Ingersoll
Dere’s a place in the sky
I’ll be home, by and by,
Goin’ home, to peace and to joy;
Canaan
land’s in the sky
I’ll be home, by and by,
My ol’ heart cries, cries out in joy!
Far from plantations and cruel slave owners, Black people headed north, “following the drinking gourd” – the north star. Slavery had been abolished in Canada in 1834, so after the enforcement of the 1850 Fugutive Slave Act in America, Blacks headed to north to freedom in multitudes.
Abolitionists helped direct fugitives from the South via the Underground Railroad to places in Canada where employment was available. Ingersoll and area was such a place. An abolitionist, Harvey C. Jackson, knew of the need for workers to cut the timbers to build the Great Western Railroad, as well as the need for men to help build the railroad itself. Harvey Jackson made this known to Underground Railroad workers on the route north. He arranged to meet fugitives that came across Lake Erie to Port Burwell. From here he took them by stage coach for Ingersoll.
Thus, Ingersoll became one of the most northern terminals on the famous Underground Railroad – not a transportation system per se, but a means of bringing Blacks to safety. Railroad terms were used, so there were “conductors” who fed and hid escaping slaves; and there were “stations” and “terminals” where abolitionists hid their “cargo” – the escaping slaves.
The WesleyanMethodistChurch in Ingersoll became one such station, where escaping slaves were smuggled into the attic during the night. From there, they were guided towards employment opportunities: clearing land, cutting timber, working on the railroad construction, building plank roads, in and around this bustling community. Some Blacks even worked in Thomas Brown’s foundry.
From one Black man living in Ingersoll in 1851,
the Black population grew rapidly until the end of the American Civil War when all slaves were freed and many from here returned to their families in the South. By the late 1850's it has been estimated that 400 Blacks lived in and around Ingersoll.
Soon, a BlackChurch was built on the south side of Catherine Street, on the east side of the river. Being close to where most of the blacks lived, this British Methodist Episcopal Church soon became the centre of the Black community.
South Norwich
Knowledge of the 1793 legislation stating that no Blacks were to be brought to Upper Canada to be used as slaves may have helped provide information that there were places farther north where Blacks were living free. Word spread that they should ‘follow the North Star to CanaanLand’. Although both slaves and free Blacks began heading for Canada, in NorwichTownship, mainly Free Blacks began arriving ca. 1829. Assisted by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), they came from northern American States seeking cheap land and a home where they felt safe and were accepted.
Why did free Blacks come from Ohio and other northern states where slavery had been abolished, to the Otterville area? Even though ‘free”, Blacks living in Ohio were being limited in employment options, a curfew was set, they had to be registered and certificates of freedom had to be carried at all times, and new arrivals had to post an expensive bond. By August 1929, riots broke out and many felt it best to leave for a safer place.
By 1840, Otterville had become one of the centres of Black settlement in Upper Canada. The first black landowner, Samuel Jones, built his home on Lot 16, Concession 7 and many others followed suit. By 1842, S.S. #18 was built as a school for Black students. Less than twenty years later, a white framed African Methodist Episcopal Church was constructed. Renamed the British Methodist Episcopal Church, this structure became the centre for church revivals and for the Blacks to build on their sense of community. These people had truly found their CanaanLand.