The Queen's Bush Settlement: Black Pioneers 1839–1865

By Linda Brown-Kubisch

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).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Feb 20, 2004
• ISBN: 9781554883493

Linda Brown-Kubisch

After living in Kitchener from 1987-92 Linda Brown-Kibisch moved to the United States where she received a master's degree in history from the University of Missouri-Columbia, worked as a reference specialist for the State Historical Society of Missouri, and wrote numerous historical and genealogical articles for both Canadian and American journals. Linda lived in Covington, a small town north of New Orleans, working as genealogy specialist for St. Tammany Parish Public Library.

Book preview

THE QUEEN’S BUSH SETTLEMENT

Black Pioneers 1839-1865

LINDA BROWN - KUBISCH

Copyright © 2004 Linda Brown-Kubisch

All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary or scholarly review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.

Published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.

P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8

www.naturalheritagebooks.com

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Brown-Kubisch, Linda

The Queen’s Bush Settlement: Black pioneers, 1839-1865 /

Linda Brown-Kubisch.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-896219-85-3

1. Blacks — Ontario — Waterloo (County) — History—19th century.

2. Blacks — Ontario — Wellington (County) — History—19th century.

3. Queen’s Bush Settlement (Ont.) I. Title.

FC3100.B6B76 2004      971.3’4400496      C2003-905508-6

Cover and text design by Sari Naworynski

Edited by Jane Gibson

Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing, Winnipeg

Front cover photo: Crumbling tombstones in what is left of the Peel

Township AME/BME Cemetery. Photo by Linda Brown-Kubish.

Back cover photo: Courtesy of the Wellington County Archives.

Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books.

For Michael, Nicholas and Kaitlin.

With a special thank you to Ian Easterbrook.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface

List of Abbreviations

Prologue: An Overview of the Black Experience in Canada West

Chapter 1: We Marched Right Into the Wilderness

Chapter 2: Many Are the Trials We Have to Encounter

Chapter 3: It is Times Here Now That Tries Men’s Souls

Chapter 4: Our Work Here is Almost Done

Chapter 5: Most of the Colored People Living Here are Doing as Well, if Not Better, Than One Could Reasonably Expect

Epilogue

Appendix A - Biographical Sketches of the Black Pioneers in the Queen’s Bush Settlement

Appendix B - Petitions Sent by the Settlers of the Queen’s Bush

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Over the years I have incurred many debts. Many people have generously helped me in all phases of this book. I am particularly indebted to Susan Hoffman and Ryan Taylor, my former colleagues at the Grace Schmidt Room of Local History at the Kitchener Public Library, Kitchener. It was their encouragement and help that enabled me to begin this research project. During my research trips to Kitchener, Pat and Reinhold Kauk opened their home to me, for which I am truly grateful. Doing research long distance is always difficult, but whenever I needed a local source checked Francis Hoffman provided the information. Lisa Lee, Melba Jewell, Pat Jewell and Ted Jewell graciously shared their memories and knowledge of their ancestors with me. Ian Easterbrook, past-President of the Wellington County Historical Society, has remained a constant source of encouragement and was extraordinarily generous in sharing his own research material with me. Ian and Katherine Lamb also read the manuscript and made many useful suggestions. Any errors, factual or interpretive, however, are purely my own.

My research was aided immeasurably by helpful staffs at many different libraries, archives, and historical societies in the United States and in Canada. I am greatly indebted to the staff of the Inter-library Loan Department at Ellis Library, University of Missouri-Columbia, who were resourceful in locating and securing for me many sources. My gratitude must particularly go to the staffs of the Kitchener Public Library, Kitchener; the Wellington County Museum and Archives, Fergus; the Wellesley Historical Society, Wellesley; the Canadian Baptist Archives, Hamilton; the Regional History Collection, D.B. Weldon Library, University of Western Ontario, London; North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Centre, Amherstburg; the Buxton National Historic Site and Museum, North Buxton; the John Freeman Walls Historic Site, Maidstone Township; the Amistad Research Center, New Orleans; the Maine Historical Society, Portland; the New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord; and the Rembert E. Stokes Learning Resources Centre, Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio.

Parts of Chapters 1 and 2 first appeared as articles in Wellington County History and Ontario History, and are used with their editor’s permission. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the Amistad Research Center and the New Hampshire Historical Society for permission to quote from their manuscript collections.

