Wilberforce Colony was a
colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
established in the year 1829 by free
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
citizens, north of present-day
London, Ontario
London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. It was an effort by American Blacks to create a place where they could live in political freedom.
When American Black communities favoured emigration (and many did not), they preferred going to a country where free Blacks could hold full political control over their destiny. The establishment of what became the Wilberforce Colony in Canada was one such movement. It was planned by Black Americans from
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
who emigrated following passage of discriminatory laws in the year 1828 and a destructive riot against them by White Americans in 1829.
[Taylor, Nikki M. ''Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati's Black Community, 1802-1868,'' Ohio University Press, 2005, , pp.50-79.]
The frontier colony grew quickly upon its founding. Refugee slaves, who had escaped to freedom in Canada, also joined the colony. Internal disputes, lack of funding, and the draw of urban jobs led to its decline by 1850. In the 1840s, many Irish immigrants settled in this area after fleeing famine in their homeland. Altogether, the Wilberforce Colony survived as an independent community fewer than 20 years.
Background
The increase in Cincinnati's Black population in the decade starting in 1820 was rapid and pronounced. Although Ohio was a free state, the southern portion was influenced by settlers from the south and racial tensions grew. In 1820, some 433 African Americans comprised less than 4% of the city's population, but over the next decade the city's Black population swelled by more than 400%.
This change alarmed some White residents. In response to a citizens' petition in 1828, the Cincinnati City Council appointed a committee, "to take measures to prevent the increase of
fricanpopulation within the city." In March of that year, the Ohio Supreme Court decided that the
1807 state Black Laws, which placed restrictions on Black people in many areas of life and employment, were constitutional. The Cincinnati City Council enforced this restrictive legislation.
Purchase of land in Canada
Near the end of June 1828, the Black population of Cincinnati elected
Israel Lewis and
Thomas Crissup to survey a site in Canada to which they could emigrate. Lewis and Crissup met with
John Colbourne
Field Marshal John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, (16 February 1778 – 17 April 1863) was a British Army officer and colonial governor. After taking part as a junior officer in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, Sir Ralph Abercromby's expe ...
, the Lieutenant Governor of
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...
, to discuss prospects of settling in the area. They entered into a contract with the
Canada Company
The Canada Company was a private British land development company that was established to aid in the colonization of a large part of Upper Canada. It was incorporated by royal charter on August 19, 1826, under an act of the British parliament,, ...
for the purchase of land in
Biddulph
Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south-east of Congleton, Cheshire.
Origin of the name
Biddulph's name may come from Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or quarry". It may also ...
in the
Huron Tract
The Huron Tract Purchase also known as the Huron Block, registered as Crown Treaty Number 29, is a large area of land in southwestern Ontario bordering on Lake Huron to the west and Lake Erie to the east. The area spans the counties of Huron, Pert ...
in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, lots 2, 3, and 5 north of the Proof Line Road and lot 11 south of the road,
[Leverton, John]
''Wilberforce Colony''
from ''Lucan 125 Souvenir Booklet 1871-1996''. for the amount of $1.50 per acre. The land was on the
Ausable River Au Sable or Ausable may refer to various places:
Michigan
*Au Sable Township, Iosco County, Michigan
**Au Sable, Michigan, an unincorporated community in the above township
*Au Sable Township, Roscommon County, Michigan New York
*Au Sable, New Y ...
, some twenty miles (32 km) from
Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
, and about thirty-five miles from the northern shore of
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
. The initial arrangement between Israel Lewis and Thomas Crissup envisaged the purchase of for $6,000, to be paid by November 1830.
Emigration from Cincinnati
The
Cincinnati riots of 1829
The Cincinnati race riots of 1829 were triggered by competition for jobs between Irish immigrants and native blacks and former slaves, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States but also were related to white fears given the rapid increases of free and fu ...
broke out at the start of July and continued to the end of August, as a result of white people attacking Black people. There was an exodus of around 1,000 Black individuals from Cincinnati.
Those who left the city that summer comprised two groups. Those who were primarily forced out of Cincinnati by violence, fear, and inability to work generally settled in nearby towns or villages. The second group organized as an exodus, with many emigrating the full distance of nearly 400 miles to the Canadian site. Since settling in the still-unnamed Wilberforce Colony required purchase of land, however, those without financial resources simply stopped in the United States, settling in towns on the southern shore of
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
where they could find work. They never made it to Canada.
