Enslaved African Americans would continue to escape from the Eastern Shore in the summer and the fall of that year. Some were caught and were forced to return to a life of enslavement while many others made their way to St. Catharines.
General Tubman: St. Catharines, 1858 – Part I
At the start of 1858 Tubman was living in the boarding house she rented in St. Catharines, Canada West (now Ontario) with her elderly parents; Benjamin Ross Sr. and Ritta ‘Rit’ Green Ross. The town of St. Catharines was a hub for abolitionist activity. With a population of about 6,500 in 1857, around 600 were people of African descent, and the majority of them were self-liberated African Americans.
Objects Legacies: Leg Shackles
Museum Collections vaults are naturally very curious and intriguing places. You could spend hours wandering through our vaults, examining the […]
Object Legacies: Slave Memoir
arefully wrapped in acid-free paper and stored inconspicuously among other artifacts of its kind, is an 1856 edition copy of Solomon Northup’s memoir, 12 Years A Slave. It is part of the Museum’s Rare Book Collection. Materially, this artifact is catalogued with the following description…
A Walk Around Town – Walk X – Slavery
Excerpt from “Walk X” in “St. Catharines A-Z” by Junius, originally published in the St. Catharines Journal on October […]
Narratives of Fugitive Slaves – Part 4
“I think slavery is the worst and meanest thing to be thought of. It appears to me that God cannot receive into the kingdom of heaven, those who deal in slaves. God made all men – He is no respecter of persons – and it is impossible that he should, on account of my colour, intend that I should be the slave of a man because he is of brighter skin than I am.” – Henry Atkinson, (pp 94).
Narratives of Fugitive Slaves – Part 3
“Rents and provisions are dear here, and it takes all I can earn to support myself and my children. I could have one of my children well brought up and taken care of, by some friends in Massachusetts, which would much relieve me, but I cannot have my child go there on account of the laws, which would not protect her. This is a hardship: but had I to struggle much harder than at present, I would prefer it to being a slave. Now I can lie down at night in peace – there I had no peace even at night, on account of my master’s conduct.” – Mrs. Ellis (pp 63-64).
Narratives of Fugitive Slaves – Part 1
St. Catharines played an important part in the success of the Underground Railroad. In railroad speak, the city was a destination, or terminal for refugee slaves. Many who made it to Canada settled in the city, which for reasons associated with the success of the Welland Canal, was, by mid-19th century standards, a thriving and bustling city rivaling Hamilton and London in population and industrial activity.
Richard Pierpoint
While St. Catharines is well known as a destination for freedom seekers, escaping slavery in the United States through the […]