all hoping for a better, freer life through prospecting opportunities in the Fraser River Gold Rush. A few hundred African Americans emigrated from California, wishing to remove themselves from the Jim Crow laws4 that denied them basic rights, increased legislated segregation, and protected the rights of slaveholders. They settled primarily in Victoria on Vancouver Island and on Salt Spring Island.
In the late 1800s and continuing through to the turn of the twentieth century, many of these rural and urban centres in Canada were sites of entrenched racial discrimination and persistent racial protest. The town of Dresden, Ontario, was well-known for practices similar to Jim Crow laws in the southern United States. African Canadians were barred from restaurants and theatres in Saint John in 1915, and, in Owen Sound, Blacks were discouraged from seeking political office. In Toronto in 1929, visiting Blacks were turned away from local hotels. During Canada’s own civil-rights movement, African Canadians confronted racism at all levels. Once “described as a stronghold of racial discrimination,”5 Dresden became a testing ground for new human rights legislation beginning in 19546 and segregated schooling was dismantled in Chatham, St. Catharines, and Halifax.
When new waves of immigrants of African origin, including West-Indian students in the 1920s and West-Indian women on the Domestic Scheme of 1955,7 they would choose cities such as London, Hamilton, Montreal, and Toronto as their homes. These settlers brought with them the influences of carnival which inspired the establishment of Caribana in Toronto. Therefore, it is not surprising that early August celebrations quickly took root in these particular communities, beginning in 1834, and grew to include numerous activities and events. Emancipation Day observances were established and continued by generations of African-Canadian descendants and recent Black immigrants throughout various time periods in Canadian history.
Abundant primary sources such as newspaper articles, personal journals, and diaries, event literature, interviews, stories, anecdotes, correspondence, and photographs accumulated over the years provide detailed, vivid accounts of Emancipation Day observances throughout its 175 years of commemoration in Canada. Emancipation Day: Celebrating Freedom in Canada is the first extensively researched book on Emancipation Day commemorations in Canada. It provides descriptive historical accounts and comprehensive background into the establishment of this significant cultural event through an examination and analysis of the political, social, cultural, and educational characteristics of this international annual observance.
Locations of Emancipation Day Celebrations in Canada
Interpreting Emancipation Day Celebrations
Exploring the Meaning of Emancipation Day
Let me be a free man — free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I chose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk act for myself.
— Highn’moot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph) of the Nez Perces, “An Indian’s View of Indian Affairs,” 1879.
With Emancipation Day celebrations in Canada attracting hundreds and thousands of people annually, extensive preparations were required to ensure a smooth-running event. Planning began months in advance. Commemorative events were very large in scale and drew a huge number of people from all facets of society. Attendees were of all ages and from different social groups, many of whom travelled long distances to attend.
Guests of various Emancipation Day events came from across the provinces, including Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and British Columbia. During the nineteenth century, participants from surrounding locales travelled by horse and carriage, ferry, steamboat, train, and later by car, alternating visits to different Emancipation Day celebrations to show support. More visitors came from neighbouring American cities such as Detroit, Michigan, Cincinnati, Ohio, and cities in New York State such as Buffalo, Utica, and Rochester, and generally from across North America, from as far as Louisville, Kentucky, and Chicago, Illinois, as well as the states of Georgia and Alabama. All travelled primarily by steamboat or train. Those from America used this time as an opportunity to visit with family who lived in the host town and other nearby areas while showing solidarity with their brothers and sisters in the north. Generally, the numbers of attendees were quite large, often greater than the total number of the Black population in the host town. While the majority of the attendees were Blacks, celebrations were also supported by a considerable number of Whites.
Local mainstream and Black newspapers provided elaborate coverage of Emancipation Day celebrations from their inception throughout the early twentieth century. The reporters would give in-depth descriptions of the social events, quote the speeches delivered by Black and White luminaries, and highlight how well the gatherers conducted themselves. Advertisements for Emancipation Day events were posted in regional newspapers and letters to editors and commentary from the general public relating to Emancipation Day were published. The African-Canadian press often used the occasion of Emancipation Day to discuss the challenges faced by its community and to bolster support and strength to tackle these issues.
Although Emancipation Day events were celebratory in nature with many social functions, several serious themes were consistently part of the event. First and foremost was the theme of liberation for enslaved Africans in British colonies in the West Indies and North America, including Canada, and the ongoing fight for freedom for those who remained in bondage in the United States and other parts of the Caribbean. Another issue was the change in the status that had been forced upon Blacks for hundreds of years. With the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, people of African descent in British territories were no longer chattel property, but were now officially recognized as persons entitled to the same rights and privileges as White European citizens. A third theme was appreciation and gratitude for Canada’s assistance to Black refugees and other Black colonists. Allegiance was pledged to Britain for the civil rights and privileges bestowed upon Blacks. Remembrance was also a strong theme — not forgetting the past experiences of those who were enslaved and carrying the torch to continue the struggle for equality. An equally important element of emancipation Day observances was the importance of charting a course for the future of Canada’s Black citizens.
The invention of this African-Canadian tradition occurred at the same time that the creation of the Dominion of Canada was in the making. Black men and women were seeking to forge a new individual and collective identity and create a unique sense of heritage within early Canada’s British-influenced society. This vision of a new identity and heritage meshed African, British, Caribbean, and American elements together with their new citizenship. Throughout the years, Emancipation Day celebrations were used to make statements about the African-Canadian collective identity to the Blacks themselves, to the province, and to the nation. In the mid-1800s, issues of equal rights and discrimination quickly surfaced for some of British North America’s Black settlers, causing Emancipation Day traditions to become not
