Black people have lived in Canada since the early colonial period, first arriving as explorers, slaves, and refugees fleeing the United States. Over time, immigration from the Caribbean and Africa greatly increased Canada's Black population. Black Canadians faced racism and pushed for equal rights. They played important roles in government, military, culture, sports and more, overcoming barriers and contributing to Canadian identity and society.

1. Celebrating the
resilience and
contribution of
Canadians of Black
African Descent &
Origin
All Saints by the Lake Anglican Parish
Black History Month
February 2021

2. The journey to Canada
Different roads. Common destination.

3. Different roads.
Common
destination.
• Black people have lived in Canada since the
beginnings of transatlantic settlement.
• A few came as explorers, more came as slaves in the
17th and 18th centuries
• More came as former American slaves fleeing to
Canada between 1783 and 1865
• Since 1865, many others came as free immigrants
from the United States, the West Indies and Africa.

4. Exploration
Mathieu DaCosta
Explorer, Translator, Interpreter, Free
Man
Da Costa, an interpreter of African
descent, is believed to have traveled
throughout the Atlantic World in the late
1500’s and early 1600’s.
Believed to be the first known person of
African descent in the new world, he likely
spoke French, Dutch, Portuguese and
‘pidgin Basque’ (a common trade language
in the era of early contact between First
Nations people and Europeans).
In the early 1600’s, the French and Dutch
competed in court for the right to his
services, and in 1608 Da Costa was
contracted to act as an interpreter for
Sieur de Mons on voyages to Canada and
Acadia.

5. Slavery
• 1628: Olivier Le Jeune, first known slave in
Canada
• 1628-1759: Black slaves brought to ‘New
France’ from British colonies in the West
Indies and later from the USA with white
Loyalists
• Slaves served as domestic servants, farm
hands, and skilled artisans
• The system of gang labour, and its
consequent institutions of brutality and
control did not develop in Canada.
• 1688: Royal permission refused for direct
slave trade from Africa

6. The promise of
freedom and equality
• 1776: Arrival of 3,500 free Black
Loyalists, promised freedom and
equality in Canada by the British in
exchange for their loyalty to the British
crown
• 1796: 600 Jamaican Maroons – runaway
slaves who posed a threat to
neighbouring plantations in Jamaica
• Settlement was chiefly in Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick in segregated
communities on the outskirts of towns.
• Disappointed with unmet promises of
land, free Blacks migrated to Freetown,
Sierra Leone in Africa

7. The Underground Railroad
In 1793 Upper Canada became the first territory in
the British Empire to legislate the gradual
abolition of slavery. That same year US Congress
passed the first Fugitive Slave Law, making a flight
to British territory more attractive.
Known collectively as the ‘Black fugitives’ many
fled to Canada, via the Underground Railroad, an
extensive network of people, places, and modes
of transportation – all working in the deepest
secrecy to help transport slaves to freedom in the
North and Canada.
Harriet Ross Tubman escaped slavery in the US
and returned repeatedly to the South to lead
other slaves to freedom. Tubman was the most
successful ‘conductor’ of the Underground
Railroad, guiding more than 200 men, women and
children, including her aging parents, to freedom
in Canada.

8. Immigration
• 1909: 1,500 African American
farmers migrated from Oklahoma
and settled in Saskatchewan,
Manitoba and Alberta.
• 1960-1995: Substantial increase in
Black population. 300,000
immigrants from the West Indies and
150,000 immigrants from Africa
• This major influx has greatly
outnumbered the original Black
population in every Canadian region
except the Maritimes.
• In the 2016 Census, the Black
population totalled 1,198,540,
encompassing 3.5% of the country's
population.

9. Moving
forward.
• Caribbean and African immigration has had an
immense impact.
• Immigration has brought a very high proportion
of well-educated and professional Black people to
Canada, with an average standard of achievement
higher than Canadian-born Blacks or Whites.

10. Racism
Resistance
Resilience
Pushed to the margins. Breaking barriers.

11. Pushed to
the
margins.

12. Pushed to
the
margins.

13. An example of
resistance:
Breaking barriers
to quality
education
• Missionary societies and provincial governments provided funding, albeit woefully
inadequate, to establish schools for Black children. Combined with residential isolation and
economic deprivation, poor schooling helped to perpetuate a situation of limited
opportunity and restricted mobility.
• Several court cases in Ontario were brought by parents to challenge the exclusion of their
children from the regular schools.
• Although the courts upheld the legality of segregated education, they did insist that every
child must have access to an education and that therefore if no Black school existed, Black
children must be admitted to the regular school.
• Over time, using such tactics as tax strikes and boycotts, parents were able to close the Black
schools and gain admission for their children to nonsegregated state schools.

