African-American Studies
Research Guides
African-Americans and Canada
McNichols Campus Library
E 185.53 .A1 A36 2010
Black Canadians: history, experiences, social conditions
Mensah, Joseph. (Fernwood Pub., c2010)McNichols Campus Library
F 1035 .N3 M46 2010
For researchers seeking detailed information about the black diaspora in North America, this authoritative reference provides more than 300 years of black Canadian history, from the first migration of slaves, black loyalists, and Civil War refugees to the expansive movement brought about by the establishment of the point system in 1967. Venturing beyond established orthodoxies and simplistic solutions to discuss contentious ethno-racial problems in Canada, this critique addresses housing, the labor market, sports management, and race and ethnic relations. This new edition expands the regional coverage of black history, updates all the statistics with the 2006 census data, and adds important new material on multiculturalism and employment equity.
Black like who? : writing-Black-Canada
Walcott, Rinaldo. (Insomniac Press, 1997)McNichols Campus Library
F 1035 .N3 W35 1997
Black refugees in Canada: accounts of escape during the era of slavery
Hendrick, George. (McFarland & Co., c2010)McNichols Campus Library
E 450 .H515 2010
Summary: "Thousands of black people sought refuge in Canada before the U.S. Civil War. While most encountered some racism among Canadian citizens, many thrived under the Canadian government. The book begins with a short historical account of blacks in Canada from 1629 until the early 1800s, when the first groups of escaped slaves began to enter the country"--Provided by publisher.
McNichols Campus Library
F1035.N3 W5
Hailed as the most sweeping history of African-Canadians ever written when it first appeared, "The Blacks in Canada" remains the only historical survey that covers all aspects of the Black experience in Canada, from the introduction of slavery in 1628 to the first wave of Caribbean immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. Using an impressive array of primary and secondary materials, Robin Winks details the diverse experiences of Black immigrants to Canada, including Black slaves brought to Nova Scotia and the Canadas by Loyalists at the end of the American Revolution, Black refugees who fled to Nova Scotia following the War of 1812, Jamaican Maroons, and fugitive slaves who fled to British North America. He also looks at Black West Coast businessmen who helped found British Columbia, particularly Victoria, and Black settlement in the prairie provinces. Throughout Winks explores efforts by African-Canadians to establish and maintain meaningful lifestyles in Canada. "The Blacks in Canada" investigates the French and English periods of slavery, the abolitionist movement in Canada, and the role played by Canadians in the broader continental antislavery crusade, as well as Canadian adaptations to nineteenth - and twentieth-century racial mores. The second edition includes a new introduction by Winks on changes that have occurred since the book's first appearance and where African-Canadian studies stands today. Robin W. Winks is Randolph W. Townsend Professor of History and chair of the Department of History, Yale University. (Amazon.com)
Black then : Blacks and Montreal, 1780-1880's
Mackey, Frank. (McGill-Queen's University Press, c2004)McNichols Campus Library
F 1054.5 .M89 N363 2004
Crossing the border: a free Black community in Canada
Hepburn, Sharon A. Roger. (University of Illinois Press, c2007)McNichols Campus Library
F 1059.5 .N8115 H47 2007
Contents: Canada: Canaan or "a freezing sort of hell" -- The Reverend William King -- An idea becomes reality -- A settlement takes shape -- A community arises -- Family and community structure -- Making a living -- A spiritual people -- In pursuit of an education -- A community transformed.
PZ 7 .C94137 El 2009
Located in the McNichols Juvenile Literature section. Summary: In 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.
Enduring heritage : black contributions to early Ontario
Riendeau, Roger E.. (Dundurn Press, 1984)McNichols Campus Library
F 1059.7 .N3 R54 1984
Filled with photographs, both historic and contemporary, An Enduring Heritage is a lively introduction to the story of Blacks in early Ontario -- their immigration and settlement from the Loyalist period to 1900. An important part of this book is a photographic record of the monuments Ontario's Black pioneers have left behind them: their churches, their burying grounds, their homes.
I came as a stranger : the Underground Railroad
Prince, Bryan. (Tundra Books, c2004)McNichols Campus Library
E 450 .P76 2004
Summary: Chronicles the history of the Underground Railroad from the Canadian perspective, with emphasis on Ontario and including a time line and a listing of historic sites. Prior to abolition in 1865, as many as 40,000 men, women, and children made the perilous trip north to freedom in Canada with the help of the Underground Railroad. It was neither underground nor was it a railroad, and was most remarkable for its lack of formal organization, so cloaked in secrecy that few facts were recorded while it "ran." The story of the Underground Railroad is one of suffering and of bravery, and is not only one of escape from slavery but of beginnings: of people who carved out a new life for themselves in perilous, difficult circumstances. In I Came as a Stranger, Bryan Prince, a descendent of slaves, describes the people who made their way to Canada and the life that awaited them. From Uncle Tom's Cabin in Dresden, Ontario to Harriet Tubman's Canadian base of operations in St. Catharines, the communities founded by former slaves soon produced businessmen, educators, and writers. Yet danger was present in the form of bounty hunters and prejudice.
McNichols Campus Library
F 1059.5 .W5 P4
North of the color line : migration and Black resistance in Canada, 1870-1955
Mathieu, Sarah-Jane. (University of North Carolina Press, c2010)McNichols Campus Library
F 1035 .N3 M318 2010
Queen's Bush Settlement: Black pioneers, 1839-1865
Brown-Kubisch, Linda. (Natural Heritage Books, c2004)McNichols Campus Library
F 1059 .W37 B76 2004
The Black pioneers (1839-1865) who cleared the land and established the Queen's Bush settlement in that section of unsurveyed land where present-day Waterloo and Wellington counties meet, near Hawkesville, are the focus of this extensively researched book. Linda Brown-Kubisch's attention to detail and commitment to these long-neglected settlers re-establishes their place in Ontario history. Set in the context of the early migration of Blacks into Upper Canada, this work is a must for historians and for genealogists involved in tracing family connections with these pioneer inhabitants of the Queen's Bush. "In the 19th century one of the most important areas of settlement for fugitive American slaves was the Queen's Bush, then an isolated region in the backwoods of Ontario. Despite much recent attention to African-Canadian history, the Queen's Bush remains a remote territory for historical scholarship. Linda Brown-Kubisch offers a pioneering entry into that gap. With a jeweller's eye for the biological subject, Brown-Kubisch introduces the courageous Black adventurers and the hardships they faced in Canada." - James Walker, Professor of History, University of Waterloo, and author of The Black Loyalists (1976, 1992) and "Race," Rights and the Law (1997).
Report to the Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, 1864; the refugees from slavery in Canada West
Howe, S. G.. (Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969)McNichols Campus Library
E 450 .H85 1969
Reprint of the 1864 ed. published under title: The refugees from slavery in Canada West. Bibliographical footnotes.
Rebecca Tull
Associate Library ProfessorReference Services
McNichols Campus Library
tullrs@udmercy.edu
313-993-1077