Boulou de bBeri - The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kents Settlements and Beyond

Eschewing the often romanticized Underground Railroad narrative that portrays southern Ontario as the welcoming destination of Blacks fleeing from slavery, The Promised Land reveals the Chatham-Kent area as a crucial settlement site for an early Black presence in Canada. The contributors present the everyday lives and professional activities of individuals and families in these communities and highlight early cross-border activism to end slavery in the United States and to promote civil rights in the United States and Canada. Essays also reflect on the frequent intermingling of local Black, White, and First Nations people. Using a cultural studies framework for their collective investigations, the authors trace physical and intellectual trajectories of Blackness that have radiated from southern Ontario to other parts of Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. The result is a collection that represents the presence and diffusion of Blackness and inventively challenges the grand narrative of history.

(African and Diasporic Cultural Studies)

BOULOU EBANDA DE BBRI is a professor of Communication and Cultural Studies and the founding director of the Audiovisual Media Lab for the study of Cultures and Societies at the University of Ottawa.

NINA REID-MARONEY is an associate professor in the Department of History at Huron University College, Western University.

HANDEL KASHOPE WRIGHT is a professor of Education and founding director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education at the University of British Columbia.

University of Toronto Press 2014
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in the U.S.A.

ISBN 978-1-4426-4717-6 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-4426-1533-5 (paper)

Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks.

African & Diasporic Cultural Studies

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

The promised land: history and historiography of the Black experience in Chatham-Kents settlements and beyond / edited by Boulou Ebanda de Bbri, Nina Reid-Maroney, and Handel Kashope Wright.
(African & diasporic cultural studies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4717-6 (bound). ISBN 978-1-4426-1533-5 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-4426-6746-4 (ePUB)

1. Black Canadians Ontario Chatham-Kent History 19th century. 2. Blacks Ontario Chatham-Kent History 19th century. I. Reid-Maroney, Nina Ruth, 1961, editor of compilation II. Wright, Handel Kashope, 1959, editor of compilation III. Ebanda de Bbri, Boulou, editor of compilation IV. Series: African and diasporic studies

FC3099.C45Z7 2014 971.3'3300496 C2014-900417-6

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.

The University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the University of Ottawas Faculty of Arts as well as the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through its Community-University Research Alliances program.