The black presence in Canada is rooted mostly in voluntary immigration. Despite the various dynamics that may complicate the personal and cultural interrelationships between descendants of the black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, descendants of former American slaves who viewed Canada as the promise of freedom at the end of the Underground Railroad, and more recent immigrants from the Caribbean or Africa, one common element that unites all of these groups is that they are in Canada because they or their ancestors actively chose of their own free will to settle there. The first recorded black person to set foot on land now known as Canada was a free man named
Mathieu da Costa. Travelling with navigator
Samuel de Champlain, da Costa arrived in
Nova Scotia some time between 1603 and 1608 as a translator for the French explorer
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts., from
Madagascar named
Olivier Le Jeune, who may have been of partial
Malay ancestry. He was first given to one of the Kirke brothers, likely
David Kirke, before being sold as a young child to a French clerk and then later given to Guillaume Couillard, a friend of Champlain's. Le Jeune apparently was set free before his death in 1654, because his death certificate lists him as a
domestique rather than a slave. By the time of the British conquest of New France in 1759–1760, about 3,604 enslaved people were in New France, of whom 1,132 were black and the rest First Nations people. Most were female domestic servants, and were often raped by their masters. Their family names are Carbonneau, Charest, Johnson, Lafleur, Lemire, Lepage, Marois, Paradis, etc.
African Americans during the American Revolution , the first Black Canadian to be a licensed physician, participated in the
American Civil War and attended the deathbed of
Abraham Lincoln. At the time of the
American Revolution, inhabitants of the British colonies in North America had to decide where their future lay. Those from the
Thirteen Colonies loyal to the
British Crown were called
United Empire Loyalists and came north. Many
White American Loyalists brought their enslaved African people with them, numbering between 1,500 and 2,500 individuals. During the war, the British had promised freedom and land to enslaved African people who left rebel masters and worked for them; this was announced in Virginia through
Lord Dunmore's Proclamation. Enslaved African people also escaped to British lines in New York City and Charleston, and their forces evacuated thousands after the war. They transported 3,000 people to Nova Scotia. This latter group was largely made up of merchants and labourers, and many set up home in
Birchtown near
Shelburne. Some settled in
New Brunswick. Both groups suffered from discriminatory treatment by white settlers and prominent landowners who still held enslaved African people. Some of the refugees had been free black people prior to the war and fled with the other refugees to Nova Scotia, relying on British promises of equality. Under pressure of the new refugees, the city of
Saint John amended its charter in 1785 specifically to exclude people of African descent from practicing a trade, selling goods, fishing in the harbour, or becoming freemen; these provisions stood until 1870, although by then they were largely ignored. In 1782, the first
race riot in North America took place in
Shelburne; white veterans attacked African American settlers who were getting work that the former soldiers thought they should have. Due to the failure of the British government to support the settlement, the harsh weather, and discrimination on the part of white colonists, 1,192 Black Loyalist men, women and children left Nova Scotia for West Africa on 15 January 1792. They settled in what is now
Sierra Leone, where they became
the original settlers of
Freetown. They, along with other groups of free transplanted people such as the
Black Poor from England, became what is now the
Sierra Leone Creole people, also known as the
Krio. Although difficult to estimate due to the failure to differentiate enslaved African people and free Black populations, it is estimated that by 1784 there were around 40 enslaved Africans within Montreal, compared to around 304 enslaved Africans within the
Province of Quebec. By 1799, vital records note 75 entries regarding Black Canadians, a number that doubled by 1809. Funds had been provided by the Government of Jamaica to aid in the resettlement of the Maroons in Canada. Five thousand acres were purchased at
Preston, Nova Scotia, at a cost of £3000. Small farm lots were provided to the Maroons and they attempted to farm the infertile land. Like the former tenants, they found the land at Preston to be unproductive; as a result they had little success. The Maroons also found farming in Nova Scotia difficult because the climate would not allow cultivation of familiar food crops, such as
bananas,
yams,
pineapples, or
cocoa. Small numbers of Maroons relocated from Preston to Boydville for better farming land. The British Lieutenant Governor
Sir John Wentworth made an effort to change the Maroons' culture and beliefs by introducing them to
Christianity. From the monies provided by the Jamaican Government, Wentworth procured an annual stipend of £240 for the support of a school and religious education. After suffering through the harsh winter of 1796–1797, Wentworth reported the Maroons expressed a desire that "they wish to be sent to
India or somewhere in the east, to be landed with arms in some country with a climate like that they left, where they may take possession with a strong hand". Upon their arrival in West Africa in 1800, they were used to quell an uprising among the black settlers from Nova Scotia and London. After eight years, they were unhappy with their treatment by the Sierra Reynolds Company.