Those who did make it to Canada had to travel some thirty-five miles northward from Lake Erie through untracked forest. At the site, they had to clear land for crops and to build dwellings. Although exact figures are not known, evidence suggests that of the initial exodus, only five or six families made it to the Ontario colony in the first year.
Settlement and naming the colony
The initial arrangement between the
Canada Company
The Canada Company was a private British land development company that was established to aid in the colonization of a large part of Upper Canada. It was incorporated by royal charter on August 19, 1826, under an act of the British parliament,, ...
and Lewis and Crissup called for a $6,000 payment by November 1830. But the number of colonists expected to support that purchase could not be immediately achieved, and the financial resources of the initial colonists could not support that arrangement. Financial stability for the colony was precarious for that first year.
They appealed to other sources for additional support, with efforts to raise monies in Cincinnati and pleas to the
Ohio state legislature
The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.
...
made in vain. But an appeal to the
Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
(mostly based in
Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, 31 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students.
The town is the birthplace of the ...
)
["THE WILBERFORCE SETTLEMENT 1830," Lucan]
Waymarking.com. Accessed Jan. 22, 2014. was successful. On September 20, 1830,
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
, former US Minister of France and US Senator from Louisiana, and
Stephen Duncan
Stephen Duncan (March 4, 1787 – January 29, 1867) was an American Planter class, planter and banker in Mississippi during the Antebellum South. He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Terr ...
, an extremely wealthy planter and slaveholder from Pennsylvania and Mississippi, purchased for the settlement.
With the land secured, the colonists turned to clearing land and building structures. In 1831, the settlement was named, "Wilberforce," in honour of
William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...
, the prominent British
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
. Leading the fight against the British slave trade, he helped gain passage of the
1807 Act that abolished the
slave trade
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
throughout the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
. (The institution of slavery itself would not be abolished in the British empire until August 1833, effective in 1834.)
Growth of the colony
The initial group of emigrants tended to be Black individuals from the more educated class of Cincinnati. The education for their children was of great importance. They were building on a tradition formed in Cincinnati, where the community placed great importance on education. The first institution established in Wilberforce was a school. American social reformer
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...
visited the colony in 1831 and noted that 20-30 children attended schools. By 1832, they had established three schools, and their quality attracted students from the surrounding White population. Aspirations for education extended beyond elementary and secondary schools.
The desire of the Wilberforce colonists was for more than mere literacy. Also by 1832, the settlement had crops in the ground and log homes. Settlers built three
sawmills
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
: one powered by water, a
gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
, and several general stores. The proximity of the settlement to the
Ausable River Au Sable or Ausable may refer to various places:
Michigan
*Au Sable Township, Iosco County, Michigan
**Au Sable, Michigan, an unincorporated community in the above township
*Au Sable Township, Roscommon County, Michigan New York
*Au Sable, New Y ...
gave transportation access to goods, and provided a way to export products, both agricultural and forest-related.
The riots in Cincinnati, and the establishment of Wilberforce Colony, helped raise a national Black consciousness. Interest grew in emigration from other northern cities. The
Mother Bethel Church in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
assembled Black leaders from across the north to search for solutions to empower all African Americans. In an 1830 national convention, the assembly organized itself as the
American Society of Free Persons of Color (ASFPC), the beginning of the Black convention movement. Impetus began at the first annual convention of the ASFPC, with the proposal to establish a manual labor college for young men in
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
. When this seemed impossible, the convention turned to Wilberforce. A national subscription campaign in the United States and Great Britain, under the direction of
Nathaniel Paul, was attempted. The subscription drive failed, but the importance of higher education to the Wilberforce colonists was clearly demonstrated.
Within the first 18 months, as Wilberforce grew from the initial few families, other Black American emigrants joined them from
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
,
Albany,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
,
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and other cities. Subsequent recruiting efforts drew Black people and their families from other northern cities, and by 1832 there were 32 families in the area. By 1835, the community had 166 inhabitants. Eventually about 150-200 families settled there.
[
With this infusion of African Americans from several cities, political growth began. A board of managers was created, primarily to oversee financial matters. ]Austin Steward
Austin Steward (1793 – February 15, 1869) was an African-American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and author. He was born a slave in Virginia then moved at age 7 with the Helm household to New York State in 1800. The househ ...
