Black in the Townships : Exhibit Research Grapples with Uncomfortable Truths and Fragmented Archives

The authors describe the fragmented history of Black slave ownership and attitudes towards Blacks in the Eastern Townships, dating back to the 1790s to the present. For example, in 1794, the New York-born Loyalist Philip Luke (1753-1824), who settled in St. Armand, in Missisquoi County, in 1784, inherited six enslaved persons from his late mother's estate. In 1824, when Luke died, the ownership of these and other enslaved people was passed on to his son, Jacob Vedeer Luke. Slavery was abolished within the British Empire in 1834, which included the Eastern Townships, although in neighbouting Vermont, slavery had been abolished in 1777. The authors describe the role the Townships played in the Underground Railway for escaped U.S. slaves, as well as the introduction of "Blackface" musical and theatrical performances by white entertainers in the Townships in the early twentieth century. The authors also discuss the jazz craze that swept across the region in the 1920s, when Black orchestras from Montreal toured the region, and the jazz revival in the area from the 1940s to the 1960s. An outdoor and online exhibit at Bishop's University's Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC) will be launched in February 2022 to make Black history in the Eastern Townships better known.

Quebec Heritage News

Vol. 16

no. 1

Winter 2022

10-11

en