The Promised Land : : History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond / / Boulou de b'Beri, Nina Reid-Maroney, Handel K. Wright.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press Pilot 2014-2015
• HerausgeberIn: Reid-Maroney, Nina,; Wright, Handel K. ,; de b'Beri, Boulou,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2018]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: African & Diasporic Cultural Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.) :; 2 figures

Eschewing the often romanticized Underground Railroad narrative that portrays southern Ontario as the welcoming destination of Blacks fleeing from slavery, The Promised Land reveals the Chatham-Kent area as a crucial settlement site for an early Black presence in Canada. The contributors present the everyday lives and professional activities of individuals and families in these communities and highlight early cross-border activism to end slavery in the United States and to promote civil rights in the United States and Canada. Essays also reflect on the frequent intermingling of local Black, White, and First Nations people. Using a cultural studies framework for their collective investigations, the authors trace physical and intellectual trajectories of Blackness that have radiated from southern Ontario to other parts of Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. The result is a collection that represents the presence and diffusion of Blackness and inventively challenges the grand narrative of history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. The Politics of Knowledge: The Promised Land Project and Black Canadian History as a Model of Historical "Manufacturation"? -- 2. Multiculturality before Multiculturalism: Troubling History and Black Identity beyond the Last Stop on the Underground Railroad -- 3. History, Historiography, and the Promised Land Project -- 4. William Whipper's Lands along the Sydenham -- 5. Nina Mae Alexander: Daughter of Promise -- 6. "A Contented Mind Is a Continual Feast": Tracing Intellectual Migrations through the Promised Land -- 7. Resisting Imperial Governance in Canada: From Trade and Religious Kinship to Black Narrative Pedagogy in Ontario -- 8. African American Abolitionist and Kinship Connections in Nineteenth- Century Delaware, Canada West, and Liberia -- 9. Reimagining the Dawn Settlement -- Epilogue Reflections: The Challenges and Accomplishments of the Promised Land -- Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index