What was the Underground Railroad in Canada?

The Underground Railroad was a clandestine network of routes and safe houses that helped about 30,000 to 40,000 enslaved African Americans escape from slavery in the United States to freedom in British North America between the 1830s and 1865. The Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad; the name came from railroad terminology (stations, conductors, passengers, lines) that operatives adopted as code. Enslaved freedom seekers travelled by foot, horse, wagon, boat, and sometimes real trains, hidden by abolitionists from Quaker, Methodist, and Black communities in the northern United States, then crossed into Canada at points along the Detroit River, Lake Erie, the Niagara River, and the St. Lawrence River.

Slavery had been abolished in British North America by the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 (in force August 1, 1834), making Canada a destination for freedom seekers. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act in the United States dramatically increased traffic on the Underground Railroad by requiring federal officials and citizens in free northern states to help capture and return escaped slaves. Faced with bounty hunters even in free states, many freedom seekers concluded that only Canada offered safety. The Canadian government refused American extradition requests for escaped slaves under the Anderson Act of 1860 and other rulings.

Major Underground Railroad terminuses in Canada included Amherstburg, Sandwich, Windsor, and the Buxton Settlement in Canada West (Ontario), as well as Niagara Falls (the famous Suspension Bridge crossing), St. Catharines (where Harriet Tubman lived from 1851 to 1858 and led many rescues), Chatham, Dresden (Josiah Henson, a model for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom, settled here in 1841), Owen Sound, and Hamilton. The Buxton Settlement (Elgin Settlement) was founded by Reverend William King in 1849 and grew to a community of about 1,000 free Black settlers by 1860.

Underground Railroad conductors included American abolitionists like Harriet Tubman (who made about 13 trips to the South and led about 70 freedom seekers to safety), Levi Coffin, and William Still. Canadian Black abolitionists included Mary Ann Shadd, the Black newspaper editor and lawyer; Henry Bibb, the editor of the Voice of the Fugitive newspaper; and the African Methodist Episcopal Church communities in Canada West. The American Civil War (1861 to 1865) and the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (ratified December 6, 1865) ended slavery and with it the Underground Railroad. Many Black Canadians returned to the United States after Emancipation; about half of the 40,000 immigrants to Canada West remained, forming the foundation of Black Canadian communities in southwestern Ontario.