underground railroad site
canadas involvement in the underground railroad
Originally “Shipman’s Corners” by the mid 1800s, St. Catharines was known as the “City of Refuge, the City of Good Will” for scores of slaves and refugees escaping the United States. They received fair wage for jobs such as waiting on tables in the popular natural spring spas of St. Catharines or joined the Colored Corps of Black militia who served the Crown.
Some were brought here by masters taking the waters of the local spas of St. Catharines (Slavery and Freedom in Niagara by Michael Power and Nancy Butler, The Niagara Historical Society, NOTL, 1993).
The Welland House Spa was build by freed slaves
and employed them for service.
[ www.motivationgraphics.ca designed the Sanctuary Retreat logo with its North Star to emphasize the FreedomLine of history and the FreedomLine for our hearts today.]
Covert networks of activists and sympathisers concealed their true purpose behind railroad terms for that line to freedom. Their inspiration came from that holiday of freedom, Passover, which celebrates over 3,000 years ago when Moses, under God, lead his people out of slavery under Pharaoh Ramses II into the promised land of milk and honey. Harriett Tubman (1820-1913), renowned Underground Railroad conductor, became known as the “Moses” of her people. Born into slavery in Maryland, she escaped in 1849 and spent the next decade returning to the south to lead hundreds of freedom seekers north.
For eight years she lived in St. Catharines, and at one point rented a house in the neighbourhood of the small log church Salem Chapel (1855 replaced by the St. Catharines British Methodist Episcopal Church- a heritage site with a three-sided balcony to fit the escaped refugees) at 92 Geneva, a five minute walk from Sanctuary Retreat Bed and Breakfast SPA.
With the 1850 fugitive slave law any slave holder/overseer could go to the northern states and capture any black person whether they were free or allegidly escaped. 40,000 escaped to Canada. From taking refugees to New York State, Harriet’s subsequent rescues came to Canada.
William Hamilton Merritt founded St. Catharines, built the suspension bridge and the Welland Canal and was the main individual who sold the black people their property– homes in the Geneva-North Street area, two blocks from Sanctuary Retreat Bed and Breakfast SPA.
An Ontario Heritage Foundation Plaque honours the memory and gravesite of Reverend Anthony Burns (1834-1862), at Victoria Lawn Cemetery– five minutes from Sanctuary Retreat– was the last person tried under the Fugitive Slave Act in Massachusetts. The verdict returned him to slavery inciting street riots. Boston abolutionists bought his freedom and educated him before he settled in St. Catharines.
The Lock 3 St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canal Centre have an ongoing Follow the North Star exhibit. Turn right just before the Homer Bridge and continue to Lock 3. (905) 984-8880 . Take in a bird’s eye view of the entire canal while you are there.
Richard Pierpoint was a freedom seeker. He received a land grant in St. Catharines in recognition of his military service to the Crown during the American Revolutionary War, when he served with the Butler’s Rangers. Disbanded at Niagara, “Captain Dick” settled near here and joined the Coloured Corps at the outbreak of the War of 1812. His plaque is a five minute walk to Centennial Park.
Lakeside Park, since the 1920’s has been the site of huge Emancipation Day celebrations each August which attracted thousands of Blacks.
The St. Catharines library has Special Collections and many Black History nonfiction books on the stacks as well as fiction and videos.
The British Methodist Episcopal Church (Salem Chapel)
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Site
92 Geneva Street, St. Catharines, Ontario, L2R 4N2
905-682-0993
Sunday Worship Service: 11:00 a.m.
Tours by Appointment: Mrs. Ada Summers 905-984-6769