My greatest debt, however, is to my family, who suffered through my graduate studies and then tolerated my continued interest in the Queen’s Bush as I completed the manuscript. My husband, Michael, undertook the formidable task of editing the original manuscript. His ruthless pen and keen judgment greatly improved the work. My son, Nicholas, and my daughter, Kaitlin, have my sincere thanks many times over.

PREFACE

Nestled in the rural countryside of Wellington County near Glen Allen is a small abandoned cemetery, known as the Peel Township Black Cemetery. There are probably hundreds of graves in this cemetery, but natural weathering, neglect and vandalism have destroyed most of the stones. Only a few are remaining and even those are almost unreadable. Years ago the broken stones were mended with iron rods, that have now rusted, and then set in a slab concrete in a straight line. While well-meaning, the attempt to restore the tombstones probably contributed even more damage to the crumbling stone. These gravemarkers are the only physical reminder of a once thriving and important Black community known as the Queen’s Bush.

Walking through the cemetery causes one to wonder what the community was like. How did it originate and what caused it to fade away? I became interested in the Queen’s Bush while employed at the Kitchener Public Library in Kitchener, Ontario. The staff of the Grace Schmidt Room of Local History frequently received queries about the community’s inhabitants, especially those who had been fugitive slaves. Because of this experience, my interest began to focus on the fate of fugitive slaves in Ontario, which developed first into an article then into a thesis for a masters degree in history. Still fascinated by the topic, I expanded my thesis into a work suitable for publication.

When I began my research on the Queen’s Bush, I questioned how much information I would be able to locate. Previously published references to the community indicated that few documents would be available, because most fugitive slaves had never had schooling opportunities and thus were illiterate and incapable of leaving written records. Indeed, very few residents of the Queen’s Bush left correspondence or other documents, which could tell of their experiences in their new homeland. Moreover, very few American abolitionists, who travelled to the province, actually visited the community — not because the community was unknown, but because the frontier settlement was north of the more southerly transportation routes. Roads leading into the settlement were little more than wilderness trails and were impassable during most of the year. One consequence of this invisibility is that the residents of the Queen’s Bush have been ignored throughout history, although they represented one of the largest Black communities of its time. Until now, the Queen’s Bush has only been briefly mentioned in historical accounts of the Black experience in Ontario. More attention has focused on the organized communities of Wilberforce, the British-American Institute, the Elgin Settlement and the Refugee Home Society.

As I discovered bits and pieces of information about the community, I realized that there was, indeed, a wide variety of material available. Public documents including tax records, land deeds, marriage records, death records, and obituaries revealed a wealth of information about the Queen’s Bush inhabitants. The 1851 and 1861 Canadian census for Wellington and Waterloo counties provided a foundation for the study of the community. From this source, I compiled a list of residents, including their ages, religion and birthplaces, which my former colleague Ryan Taylor entered into a database that could then be printed out alphabetically, by religion or by place of birth. In the late 1820s, these early Black settlers began to petition the provincial government for land grants and assistance in securing titles to their farms. These records, too, provided a valuable source of information. Another major resource is the letters and reports written by the American missionaries, who resided in the community between 1839 and 1853. A combination of all of these sources provides a remarkable glimpse at the community.

In telling the story of the Queen’s Bush settlement, I have sought to explore several questions: who were its residents? how did the community develop? what was the relationship between the Black residents and the missionaries? and what caused the demise of what was once one of the largest Black communities in Ontario? Finally, a word about what this study does not attempt. In seeking to find information about the Black residents I only touched briefly on the white settlers who also lived in the community.

Gathering the pieces of the puzzle about the Queen’s Bush has taken more than twelve years, but there are still many questions that remain unanswered. very little is known about the everyday lives of these pioneers. I wish I had been able to uncover more information about individual families. Perhaps, in the future more biographical data will come to light. Despite the limitations of this book, I hope the reader will find the story of the settlement in the Queen’s Bush and its Black inhabitants to be as engrossing and fascinating as I have.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PROLOGUE

AN OVERVIEW OF THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN CANADA WEST

Farewell, old master Don’t come running’ after me, I’m on my way to Canada Where colored men are free.

