Crossing the Border - 9780252031830

Crossing the BorderA Free Black Community in Canada\nAuthor(s): Sharon A. Roger Hepburn\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Illinois Press, United States\nImprint: University of Illinois Press\nISBN-13: 9780252031830, 978-0252031830\nSynopsis\nHow formerly enslaved people found freedom and built community in Ontario\n\n In 1849, the Reverend William King and fifteen once-enslaved people he had inherited founded the Canadian settlement of Buxton on Ontario land set aside for sale to Blacks. Though initially opposed by some neighboring whites, Buxton grew into a 700-person agricultural community that supported three schools, four churches, a hotel, a lumber mill, and a post office. \n\n Sharon A. Roger Hepburn tells the story of the settlers from Buxtons founding of through its first decades of existence. Buxton welcomed Black men, woman, and children from all backgrounds to live in a rural setting that offered benefits of urban life like social contact and collective security..