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

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Shadd is a remarkable figure in North American history and culture. As a daughter of notable free Black abolitionists, she became “key to reconfiguring the North American mid-nineteenth century from a perspective that includes the Black Canadian Renaissance” and linked “a number of developments and other writers who were crucial to this cross-border transnational context” (Siemerling 99). Her intellectual drive, her social commitment and her abolitionist militancy turned her into a prominent figure in the Black Canadian 1850s context. She soon proved her convinced ideology when she stepped into the world of abolitionism by publishing two documents, a letter to Frederick Douglass printed in the North Star and a pamphlet called Hints to the Colored People of the North. Yet, it is acknowledged that one of the most, if not the most, relevant contributions of Shadd’s was her devoted defense of emigrationism. In fact, her resolution to move to Canada in 1851 indicated her willingness to take decisive action against The Fugitive Slave Act since this law “gave new urgency to the debate about emigrationism” (Siemerling 102). Even though the Garrisonian abolitionist wing was adamant to consider emigration as a feasible way to not only escape slavery but also to reclaim Black personhood – especially after the failure of having considered Sierra Leone or Liberia as possible destinies that could embrace the freedom of fugitive slaves –, emigration to Canada presented different perspectives. More often than not, it became not only an option but, many a time, a necessity after the Fugitive Slave Act. Shadd was a full supporter of this view and considered Canada a site of human rights and inherent Black empowerment that projected a similar potential across the border. In this light, this Black abolitionist “reiterated in 1855 a number of themes that recurred again and again in the debate of the 1850s, including the theme of the dual role of free blacks in Canada as living proof of the possible self-sufficiency and even prosperity of emancipated slaves and as a menacing Sword of Damocles over the United States” (Simerling 104).