etc. and giving it a beautiful appearance
   without the slightest injury to the Hair or skin." A. T. Augusta,
   a Black doctor, opened up a Central Medical Hall at Yonge and Elm
   Streets, in which he offered dental, medical and pharmaceutical
   services to the public during the 1850s.<BR>
   <BR>
   By mid 1850s there were nearly 1,000 Blacks in Toronto- a sizeable
   proportion of the total population of 47,000. W.R Abbott is
   perhaps Toronto s most noted example of a persecuted Black
   freedman who fled from the southern States seeking better condions
   in the North and then, despairing of the prejudice there,
   emigrated in 1835 to the town of York. Abbott could neither read
   nor write at first, but he had extraordinary mathematical ability
   and accumulated a fortune in real estate and the tobacco business
   before his death in 1875. He also reared a distinguished family.
   of his sons, Anderson Ruffin Abbott, became a medical doctor,
   graduating in the early 1860s from the Toronto Medical my, an
   affiliate of the University of Toronto. Bitter about slavery, he
   joined the Union Army and became one of eight Black surgeons to
   serve in the American Civil War. He subsequently returned to
   Canada to become Coroner of Kent County and Resident Physician at
   the Toronto General Hospital.<BR>
   <BR>
   Independently wealthy, thanks to his father's real estate
   activities, Anderson Ruffin Abbott spent the last part of his life
   writing articles on a variety of subjects, including sharp attacks
   on prejudice and discrimination wherever it existed. The oldest
   Black institution in the city, now located on D'Arcy street is the
   First Baptist Church which was founded in 1826 when a dozen
   escaped slaves met on the shores of Toronto Bay and prayed.
   Worshipping at first outdoors, they had by 1827 expanded in number
   and leased the St. George' s Masonic Lodge for Sunday meetings. It
   is interesting to note that the Baptist faith was first brought to
   Toronto by Blacks, who were then joined by interested whites. Two
   other Black churches appeared between 1838-47.<BR>
   <BR>
   Starting with a congregation of forty, the Colored Wesleyan
   movement to have arisen from the indignation of some of its
   original memers concerning the city's white Wesleyans-who were in
   fellowship and union with pro-slavery churches in the United
   South. By 1850 the Colored Wesleyans claimed over 100 members, and
   the church continued to function until 1875 when, finally, the
   deaths of many members and the loss of others who returned to the
   United States brought an end to the Colored Wesleyan movement.
   Also established in the 1840s was the African Methodist Episcopal
   Church, a branch of an American denomination founded in the late
   eighteenth century. One of the most significant contributions of
   those early Canadian Blacks who settled in Upper Canada was the
   establishment of two newspapers: "The Voice of the Fugitive",
   published in Windsor by a famous refugee named H.C. Bibb, and
   another refugee newspaper called The Provincial Freeman, founded
   in Toronto and later moved to Windsor. This latter abolitionist
   newspaper was very competently edited by a most remarkable and
   highly literate Black woman, Mary Ann Shadd, well known for her
   sharp tongue and biting editorials. Ms. Shadd was born of free
   parents in Wilmington, Delaware on October 9, 1823 and fled with
   her family to Canada. Mary Ann Shadd is acknowledged as the first
   Black newspaperwoman in North America and the publisher of
   Canada~s first anti-slavery newspaper. Perhaps she was the first
   woman publisher of a newspaper in Canada.<BR>
   <BR>
   Thanks to Shadd and Bibb, we have some record of the history of
   thw period-the hopes, aspirations and problems of a new people in
   a strange new land. Both papers encouraged and assisted the fugee
   community in organizing benevolent and abolitionist groups; they
   counselled the refugees, advising them to enter local schools;
   they helped to organize vigilance committees against raiders who
   attempted to spirit runaway slaves back to the United States; they
   fought against schemes for segregating Blacks in Canada, and they
   urged the refugees to involve themselves in civic and municipal
   affairs. But life was not totally pleasant for refugees. Even in
   Toronto, they lived in the danger of being kidnapped and returned
   to the United States. Paul Gallego, a young Black writer,
   expressed concern about American slave owners who were tracking
   their ''property'' into Canada in the hope of kidnapping or having
   them extradited. A report appeared in the Toronto Parriot of July
   3, 1840, that:<BR>
   <BR>
   <I>Two persons, Irishmen we believe by birth, but Yankeefied by
   habit, were charged on Thursday last, before Aldermen Gurnett and
   King, with an attempt to kidnap a coloured man whom they asserted
   to be their slave, and with drawing bowie knives on another
   person.<BR>
   The parties after being suitably reprimanded by the sitting
   Aldermen for the brutal and cowardly practice of carrying bowie
   knives, and made aware that under Monarchical Institutions and
   British Laws, there existed no excuse for wearing such weapons,
   were severally fined Five Pounds, and held to bail for their
   future good conduct.</I><BR>
   <BR>
   The Black community reacted to kidnapping attempts by forming
   vigilance committees and publishing notices warning all new comers
   that slave owners had their agents in the city.<BR>
   <BR>
   Despite a rather well defined Black settlement in central Toronto
   during these early days, segregated schools and churches did not
   develop here as they did in the heavily populated Black
   communities of Windsor, Chatham and London. The southernmost
   cities of the province, terminals for the Underground Railroad,
   drew a large number of Blacks. They formed, and in a sense were
   pushed into, little ghettos, colonies and settlements outside
   those cities.<BR>
   <BR>
   On the other hand, Blacks came into Toronto steadily but in
   smaller numbers. There were active abolitionist groups which met
   the refugees and assisted in their adjustment. In fact the old St.
