Sophia Burthen Pooley (1772 – 1860) was a formerly enslaved African American in New York before being brought to Canada, taken by British Loyalist and Mohawk leader Joseph Brant. Her testimony, documented in American abolitionist Benjamin Drew's book The Refugee: or Narratives of the Fugitive Slaves in Canada (1856), is considered to be one of the only first-person narratives regarding slavery in Canada by a enslaved person during Canada's British Regime.[1]

Biography

Pooley was born into slavery 1772 at Fishkill, New York,[2][3] to Oliver and Dinah Burthen.[1][4] There are variations of her age said in her testimony when she was kidnapped by slavers,[5] where she recounts that she was 7 during the incident,[1] while historians agree on being 12 or 13 instead.[6] What Pooley recounted in later years was that, as a child, she was playing in currant bushes in Fishkill with her sister before being blindfolded by the son-in-laws of their owner and delivered into slave traders going into what was then known as Upper Canada.[7][8] Her sister's situation remains unknown after their joint kidnapping.[1][6]

Pooley was brought to the Niagara region around 1778 to be sold to Mohawk chieftain Joseph Brant,[9][10] who was a founding leader and early settler known as Burlington, Ontario.[11] She lived with Brant near the Six Nations of the Grand River for around 20 years with other slaves of his.[1][2] Pooley has been described an isolated experience, as she may have been one of the only Black woman in Southern Ontario at the time of her enslavement.[12] During her stay, Pooley had learned how to speak Mohawk, and went on hunting trips with Brant's family apart from her normal duties.[13] Pooley recalled her childhood friendship with Brant's daughters, Peggy, Mary, and Katy, indicating closeness to the family even though she was retained as a slave.[1] She had also described Catherine Brant's, Brant's third wife, abuse towards her, calling the woman a "barbarous creature" after attacking Pooley and delivering serious facial wounds to her.[8][10]

Shortly before Brant's death, Pooley was then sold to and enslaved by a man named Samuel Hatt in 1807,[10] who had paid $100 for her.[9][11][14] Pooley had lived in Ancaster with Hatt as a slave for a number of years, even after slavery was abolished in Canada.[15] In 1833, she recounted the incident when she was told she was free under the British Emancipation Proclamation,[8] and how Hatt "did not stop me—he said he could not take the law into his own hand," and ran away afterwards to what is now known as Queen's Bush, Waterloo.[9][14][16]

In 1855, American abolitionist Benjamin Drew traveled to 14 Black communities in Canada West, for the purpose of collecting several former slaves testimonies to collect "their experiences of actual workings of slavery."[14][17] Pooley, thought to be in her late nineties, gave what is the only existing first-person narrative of an enslaved person in Canada to Drew.[14][18][13] Drew's book, The Refugee: or Narratives of the Fugitive Slaves in Canada, was then published in 1856,[17] Pooley's testimony among 113 other interviews that Drew chose to include at the time of publication.[17] Drew's depiction of Pooley's account has been questioned, as he maintained a narrative that she had fled as a fugitive from the United States to Upper Canada, instead of her experience of being transported to Canada under chattel slavery.[14]

Pooley had married a Black farmer in Waterloo, Robert Pooley,[1] but the marriage ended when her husband left Pooley for a white woman.[4] There is no indication from Pooley's narrative or historical sources that she had any children.[1]

Pooley died, in her late nineties, in 1860 at Peel Township.[2]

Legacy

Pooley's life story was included in the 2009 exhibit of Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada held by the Archives of Ontario at the Royal Ontario Museum.[6][19] The Joseph Brant Museum, a replica of Brant's original residency where Pooley lived as a domestic slave, held presentations in 2014 to provide interpretations to Pooley's testimony in The Refugee.[13]

