Book description
"The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! stands out
as an engaging and highly readable account of the lives of Black
people in Toronto in the 1800s. Adrienne Shadd, Afua Cooper and
Karolyn Smardz Frost offer many helpful points of entry for readers
learning for the first time about Black history in Canada. They also
give surprising and detailed information to enrich the understanding
of people already passionate about this neglected aspect of our own
past."
- Lawrence Hill, Writer
The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!, a richly
illustrated book, examines the urban connection of the clandestine
system of secret routes, safe houses and "conductors." Not
only does it trace the story of the Underground Railroad itself and
how people courageously made the trip north to Canada and freedom, but
it also explores what happened to them after they arrived. And it does
so using never-before-published information on the African-Canadian
community of Toronto. Based entirely on new research carried out for
the experiential theatre show "The Underground Railroad: Next
Stop, Freedom!" at the Royal Ontario Museum, this volume offers
new insights into the rich heritage of the Black people who made
Toronto their home before the Civil War. It portrays life in the city
during the nineteenth century in considerable detail.
This exciting new book will be of interest to readers young and old
who want to learn more about this unexplored chapter in Toronto's history.
Afua Cooper's doctoral dissertation on Henry Bibb is a pioneering
work on the life of the 19th-century abolitionist. She teaches
African-Canadian history at the University of Toronto and is co-author
of "We're Rooted Here and They Can't Pull Us Up": Essays in
African Canadian Women's History (University of Toronto Press, 1994). In
February 2002, Afua curated "A Glimpse of Black Life in Victorian
Toronto: 1850-1860" for the City of Toronto Museum Division. An
award-winning poet, her fifth book of poetry, Copper Woman and Other
Poems, is being published by Natural Heritage in the spring of 2006. Her
most recent book is The Hanging of Angelique: Canada, Slavery and the
Burning of Montreal, published by HarperCollins Canada in January 2006.
