spring waters, and worked as waiters — they were denied service because they were black. Neighbouring towns also excluded them from renting hotel rooms. In one case, a black minister and his wife travelling through Drummondville and Niagara Falls from Brantford, on their way to Buffalo, were refused accommodation during a snowstorm in January 1852. Wealthy (white) American tourists or political refugees from the States, who had little difficulty finding accommodation, would come in and pay $2 to $3 dollars a day and often reside at the spas for the season from April to October. In 1854, blacks were outraged that the public buses of the St. Catharines House and the American Hotel would not carry them. Two black ministers of the AME Church were among those denied transportation. At a meeting called at the BME Church at Geneva and North on August 4, a plan of action was developed by the ministers, some waiters of the hotels owning the buses, and other residents. The head waiter of the American Hotel threatened to quit his job in protest, followed by support from a St. Catharines House waiter, who stated that “insults and outrages heaped on others, on account of prejudice (are the same as if) … committed against himself.” It was decided at that community meeting:
Resolved, That in this glorious land of Freedom, and under this equitable and powerful Government, man is man, without respect to the colour of his skin, and that we, as men, will not submit to degrading terms of service, nor see our brethren treated with indignity by public conveyances, or excluded therefrom, without showing a manly spirit of resentment. Resolved, That, as waiters, at the public hotels, of St. Catharines, we will not continue in the service of our present employers, unless, in the management of their conveyances, they henceforth treat ourselves and our people with the respect and civility, to which we are entitled, as men. With this expression of affirmation and solidarity and with the support of influential members of the community also threatening to boycott these establishments, the hotels changed their policies.
The building of the Welland House provided jobs for black people in the 1800s. The Welland House and the other spa hotels connected to natural hot water springs or therapeutic waters — such as The Springbank or the Stephenson House — developed around the local salt springs which were thought to have healing powers. Affluent people from around the world were attracted by these springs, especially the United States, and they flocked to St. Catharines for rest and relaxation. Guests of the spas included Mary Todd Lincoln (the widow of Abraham Lincoln), the aunt of Robert E. Lee, various spies, and tourists from the American South who travelled with their enslaved black staff. Because the white guests from the south expected the black people in St. Catharines should be subservient but they were not, the guests forced the hotel owners to exclude black people from equal access to the hotels, giving rise to racial conflict. Today the spas are closed and only the structure of the Welland House remains.
Anthony Burns became a resident of St. Catharines after an arduous course of events and likely was convinced that Canada was indeed the Promised Land.
Born a slave in Virginia on May 31, 1834, Burns was owned by Colonel Charles Suttle. Suttle hired him out to work for others, and Burns was able to escape — finally ending up in Boston. On May 24, 1854, he was arrested in Boston under the terms of the Fugitive Slave Act. Following a town meeting in support of Burns, there was a riot in which several people were injured and one was killed. Burns was put on trial on June 2, and it was ruled that he had to be sent back to Colonel Suttle. Because of the anger of the citizens of Boston, Burns was escorted out of the city by twenty-two state militia to prevent any crowd violence. Over 50,000 people lined the street to protest the decision and witness his transfer back to Suttle.
Burns was returned to Virginia where he was severely beaten and confined to a cage for months by Suttle. He was later sold to a plantation in North Carolina. Finally members of the Boston church he had attended purchased him and a matron financed his education at Oberlin College in Ohio as a student of religious studies. By 1860, Burns had moved to St. Catharines, serving as the pastor of Zion Baptist Church on Geneva Street. He died on July 27, 1862, at the age of twenty-eight, and was buried at Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catharines. His courage and dedication have been commemorated with a plaque — he was the last enslaved person to be captured in Massachusetts.
After rescue, kidnapped blacks tell their story.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
During her very first winter in St. Catharines, in December 1851, Harriet conducted a group of eleven people on the UGRR that included her brother and his wife.
They earned their bread by chopping wood in the snows of a Canadian forest; they were frost-bitten, hungry and naked. Harriet was their good angel. She kept house for her brother, and the poor creatures boarded with her. She worked for them, begged for them, and carried them by the help of God through the hard winter.
St. Catharines was a significant centre for the reception of black people on the Underground Railroad, with an African-Canadian population of over 1,000 out of a total population of about 7,000. Blacks primarily lived around the Geneva, Niagara, Cherry and Williams Street area, although some lived in the homes where they were employed throughout St. Catharines or in nearby farming areas. From the assessment records of St. Catharines, it was learned that Harriet rented a house for herself and for the reception of refugees on Lot 11, North Street, near the corner of Geneva. It was close to what is believed to be her house of worship, now called the British Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada, Salem Chapel, at 92 Geneva Street, which still serves the needs of the present-day community. She also had a connection to the AME Zion Church.
Financial assistance, in addition to what Harriet earned, came from many sources, including the American Missionary Society and the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, presided over by Dr. Michael Willis of the University of Toronto. Ideological support came through George Brown, an abolitionist and owner of the Toronto newspaper, the Globe and Mail. Anti-slavery support was very high in Toronto and was shared by some local, influential people. Black people settled throughout Canada, especially in Ontario and the Maritime provinces, but within Ontario Harriet preferred St. Catharines. Why did Harriet Tubman prefer St. Catharines to other Canadian cities? Clearly the booming economy of the 1850s made it relatively easy to make a living, but the acts of anti-black racism detracted from this potential prosperity and security. Since Harriet and her charges were fresh from plantation-style experiences she may have found more positive than negative in the St. Catharines community. Its distance from the American border suited her, it was inland enough to not be too attractive to bounty hunters and it meant that her Underground Railroad trips were somewhat brief within Canadian territory.
The industrial growth in the area had ensured that former enslaved Africans would be able to find a means of supporting themselves. But Harriet liked to have a main contact in each town she passed through, someone whom she felt she could trust completely, someone who could provide unconditional support to herself and to her people, and in St. Catharines she found Reverend Hiram Wilson. Born in New Hampshire, Hiram Wilson had settled in Toronto after completing his religious studies. Acting as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, he travelled throughout Ontario and established ten schools. He worked with Josiah Henson to establish the British North America Institute in Dresden. However, he was saddened by the loss of his wife and the concerns over the financial management of the Dresden scheme. As he was about to return to the United States, the passing of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act made him consider remaining in Canada to assist the large numbers of fugitives entering the country.
I was almost in despair of continuing in Canada & thought seriously of seeking some other field & in fact had packed up my effects at Dawn to facilitate removal before we made our journey to the East in September thinking then of planting ourselves in the West but after the infamous fugitive Bill had passed & became a law I resolved to return & continue in Canada, at this most fearful crisis with the colored people.
He settled in St. Catharines, received financial support from the American
