Scholarship on abolitionism in North America is overwhelmingly oriented around the United States. Since the 1960s, historians have greatly expanded our knowledge of antislavery movements and actors in New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the former Northwest Territory. Additionally, much has been written on antislavery links between the United States ...
(Show more)Scholarship on abolitionism in North America is overwhelmingly oriented around the United States. Since the 1960s, historians have greatly expanded our knowledge of antislavery movements and actors in New England, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the former Northwest Territory. Additionally, much has been written on antislavery links between the United States and Great Britain. However, comparatively few studies have examined antislavery activism in nineteenth-century Canada, or the formation of freedom networks between the United States and Canada. Building upon recent works, this paper will examine the contribution of Canadian abolitionism to the formation of transnational antislavery connections in North America.
Over the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of African American migrants and refugees immigrated to Upper Canada (roughly present-day southwestern Ontario). Under the lion’s paw, African American refugees, African Canadians, and white abolitionists campaigned for the immediate emancipation of enslaved people in the United States and promoted black immigration to the Canadian provinces. Male and female activists founded anti-slavery newspapers, established antislavery societies, aided African American freedom seekers, held public protests and festivals, opened schools and mutual aid societies, campaigned for civil and political equality. Moreover, Canadian abolitionists established personal and organizational ties with their counterparts in the United States, particularly in the Detroit and Niagara River borderlands.
Yet Canadian abolitionism was a diverse movement, comprised of actors with varying (and occasionally conflicting) ideological beliefs. At times, sharp divisions between Canadian and American abolitionists risked upending cross-border cooperation. Debates over black emigration, fundraising campaigns, and separate institutions threatened to rupture transnational relations. Furthermore, while most Canadian antislavery activists advocated emancipation by purely peaceful means, a small number supported armed rebellion and conspired with revolutionaries in the United States to overthrow black enslavement by force.
By looking beyond national borders, this paper will shed light on the range of antislavery connections between the United States and Canada. Although fractured at times, the transnational movement was ultimately integral to the cause of emancipation in North America.
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