November 11 has been recognized as Remembrance Day since 1919. The day was specifically dedicated by the British monarch George V, on 7 November 1919, to the memory of members of the armed forces who were killed during World War I.
Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918, as the major hostilities of World War I were formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.
Although African Canadians and other racialized people were members of Canada's military during the War, there is hardly any mention of their contribution and they are not usually recognized on November 11.
In 1987 Calvin Woodrow Ruck, CM (September 4, 1925–October 19, 2004,) an anti-racism activist and a Canadian senator published The Black Battalion, 1916-1920: Canada’s Best Kept Military Secret. He was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia; his parents were immigrants to Canada from Barbados.
The Black Battalion, 1916-1920: Canada’s Best Kept Military Secret, written by Calvin W. Ruck is available at the Toronto Public Library and at University libraries. Parents, caregivers, teachers and students are encouraged to read this book.
From the onset of World War I African-Canadians began to volunteer to serve their country in the conflict overseas. Many who volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) were turned away at the recruitment offices. In November 25, 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel George W. Fowler, Commanding officer of the 104th Battalion, requested permission to discharge twenty black recruits on the basis of race. He wrote: "I have been fortunate to have secured a very fine class of recruits and I did not think it fair to these men that they should have to mingle with Negroes." This rejection was met with protest in the African-Canadian community.
The Canadian military decided upon a compromise of sorts in which the decision to allow African-Canadian recruits to join was left up to the individual commanding officer. “…most of them were sent to the Western Front. A few Negroes were among these troops, for individual Blacks were permitted to enlist in such local regiments as would accept them ” (as reported by historian Robin Winks). Approximately sixteen black volunteers were accepted into the 106th Battalion Nova Scotia Rifles CEF between December of 1915 and July of 1916. When the Military Service Act was passed on August 29, 1917 volunteers who had previously been turned away were now forced to go to war.
In addition, it was deemed ‘acceptable’ to form an all black battalion lead by white officers that would perform construction duties and other labour rather than armed combat. The first and only black battalion in Canadian history was authorized July 5, 1916. The No. 2 Construction Battalion, CEF, was based out of Pictou, Nova Scotia with recruits from across the country. Many local young men served in this unit as evidenced by the unit role as printed in The Black Battalion, 1916-1920: Canada’s Best Kept Military Secret by Calvin W. Ruck. The Chaplain of the No. 2 Battalion was the only Black commissioned officer in the British Forces in World War I compared to six hundred in the United States. On March 28, 1917 a force of six hundred and five black troops embarked from Pier 2 in Halifax heading to the Western Front. A recruiting station also operated out of the Parker family home in Windsor. Most served in Lajoux, Peronne and Alencon. Following the Armistice of November 11, 1918, the unit returned to Canada, where it was officially disbanded on September 15, 1920. The No. 2 Construction Battalion thus faded away into the dusty annals of Canadian military history. (p21)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
I'VE GOT A HOME IN GLORY LAND
Dr. Karolyn Smardz Frost will be at the Riverdale Library (370 Broadview Avenue) at 2;00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13, 2010 to talk about her book I've Got A Home In Glory Land.
It was the day before Independence Day, July 3, 1831. As his bride, Lucie, was about to be “sold down the river” to the slave markets of New Orleans, young (19 years old) Thornton Blackburn planned a daring—and successful—daylight escape from Louisville, Kentucky. Three years later after living as free people, they were discovered by slave catchers in Michigan and slated to return to Kentucky in chains, until the African Anerican community rallied to their cause.
The Blackburn Riot of 1833 was the first racial uprising in Detroit history. The couple was spirited across the river to Canada, but their safety proved illusory. In June 1833, Michigan’s governor demanded their extradition. The Blackburn case was the first serious legal dispute between Canada and the United States regarding the Underground Railroad. The impassioned defense of the Blackburns by Canada’s lieutenant governor set precedents for all future fugitive-slave cases.
The Blackburns settled in Toronto and founded the city’s first taxi business but they never forgot the millions who still suffered in slavery. Working with prominent abolitionists, Thornton and Lucie made their home a haven for enslaved Africans who escaped slavery. Thornton Blackburn transitioned to join the ancestors in 1890 and his beloved Lucie followed in 1895. The fascinating story of their lives was lost to history until a chance archaeological discovery in a downtown Toronto school yard brought the story of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn again to light Karolyn Smardz Frost.
Karolyn Smardz Frost is a Toronto-born archaeologist and historian whose 1985 excavation of the Thornton and Lucie Blackburn site made history. I’ve Got a Home in Gloryland is the result of more than twenty years of historical detective work into this enslaved African couple’s dramatic escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. She is internationally recognized for her work in multiculturalism and anti-racist education through public archaeology and history. In 1985, Karolyn Smardz Frost founded the Toronto Board of Education’s Archaeological Resource Centre where, over a 10 year period, more than 100,000 schoolchildren and members of the public helped uncover and preserve their own city’s past.
