FEM 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Black Canadians, Toronto District School Board, Afua Cooper
24 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
FEM Day 14 – March 7, 2018
Lecture 14 Continuation from Last Class
Afua Cooper. “The Secret of Slavery in Canada”
• The dominant narrative in Canada = “freedom’s land”, a safe haven for escaped Southern
slaves through the underground railroad
• Slavery = Canada’s best-kept secret. An institutionalized practice (legal and acceptable)
for over 200 years (1628-1833)
• Unlike the Southern U.S. Canada’s economy wasn’t based on slavery, but it was a society
with slaves (on exam)
- In southern US, slaves working on the farm, cultivating crops, that’s how the salves
were used to make income, economy and wealth was based on the planation and the
exporting of resources
- In Canada we didn’t have planation, so we didn’t use slaves to make the economy
- This shows how sever it was to be a slave
• Slaves died young. Average age of death for aboriginal slaves = 17.7 years; for blacks
25.2
• Black women regularly victims of sexual assault by their owners & other white men.
White men owned black women’s bodies & what came out of those bodies
- It was often that black women would be sexually assaulted by their white owners,
they forced them to have children and then sold them off
- What came out of the women were owned by the white men
• Dominant narrative = black women seduced white men; their sexuality was too
overpowering for white men to resist
- Black women were thought to be responsible for being a victim
- This was very common because they are being hyper sexual, they seduced white men,
white men could not resist them (could be seen for black and indigenous women)
• Slavery finally abolished in 1834 by British parliament
- Slaves always fought back and resisted
- There were some white privilege men who were against slavery and fought against it
- Children of slaves will be free at the age of 25, and then afterwards and their children
will be free
Anti-black Racism in Canada
1. Racial profiling
- (Cao 2011) - based Toronto Youth Crime and Victimization Survey, Wortley and Tanner
(2003) reported that 51% of Blacks (vs. 23% of whites) were stopped and questioned by
the police in the previous two years
o This is clear racial profiling
- Stopped for suspicious driving
- Holding on to this myth that it wasn’t so bad, but it really was
- People said to “fit the description”, black male, black hair
2. Criminalizing of black bodies
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The secret of slavery in canada : the dominant narrative in canada = freedom"s land , a safe haven for escaped southern slaves through the underground railroad, slavery = canada"s best-kept secret. An institutionalized practice (legal and acceptable) for over 200 years (1628-1833: unlike the southern u. s. canada"s economy wasn"t based on slavery, but it was a society with slaves (on exam) In southern us, slaves working on the farm, cultivating crops, that"s how the salves were used to make income, economy and wealth was based on the planation and the exporting of resources. In canada we didn"t have planation, so we didn"t use slaves to make the economy. This shows how sever it was to be a slave: slaves died young. Average age of death for aboriginal slaves = 17. 7 years; for blacks. 25. 2: black women regularly victims of sexual assault by their owners & other white men.
