Descendants of Black communities in Ontario's Grey County preserve history despite adversity
Road sign marking historic Black community stolen last month
When Gael Jackson first visited her ancestor's home, it stirred something inside her.
"I felt the slaves," she said. "I felt their spirit so strong that I had to leave."
Jackson's ancestors came to Canada in the 1850s, fleeing slavery on the Underground Railroad, a journey that eventually led them to Ontario's Grey County. They settled in a place then called Negro Creek, one of several historic Black settlements dotting the area.
Ontario's early Black settlers often found their new lives in Canada marred by racism.
"I am so proud that they were strong enough and they had faith enough to come above it," she said.
Jackson grew up in nearby Owen Sound and recalls anti-Black racism was a part of her childhood as well.
"There was a lot of prejudice going on at that time, when I was growing up," she said. "But we fought through it with humour, a lot of great stories and everything, and we survived."
Eventually, Jackson began to write those stories down. She published a book last year, Pages of My Life: Growing Up in Owen Sound. During her research, she learned her ancestors had once lived at Negro Creek.
"I was escalated," she said. "I just was escalated"
Jackson now lives in Toronto. Her large family have mostly left Grey County, so she said it's especially important for her to preserve their legacy there.
'How are we going to respond?'
Preserving that legacy has been a life's work for Carolynn Wilson, co-founder and curator of the Sheffield Park Black History Museum.
She runs the museum with her sister Sylvia, at the site of a former campground in Clarksburg, Ont. It showcases the lives and contributions of the province's early Black communities, the loyalists, soldiers, sailors, entrepreneurs and others who once lived in places like Negro Creek.
Recently, a sign marking Negro Creek Road was stolen. It's often gone missing over the years, something Wilson believes highlights the need to educate the public about the area's Black history.
"It's like in our music, the minister would call something, and the people would repeat," she said. "The call is there now …how are we going to respond?"
Wilson said she wants the sign returned permanently. And she'd like more to be done to educate the wider community about Black history.
"I'd like them to know and be able to name the people and the accomplishments that we've made," she said. "A lot of people do not realize."
Film explores sign thefts
Community organizer and producer Ben Heywood-MacLeod is not a descendent of Black settlers, but grew up in the area and wasn't always aware of the history.
"My entire childhood, I would pass the road sign every day," he said. "I wouldn't think too much about it. I must have asked the question growing up but it just was kind of part of the landscape."
He produced a film about the recurring sign thefts.
"Sitting in those rooms and interviewing the descendants," he said, "I really came to understand that the history I learned growing up was only one of many, and that there were many beautiful but also difficult stories that we hadn't heard."
Road sign theft 'intolerable'
For Jackson, the theft of the road sign isn't a simple act of vandalism — it's a sign of something deeper.
"You know, there is still animosity out there," she said. "They're just disrespecting what my people went through. And I just feel that it's intolerable."
But whether through her book, Heywood-MacLeod's film or the work of the Sheffield Park Black History Museum, Jackson said she takes comfort knowing there are people working to honour that memory as well.
"I'm much a part of history," she said. "And I feel that it's very important that history prevails."
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