   Lawrence Hall, now beautifully renovated, was a centre for
   anti-slavery meetings and for those groups helping to get Blacks
   established. And although there were Black churches and
   organizations, the refugees soon became accustomed to the
   integrated nature of institutions and social life in the city.
   They became anglicans and Wesleyans, and the more prosperous
   families moved unhindered from the central city to fine homes in
   the east end. The basic difference between other Canadian Black
   communities and the Toronto community in those early days, was
   that the Toronto Black population had never been identified
   historically as a poor, deprived or dependent class.<BR>
   <BR>
   Perhaps the most famous Black figure of the late nineteenth
   century is William P. Hubbard, who was born here January 27, 1842,
   about two years after his family arrived from Virginia- freed
   slaves who had decided to exchange the oppressive climate in the
   United States for a new life. Hubbard attended the Toronto model
   School and then became a baker. During his lifetime-he lived to
   age ninety-three-he retained the skills of a master cakemaker. He
   also worked in his uncle' s livery business, serving as a driver
   for notables like George Brown of the Globe. At age fifty-one he
   launched a new career in politics, running in 1893 for alderman in
   Ward 4. On his first attempt he was defeated by eight votes, but
   he won the election of 1894 and thirteen consecutive annual
   elections. For four straight years, 1898-1901, his fellow council
   members elected him to the Board of Control. He won a fight to
   have controllers elected directly by the people and under the new
   system, from 1904-07, the voters elected him to the Board of
   Control. His colleagues elected him vice chairman of that board in
   1904, and in that year, 1906 and 1907 he performed many duties as
   Acting Mayor. ''Alderman Hubbard on entering Council had to
   overcome color prejudice," a Globe editorialist wrote after the
   election of 1904, "but by his splendid defence of the public
   interest. . . he forged his way to the front rapidly."<BR>
   <BR>
   Hubbard became an uncompromising champion of cheap, publicly-owned
   electric power. He fought for this goal alongside Adam Beck, who
   founded the Ontario hydroelectric system and was later knighted
   for his service. Beck said he regarded Hubbard as "always an
   ally.'' Hubbard's chairmanship of a special power committee
   consumed most of his time and interest. He led the effort to win
   provincial legislation to enable the city to generate, develop,
   produce and lease electric power-a move that established the
   Toronto Hydro Electric System. Furthermore, it was Hubbard who
   persuaded the city to acquire the Toronto Islands. When rich
   laundry owners tried to drive the small Chinese laundries out of
   business by asking for exorbitant municipal licenes, Hubbard
   instead got a gradual increase in fees. which the Chinese
   laundrymen were able to meet without hardship. About hirty years
   after Hubbard's death in 1935, thousands of Blacks -from the West
   Indies and the United States- would enter Ontario, some to make
   their mark on public life. But few would know the debt of
   gratitude owed to the bright, tough and progressive politician
   who, years before, had surmounted all barriers of race and left
   for them a legacy of public accomplishment. After the American
   Civil War, the Black popullation in Upper Canada dropped
   considerably in numbers. Perhaps the best indication of what
   happened to the community is found io the writings of Dr. Anderson
   Ruffin Abbott:<BR>
   "The constant drain to which our population has been subjected
   since the close of the Civil War precludes the possibility of any
   very great increase in wealth or numbers. Our youth evince a
   strong disposition to cross the border line as soon as they
   acquire sufficient knowledge and experience to make a living. In
   this way we are impoverished and you &#91;Americans&#93; are
   correspondingly benefitted. By the process of absorption and
   expatriation the color line will eventually fade out in
   Canada."<BR>
   <BR>
   Dr. Abbott did not anticipate the influx of British West Indians
   and Americans, brought in by railroad and industrial interests,
   which began in Toronto and other cities shortly after the turn of
   the century, and which continued until the mid- 1970s, nor could
   he have known of the rich variety of skills and culture which
   these new Black Canadians brought with them.</BLOCKQUOTE>

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