Likewise, the African Canadians who created Emancipation Day commemorations showed tremendous agency in originating these celebrations. They also realized, I believe, that in launching these commemorations they were sinking into the collective psyche and memory the significance of Black struggle and freedom. Emancipation Day was a vehicle used by the Black community to express their collective identity as New World Africans, a ritual in which they articulated their personhood, and further as a site in which they locate their struggle against racism. Emancipation Day celebrations began in 1834 and are still commemorated today. That is a phenomenal accomplishment. The Emancipation of Black people in Euro-American societies during the nineteenth century sits at the centre of Western discourse on freedom, human rights, and citizenship. Black Canadians have contributed greatly to this discourse and its praxis through memorials of Emancipation Day. The August First events have even given birth in 1967 in Toronto to the Caribana Festival and street parade which also takes place on August First weekend. Caribana today attracts a crowd of over one million and is the largest street festival in all of North America. It is instructive to add that Caribana brings annually upwards of five hundred million dollars to the City of Toronto.
Despite its integral place in Canadian history, the August First history has not yet been told in its fullest. That is about to change.
Educator and historian Natasha Henry has written what will become, for the foreseeable future, the definitive book on the Emancipation Day history in Canada. She cogently explores the origins and evolution of the commemoration in the older Canadian provinces (Ontario, Nova Scotia, Quebec, New Brunswick), how the celebrations were articulated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the spread of the Emancipation Day initiatives to the rest of the country, in particular to British Columbia.
Henry reveals how the communities used the cultural arts as an integral part of Emancipation Day memorialization and sheds light on the Canadian Black community’s outreach efforts to the international Black community, their links with the White communities (mainly in Canada itself and the United States), the crucial role of the Black churches, inter-gender initiatives, and the role of women in August First events.
Henry’s research shows that the Emancipation Day celebration creators were astute, politically savvy, and committed to the advancement of Black community life. In her insightful analysis Henry also underscores the fact that while Black Canadians were grateful to the British Crown they were still mindful of the fact that Black people as a whole had not yet achieved full citizenship in either the British West Indies or Canada. Moreover, the creators of the celebrations often used the events to illuminate these issues of Black freedom and to further articulate solutions. Put another way, Emancipation Day events in Canada were a space in which culture, politics, religion, and history intersected and intertwined.
Henry has conducted in-depth research in several archives, libraries, and museums across Canada in order to write this outstanding book. She has brought to light what for us in the twenty-first century is a little-known story, but which for the years following 1834 was a major event in the Black and Canadian community. We learn, for example, that famed boxer Jack Johnson participated in Emancipation Day Celebrations in Windsor in 1909, and we also learn that music superstar Diana Ross cut her teeth in the music business at August First celebrations in Canada. Further, we discover that the Chatham Black community used the commemoration in 1895 to alert and inform both observers and participants about their struggle against segregated schooling and their fight for their children to get an education. In addition, we gain knowledge of the fact that by 1931, over twenty thousand people attended the commemoration which was dubbed “The Greatest Freedom Show on Earth,” and that the 1948 events in Windsor attracted a massive crowd of 275,000! By this date, Windsor had begun hosting the largest commemorations in North America.
Through her efforts, Henry has made a vast contribution to the history of Black Canadians, the abolitionist movement, festivals in Canada, African-Canadian traditions, Caribbean history, African-American history, and that of the African Diaspora. By filling the gaps in these narratives, Natasha has restored to all of us our shared and collective history. For this, we owe her a debt of gratitude.
Afua Cooper
Spring 2010
Afua Cooper, Ph.D., is the leading historian of the African Diaspora in Canada. She has researched widely in the field and has published groundbreaking and award winning books, including The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Slavery in Canada and the Burning of Old Montréal and We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women’s History. Afua recently held the Ruth Wynn Woodward Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. She is also the recipient of the Harry Jerome Award for Professional Excellence.
I am grateful to Denise Stern for her research assistance and to Raulandre Thompson and Breanna Henry for their help. I would like to express sincere gratitude to the people and organizations that assisted me with this project:
Ann Marie Langlois, Archives of Ontario, archivist at Osgoode Hall Library; Afua Cooper, Adrienne Shadd, and Karolyn Smardz Frost; the Chatham-Kent Museum; Anne Jarvis, historical interpreter of Griffin House/Fieldcote Museum and Memorial Park; the St. Catharines Museum; the Norval Johnson Library Collection at the St. Catharines Central Library; Karen Foster, archivist, Grey Roots Archives and Museum, Owen Sound; Chatham-Kent Historical Society; Buxton Museum; Dr. Delta McNeish, Beth Emanuel BME Church; University of Western Ontario; London Public Library; British Columbia Archives; Gary Shutlak, Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management; Margaret Houghton, archivist, Hamilton Public Library; Toronto Public Library; Janie Cooper-Wilson, executive director of the Silvershoe Historical Society; Nancy Mallett, archivist, The Cathedral Church of St. James; the Marsh Collection Society; John Hennigar-Shuh, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic; David States, Parks Canada Atlantic Service Centre; the Oakville Historical Society; the Oakville Museum at the Erchless Estate; the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton; the Elmira Public Library; the Doon Heritage Crossroads; the York University Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections; Lezlie Wells of Niagara Bound Tours; and O’Neil and Marlon McLean of Kaimera Design.
Special thanks also goes to Kenn Stanton, curator of North American Black Historical Museum; Dr. Henry Bishop, executive director of the Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia; Justice Beth Allen, Justice Romain Pitt, and Justice George Strathy, all of the Superior Court of Justice; Marcus Snowden; Dennis and Lisa Scott of Owen Sound; Melinda Mollineaux; and the many others I contacted for providing invaluable information, photos, and other resources and for providing research leads and suggestions. A special thank you goes to Hilary Dawson, historical researcher of Toronto, Ontario, for the background on Joshua Glover.
I would like to thank Barry Penhale and Jane Gibson of Natural Heritage Books for approaching me with this project, for their confidence in my abilities, and for providing encouraging editorial support. Thanks also to my copy editor, Jennifer McKnight, for her thorough work and helpful feedback.
The support, patience, time, understanding, and encouragement of my family and close friends helped me through this project. Thank you to Rawle Thompson, my sisters Simone and Nicole, my brothers Desroy and Gary, my nephews and nieces, and other extended family members. Finally, I would like to extend a heartfelt appreciation to my mother Nancy Whynter, my daughter Jamaya Dixon, and my life partner Fitzroy Dixon.
Background on an African-Canadian Celebration