Abolition of slavery ,
Nova Scotia dedicated to abolitionist
James Drummond MacGregor, who helped free
Black Nova Scotian slaves The Canadian climate made it uneconomic to keep enslaved African people year-round, unlike the
plantation agriculture practiced in the southern United States and
Caribbean. Slavery within the colonial economy became increasingly rare. For example, the powerful
Mohawk leader
Joseph Brant purchased and enslaved an African American named Sophia Burthen Pooley, whom he kept for about 12 years before selling her for $100. In 1772, prior to the American Revolution, Britain
outlawed the slave trade in the British Isles followed by the
Knight v. Wedderburn decision in Scotland in 1778. In 1790
John Burbidge, a member of Nova Scotia's
House of Assembly, freed the African people he had enslaved, giving them two sets of clothes and arranging for their learning to read. Two chief justices,
Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange (1790–1796) and
Sampson Salter Blowers (1797–1832) were instrumental in freeing enslaved Africans from their enslavers (owners) in Nova Scotia. These justices were held in high regard in the colony. In 1793,
John Graves Simcoe, the first
Lieutenant-Governor of
Upper Canada, attempted to abolish slavery. That same year, the new Legislative Assembly became the first entity in the
British Empire to restrict slavery, confirming existing ownership but allowing for anyone born to an enslaved woman or girl after that date to be freed at the age of 25. Slavery was all but abolished throughout the other
British North American colonies by 1800. The
Slave Trade Act 1807 outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire and the
Slavery Abolition Act 1833 outlawed slave-holding altogether in the colonies (except for India). This made Canada an attractive destination for many refugees fleeing slavery in the United States, such as minister
Boston King.
War of 1812 The next major migration of Black people occurred between 1813 and 1815. Refugees from the
War of 1812, primarily from the
Chesapeake Bay and Georgia
Sea Islands, fled the United States to settle in Hammonds Plains, Beechville,
Lucasville,
North Preston,
East Preston,
Africville and
Elm Hill, New Brunswick. An April 1814 proclamation of black freedom and settlement by British Vice-Admiral
Alexander Cochrane led to an exodus of around 3,500 black Americans by 1818. The settlement of the refugees was initially seen as a means of creating prosperous agricultural communities; however, poor economic conditions following the war coupled with the granting of infertile farmland to refugees caused economic hardship. After Robinson's ruling in 1819, judges in Upper Canada refused American requests to extradite run-away slaves who reached Upper Canada under the grounds "every man is free who reaches British ground". The first newspaper published by a black woman was founded in North Buxton by the free black
Mary Ann Shadd which pressed for Black emigration to Canada as the best option for fleeing African Americans. ] Following the abolition of slavery in the British empire in 1834, any black man born a British subject or who became a British subject was allowed to vote and run for office, provided that they owned taxable property. The property requirement on voting in Canada was not ended until 1920. Unlike in the United States, in Canada after the abolition of slavery in 1834, black Canadians were never stripped of their right to vote and hold office. Following the end of the American Civil War and subsequent
emancipation of enslaved African Americans, a significant population remained, concentrated both within settlements established in the decades preceding the Civil War, and existing urban environments like Toronto. The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada estimated in its first report in 1852 that the "coloured population of Upper Canada" was about 30,000, of whom almost all adults were "fugitive slaves" from the United States. The article was then used as inspiration for a section in Scottish poet
William Edmondstoune Aytoun's novel Norman Sinclair, which told the same story but made it about the mixed-race daughter of "a thriving horse-dealer, who had been located at Toronto some 30 years", a description which could only match Mink at the time. Aytoun used the trope of the
tragic mulatto and others in his book to degrade the Mink family and successful free black Canadians in general. The myth of Mary Mink remains to this day, and was even made into 1996 TV movie called
Captive Heart: The James Mink Story, which bills itself as "based on a true story".
