Worship Services

Black History Month Service – A Celebration of Black Culture (Reflection by Laura McLaughlin, Feb. 15, 2026)

I am pleased to provide reflections on the Underground Railroad and Oakville’s participation in helping enslaved people reach freedom here in Canada as well as provide some history related to these settlers’ lives once they arrived in Southern Ontario- then Upper Canada.  The sources for these reflections are the Canadian Encyclopedia, The Oakville Historical Society, Wikipedia, and the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton.

The Underground Railroad started in the early 19th century, by abolitionists, and was a network of secret, organized routes and safe houses for fugitive slaves to escape to the Northern United States and Eastern Canada during the era of slavery in the US.  The movement included Christians, Indigenous peoples, and former slaves.

The term – Underground Railroad – was used as many abolitionists and escaped slaves used words associated with a railroad to describe their activities.  For example, people who helped the escaping slaves on their journey north were called “conductors.” Harriet Tubman, whom many of us have read about or studied, was one of the most well-known conductors.  The words “cargo,” “package,” and “freight” were used to describe escaping slaves.  The words “stations” and “depots” referred to safe houses.  “Ticket agents” planned the trips that escaping slaves took north. They also helped the escaping slaves contact conductors.

The Underground Railroad ran north and grew steadily until President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

The Town of Oakville was the gateway to Canada for many enslaved people, as early as the 1830’s.  William Chisholm purchased land around Sixteen Mile Creek in 1827 and in 1834 the Town of Oakville became an official Port of Entry into Canada.  As an official Port of Entry, Oakville was one of the major destinations along the Underground Railroad and the first glimpse of freedom for many African Americans who had escaped or had been freed.  Ships from Oakville and Bronte harbours sailed throughout the Great Lakes and beyond, and many slaves were assisted by ship captains to stowaway in grain vessels.  One of these, Captain Robert Wilson, brought many African Americans to Oakville concealed aboard his ships.  For years following the American Civil War (1861- 1865), Black people would come to George’s Square in Oakville to celebrate Emancipation Day, and those who had been helped by “Captain Robert” would visit him at his nearby “Mariners Home,” which still stands at 279 Lawson St. in Old Oakville.  The Underground Railroad saw over 40,000 African American people migrate from the United States to Canada between 1850 and 1860 alone.

Most of these freed African Americans settled in southern Ontario and soon became productive and important members of Canadian society.  Approximately 400 people settled in Oakville, representing about 20% of the town’s population at the time.  These residents established a vibrant community, built homes, started businesses, and founded the Turner African Methodist Episcopal Church, which became a social and spiritual hub.

To provide a couple of examples within Oakville:

Escapee James Wesley Hill set up a strawberry farm near Oakville in the 1850s and became a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad.  “Canada Jim” as he was referred to lived at 457 Maple Grove Drive and went back and forth between Canada and USA helping over 700 people escape slavery.

John Cosley published a newspaper in the 1860s, and Samuel Adams, was a businessman who became the largest landowner in Bronte.  Adams and his brother-in-law, Reverend William Butler, established the Turner African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Christopher Columbus Lee was employed for many years by R.K. Chisholm as the butler at “Erchless” – the 1856 Chisholm family home on Navy Street, which operates today as a part of the Oakville Museum.

While many of these first settlers were successful in finding employment, or starting their own businesses, etc., most crossing into Canada faced significant, life-altering struggles, despite arriving in a place that promised freedom.  Newly arrived people often had to build their lives from scratch, finding work in strenuous, low paying jobs such as dockworkers or housemaids.  They were forced to found their own schools as they struggled for the right of equal access to education with European Canadians.  They also struggled for the right to live where they wanted to live.  Transition to a life in Canada was marked by poverty, discrimination, oppression, segregation, and the lasting trauma of slavery.  Often local white militia groups terrorized Black neighborhoods, and new arrivals had to battle to exercise their rights.

Once such event occurred on the 28 of February, 1930 when 75 members of the Ku Klux Klan, arrived in Oakville from Hamilton, and attempted to prevent the marriage of a white woman, Isabella Jones, to Ira Johnson, a man presumed to be Black.  Unlike the United States, Canadian law did not bar those of different ethnicities from socializing or marrying but social pressures nonetheless made inter-ethnic associations difficult.  The Ku Klux Klan had established itself in Canada, but had far less widespread membership and influence than it had in the United States.  There were no anti-discrimination or anti-hate speech laws in effect in Canada as of 1930.

After burning a cross in the middle of a street in Oakville, the Klansmen searched for Ira Johnson and Isabella Jones; they abducted Isabella and threatened Ira.  Newspapers were sympathetic to the Klan at first, as was the Oakville Mayor, but the efforts of the Black community in Toronto turned public opinion against them; Ira told the press that he was not Black, but of mixed white and Cherokee descent.  Three of the participating Klansmen, who were identified through license plates and the post-office box on a letter the Klan sent to the Globe newspaper, were brought to court.  Only one was found guilty and fined $50; when he appealed, the court instead gave him a three-month sentence.  Ira and Isabella married a month after the incident.

We are celebrating Black history and culture today, rejoicing in resilient, strong, faithful people but also recognizing the many horrific events of the past so we can all be more understanding and more compassionate going forward, working together to create a just and equal world where we shall all join hands, we shall all be free, and we shall all live in peace.  AMEN!