Читать книгу Benjamin Drew. The Refugee. Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada онлайн

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All these writings and publications came to fruition because, although by the 1850s Black people in Canada had represented a long-standing presence in the land, all through the 1855s and 1860s there would be evidence of the extent of Black involvement in abolitionism and anti-slavery work in Canada West. Marking the province as a pivotal spot in the anti-slavery struggle, authors and abolitionists attached to Western Canada started to intervene in the anti-slavery arena by means of autobiographical, fictional, or testimonial writing, as Benjamin Drew’s work demonstrates. As Sawallisch asserts

The 1850s saw yet an increase in the popularity – and the necessity – of literature that catered to abolitionism’s goal to appeal to the moral opposition to slavery and the requests of their audience. Black authors like Smallwood, Stewsrd, Ward and Warren demonstrated, however, that they did not depend entirely on the phenomenon of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 to further fuel the distribution of their narratives. (20)