acceptable. These were also the types of jobs that would allow Harriet to have the flexibility to begin and quit as she wished, making it easy to leave her job and carry out other rescue missions in the south. Harriet never asked for anything for herself, but if her wages did not supply her with enough money for the care of the many fugitives or self-emancipated people she had living with her, she might have turned to others for assistance.
Black men, and others, found work on the Welland Canal. The Canal itself helped industries develop that needed labourers — grist mills, flour mills, salt springs, foundries, machine shops, saw mills, woollen factories, distilleries, newspapers, ship yards, and dry docks — and blacks were called in to patrol the Welland Canal to keep the peace between Catholic and Protestant workers of Irish ancestry. The Canal provided cheap and plentiful power for the mills and manufacturing that developed. The security role for blacks was an extension of their military service in the Colored Corps, and continued until the Canal was almost complete and did not need so many workers. The Colored Corps had a role in customs and excise problems as they worked to end smuggling from the United States, and they would later work on road construction.
St. Catharines had the “look of prosperity and business capabilities, far in advance of its size and appearance.” It was a booming industrial town that needed and welcomed workers. Most of the American- or Canadian-born blacks who appeared in the Canada census by 1861 were self-supporting through working in St. Catharines as labourers, although some were skilled tradespeople such as masons, coopers, barbers, hairdressers, shoemakers, bartenders, boat drivers, or carpenters. Some men or women lived in the homes of wealthier whites and worked as servants, such as cooks, housekeepers, or care givers. Others were self-sufficient through farming. One visitor to the area noted:
Scattered around, and within five miles, are large numbers of [black] farmers, many of whom have become wealthy since escaping into Canada. Going into the market on Saturday morning, I counted 37 colored persons selling their commodities, consisting of ducks, chickens, eggs, butter, cheese, hams, bacon, vegetables and fruits of all kind.
For many, St. Catharines’s prosperity made it a likely place to settle in for good, but others moved on to cities serviced by the Canal, Toronto, smaller towns, and, by the end of the Civil War, back to the United States to try to reconnect with family. Blacks tended to live close to each other because they faced similar economic and social barriers, and their homes tended to be on the outskirts of the city on land that was not as desirable at the time. Because they lived close together, churches and schools grew to meet their needs as a community. African Canadians were sometimes settled together, as with the military, or they were attracted to areas where there was tolerance for their presence or because of reasonable rates. The St. Catharines black community lived primarily in the area bounded by North, Geneva, Welland, and Williams Streets. St. Catharines blacks were within this area because Oliver Phelphs and William Hamilton Merritt owned a large tract of land bordering on North Street. In 1835, African Canadians were encouraged to buy land there because they could obtain favourable terms to purchase the land, including long leases. It seems that in some cases payments were not made by the black residents if they were unable to manage the expense and that interest was not charged. Merritt also donated a lot of land for the building of a church and meeting hall for the black community along the North Street area.
William Hamilton Merritt was the child of former American residents who had fought on the side of the British during the American War of Independence. Not able to remain in the newly independent country, the Merritts initially moved to New Brunswick and then settled in the area now known as St. Catharines. William became a successful businessman and politician, and he was the visionary of the Welland Canal and the Niagara Suspension Bridge. Additionally, as his abolitionist views supported the growing numbers of enslaved African Americans entering St. Catharines as free people, understanding the oppression they had experienced in slavery.
The Hon. Mr. Merritt spoke in terms of condemnation of the institution, and favorably of the conduct of the refugee slaves in this part of Canada, and recommended that something practical be done in their favor.
— St. Catharines Standard, April 1852
Merritt’s provision of land to what is now the Salem Chapel British Methodist Episcopal Church may have cost about 1 dollar (5 shillings at the time). Merritt also worked to establish the Fugitive Slave Friends Society to proactively seek clothing, books, and funds to support the expanding community of new free black people.
Oliver Phelps was from Connecticut where he had worked as a contractor. He immigrated to St. Catharines and experienced great wealth through his business acumen — investing and profiting from investment in trade industries. He is responsible for naming both Geneva and Court Streets in the area of town where he, along with William Hamilton Merritt, owned most of the land.
St. Catharines was a beautiful centre with a mild climate that produced plenty of food and work through the many orchards and gardens. The Welland Canal and the abundant water power of the region made navigation central to the economy and helped in the development of goods and services. St. Catharines was close to other centres and is noted as having a good public spirit. The St. Catharines black community was viewed in a positive light. According to Mary Ann Shadd, the first black woman publisher/newspaper person in North America:
During my stay at St. Catharines I had frequent opportunities of examining the general improvements of the place and was in no way more gratified than when viewing the snug homesteads of the colored people. Messrs. Maddern, Young, Lindsay and others are adding largely by their enterprise to the beauty of the place. Their success is a standing refutation to the falsehood that begging is needed for the fugitives of St. Catharines.
Another writer, William Wells Brown, describes the “coloured settlement” as follows:
The colored settlement is a hamlet, situated on the outskirts of the village, and contains about 100 houses, 40 of which lie on North Street, the Broadway of the place. The houses are chiefly cottages, with from 3 to 6 rooms, and on lots of land nearly a quarter of an acre each. Most of the dwellings are wood-colored, only a few of them having been painted or whitewashed. Each family has a good garden, well-filled with vegetables, ducks, chickens, and a pig-pen, with at least one fat grunter getting ready for Christmas. The houses with the lots upon which they stand, are worth upon average $500 each. Some of them have devoted a small part of the garden to the growth of the tobacco plant, which seems to do well. Entering North Street at the lower end, I was struck with surprise at the great number of children in the street.… The houses in the settlement are all owned by their occupants, and from inquiry I learned that the people generally were free from debt. Out of the eight hundred in St. Catharines, about seven hundred of them are fugitive slaves. I met one old lady who escaped at the advanced age of eighty-five years — she is now one hundred and four. Among them I found seventeen carpenters, four blacksmiths, six coopers, and five shoemakers. Two omnibuses and two hacks are driven by colored men. Not long since, a slave run away from Virginia, came here, and settled down; a few months after, his master “broke down,” cheated his creditors, escaped to Canada, came and settled by the side of his former chattel. Their families borrow and lend now, upon terms of perfect equality.
As St. Catharines was becoming more noted as a terminus on the Underground Railroad, the Secretary of State for Canada, Henry Clay, stated in 1828 that he viewed “the escape of slaves as a growing evil which menaces the peaceful relations between the United States and Canada.” He hoped to see an extradition treaty to return runaways to their owners — this even after black people had been invited to join the side of the British and be granted their freedom for their loyalty. However, just as there were anti-slavery sympathizers among the residents of St. Catharines, there were also residents and visitors alike who felt the correct position for an African was in service at the least or in bondage at the most.
While black Canadians helped in the building of at least one of the resort spas — the Welland House, renowned for its bathhouse with healthful