14. Through their own struggle against
injustice and their insistence upon
equality in the law, Black Canadians
have bequeathed an impressive
structure of constitutional rights from
which all Canadians benefit today.
• Fair Practices and Human Rights
legislation in the 1950s and 1960s
• The Charter of Rights and
Freedoms (1982)
• The Employment Equity Act (1986)
• The Multiculturalism Act (1988)
Establishing
Justice and Equality

15. Responsible Canadians
“Since 1783 … Canadians (of
Black African descent and
origin)… have identified with
Canada and with the Canadian
dream, and although it has
often been exposed as an
illusion, Black people have
never lost their commitment to
that ideal.”
“Their usual tactic of quiet
diplomacy has represented not
satisfaction with the status quo,
but rather a Canadian
commitment to
constitutionalism and, a
recognition that success
depends upon cooperation
rather than confrontation.”
- James W. St. G. Walker
Africana - The Encyclopedia of the
African and African American Experience

16. Impacting life in Canada
Celebrating pioneers. Contributions to government, politics and culture

17. Elijah McCoy (1844 – 1929) developed a lubricator
for steam engines that did not require the train to
stop. His lubricator used steam pressure to pump
oil wherever it was needed. McCoy patented over
50 inventions.
William Hall (1827-1904) was the first
Black person, the first Nova Scotian, and
the second Canadian to receive the
Victoria Cross, the British Empire’s highest
award for bravery.
Mary Ann Shadd (1823-1893) the first
Black woman publisher in Canada and
attorney in North America. To
promote information about the
successes of Black people living in
freedom in Canada, she began the
Provincial Freeman newspaper,
although at first, she had to have a
man stand in for her as the apparent
publisher.
SOME IMPORTANT FIRSTS

18. Military
Service
Blacks demonstrated their loyalty to Great Britain and Canada in every war since the
American Revolution. During World War 1 (1914-1918) their participation was
initially rejected, but in 1916 they were admitted into a segregated unit, the Nova
Scotia No. 2 Construction Battalion (Coloured). There was no separate unit in World
War II (1939-1945), but there remained restrictions on Black participation in the air
force and navy until 1943 and 1944, respectively. Overt discrimination in the
military has been overcome in the general movement for racial equality since the
war.
The story of the No. 2 Construction Battalion is an important aspect of Canadian history and shows the passion, bravery and dedication
of Black Canadians during the First World War. Source of the image and caption : National Association of Federal Retirees

19. Firsts in Government
& Politics
• William Hubbard: councillor, controller, acting mayor of Toronto 1894-
1907
• Leonard Braithwaite: first Black Canadian elected to a provincial
legislature – Ontario – 1963
• Lincoln Alexander: first Black federal member of parliament in 1968 and
lieutenant governor of Ontario in 1985
• Wayne Adams: first Black member of the Nova Scotian cabinet 1993

20. Firsts in Government & Politics
• Michaëlle Jean: first Black woman to be appointed Governor General of Canada 2005
• Jean Augustine: first Black woman to be elected to the federal parliament in 1993
• Rosemary Brown: first Black woman to run for the leadership of a federal party – NDP – first Black
woman to be elected to provincial legislature – British Columbia 1972
• Dominique Anglade: first Black woman to lead a major provincial party – 2020
• Annamie Paul: first Black woman to lead a major federal party - 2020

21. Judiciary
• Robert Sutherland: the first Black man to study law in Canada
• Julius Isaac : first Black Federal Court of Appeal Chief Justice 1991
• Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré: first appointed Black judge in the history
of Quebec.

22. Sports
Donovan Bailey
Olympian,
multiple gold
medalist
Charmaine
Crooks
First Canadian
to run 800m in
less than 2
minutes
Otis Grant
Boxer, Pan-
Am Games
medalist
Glenroy
Gilbert
Olympic gold
medalist
Permanent
Head Coach,
Althletics
Canada
Willie Eldon
O'Ree
First Black
player in the
National
Hockey
League

23. Literature
Olive Senior
Winner of Commonwealth
Writers Prize Malcolm Gladwell
Author. Books on
the New York Best
Seller’s List
Pamela
Mordecai
Poet, novelist,
short story
writer, scholar
and anthologist

24. Canadian Identity
“Although an exciting new Black culture is emerging
as a result of immigration, common experience in
Canada is encouraging a sense of shared destiny
and the traditional Black community in Canada is
being explored in literature and the arts in search
for the sustaining characteristics of this historic
people.”
“While there is no single community identity, or
culture among …Canadians (of Black African descent
and origin)…, it is surely significant that in recent
consensus questionnaires, when Canadians have
been invited to designate their own ethnicity in a
variety of fashions (including continent, region, or
country of origin), the largest number, and a
majority of the younger people, have chosen to
identify as “Black Canadian.”
- James W. St. G. Walker
Africana - The Encyclopedia of the African and
African American Experience

26. Sources
• Africana - The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience : Editors: Kwame
Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1999, Basic Civitas Books Publishers
• VANSDA web site. Mathieu Da Costa. https://vansda.ca/heritage-trail/mathieu-da-costa/ Last
accessed on 26 January 2021
• Black Canadians, Wikipedia. Accessed on 26 January 2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canadians#:~:text=According%20to%20the%202011%20Cen
sus,3.5%25%20of%20the%20country's%20population.
• Images – downloaded from the internet. Sources recorded on the notes pages of each slide,
where applicable.