William Hall was born in Horton Bluff, Nova Scotia, the son of former American slaves. He began his naval career on an American trading vessel in 1844 when he was only seventeen years old. In 1852 he joined the British Royal Navy and fought in the…
This wooden habitation was built in 1605 near present-day Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, after the settlement at Sainte-Croix Island, New Brunswick, across the Bay of Fundy proved unsuitable. There was no fresh water source on the island. And after…
Black Loyalists came from the United States to Canada after the American Revolution. This pass was a standard form to which the name of the specific Black loyalist was affixed, along with the date. The requirement to enter "He" or "She" at the…
Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893) was a black American who, despite being born free, came to Canada when the U.S. Fugitive Slave Act was implemented in 1850. She was a teacher, abolitionist, and activist. In 1853 she became the first woman in Canada…
Marie Joseph Angelique was a Black slave woman living in Montreal in the early eighteenth century. She was accused of setting fire to her mistress’s house and, in doing so, burning down half of what is now Old Montreal. She was tried in a court of…
The Underground Railroad was the name given to the system of secret routes and stopping points that White and Black abolitionists and fugitive slaves used to get fugitives out of the southern American "slave states" and into the northern "free…
The then British colony of Jamaica had a significant population of escaped American and West Indies slaves, called Maroons, who lived there in freedom. Some had lived in Jamaica for generations. After an unsuccessful revolt against the British…
This illustration shows the way slave ships were packed with slaves during the Atlantic slave trade. The illustration was used as evidence presented to a select committee of the British House of Commons in 1790-1791. However, it took another…
From left to right, these people are Mildred Ware, her son Robert, her daughter Nettie, and her husband John Ware. John Ware was originally from South Carolina where he was born into a slave family. When he grew up he became a successful rancher in…