Footsteps to Freedom 1999: Day Six

Update posted on Thu, Aug 19, 1999, at 2:42:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

The Elgin Settlement
North Buxton, Ontario

Multimedia Available for this Event. Go to Multimedia Page.

We visited the Elgin Settlement in North Buxton which was founded in 1849. Soon the population, which included many fugitive slaves from the United States, grew to nearly 2,000. While at the museum we saw artifacts, diaries, and papers emphasizing the history and accomplishments of the original settlers. We learned that the settlement, built around an agricultural economy, included many thriving businesses such as a saw and grist mill, a potash factory, a brickyard, hotel, blacksmith shop, and dry goods store. The settlers emphasized quality education for themselves and their children, building several schools.

We learned that fugitive slaves would speak using code words and referred to escaping slave children as "baggage." Women were called "dry goods" and men, "hardware." We saw a statue of a Black groomsmen or jockey. The jockey is offensive to many Blacks today, but during Underground Railroad days, a jockey holding a lantern or red cloth was a symbol to fugitive slaves that they could stop at the adjacent "safe house" to rest and eat before traveling on. Buxton is one of the few remaining Black Canadian settlements still in existence since the pre-Civil War era. Today it is inhabited by descendants of those original settlers who elected to remain in Canada.

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