¹

Slavery And The Introduction of Blacks Into Canadian Society

Before 1763, Canada was a French colony known as New France. Although Blacks were present in New France prior to 1628, this year marks the arrival of the first slave whose life is adequately documented. In 1628, a young slave boy was brought to the colony by the English and sold to David Kirke. The following year, the boy was baptized and assumed the name Olivier Le Jeune. It appears that Le Jeune was a domestic servant for the majority of his life, but it is likely that by his death in 1654 he had been emancipated. It does not appear that Le Jeune’s arrival precipitated a massive importation of slaves, for no other Black slaves are known to have resided in New France until the late 1600s.²

The goals of the Company of New France, which owned the colony, were markedly different from those of the British colonies further south. It was not concerned with colonization, but solely interested in reaping a quick profit from the fur trade. Since fur trading was essentially an individualistic enterprise, there was little need for slave labour. In any event, Native Americans, who practised slavery by enslaving prisoners from other tribes, easily met the need for slaves. Frequently, these slaves, called Panis, were sold to the French as domestic servants or agricultural labourers. But without an economy in which slavery could profitably expand, the practice was slow to develop.³

In contrast to the institution of slavery practised in the British colonies, slavery in New France was less abusive. Those colonists who could afford slaves were mostly wealthy merchants and government officials who imported them as domestic servants. Most of them received relatively humane treatment, frequently adopting their owner’s surname and remaining with the family until their death. Furthermore, the Catholic Church, while condoning slavery, did not view slaves in the same way as British colonists did. Slave status was not thought to be inherent in man, but was a temporary condition arising from an unfortunate turn of events. The Catholic Church’s tempered views encouraged slaveholders to treat their slaves humanely. There is little evidence of widespread brutal treatment of slaves, and punishment for crimes was the same for slaves as for freemen.⁴

In the late seventeenth century, in an effort to expand the colony’s economy and reduce the chronic labour shortage, the governor of New France, Marquis de Denonville, began to encourage the importation of slaves. King Louis XIV encouraged Denonville’s plan, but with reservations, limiting the use of slaves to agricultural production. He also warned that slavery would not be economically profitable because slaves would not acclimate to the harsh northern climate. However, the outbreak of King William’s War in 1689 made international shipping difficult and consequently very few slaves were actually imported. In 1704, France declared that her colonies existed only to provide natural resources, which forced New France to continue to depend primarily on its fur trading economy. Under these conditions, the institution of slavery expanded at a very slow rate. Indeed, by 1759 only 3,604 slaves lived in New France and, of this number, only 1,132 were Blacks.⁵

In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War and Britain assumed control of the colony. The British continued the practice of slavery, but it took on a new form. British law and custom regarded slaves as property without any rights whatsoever. English civil and criminal law replaced French legislation, depriving slaves of the few rights previously guaranteed under the French Code Noir. However, the Quebec Act of 1774 reinstated French civil law in Quebec. Once the Constitutional Act of 1791 divided Quebec into two provinces, Lower Canada maintained French civil law, while governmental officials introduced British civil law into Upper Canada. However, British criminal law applied to both Canadas and it was these laws that governed the institution of slavery.⁶

During the American Revolutionary War, British military officials regarded slavery as a significant economic weakness in the southern colonies. Hoping to attract labourers and to disrupt the southern economy, the British offered freedom to those slaves who would desert their owners and join the war effort. The number of slaves who accepted the proposition was lower than had been anticipated and corrupt military officers sold many of those who did side with the British back into slavery. All too often there was no difference between free Blacks, those who had volunteered to serve with the British forces, and slaves who had been captured as a result of the war. For instance, in Quebec in 1778 members of the Light Infantry Chasseurs of Brunswick seized and sold a slave owned by a French merchant, while Loyalists in New York captured slaves to sell on the Montreal auction block. It is difficult to determine how many Blacks actually arrived in Upper Canada during the Revolutionary War, but it is clear that British attitudes and unscrupulous behaviour actually contributed to the expansion of slavery.⁷

In 1781, Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand ordered Sir John Johnson, who had invaded the American colonies numerous times, to conduct a census of all Blacks that had been brought into the province. According to Johnson’s calculation, only fifty Blacks whose slave status appeared questionable lived there. This number most likely reveals a lack of concern as well as an indication of the difficulty in securing an accurate count. Haldimand’s only recourse was to try to prohibit the unauthorized entry of slaves from the American colonies. However, despite his efforts, a substantial number of Blacks had entered Canada by the end of the American Revolution. Many were slaves owned by Loyalists who had fled the rebel colonies; some were fugitive slaves who had sought freedom behind British lines, while yet another group consisted of Jamaican Maroons, who had been exiled to Nova Scotia by the British government.⁸