There have been proposals to have a permanent plaque for Pooley for the City of Hamilton since 2019.[20][21] There were arrangements to unveil the initiative during Black History Month in 2020, but were halted due to quarantine for COVID-19. Former Art Gallery of Ontario curator and historian, Andrew Hunter,[22] was contacted by city of Hamilton officials regarding the municipal plaque in 2019. Hunt ended up with multiple bylaw fines in his personal signs regarding Pooley's life, as delays continued to highlight the city of Hamilton's history about colonialism and slavery.[2][20] In 2023, Pooley was one of 16 Black Hamiltonians featured on city walk banners in Hamilton's Black Month History initiative We Are Hamilton — Black History Remembered.[21] The permanent municipal plaque is still underway with Hamilton Civic Museums collaborating with the Afro Canadian Caribbean Association regarding the project.[21]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Elgersman, Maureen (1999). Unyielding Spirits: Black Women and Slavery in Early Canada and Jamaica (1st ed.). New York: Routledge (published 2013). pp. 28–30. ISBN 9781315053066. OCLC 936411541.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Craggs, Samantha (October 6, 2021). "Author says City of Hamilton is 'aggressively' removing his signs honouring a former slave". CBC News. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  3. ↑ Shadd, Adrienne Lynn (2010). The journey from tollgate to parkway: African Canadians in Hamilton. Toronto: Natural Heritage Book. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-55488-394-3.
  4. 1 2 Holmstead, Carly; Hefford, Kayla; Jennifer, Williams (2018-11-25). "The life of Sophia Pooley and the Queen's Bush Settlement – The Black Past in Guelph: Remembered and Reclaimed". The Black Past in Guelph. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  5. ↑ Hunter, Andrew (2022). It was dark there all the time: Sophia Burthen and the legacy of slavery in Canada. Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Editions. pp. 132–134. ISBN 978-1-77310-221-4.
  6. 1 2 3 Goddard, John (February 9, 2009). "Exhibit tells story of Mohawk chief's slave | The Star". www.thestar.com. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  7. ↑ Rickert-Hall, Joanna Rickert-Hall (2021-04-23). "Sophia Burthen Pooley's legacy preserved in compilation of oral histories". The Record. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  8. 1 2 3 Cooper, Afua (2000-10-01). "Constructing Black Women's Historical Knowledge". Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice. 25 (1): 39–50. ISSN 1715-0698.
  9. 1 2 3 Clarke, George Elliott (2005). ""This is no hearsay": reading the Canadian slave narratives". Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. 43 (1): 28.
  10. 1 2 3 Crouch, Christian Ayne (2016). "The Black City: African and Indian Exchanges in Pontiac's Upper Country". Early American Studies. 14 (2): 284–318. ISSN 1543-4273.
  11. 1 2 Escoffery, Heather (February 15, 2021). "Hidden Histories: Sophia Pooley and Canadian Slavery". The Black Past in Guelph. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
  12. ↑ Batchelor, Lillion (1999-01-01). "The Niagara Movement Pamphlet". Buffalo Quarters Historical Society Papers: 10.
  13. 1 2 3 Post, Ian Holroyd-Special to Burlington Post Burlington (2014-02-21). "Burlington audience hears story of slave owned by Joseph Brant". Inside Halton. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "Tainted Wealth: Canada Has Tried to Erase Its History of Slavery | The Walrus". 2022-02-25. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  15. ↑ Shadd, Adrienne Lynn (2010). The journey from tollgate to parkway: African Canadians in Hamilton. Toronto: Natural Heritage Book. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-55488-394-3.
  16. ↑ Shadd, Adrienne Lynn (2010). The journey from tollgate to parkway: African Canadians in Hamilton. Toronto: Natural Heritage Book. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-55488-394-3.
  17. 1 2 3 Black, Frederick R. (July 1972). "Bibliographical Essay: Benjamin Drew's Refugee and the Black Family". The Journal of Negro History. 57 (3): 284–289. doi:10.2307/2717341. ISSN 0022-2992.
  18. ↑ Goddard, John (2016). Joseph Brant Museum: inside Hamilton's Museums. Toronto: Dundurn. ISBN 9781459737372. OCLC 953718376.
  19. ↑ "Black History Month 2008 at the ROM". Royal Ontario Museum. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  20. 1 2 Campbell, Craig (2021-09-27). "City of Hamilton planning plaque recognizing story of enslaved Black woman". The Hamilton Spectator. ISSN 1189-9417. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  21. 1 2 3 Campbell, Craig (2023-02-03). "Dundas Sophia Burthen Pooley signs part of Black History Month initiative". The Hamilton Spectator. ISSN 1189-9417. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  22. ↑ Star, Andrew Hunter Special to the (2017-10-03). "Why I quit the Art Gallery of Ontario: former Canadian-art curator Andrew Hunter explains". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2023-07-25.

Further reading

  • Hunter, Andrew. (2022). It was dark there all the time: Sophia Burthen and the legacy of slavery in Canada. Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Editions. ISBN 978-1-77310-221-4
  • Shadd, Adrienne Lynn. (2010). The journey from tollgate to parkway: African Canadians in Hamilton. Toronto: Natural Heritage Book. ISBN 978-1-55488-394-3
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