, an abolitionist recently arrived from Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
, was named president. He and other newcomers replaced the old Cincinnati leaders, in 1831 relegating Israel Lewis, original colony organizer and land agent, to U.S. fundraising agent. He was one of two fundraising agents appointed, the other being Nathaniel Paul in England.
Decline and dissolution
The schism between the original Cincinnati families and new settlers eventually led to the decline of the colony. The Cincinnati leaders came from city life and did not adapt well to the harsh farming environment. Within that first decade, many of the leaders of the emigration movement who had located in Wilberforce, left the community. In addition, both fundraising agents failed to live up to expectations. By 1839, suspicions of wrongdoing, particularly by Lewis, exacerbated the problems of Wilberforce.[Pease, William H. and Jane H. Pease. ''Black Utopia: Negro Communal Experiments in America'' (The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1963), pp. 50-53, 57-61.] According to a historian of the area:
By the late 1840s, the Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
began moving into the area as part of a wave of immigration resulting from widespread famine in Ireland. The Black population declined greatly, with many of the original colonists moving on to larger, growing urban centres such as Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, or Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
to obtain wage-based employment. Eventually, the Irish community supplanted Wilberforce altogether, and the town of Lucan
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (3 November 39 AD – 30 April 65 AD), better known in English as Lucan (), was a Roman poet, born in Corduba (modern-day Córdoba), in Hispania Baetica. He is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial ...
was incorporated. Wilberforce as a free Black colony faded into history.[ Winks, Robin W. "'A Sacred Animosity': Abolitionism in Canada," in ]Martin Duberman
Martin Bauml Duberman (born August 6, 1930) is an American historian, biographer, playwright, and gay rights activist. Duberman is Professor of History Emeritus at Lehman College, Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx, New York City.
Early life
Du ...
, ed. ''The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists'' (Princeton, NJ, 1965), p. 308.
A small number of Black families stayed on to work the land through subsequent generations. But, by the end of the 20th century, only the family of settler Peter Butler still had descendants in the area of the Wilberforce Colony village.
Chronology
1828
* June — Cincinnati Black population elects Israel Lewis and Thomas Crissup to survey a site in Canada to which they can emigrate.
* July — Lewis and Crissup met with John Colbourne, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, to discuss prospects of settling in the area. They enter into a contract with the Canada Company for the purchase of land in Biddulph in the Huron Tract
The Huron Tract Purchase also known as the Huron Block, registered as Crown Treaty Number 29, is a large area of land in southwestern Ontario bordering on Lake Huron to the west and Lake Erie to the east. The area spans the counties of Huron, Pert ...
in Ontario, lots 2, 3, and 5 north of the Proof Line Road and lot 11 south of the road.
1829
* July–August — Cincinnati riots of 1829 force more than 1,000 African-Americans to leave the city. A group of these set out for the settlement.
* September — First wave of settlers, probably only five or six families, arrive in the area.
1830
* September 20 — James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
and Stephen Duncan
Stephen Duncan (March 4, 1787 – January 29, 1867) was an American Planter class, planter and banker in Mississippi during the Antebellum South. He was born and studied medicine in Pennsylvania, but moved to Natchez District, Mississippi Terr ...
purchased for the establishment of the colony.
1831
* Settlement named "Wilberforce" in honour of William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...
.
* Emigrants from Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
, Albany, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, and other cities join the settlement.
* William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...
visits the colony, noting that 20-30 children attend schools.
* Board of managers created, with Austin Steward
Austin Steward (1793 – February 15, 1869) was an African-American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and author. He was born a slave in Virginia then moved at age 7 with the Helm household to New York State in 1800. The househ ...
named president.
* Original colony organizer Israel Lewis is appointed as the local fundraising agent; Nathaniel Paul named fundraising agent for Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
.
1832
* Wilberforce has 32 families, with crops in the ground and log homes. The colony has three sawmills
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
, a gristmill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
, and several general stores.
* Three schools established, drawing students from the surrounding white population.
1835
* Wilberforce population hits 166 inhabitants.
1836
* Lewis accused of mismanaging fundraising accounts.
1840
* Most of the original Cincinnati settlers have left.
1850
* Black population in the area declines in the face of Irish immigration; the colony effectively dissolves.
References
Further reading
*
{{Authority control
Black Canadian culture in Ontario
History of racial segregation in the United States
History of Cincinnati
Black Canadian settlements
Populated places established by African Americans
History of African-American civil rights
Settlement schemes in Canada