Further Reading

Useful introductions to African history are J.F.A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder, eds., History of West Africa, 2 vols. (London, 1971, 1974) and Philip Curtin et al., African History(Boston, rev. ed., 1995). A representative sampling of current scholarship on the Atlantic slave trade is David Northrop, ed., The Atlantic Slave Trade (Lexington, Ky., 1994). Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge, England, 1983), incorporates both domestic and overseas slavery into the African historical experience.

A good introduction to the themes and debates in contemporary scholarship on American slavery is Lawrence B. Goodheart et al., eds., Slavery in American Society, (Lexington, 3rd ed., 1993). Randall M. Miller and John D. Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery(New York, 1988), has articles on every aspect of the slave experience. Slave life and the evolution of a distinct African-American culture are the subjects of a vast literature. Among the many works that could be recommended are John Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, (New York, rev. ed., 1980); Eugene Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made (New York, 1974); and Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750–1925 (New York, 1976). Larry Gara, The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad (Lexington, 1961), analyses the experience of runaway slaves.

Hilary Beckles and Verene Shepherd have edited a two-volume collection presenting scholarship on the full range of Caribbean history, Caribbean Slave Society and Economy (Kingston, Jamaica, 1991) and Caribbean Freedom: Economy and Society from Emancipation to the Present (1993). Laura Foner and Eugene Genovese, eds., Slavery in the New World: A Reader in Comparative History (Englewood Cliffs, Calif., 1969), contains articles describing both North American and Caribbean slavery. Franklin W. Knight, The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism (New York, rev. ed., 1990), deals with the period since emancipation.

Robin Winks published the first major survey of African-Canadian history, The Blacks in Canada: A History (Montreal, 1974), and it remains the outstanding reference work in the field. Daniel G. Hill, The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada (Agincourt, Ont., 1981), is more suitable for introductory reading. James W. St. G. Walker, A History of Blacks in Canada: A Study Guide for Teachers and Students (Ottawa, 1980), offers a narrative overview and a discussion of the most significant literature on African Canadians published before 1980. Regional overviews are provided by Bridglal Pachai, Beneath the Clouds of the Promised Land: The Survival of Nova Scotia’s Blacks, 2 vols. (Halifax, 1987, 1991); Jim Hornby, Black Islanders: Prince Edward Island’s Historical Black Community (Charlottetown, 1991); Howard and Tamara Palmer, “The Black Experience in Alberta,” in their Peoples of Alberta: Portraits of Cultural Diversity (Saskatoon, Sask., 1985), 365–93; and Crawford Kilian, Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia (Vancouver, 1978).

Local and thematic studies include Donald H. Clairmont and Dennis W. Magill, Africville: The Life and Death of a Canadian Black Community, (Toronto, rev. ed., 1987); Judith Fingard, “Race and Respectability in Victorian Halifax,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol.20 (1992), 169–95; Suzanne Morton, “Separate Spheres in a Separate World: African–Nova Scotian Women in Late-19th-Century Halifax County,” Acadiensis, vol.22 (1993), 61–83; Frances Henry, The Caribbean Diaspora in Toronto: Learning to Live with Racism (Toronto, 1994); Gwendolyn and John Robinson, Seek the Truth: A Story of Chatham’s Black Community (Chatham, Ont., 1989); Dionne Brand, No Burden to Carry: Narratives of Black Working Women in Ontario 1920s to 1950s (Toronto, 1991); Peggy Bristow et al., “We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up”: Essays in African Canadian Women’s History (Toronto, 1994); Calvin W. Ruck, The Black Battalion: No.2 Construction 1916–1920 (Halifax, 1986); and James W. St. G. Walker, “‘Race’ and Recruitment in World War I: Enlistment of Visible Minorities in the Canadian Expeditionary Force,” Canadian Historical Review, vol.70 (1989), 1–26.

Slavery and abolitionism in Canada are discussed in David G. Bell, “Slavery and the Judges of Loyalist New Brunswick,” UNB Law Journal, vol.31 (1982), 9–42; Barry Cahill, “Slavery and the Judges of Loyalist Nova Scotia,” UNB Law Journal, vol.43 (1994), 73–134; Marcel Trudel, Dictionnaire des esclaves et de leurs propriétaires au Canada français (LaSalle, Quebec, 1990); Allen P. Stouffer, The Light of Nature and the Law of God: Antislavery in Ontario 1833–1877 (Montreal, 1992); and Peter C. Ripley, ed., The Black Abolitionist Papers, vol.2: Canada 1830–1865 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1986). On migration and settlement of different waves of free blacks, see James W. St. G. Walker, The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870 (Toronto, rev. ed., 1992); John N. Grant, The Immigration and Settlement of the Black Refugees of the War of 1812 in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (Hantsport, N.S., 1990); Jason Silverman, Unwelcome Guests: Canada West’s Response to American Fugitive Slaves, 1800–1865 (Millwood, N.Y., 1985); Stewart Grow, “The Blacks of Amber Valley – Negro Pioneering in Northern Alberta,” Canadian Ethnic Studies, vol.6 (1974), 17–38; Agnes Calliste, “Women of ‘Exceptional Merit’: Immigration of Caribbean Nurses to Canada,” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, vol.6 (1993), 85–102; and James W. St. G. Walker, The West Indians in Canada (Ottawa, 1984).

