The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!

Nanette Morton teaches English at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Produced by three well-known scholars of African-Canadian history, this
book is a readable and well-researched account of the 19th-century
African-Canadian community in Toronto. Copiously illustrated with maps,
photos, drawings, and news clippings from the time period, the book
fills a long-neglected gap in Ontario’s history.

The authors use the census, business directories, and tax assessment
rolls to document the lives of people who have all but disappeared from
most accounts of the city. In doing so, they have recovered dramatic
accounts, such as the Wanzers’ and the Grisbys’ escape from slavery.
Originally from Virginia, the two couples fled a pursuing posse and made
their way to Toronto. Just as interesting, and more elusive, is evidence
of what these and other escapees did once they reached the city. The
book also contains a well-rounded account of African-Canadian
educational, social, and political life in mid-19th-century Toronto.
While many who escaped slavery to live in Toronto were impoverished,
others prospered: Wilson Ruffin Abbot, who arrived in 1835, had
real-estate holdings as far north as Owen Sound, and his son Anderson
became a distinguished surgeon in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil
War.

The fact that this book is one of the first to deal exclusively with
the subject indicates how much work has yet to be done in
African-Canadian history. The authors are to be commended.