By Miranda Sagle
Driving through the small town of Lucan, Ontario, one would have no idea that it was once the site of the free-Black settlement known as the Wilberforce Colony.
Free Black people from Ohio established the small settlement in 1829 and by the mid-30’s it boasted a population of between 150-200 families. By the 1850s only a handful of these free Black settlers remained.
One of the only ways the site is commemorated is by a mural downtown that was painted in 2020. It depicts Black refugees coming to Canada through the Underground Railroad. It also features a quote from John Colborne, the governor who sold land to the original settlers of Wilberforce, stating
“We do not know people by their colour… come to us you will be entitled to all the privileges of the rest…”
While it is good that the Wilberforce colony is being recognized, the mural misrepresents the key reasons Wilberforce is worthy of being commemorated. Namely, it takes away from the original goals of those who first started Wilberforce and perpetuates a misleading narrative that Canada was a free and equal society that welcomed them.
These myths, along with the misconception that Wilberforce was a “failure,” come from early histories of the settlement and a lack of documentation. While circumventing these deep-seeded ideas is a slow and difficult process, scholarship and research has begun to reshape both academic and popular interpretations of this long-misunderstood community. Continue reading