West Coast In 1858,
James Douglas, the governor of the British colony of
Vancouver Island, replied to an inquiry from a group of black people in San Francisco about the possibilities of settling in his jurisdiction. They were angered that the California legislature had passed discriminatory laws to restrict black people in the state, preventing them from owning property and requiring them to wear badges. Governor Douglas, whose mother was a "
free coloured" person of mixed black and white ancestry from the Caribbean, replied favourably. Later that year, an estimated 600 to 800 black Americans migrated to
Victoria, settling on
Vancouver Island and
Salt Spring Island. At least two became successful merchants there: Peter Lester and
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs. The latter also entered politics, being elected to the newly established City Council in the 1860s. Gibbs returned to the United States with his family in the late 1860s after slavery had been abolished following the war; he settled in
Little Rock, Arkansas, the capital of the state. He became an attorney and was elected as the first black judge in the US. He became a wealthy businessman who was involved with the Republican Party; in 1897 he was appointed by the President of the US as consul to Madagascar.
The late Victorian era Unlike in the United States, there were no "
Jim Crow" laws in Canada at the federal level of government and outside of education, none at the provincial level of government. However, Canada acted to restrict immigration by black persons, a policy that was formalized in 1911 by Prime Minister
Wilfrid Laurier: His excellency in Council, in virtue of the provisions of Sub-section (c) of Section 38 of the Immigration Act, is pleased to Order and it is hereby Ordered as follows: For a period of one year from and after the date hereof the landing in Canada shall be and the same is prohibited of any immigrants belonging to the Negro race, which race is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada. Examples include
Amber Valley,
Campsie,
Junkins (now Wildwood) and
Keystone (now Breton) in Alberta, as well as a former community in the
Rural Municipality of Eldon, north of
Maidstone, Saskatchewan (see, for example, Saskatchewan Municipal Heritage Property No. 439: the original log-style Shiloh (Charlow) Baptist Church and associated cemetery, 30 km north of Maidstone.) Many of them were disappointed to encounter racism when they arrived in Canada, which they had regarded as a kind of
Promised Land. Historically, black Canadians, being descended from either black Loyalists or American run-away slaves, had supported the Conservative Party as the party most inclined to maintain ties with Britain, which was seen as the nation that had given them freedom. is still remembered to this day in many Toronto publications. To fight against the discriminatory treatment, the all-black Order of Sleeping Car Porters union was founded in 1917 to fight to end segregation on the railroad lines and to fight for equal pay and benefits. The Reverend William White, the chaplain of the all-black Number 2 Construction Company of the CEF, founded on 5 July 1916, was named an honorary captain and thereby became one of the few black men to receive an officer's commission in the CEF. However, the Canadian historian René Chartrand noted that in the 1918 painting
The Conquerors by Eric Kennington showing the men of the 16th Canadian Scottish battalion (which was recruited in the Toronto area) marching through a ruined landscape in France, one of the soldiers wearing kilts is a black man, which he used to argue that sometimes Black volunteers were assigned as front-line infantrymen. Despite the rules restricting black Canadians to construction companies, about 2,000 Black Canadians fought as infantrymen in the CEF and several such as James Grant, Jeremiah Jones, Seymour Tyler, Roy Fells, and Curly Christian being noted for heroism under fire. Jones was recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his heroism at Vimy Ridge, where he captured a German machine gun post and was wounded in action, but he never received it. Many of Canada's
railway porters were recruited from the U.S., with many coming from
the South, New York City, and Washington, D.C. They settled mainly in the major cities of
Montreal, Toronto,
Winnipeg and
Vancouver, which had major rail connections. The railroads were considered to have good positions, with steady work and a chance to travel. A noted cause célèbre in the 1920s was the case of
