![]() ![]() In 1849, Reverend William King purchased lands near Chatham, Ontario through the Elgin Association and, with 15 former slaves, founded the Elgin Settlement of Buxton. As a vocational school, it taught a variety of scholastic and practical skills to its students who had access to the community's resources in order to hone their trades. The British American Institute was a key element of the settlement. It contained farm land, a saw mill, gristmill, brick yard, rope manufactory and school. The Dawn Settlement was a rural community where Blacks could pool their labour, resources and skills to help each other and incoming settlers. That same year, Josiah Henson escaped to freedom with his wife and four children.Ī significant Black abolitionist and community leader, Henson was instrumental in founding the Dawn Settlement in 1841 near present-day Dresden, Ontario – and its vocational school, the British American Institute, the following year. The settlement disbanded six years later due to poor financial decisions on the part of its managers. In 1830, near Lucan, Ontario, a sizeable Black community called the Wilberforce Settlement was founded by former residents of Cincinnati escaping the oppressive Black Codes in Ohio. Much of the land in the area, however, was not suited to agriculture, so many who received grants were forced to move elsewhere to find employment. In 1815, Black veterans of the War of 1812 received grants of land in Oro Township from Lieutenant Governor Sir Peregrine Maitland. A separate Black unit called the "Colored Corps" was formed and fought again during the Rebellion of 1837 to defend the government and support the rights of Black people in the province. Here in Ontario, along with Black Loyalists who had arrived in the province following the American Revolution, they established new lives and enduring communities throughout the 19th century, and contributed to the overall defence and development of the province.ĭuring the War of 1812, Black volunteers fought under the British flag to defend their home in Canada and to prevent a return to slavery under an American regime. Others crossed the Great Lakes to freedom and made their homes in Owen Sound and Toronto. Upon arriving in Canada, many newly freed Blacks settled in what is now Ontario in Amherstburg, Chatham, London, Oro, Woolwich and Windsor. ![]()
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