The white response to the post-Revolutionary War immigration of Blacks changed the pattern of slavery. A noticeable shift occurred primarily in the type of work newly imported slaves performed. They were no longer restricted to domestic service, but provided a greater variety of skilled labour as blacksmiths, caulkers, carpenters and coopers. Tavern and hotel owners employed slaves as waiters, while others became surveyors or construction workers building roads across the frontier. The nature of manumission, (freeing slaves from bondage) also changed. Manumitted slaves frequently became apprentices to their former owners in order to learn a trade. In some cases, slaves acquired freedom after agreeing to remain as paid employees. Nevertheless, the changes had little influence on the relatively less brutal system of slavery practised in the colonies of Canada.⁹

Upper Canada became the first province in British North America to seriously consider the abolishment of slavery and Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe became the driving force behind the anti-slavery movement. In 1793, due to Simcoe’s encouragement, the House of Assembly passed a bill that banned the importation of slaves. The bill confirmed the status of slaves already living in Upper Canada, but decreed that children of slaves born after the enactment would become free at age twenty-five. Amidst such anti-slavery sentiment the institution of slavery gradually declined. In 1833, the British Parliament passed a bill for the abolition of slavery throughout its empire, which officially went into effect on August 1, 1834.¹⁰

Canada as a Safe Haven: The Arrival of Fugitive Slaves and Free Blacks

After the War of 1812, American soldiers, who had fought in Upper Canada, returned home relating their impressions of the British government’s attitude towards slavery. By the 1820s most Canadian slaves had been emancipated and, unlike their American counterparts, enjoyed full equality under the law. Canadian free Blacks could vote, serve on juries, own property and serve in the military. Upper Canada soon became mythologized in southern slave quarters as a safe haven. Consequently, small, unorganized groups of fugitive slaves determined to escape from their lives of bondage sought freedom there. Networks of information describing escape routes, employment opportunities and the egalitarian society in Upper Canada directed the modest but constant stream of fugitive slaves northward.¹¹

Gradually, the so-called Underground Railroad developed to assist fugitive slaves in their flight to freedom. The primary secret escape routes led through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, and then across the Detroit River or Lake Erie into Upper Canada. Along the way both Blacks and whites from both sides of the border guided a very diverse group of individuals, the vast majority of which were young men. In their analysis of runaway slave notices published in newspapers in five states between 1838 and 1860, historians John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger found that males constituted eighty-one per cent of those sought by their owners. Among this group, seventy-four percent were in their late teens and early twenties. Women were less likely to run away, but sixty-eight per cent of those who did were also in their teens and twenties. It is likely, that once enslaved men and women married and had children they considered it too difficult and risky to attempt an escape although there are some remarkable stories of mothers with their children successfully fleeing to freedom.¹²

The majority of these fugitives came from the Upper South and most had spent some time in a free northern state where they received some valuable experience by working in a free-soil economy and adapting to a colder climate.¹³ Others chose to emigrate directly to Upper Canada. Many of them arrived there in deplorable condition, starved, exhausted and without proper clothing. Destitute, many ended their journey as soon as they reached Upper Canada, settling mostly in the cities along the border such as Amherstburg, Hamilton, Windsor and St. Catharines. Jermain Wesley Loguen,¹⁴ in a letter dated May 8, 1856, to Frederick Douglass,¹⁵ reminisced about his arrival in Hamilton in 1835. He stated that he arrived penniless, ragged, lonely, homeless, helpless, hungry and forlorn – a pitiable wanderer without friend or shelter, or a place to lay my head.¹⁶

The availability of employment, cheap housing and the presence of relief organizations contributed to the establishment and growth of Black communities in the border towns. Toronto in particular became a centre of Black culture.¹⁷ The proximity of the border not only guaranteed easy access to the United States, should fugitive slaves decide to return, but it also enabled them to maintain ties with free Black communities in the northern states. With time Blacks settled in communities further inland such as, Chatham, Brantford and London. Nevertheless, wherever they settled they entered trades and professions, purchased land and businesses, organized benevolent societies and established churches and schools. Many individuals sought temporary refuge and employment in urban areas, but as soon as they had earned enough they purchased land for farming. Ultimately, the freedom and prosperity enjoyed by these early emigrants prompted many free Black Americans, who had grown weary of their second-class status in the northern states, to emigrate as well.¹⁸

