Researchers Western University are using library resources to create a website archive that addresses a gap in the history of a small group of formerly enslaved Black refugees, who settled in London.

The lead researchers on the project, Miranda Green-Barteet and Alyssa MacLean say they used the narratives from a book published in 1856 by Benjamin Drew as their starting point. Drew was a U.S. abolitionist, who travelled to Canada to transcribe the oral stories of 16 slaves who originally lived in the Forest City after escaping plantations in the American South. Many individuals fled with the help of a secret network known as the Underground Railroad.

Now, Green-Barteet and MacLean say they are working to trace the paths the refugees took after arriving in London and plan to document those journeys through an interactive website to be dubbed Black Londoners Digital Archives hosted by Western Libraries.

“One of the things we are trying to do, is to ‘complicate’ the idea of the Underground Railroad,” said MacLean, an English studies professor. “There’s a sense that people who were trying to free themselves from slavery would basically run across the Canada-U.S. border and once they got to the Canadian side, it was like crossing a finish line. We’re trying to show it wasn’t a terminus. People’s lives continued.”

MacLean added that once the Civil War ended in 1864, many formerly enslaved individuals had to decide what they wanted to do or where to go. Some went back to America, some went back for family they left behind.

With help from Western Libraries staff and research assistants Kathleena Henricus and PhD candidate David Mitterauer, the group is working to compile a timeline of historical events that align with the arrival of the Black Londoners’ arrival. Researchers are going through the city’s census data and directories to try and track their next steps.

The team is also using a mapping and analysis tool to combine the narrative text from Drew’s book with images, maps and media to make the permanent website interactive. The website will also house past research conducted by Western University professors and librarians.

“The site will chart where these new Londoners originally lived and trace their relationships to each other and the rest of the city,” a news release from the university read. “This content, accessible across Western, London, and Canada, will provide a fuller historical record of Black Londoners.”

The researchers say Drew’s book was written to counter pro-slavery rhetoric in the U.S. from those who argued that escaped slaves faced a greater risk of poverty and were better off under the ‘protection’ of their enslavers. Accounts provided by Black Londoners in Drew’s book all portrayed themselves as successful following their escapes.

One of the former enslaved individuals, identified as Alfred T. Jones, is said to have owned an apothecary on Ridout Street in London. In Drew’s book, Alfred stated that he experienced “second-hand prejudice” from other Londoners, some of whom were also immigrants and unaccustomed to Black people. Other interviews from Black Londoners being analyzed by Western researchers described encountering racist remarks while attending predominantly white churches.

“Even though they were happy to be legally protected in Canada to some extent, they also pointed out the different segregation happening in London,” said MacLean. “Jones also identifies problems within the community itself, like poverty, and how it can be hard to build an integrated, peaceful society in London because racial prejudice already exists here.”

Green-Barteet, another researcher on the project and an undergraduate chair and professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies and English Studies said the positive and unpleasant aspects of the Black Londoners’ experiences are critical parts of their work, stating that understanding what live was like in the 19th century will help with getting a sense of what life is like for Black individuals presently.

“The problems that existed in the 1850s and ’60s didn’t just magically go away,” said Green-Barteet, who added that completing the project and website comes with challenges.

For now, researchers will continue to comb through evidence of where some of the 16 Black Londoners went off to. The project has proved difficult as there is a lack of photographs available and little evidence to confirm if those interviewed for Drew’s book used their real names in fear of being found by their former enslavers. Some of group dropped off London’s census records after 1865.

Researchers have set goals to try and determine where some of the refugees went after leaving London and establish what connections the Black community in London had with other locations in Ontario and with those who went back to the U.S.

MacLean and Green-Barteet say they are committed to the research, calling it a “forever project.” They plan to publish their findings and use them as the base for a forthcoming undergraduate course, cross-listed with English and Black Studies. The curriculum for that course plans to incorporate field trips to historical sites in London, Chatham, Buxton, Hamilton and St. Catharines.

“Complicating the Underground Railroad means caring about the outcome of the full extent of the lives of these self-emancipated individuals,” MacLean said. “We want to show what happened to them, if we can.”

More details about the project can be found on Western’s website.