Portraits of Black Canadians

The story of black immigration to Canada began 400 years ago with the arrival of the French at Port Royal. John Graves Simcoe, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, signed the Act Against Slavery in 1793.

Many black people came to Canada by their own means. But the Underground Railroad, an informal network of people and places organized to help black people escaping slavery, was an important feature of immigration to Canada in the nineteenth century.

It’s estimated that between 20,000 and 40,000 black people arrived in Canada during the first half of the nineteenth century. Some consider that the number could be as high as 60,000.

Episode 1: Slavery Triangle

We begin the first episode of our podcast series Portraits of Black Canadians with a short introduction into the history of slavery in the Americas. The transatlantic slave trade forced millions of black Africans into bondage.

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Episode 2: Mathieu Da Costa

Mathieu Da Costa, the first black man to arrive in Canada, is said to have been born in the Azores. Da Costa was a free black man who in the early 1600s was employed as a translator by French and Dutch traders and explorers. He spoke several languages including French, Dutch and Portuguese, as well as pidgin Basque, a language used by fishermen on the Atlantic coast that was a mix of a French-Basque dialect and First Nations languages including Mi' kmaq.

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Episode 3: Olivier Le Jeune

Olivier Le Jeune is the first black person known to have lived and died in Canada. He was also Canada’s first recorded African slave. Le Jeune was about seven years old when he was brought to Canada from Madagascar during the British invasion of what was known then as New France in 1628.

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Episode 4: Slavery laws

A number of slavery laws, in addition to Indigenous slavery customs, existed in Canada both under the French rule and British rule until slavery was officially abolished in 1833.

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Episode 5: Slave rebellions

Slaves in North America and the Caribbean staged several rebellions and engaged in other forms of resistance against their masters.

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Episode 6: Africville

Today, we bring you the story of Africville, the beating heart of the African Canadian community in Nova Scotia until it was bulldozed over in the 1960s to make way for other projects, including private housing, ramps for the A. Murray MacKay Bridge, and the Fairview Container Terminal. The central area was turned into a dog park called Seaview Park.

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Episode 7: Josiah Henson

Today, we bring you the story of Josiah Henson. His remarkable life story inspired American author Harriet Beecher Stowe to write her famous anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

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Episode 8: Harriet Tubman

Today we bring you the story of Harriet Tubman. She was a courageous conductor on the Underground Railroad, who led hundreds of American slaves to freedom in Canada.

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Episode 9: Anti-slavery movement in Canada

The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada was formed in Canada West (now Ontario) in 1851 to promote the global abolition of slavery and provide relief to African American refugees seeking freedom in Canada.

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Episode 10: The Press and the Anti-Slavery Movement

Today we bring you the story of 19th century Canadian publications such as Voice of the Fugitive and The Globe advocating for freedom from bondage.

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Episode 11: Mary Ann Shadd Cary

Today, we bring you the story of Mary Ann Shadd Cary. She moved to Canada from the United States in 1851 and eventually began editing The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper first printed on March 24, 1853. This made Shadd the first Black woman in North America to publish a newspaper, and one of the first female journalists in Canada. During the Civil War she moved back to the U.S. and began work as a recruitment agent for the Union Army. Later, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a teacher. Years later, Shadd pursued law studies at Howard University and in 1883 became one of the first Black women to complete a law degree.

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Episode 12: William Hall

Petty Officer William Hall was the first black Canadian man to win the Victoria Cross for his actions at the Relief of Lucknow in 1857.

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Episode 13: Sam Langford

Samuel Edgar Langford, known as the Boston Terror, is considered by many boxing historians to be one of the greatest fighters of all time.

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Episode 14: George Frederick Johnson

George Frederick Johnson enlisted in the Canadian military when he was just 16 years old. Cpl. Johnson served with the 10th Canadian Armoured Regiment and later took part in the D-Day landing in Normandy on June 5, 1944.

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Episode 15: Lou Hooper

Once Oscar Peterson’s piano teacher, Lou Hooper wrote ragtime classics like The Cakewalk, Black Cat Blues, South Sea Strut and Uncle Remus Stomp. Born in 1894, in North Buxton, Ontario, Hooper died in Charlottetown, PEI in 1977 not long after the debut of the ballet he wrote, called Congo.

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Episode 16: Portia White

The classical concert signer from Nova Scotia achieved international fame World War Second.In Portia White’s hometown of Truro, Nova Scotia there is a monument in her memory. Following her international career she settled in Toronto and taught voice until she died in 1968. In 2007 she was posthumously awarded the Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Episode 17: Oscar Peterson

There’s Oscar Peterson Boulevard and Oscar Peterson Public School in Mississauga, Ontario; Oscar Peterson Square in downtown Toronto; and, in his hometown of Montreal there’s the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall. And, that’s not to mention the 16 honourary degrees between Canada and the United States. The man who wrote the Canadiana Suite received the nation’s highest honour when he was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 1984. And, following 7 Grammy Awards, he received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

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Episode 18: Charlie Biddle

Remembered as the father of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Charles Biddle lent his name to the club that kept the groove going year-round. Biddles, now known as The House of Jazz, was a draw for jazz stars and fans, from around the world. Charles Biddle was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2003. The Saint Jean Baptiste Society said, ‘without him, Quebecers might not have developed their love for jazz’.

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Episode 19: Dr. Hervé Blanchard

Dr. Blanchard has cared for 30 years (1970-2000) for many children in Quebec, notably at the Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal, where he saved the lives of newborn babies with congenital anomalies. He is recognized as the pioneer in Quebec of pediatric kidney transplantation (performed for the first time in 1974), and liver transplantation in children (performed for the first time in 1985). This brilliant surgeon also shared his knowledge with more than a generation of students from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montreal.

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Episode 20: Dany Laferrière

The author became a huge success by poking fun at racial stereotypes.

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Episode 21: Michaëlle Jean

Canada's first black Governor General.

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Episode 22: George Elliott Clarke

The author describes the rich oral narratives and cultural traditions of Blacks in Nova Scotia.

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Episode 23: Maka Kotto

Poet, actor, stage director, and first black African elected to the Canadian Parliament.

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Episode 24: Suzette Mayr

The author spotlights issues involving race and ethnicity for interethnic people.

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Episode 25: Donovan Bailey

The athlete's meteoric rise to fame is one of Canada's remarkable success stories.

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Episode 26: Black History Month

Every February Canadians celebrate the history of Blacks in Canada.

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Episode 27: Slavery Remembered

The abolition of slavery was commemorated in 2004.