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

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Shadd’s thought is, thus, representative of a transnational and cross-border approach to abolitionism and it also represents the seed of Black Canadian experience and identity in (still) British North America. Her ideological agenda is best explained in her preeminent work, the emigrationist manifesto A Plea for Emigration or Notes of Canada West, in its Moral, Social and Political Aspect: With Suggestions Respecting Mexico, West Indies and Vancouver Island, for the Information of Colored Emigrants, which appeared in 1852. Although originally addressed to a Black U.S. audience, the text gained importance because it was published in the same year that the now classic and foundational Roughing It in the Bush, or, Life in Canada by British Colonial pioneer Susanna Moodie. This text has become a milestone to understanding the beginning of Canadian literature and the Canadian experience no longer under the auspices of the British lore.

As Moodie’s initial distaste for the hardships of “roughing it” gradually changed to an eventual earnest commitment to Canada’s future so did Shadd’s guide as it was welcomed by abolitionists and Black Canadian settlements. In fact, Shadd’s text can be considered foundational to (Black) Canadian literature as it bears testimony “of the earlier black narratives bearing on Canada challenge the elision of black experiences and writing in many previous accounts of midnineteenth-century Canadian life and letters” (Siemerling 105). In fact, Shadd’s manifesto “came at the height of the American Renaissance, with its simultaneous celebration and questioning of the United States” (Siemerling 105) which, together with her reflections on Black emancipation and her transnational approach makes it an outstanding contribution to African American culture and identity.