American free Blacks were essentially caught in a no man’s land between slavery and freedom. Their status as free men was a precarious one in a white society, which tended to view slavery as the natural condition of Blacks, thus most of them encountered legal, as well as political, economic and social discrimination. By 1840 ninety-three percent of the northern free Black population lived in states which completely or practically denied them the right to vote. While white males enjoyed the right to vote regardless of their economic status, most states either required property qualifications for Blacks or completely disfranchised them. Whites there also used segregation to prevent Blacks from assimilating into northern society – segregation which pervaded all institutions of society including churches, jails, hospitals, schools, parks, theatres, public transportation and even cemeteries. Economically, Blacks were restricted to menial, semiskilled or domestic employment. Men made a living as labourers, porters, barbers or coachmen, while women worked as seamstresses, cooks or washerwomen.¹⁹

Free Blacks often complained bitterly and openly about their treatment and rejected the contention that they were truly free. Many felt that regardless of their education, conduct or wealth, they still faced discrimination and enjoyed, at best, a second-class status. Samuel Ringgold Ward,²⁰ a former slave and social activist described the sense of powerlessness of many free Blacks when he wrote that prejudice:

was ever at my elbow. As a servant, it denied me a seat at the table with my white fellow servants; in the sports of childhood and youth, it was ever disparagingly reminding me of my colour and origin; along the streets it ever pursued, ever ridiculed, ever abused me. If I sought redress, the very complexion I wore was pointed out as the best reason for my seeking it in vain.²¹

Through different strategies, including the establishment of mutual aid societies and participation in the anti-slavery movement, Blacks attempted to provide for their individual self-expression and to achieve full and equal citizenship within the United States. When these goals continued to be unattainable, many Blacks considered emigration as an alternative to the continual struggle against racism. The positive image of Canada as a land of freedom and opportunity, and the relative ease of getting there, motivated many to seek a better life under the protection of the British government. The enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, however, contributed more to the promotion of Black emigration than any other event. The law capitulated to the southern slaveholder’s demand for the return of runaway slaves and stipulated that captured fugitive slaves or free Blacks had no recourse to a trial as long as the claimant provided proof of ownership. Northerners were required to assist with the capture and return of runaway slaves or face a fine or imprisonment. Many Blacks, regardless of whether they were born free or who had long since escaped from slavery, fled to Canada.²²

Emigration to Canada had begun as an alternative to slavery or racial oppression, but it later often took on an important symbolic role. With each escape to Canada, the fugitives made an implicit anti-slavery statement by discrediting pro-slavery claims that slaves were content with their lives in bondage. By prospering in Canada, Blacks furthermore disproved claims that their race was inherently inferior and could not exist equally with whites. Contemporary newspaper articles, speeches, and interviews show that the fugitive slaves were very much aware of the symbolism of their actions. For instance, delegates to the 1851 North American Convention of Colored People held in Toronto stated:

every refugee in Canada is a representative of the millions of our brethren who are still held in bondage; and the eye of the civilized world is looking down upon us to see whether we can take care of ourselves or not.²³

To assist the influx of immigrants, Blacks organized their own benevolent and mutual aid societies. The Society for the Protection of Refugees, St. John’s Benevolent Association, the Queen Victoria Benevolent Society and Daughters of Prince Albert were among the many groups formed in Toronto. Famed Underground Railroad conductor, Harriet Tubman,²⁴ helped to establish the St. Catharines Fugitive Aid Society, while mutual-aid organizations called True Band Societies were formed in Amherstburg. In Chatham, the United Daughters of Zion provided a dollar a week to sick or disabled members. Another prominent women’s organization called Love and Charity had ninety members by 1861 and offered similar monetary assistance to its members.²⁵

Significant documentation shows that Blacks who sought freedom in Upper Canada before the 1830s were generally tolerated. The white response to their arrival appears to have been generally sympathetic because Blacks were a novelty and as such received friendly treatment.²⁶ However, by the end of the decade there was a perceptible shift in public opinion towards people of African ancestry, and whites became less tolerant of them. The late historian, Robin Winks, attributed the shift in white public opinion to several specific developments. In the 1830s, the number of Blacks emigrating to Upper Canada rose dramatically and, while most Canadians generally opposed slavery, they were not in favour of a massive immigration of Blacks. Moreover, many, once in Canada, displayed ambivalence towards their newly-adopted home. Many pledged their devotion to Queen Victoria, served in the militia and purchased land, but quickly returned to the United States when the opportunity arose. Many whites, therefore, viewed Blacks merely as temporary residents and considered them primarily as a cheap source of labour. However, their value as labourers diminished with the arrival of large numbers of Irish immigrants, who were also willing to provide cheap manual services. Public opinion also changed because the extradition of fugitive slaves had developed into a political conflict between Canada and the United States. Many Canadians became concerned about the legal implications of their offer of assistance to fugitive slaves.²⁷

