British Caribbean had been engaged in a long struggle for their freedom. Ever since Britain became a colonizing and slave power in the Caribbean, enslaved Africans have led numerous rebellions and revolts against British slaveholding and colonial rule. Historian Michael Craton has noted that British rule in the Caribbean can be seen as a protracted 250-year war between the colonizing slaveholders and the enslaved Africans.4 In Jamaica, for example, in 1831 a slave revolt convulsed the island. In December of that year the “Baptist War” as it was called (because so many of the leaders were Baptist deacons) was started by the enslaved masses in their desire to throw off slavery and its attendant dehumanization.
The British Army and government responded ferociously. They hanged at least four hundred freedom fighters and put the country under martial law. Alarmed by the desire and intention of enslaved Blacks to free themselves, less than two years later, the British proclaimed West Indian Emancipation. The point is that enslaved Africans themselves had agency and exercised that agency in their quest to be the architects of their own lives and freedom. But in a Eurocentric interpretation of the Emancipation Act, it is the British government that has received the full credit for “giving freedom to the Blacks.” While I am not discounting the significant work done by the British Anti-slavery Movement and of such stalwarts like Granville Sharpe, I must point out that when the British passed the Emancipation Act they were well aware that the Caribbean enslaved masses had begun the struggle for their own freedom long before the British Anti-slavery Movement came into being, and that some of these enslaved people, like the Haitians, had already seized their freedom.
Likewise, the African Canadians who created Emancipation Day commemorations showed tremendous agency in originating these celebrations. They also realized, I believe, that in launching these commemorations they were sinking into the collective psyche and memory the significance of Black struggle and freedom. Emancipation Day was a vehicle used by the Black community to express their collective identity as New World Africans, a ritual in which they articulated their personhood, and further as a site in which they locate their struggle against racism. Emancipation Day celebrations began in 1834 and are still commemorated today. That is a phenomenal accomplishment. The Emancipation of Black people in Euro-American societies during the nineteenth century sits at the centre of Western discourse on freedom, human rights, and citizenship. Black Canadians have contributed greatly to this discourse and its praxis through memorials of Emancipation Day. The August First events have even given birth in 1967 in Toronto to the Caribana Festival and street parade which also takes place on August First weekend. Caribana today attracts a crowd of over one million and is the largest street festival in all of North America. It is instructive to add that Caribana brings annually upwards of five hundred million dollars to the City of Toronto.
Despite its integral place in Canadian history, the August First history has not yet been told in its fullest. That is about to change.
Educator and historian Natasha Henry has written what will become, for the foreseeable future, the definitive book on the Emancipation Day history in Canada. She cogently explores the origins and evolution of the commemoration in the older Canadian provinces (Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec, New Brunswick), how the celebrations were articulated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the spread of the Emancipation Day initiatives to the rest of the country, in particular to British Columbia.
Henry reveals how the communities used the cultural arts as an integral part of Emancipation Day memorialization and sheds light on the Canadian Black community’s outreach efforts to the international Black community, their links with the White communities (mainly in Canada itself and the United States), the crucial role of the Black churches, inter-gender initiatives, and the role of women in August First events.
Henry’s research shows that the Emancipation Day celebration creators were astute, politically savvy, and committed to the advancement of Black community life. In her insightful analysis Henry also underscores the fact that while Black Canadians were grateful to the British Crown they were still mindful of the fact that Black people as a whole had not yet achieved full citizenship in either the British West Indies or Canada. Moreover, the creators of the celebrations often used the events to illuminate these issues of Black freedom and to further articulate solutions. Put another way, Emancipation Day events in Canada were a space in which culture, politics, religion, and history intersected and intertwined.
Henry has conducted in-depth research in several archives, libraries, and museums across Canada in order to write this outstanding book. She has brought to light what for us in the twenty-first century is a little-known story, but which for the years following 1834 was a major event in the Black and Canadian community. We learn, for example, that famed boxer Jack Johnson participated in Emancipation Day Celebrations in Windsor in 1909, and we also learn that music superstar Diana Ross cut her teeth in the music business at August First celebrations in Canada. Further, we discover that the Chatham Black community used the commemoration in 1895 to alert and inform both observers and participants about their struggle against segregated schooling and their fight for their children to get an education. In addition, we gain knowledge of the fact that by 1931, over twenty thousand people attended the commemoration which was dubbed “The Greatest Freedom Show on Earth,” and that the 1948 events in Windsor attracted a massive crowd of 275,000! By this date, Windsor had begun hosting the largest commemorations in North America.
Through her efforts, Henry has made a vast contribution to the history of Black Canadians, the abolitionist movement, festivals in Canada, African-Canadian traditions, Caribbean history, African-American history, and that of the African Diaspora. By filling the gaps in these narratives, Natasha has restored to all of us our shared and collective history. For this, we owe her a debt of gratitude.
Afua Cooper
Spring 2010
Afua Cooper, Ph.D., is the leading historian of the African Diaspora in Canada. She has researched widely in the field and has published groundbreaking and award winning books, including The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Slavery in Canada and the Burning of Old Montréal and We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women’s History. Afua recently held the Ruth Wynn Woodward Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. She is also the recipient of the Harry Jerome Award for Professional Excellence.
I am grateful to Denise Stern for her research assistance and to Raulandre Thompson and Breanna Henry for their help. I would like to express sincere gratitude to the people and organizations that assisted me with this project:
Ann Marie Langlois, Archives of Ontario, archivist at Osgoode Hall Library; Afua Cooper, Adrienne Shadd, and Karolyn Smardz Frost; the Chatham-Kent Museum; Anne Jarvis, historical interpreter of Griffin House/Fieldcote Museum and Memorial Park; the St. Catharines Museum; the Norval Johnson Library Collection at the St. Catharines Central Library; Karen Foster, archivist, Grey Roots Archives and Museum, Owen Sound; Chatham-Kent Historical Society; Buxton Museum; Dr. Delta McNeish, Beth Emanuel BME Church; University of Western Ontario; London Public Library; British Columbia Archives; Gary Shutlak, Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management; Margaret Houghton, archivist, Hamilton Public Library; Toronto Public Library; Janie Cooper-Wilson, executive director of the Silvershoe Historical Society; Nancy Mallett, archivist, The Cathedral Church of St. James; the Marsh Collection Society; John Hennigar-Shuh, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic; David States, Parks Canada Atlantic Service Centre; the Oakville Historical Society; the Oakville Museum at the Erchless Estate; the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton; the Elmira Public Library; the Doon Heritage Crossroads; the York University Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections; Lezlie Wells of Niagara Bound Tours; and O’Neil and Marlon McLean of Kaimera Design.