The discriminatory conditions often faced by black people in Canada are studied in Agnes Calliste, “Sleeping Car Porters in Canada: An Ethnically Submerged Split Labour Market,” Canadian Ethnic Studies, vol.19 (1987), 1–20; Donald Clairmont and Fred Wien, “Blacks and Whites: The Nova Scotia Race Relations Experience,” in Douglas Campbell, ed., Banked Fires: The Ethnics of Nova Scotia (Port Credit, Ont., 1978), 141–82; Frances Henry and Effie Ginzberg, Who Gets the Work: A Test of Racial Discrimination in Employment (Toronto, 1985); and James W. St. G. Walker, Racial Discrimination in Canada: The Black Experience (Ottawa, 1985).

On educational issues consult Vincent D’Oyley, ed., Innovations in Black Education in Canada (Toronto, 1994); Charles Saunders, Share and Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (Halifax, 1994); Afua Cooper, “The Search for Mary Bibb, Black Woman Teacher in 19th Century Canada West,” Ontario History, vol.83 (1991), 39–54; and R. Bruce Shepard, “The Little White Schoolhouse: Racism in a Saskatchewan Rural School,” Saskatchewan History, vol.39 (1986), 81–93. On religious issues, see Frank Boyd, ed., McKerrow: A Brief History of Blacks in Nova Scotia, 1783–1895 (Halifax, 1976), a scholarly edition of the 1895 original, and Dorothy Shadd Shreve, The AfriCanadian Church: A Stabilizer (Jordan Station, Ont., 1983). Other cultural matters are the concern of Neil V. Rosenberg, “Ethnicity and Class: Black Country Music in the Maritimes,” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol.23 (1988), 138–56; Charles Saunders, Sweat and Soul: Saga of Black Boxers from the Halifax Forum to Caesar’s Palace (Hantsport, 1990); and Jason Silverman, “We Shall Be Heard! The Development of the Fugitive Slave Press in Canada,” Canadian Historical Review, vol.65 (1984), 54–69.

Biography, autobiography, and collected memory are currently popular genres in African-Canadian writing, as they were in the nineteenth century. Some recent examples include Carrie M. Best, That Lonesome Road: The Autobiography of Carrie M. Best (New Glasgow, N.S., 1977); Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia, Traditional Lifetime Stories: A Collection of Black Memories, 2 vols. (Dartmouth, N.S., 1987, 1990); Barry Cahill, “The ‘Colored Barrister’: The Short Life and Tragic Death of James Robinson Johnston, 1876–1915,” Dalhousie Law Journal, vol.15 (1992), 336–79; Grant Gordon, From Slavery to Freedom: The Life of David George, Pioneer Black Baptist Minister (Hantsport, N.S., 1992); Jason Silverman, “Mary Ann Shadd and the Struggle for Equality,” in Leon Litwack and August Meier, eds., Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century (Urbana, Ill., 1988), 87–100; Patrick Brode, The Odyssey of John Anderson (Toronto, 1989); Donna Hill, ed., A Black Man’s Toronto: The Reminiscences of Harry Gairey (Toronto, 1981); Stephen L. Hubbard, Against All Odds: The Story of William Peyton Hubbard, Black Leader and Municipal Reformer (Toronto, 1987); Gene Lees, Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing Toronto, 1988); Donald Moore (founding president of the Negro Citizenship Association), Don Moore: An Autobiography (Toronto, 1985); Carol Talbot, Growing Up Black in Canada (1984), about a childhood in Windsor, Ont.; and Velma Carter et al., The Window of Our Memories, 2 vols. (St Albert, Alta., 1981, 1990), a collection of Alberta reminiscences. There are many excellent biographies of African Canadians in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto, 1966– ). The Canadian Encyclopedia (2nd ed., 4 vols., Edmonton, 1988) also has succinct biographies of several outstanding black Canadians.

To taste the renaissance in African-Canadian culture, see George Elliott Clarke, ed., Fire on the Water: An Anthology of Black Nova Scotian Writing, 2 vols. (Lawrencetown Beach, N.S., 1991, 1992), the introduction to which offers a definitive overview of literary developments in Nova Scotia; Ayanna Black, ed., Voices: Canadian Writers of African Descent (Toronto, 1992); and Lorris Elliott, ed., Other Voices: Writings by Blacks in Canada (Toronto, 1985). Recent novels include Cecil Foster, No Man in the House (Toronto, 1991); Lawrence Hill, Some Great Thing (Winnipeg, 1992); and Dany Laferrière, How to Make Love to a Negro (English trans., Toronto, 1987). Black on Screen: Images of Black Canadians 1950s– 1990s is a descriptive catalogue produced by the National Film Board in 1992.