Matthew Bullock. He fled to Canada to avoid a potential
lynching in North Carolina and fought extradition to the US. In September 1915, the U.S. film
The Birth of a Nation was released in Canada, where it was very popular, and helped to inflame race relations. The willingness of various left-wing groups in Canada to promote the "Black Horror on the Rhine" campaign as part of the critique of the Treaty of Versailles as too harsh on Germany – which appealed to the worse racial fears by promoting the image of the Senegalese as brutes with superhuman strength and an insatiable need to rape white women – estranged black Canadians from the left in Canada during the interwar period. Another source of estrangement was the work of one of Canada's leading progressives, the feminist
Emily Murphy. In a series of articles for ''
Maclean's in the early 1920s, which were later turned into the 1922 book The Black Candle
, Murphy blamed all of the problems on drug addiction among white Canadians on "Negro drug dealers" and Chinese opium dealers "of fishy blood", accusing black Canadians and Chinese Canadians of trying to destroy white supremacy by getting white Canadians addicted to drugs. The Black Candle'' was written in a sensationalist and lurid style meant to appeal to the racial fears of white Canadians, and in this Murphy was completely successful. Eatman's call to defend Ethiopia drew an enthusiastic response to defend what the black lawyer Joseph Spencer-Pitt called "the last sovereign state belonging to the coloured race". By the mid-1960s, approximately 15,000 Caribbean immigrants had settled in Toronto. Over the next decades, several hundred thousand Afro-Caribbean people arrived, becoming the predominant black population in Canada. Between 1950 and 1995, about 300,000 people from the West Indies settled in Canada. Like other recent immigrants to Canada, black Canadian immigrants have settled preferentially in provinces matching the language of their country of origin. Thus, in 2001, 90 per cent of Canadians of Haitian origin lived in Quebec, while 85 per cent of Canadians of Jamaican origin lived in Ontario. A major change in the settlement patterns of black Canadians occurred in the second half of the 20th century as the mostly rural black Canadian communities had become mostly urban communities, a process starting in the 1930s that was complete by the 1970s. The student occupation ended in violence on 11 February 1969 when the riot squad of the
Service de police de la Ville de Montréal stormed the Hall building, a fire was started causing $2 million worth of damage (it is disputed whether the police or the students started the fire), and many of the protesting students were beaten and arrested. In Atlantic Canada, the
Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia was established in
Cherry Brook. Starting in the 1960s with the weakening of ties to Britain together the changes caused by immigration from the West Indies, black Canadians have become active in the Liberal and New Democratic parties as well as the Conservatives.
Alvin Curling told the
Toronto Star in 2013: "I think BADC raised the question that this wonderful looking society of Canada and Toronto, as organized as it was, had some systemic racism going on and police behaviour that was not acceptable." On the evening of 4 May 1992, a march was held on Toronto's Yonge Street by the BADC to protest the killings of Lawrence and Lawson together the acquittal of the police officers who had beaten Rodney King in Los Angeles that was joined by thousands of people who marched to the U.S. consulate in Toronto. The issue of police harassment of blacks in Toronto has continued into the 21st century. In 2015, the Toronto journalist
Desmond Cole published an article in
Toronto Life entitled "The Skin I'm In: I've been interrogated by police more than 50 times – all because I'm black", accusing the police of harassing him for his skin colour. With the secularization of society in late 20th century, the churches have ceased to play the traditionally dominant role in black Canadian communities. In 2024,
Statistics Canada reported that only 2.4% of Canadian businesses are black-owned and, among these, 33% are led by women. Black-owned businesses are more likely to be owned by immigrants, younger people and the self-employed than non-black-owned businesses. ==Statistics==