George Webber wove the story of Joshua, a fictitious character representing one of many very real “Freedom-Seekers” fleeing enslavement in the early- to mid-1850s, during a new speaker series at Brock University Tuesday evening.
Through “factual incidents and people,” the Niagara-on-the-Lake resident, who has volunteered as an educator for the Voices of Freedom Park on Regent and Johnson Streets, presented Joshua’s story at the inaugural Geoheritage and Culture Speaker Series hosted by Niagara Geopark.
Webber has also acted as the vice-president of the NOTL Museum and is the founder and chair of Friends of the Forgotten, a community-based organization working toward rebuilding and reshaping the Niagara Baptist Church Burial Ground to better honour NOTL’s earliest Black settlers.
Webber’s narration, “Life and death in NOTL: From a Slave's Perspective,” tells how an enslaved man named Joshua heard about the Underground Railroad, a railway without rails and trains, but filled with hope and light.
However, 50 years before Joshua walked the Underground Railroad, it was the violent Chloe Cooley Incident that spurred Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe to introduce a law to abolish slavery in Upper Canada.
In 1793 Cooley was an enslaved domestic servant at the Vrooman home in Queenston. On March 14 of that year, Vrooman violently tied Cooley up with rope, put her in a boat and transported her across the Niagara River to sell her into New York State. Black abolitionist Peter Martin witnessed the event and reported it to Simcoe.
Shortly after, Simcoe signed the Act of 1793 which prohibited the importation of slaves into Upper Canada.
Upper Canada became the destination for freedom-seekers, and smack-dab in the middle of that was Newark, whose name was changed to Niagara in 1798. A century later, “-on-the-Lake” was added by the post office to avoid confusion with Niagara Falls.
Webber’s narrator, Joshua, knew that if he had children, as of 1802, they could attend a school for Black children at St. Andrew’s Church, which is still serving the community.
Joshua also could have known that an all-Black unit was petitioned for by 68-year-old former enslaved man Richard Pierpoint, who fought in the War of 1812 at the Battles of Queenston Heights and Stoney Creek.
Joshua would have been able to visit the home of William and Susannah Steward. She was a dressmaker and he owned a cartage business, but more importantly, Steward was one of 17 local Black people who signed a petition asking Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Bond Head to refuse to extradite fugitive Solomon Moseby.
In 1837, Moseby had stolen a horse in Kentucky and made his way to Niagara. Bounty hunters came for him and the judge ordered his extradition, but on that day, Moseby was rescued from the Niagara jail by more than 200 Black settlers who obstructed Moseby's removal.
Two Black residents, Herbert Holmes and Jacob Green, were killed during the incident. Moseby escaped, fled to England, and later returned to live in Niagara.
The Steward House still stands on the corner of Butler and John Streets.
But back to George Webber’s “factual story” about the fictional Joshua.
Joshua travelled hundreds of miles, from safe house to safe house, over unfamiliar terrain, alone, without food or water until he met Cataract House Hotel head waiter John Morrison in Niagara Falls, New York. Morrison and other Cataract House staff were an instrumental part of the Underground Railroad.
After grappling his way down the escarpment to the edges of the Niagara River, Joshua was ferried to Canada where he could have been met by another conductor, Harriet Tubman.
Tubman was an abolitionist who herself escaped slavery. She went on to make 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved people and moved to St. Catharines in 1851, said Webber.
Joshua was brought to the Coloured Village in Niagara where he would have found other settlers\ and been given clothes, food and a place to stay.
There was a lot of employment to be had in Niagara, but it was gruelling work, said Webber. And even though Black people could travel freely, buy and sell property and build a home, it was still a paternalistic society, ruled by the British Empire.
The Coloured Village was home to 400 people by 1837. Black people could run for town office, much as Coun. Humphrey Waters did. Waters and his wife owned a farm, grocery store, and tavern. Their home still stands on Gate Street.
Joshua would have had the freedom to marry outside of his race, explained Webber. When he died, he could have been buried in one of three local sites: St Andrew’s Cemetery, St. Mark’s Cemetery and the Baptist Burial Ground on Mississagua St.
In 1865 slavery was abolished in the U.S. and there were fewer than 100 families in Niagara. They “moved back to family in America or to other vibrant communities,” said Webber.
“We owe an expression of gratitude to the white abolitionists of Niagara-on-the-Lake for creating a haven for an emerging Black population in Canada,” Webber concluded.