Beginning in the 1840s, as a result of an increase in the number of fugitive slaves and the concomitant white hostility, Blacks and whites began to establish organized self-help communities that would provide a transition from slavery to freedom. They hoped that these communities would enable fugitive slaves to lead independent, self-reliant lives through educational and vocational training, which would allow them eventually to assimilate into mainstream white society. The three organized communities were the British-American Institute, the Elgin Settlement, and the Refugee Home Society.²⁸

As the Upper Canadian Black population increased, many American abolitionists also moved northward to offer their services as teachers and to establish relief stations. These missionaries remained philosophically and financially associated with the American anti-slavery movement. They maintained close ties to American anti-slavery organizations and depended on their financial support to sustain schools and missions. Information available on these missionaries also suggests that they had remarkably similar backgrounds. Most were young New Englanders with strong religious convictions, who shared a belief in evangelical reform activity and personal sacrifice. Their motivation to be missionaries was rooted in the ideology of evangelical abolitionism and they wanted to see an end not only to slavery, but to the ignorance and superstitions it had created. In their view, slavery was a corrupt and sinful institution which had denied Blacks of the ability to be independent, moral people. Although fugitive slaves had broken from the bonds of their masters, the missionaries believed that they needed to be freed from the morally degrading effects of slavery, which could only be achieved through education, both intellectual and religious. As Christians, the missionaries believed it was their duty to regenerate the ex-slaves and prepare them for the responsibilities they would face as free, independent citizens.²⁹

Despite their good intentions, most missionaries encountered hostility and resistance from the very people whom they were trying to help. Religious rivalry, paternalistic attitudes, moral rigidity and subtle racism all combined to create a climate in which conflicts became inevitable. In their preoccupation with moulding Blacks into their ideal model of middle-class Christians, the missionaries often failed to realize how their attitudes only alienated the Black community. While they welcomed the schools and relief assistance provided by the missionaries, they would not tolerate the control the teachers tried to inflict over their lives. Another issue that created animosity was the system of solicitation and the management of donations, referred to as the begging system. With no central relief organization, missionaries or hired agents travelled across Canada and the United States soliciting money and clothing. This system of fundraising created a passionate debate among Blacks and missionaries. Some Blacks felt deeply embarrassed by the practice – it was, after all, begging – and sought to demonstrate that it was unnecessary and corrupt. They were appalled by the fact that unscrupulous men, Black and white, often solicited funds under the pretense of being agents for fugitive slaves only to keep the money for themselves. They feared that such fraud would damage the anti-slavery symbolism of the Black experience in Canada. While others supported the begging system they argued that since the donations had been sent for their benefit, they should control their distribution, not the missionaries. The missionaries, on the other hand, believed that they had solicited the donations and therefore should be able to use them as they saw fit. Often they used donated clothing in lieu of cash to purchase supplies or services needed to operate their missions, which occasionally led to charges of misappropriation and even theft.³⁰

Mary Ann Shadd, social activist, newspaper editor and educator, c. 1845-1855.

Courtesy of the National Archives of Canada, C-029977.

Delegates at Black conventions held in 1847 in Drummondville,

Reviews for The Queen's Bush Settlement

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very detailed study of how slaves who escaped to Canada survived as pioneer settlers in the forests of Ontario. Some failed to make it but then so did white settlers. Many cleared enough land to get started but they never received the support from the government that was promised. Unscrupulous land agents and government bureaucrats frequently sabotaged their efforts. Racism was also a factor in their treatment by some white government agents and businessmen.However some of these men & women overcame incredible hardships to clear out a homestead from the bush. One couple arrived in Canada in the fall but could not find anyone in Niagara Falls who could direct then to the Queens Bush. It was February by the time they found a map and arrived in the the area. They built a cabin and survived the remainder of the winter, an incredible feat considering the Queen's Bush is in the snow belt caused by the lake effect off Lake Huron and they had few resources. One of many stories the author found in her research, much of which she did in Louisiana.If I have a criticism, it is the repetition of the same information over and over. A tighter editing job would have helped but I think the book may have been rush to publication because the author was ill.My Father's first farm was in the Queen's Bush area and Brown-Kubisch's research is so detailed that one could research that farm in Peel Township to see which Black family cleared the first few acres.