The Underground Railroad - the meaning
Abolitionists (people who ended slavery) in Upper Canada were also
involved in a more covert resistance to slavery within North America
called the Underground Railroad.
By the middle of the 19th century, the Underground Railroad had been developed by abolitionists and Quaker sympathizers to facilitate the escape of enslaved Blacks from the southern United States to Canada.
The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. It was a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originated in the southern United States, wound its way to the less restricted North and eventually stretched to Canada.
One of its most intriguing features was its lack of formal organization. The system largely succeeded because of the cooperation and trust among various religious and ethnic groups who moved freedom seekers towards Canada through a highly secretive network.
The journey to freedom was not an easy one. Freedom seekers travelled by
coach, train, water and often for hundreds of miles on foot – with
little food. Because of the great risk involved in their journey, they
often travelled at night, hiding in swamps and woods during the day to
avoid being captured. Despite being denied formal education, freedom
seekers were able to develop an elaborate code of communication that
included messages and instructions in spiritual songs and secret
passwords and signals to guide over 30,000 people to safety in Canada.
Once safely established in Canada, many people risked their lives to return to the United States and help their fellow brothers and sisters reach freedom in Canada. One such individual was Harriet Tubman. Born in 1820, Tubman escaped slavery as a young woman and moved to St. Catharines, Ontario in 1851. As a guide on the Underground Railroad, she traveled back to the United States 19 times, risking her own freedom to aid others in their escape to Canada.
Some of the most poignant stops on the Ontario Underground Railroad are historic sites in Chatham-Kent. Considered the destination for freedom seekers, this region was home to some of the most successful black settlements and the greatest populace of former slaves in Canada.
Buxton National Historic Site & Museum
One of the last stops on the Underground Railroad, the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum that preserves the successful Buxton settlement features original structures built by slaves.
At Ontario’s second largest national historic site, visitors can tour the last standing schoolhouse built by slaves, an 1852 log cabin, two churches, a cemetery and museum.
It was established as a community for and by former African-American slaves who escaped to Canada to gain freedom. Rev. William King, a Scots-Irish/American Presbyterian minister and abolitionist, had organized the Elgin Association to buy 9,000 acres of land for resettlement of the refugees, to give them a start in Canada. Within a few years, numerous families were living here, having cleared land, built houses, and developed crops. They established schools and churches, and were thriving before the American Civil War. Buxton now has a population of over 400 people.
There was great interest in the settlement among Americans. Buxton was visited by a reporter from the New York Herald Tribune in 1857, and by the head of the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission in the summer of 1863, established after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed many slaves in the American South during the Civil War. These reports praised the achievements of the people of Buxton and other African Americans in Canada.
The community is within the Chatham-Kent municipality and today has a population of approximately 200, almost exclusively Black Canadians.
North Buxton's historic population peaked at more than 2000, almost
exclusively descendants of freed and fugitive slaves who had escaped the
United States via the Underground Railroad. Great Britain abolished slavery in its colonies in 1838 and it had never been widespread in Canada. The related community is South Buxton.
By the middle of the 19th century, the Underground Railroad had been developed by abolitionists and Quaker sympathizers to facilitate the escape of enslaved Blacks from the southern United States to Canada.
The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. It was a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originated in the southern United States, wound its way to the less restricted North and eventually stretched to Canada.
One of its most intriguing features was its lack of formal organization. The system largely succeeded because of the cooperation and trust among various religious and ethnic groups who moved freedom seekers towards Canada through a highly secretive network.
Once safely established in Canada, many people risked their lives to return to the United States and help their fellow brothers and sisters reach freedom in Canada. One such individual was Harriet Tubman. Born in 1820, Tubman escaped slavery as a young woman and moved to St. Catharines, Ontario in 1851. As a guide on the Underground Railroad, she traveled back to the United States 19 times, risking her own freedom to aid others in their escape to Canada.
Some of the most poignant stops on the Ontario Underground Railroad are historic sites in Chatham-Kent. Considered the destination for freedom seekers, this region was home to some of the most successful black settlements and the greatest populace of former slaves in Canada.
Buxton National Historic Site & Museum
One of the last stops on the Underground Railroad, the Buxton National Historic Site & Museum that preserves the successful Buxton settlement features original structures built by slaves.
At Ontario’s second largest national historic site, visitors can tour the last standing schoolhouse built by slaves, an 1852 log cabin, two churches, a cemetery and museum.
It was established as a community for and by former African-American slaves who escaped to Canada to gain freedom. Rev. William King, a Scots-Irish/American Presbyterian minister and abolitionist, had organized the Elgin Association to buy 9,000 acres of land for resettlement of the refugees, to give them a start in Canada. Within a few years, numerous families were living here, having cleared land, built houses, and developed crops. They established schools and churches, and were thriving before the American Civil War. Buxton now has a population of over 400 people.
There was great interest in the settlement among Americans. Buxton was visited by a reporter from the New York Herald Tribune in 1857, and by the head of the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission in the summer of 1863, established after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had freed many slaves in the American South during the Civil War. These reports praised the achievements of the people of Buxton and other African Americans in Canada.
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| Chatham is about a 5 hour drive from Hamilton |