The 1985 pilot project was the excavation of the home of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, fugitive enslaved Africans who have been designated Persons of National Historic Significance in Canada and of state historic significance in Kentucky based on her research. Karolyn Smardz Frost has been a guest lecturer at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne, U.K., a UNESCO lecturer at Robben Island, Cape Town, SA, and between 1995 and 1998 was Manager of Public Programming for the Institute for Minnesota Archaeology.
A former Vice-Chair of the Toronto Historical Board, Karolyn Smardz Frost was for several years Canada’s representative to the World Archaeological Congress. She has been Recording Secretary of the Ontario Historical Society, and a founding member of the education committees of both the Society for American Archaeology and the Society for Historical Archaeology. She is a board member of the Commemorative Committee on the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade; the Tubman Institute for the Global Migrations of African Peoples; and the Promised Land History and Education Project (Chatham, Ontario).
The author of numerous articles, Karolyn Smardz Frost co-edited the first textbook on educational archaeology, The Archaeology Education Handbook: Sharing the Past With Kids (2000). With historians Adrienne Shadd and Afua Cooper, she wrote The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! (2002), and has conducted research for exhibits for Parks Canada and the Ontario Heritage Trust, as well as the documentary, Freedom’s Land for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Karolyn Smardz Frost’s critically acclaimed book, I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: a Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (Farrar, Straus and Giroux of New York & Thomas Allen Books of Toronto 2007) is the first entirely original fugitive slave biography since the 19th century. She is currently engaged in two projects: Voices from a Promised Land? African Americans in Antebellum Canada and Dear Mistress: Letters from a Kentucky Runaway. She was also guest editor of the Spring 2007 edition of Ontario History in honour of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
It was the day before Independence Day, July 3, 1831. As his bride, Lucie, was about to be “sold down the river” to the slave markets of New Orleans, young (19 years old) Thornton Blackburn planned a daring—and successful—daylight escape from Louisville, Kentucky. Three years later after living as free people, they were discovered by slave catchers in Michigan and slated to return to Kentucky in chains, until the African Anerican community rallied to their cause.
The Blackburn Riot of 1833 was the first racial uprising in Detroit history. The couple was spirited across the river to Canada, but their safety proved illusory. In June 1833, Michigan’s governor demanded their extradition. The Blackburn case was the first serious legal dispute between Canada and the United States regarding the Underground Railroad. The impassioned defense of the Blackburns by Canada’s lieutenant governor set precedents for all future fugitive-slave cases.
The Blackburns settled in Toronto and founded the city’s first taxi business but they never forgot the millions who still suffered in slavery. Working with prominent abolitionists, Thornton and Lucie made their home a haven for enslaved Africans who escaped slavery. Thornton Blackburn transitioned to join the ancestors in 1890 and his beloved Lucie followed in 1895. The fascinating story of their lives was lost to history until a chance archaeological discovery in a downtown Toronto school yard brought the story of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn again to light Karolyn Smardz Frost.
Karolyn Smardz Frost is a Toronto-born archaeologist and historian whose 1985 excavation of the Thornton and Lucie Blackburn site made history. I’ve Got a Home in Gloryland is the result of more than twenty years of historical detective work into this enslaved African couple’s dramatic escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. She is internationally recognized for her work in multiculturalism and anti-racist education through public archaeology and history. In 1985, Karolyn Smardz Frost founded the Toronto Board of Education’s Archaeological Resource Centre where, over a 10 year period, more than 100,000 schoolchildren and members of the public helped uncover and preserve their own city’s past.
The 1985 pilot project was the excavation of the home of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, fugitive enslaved Africans who have been designated Persons of National Historic Significance in Canada and of state historic significance in Kentucky based on her research. Karolyn Smardz Frost has been a guest lecturer at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne, U.K., a UNESCO lecturer at Robben Island, Cape Town, SA, and between 1995 and 1998 was Manager of Public Programming for the Institute for Minnesota Archaeology.
A former Vice-Chair of the Toronto Historical Board, Karolyn Smardz Frost was for several years Canada’s representative to the World Archaeological Congress. She has been Recording Secretary of the Ontario Historical Society, and a founding member of the education committees of both the Society for American Archaeology and the Society for Historical Archaeology. She is a board member of the Commemorative Committee on the Bicentennial of the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade; the Tubman Institute for the Global Migrations of African Peoples; and the Promised Land History and Education Project (Chatham, Ontario).
The author of numerous articles, Karolyn Smardz Frost co-edited the first textbook on educational archaeology, The Archaeology Education Handbook: Sharing the Past With Kids (2000). With historians Adrienne Shadd and Afua Cooper, she wrote The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! (2002), and has conducted research for exhibits for Parks Canada and the Ontario Heritage Trust, as well as the documentary, Freedom’s Land for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Karolyn Smardz Frost’s critically acclaimed book, I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: a Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (Farrar, Straus and Giroux of New York & Thomas Allen Books of Toronto 2007) is the first entirely original fugitive slave biography since the 19th century. She is currently engaged in two projects: Voices from a Promised Land? African Americans in Antebellum Canada and Dear Mistress: Letters from a Kentucky Runaway. She was also guest editor of the Spring 2007 edition of Ontario History in honour of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)