Mary Ann Shadd's Dreams For Freedom In Canada From 1890 To 1914

Between 1890 to 1914, Canada was considered as a safe haven for Black settlers and refugees, and before that, for fugitive slaves. Series of events led to Canada’s dreams for freedom this and many people helped turned this dream into a reality. However, people immigrating to Canada did not avoid the racial discrimination by colonists and the limit of rights that came along with it.

In the early 1800s, people of colour were enslaved and were thought of as merely objects by their slave owners. They were denied many rights that colonists had at the time, such as voting and doing anything without their slave owners’ permission. In 1834 the fight to stop slavery had come into effect, starting the revolution that freed hundreds of thousands of

When the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 gave slave-owners the right to track and arrest fugitive slaves in the United States, people came to Canada to escape the risk of being captured and sold by bounty hunters. African Americans wanted to come to Canada with the hopes of fleeing from discrimination and hoped for a better life with freedom in Canada. A series of pamphlets and articles also convinced African Americans to come to Canada. An example of a person that created these articles was Mary Ann Shadd. She broke barriers on Black females as she was the first woman to become a publisher in North America and the first person of colour to become a publisher in Canada. After using the Underground Railway to escape to Canada, she established the Provincial Freeman newspaper. The Provincial Freeman was devoted to the abolition of slavery, persuaded black slaves to come to Canada, and it explored general literature. It was the second abolitionist newspaper in Canada that freely spoke about the Underground Railway. The Provincial Freeman was published and edited by African Canadians in Canada West, and was published weekly in Windsor, Toronto, and Chatham and ran from

However, that wasn’t the case; they were free, but even in Canada, they experienced discrimination and were not given the same rights. Some colonists feared Black settlers, calling them ignorant, immoral, criminal, and a threat to their economy. African Canadians were used as sources of cheap labour, meaning they were paid lower wages by industrialists and worked longer hours, and their children were required to attend segregated schools for Black children, instead of attending with others. Before the second world war, they could not contribute to politics, education, or any form of public services and had very little economic power. Government officials spread information that prevented black immigrants to come to Canada in 1905 to 1911 when Black farmers came to Upper Canada from the United States. They were denied the rights to participate in recreational activities, such as theatres and swimming pools, and to join clubs and sports leagues. A way how the Black community responded to this is they created an all-Black hockey league, called the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes, that gave Black hockey players a chance to be in a league and play the