Tensions

 Shannon Prince is the sixth generation descendant of residents of the Elgin Settlement, or Buxton, one of the settlements of escaped slaves who found safety in Canada. She is a curator and historian at the historic site and museum at Buxton, and her commentary at this spot in the exhibit says a lot.

This display case features a rifle and book by black settlers. The engraving is about the Harpers Ferry raid of 1859, one of the points of no return that would lead to the Civil War.

John Brown was a white abolitionist who spent time out west fighting for that cause. He came to Canada in 1858 looking for help in planning the raid on Harpers Ferry, where a federal arsenal was located. His intention was to start a revolution.

James Monroe Jones had been born in slavery in North Carolina, but bought by his father and brought to freedom in Canada. He became a well regarded gunsmith, and the rifle is one of his. He would help finance the Harpers Ferry raid. Abraham Shadd, the patriarch of a black Abolitionist family, relocated his family to Canada after his daughter moved there. The book is his journal.

Osborne Perry Anderson had been born into a free family in Pennsylvania and went north to Canada. He took part in John Brown's raid, evading death and capture, and lived to tell the tale, returning north.

The outer wall of the exhibit space features the timeline told throughout, spanning from 1850 to 1877.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was one of those pivotal points in the road to the Civil War. The use of the photograph of Peter at lower right is vivid. I have seen the photo before, but it is always haunting.

In 1852, the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin galvanized the north in its depiction of the cruelties of slavery. 

Two years later, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which enabled local settlers to decide for themselves as to if a new territory and state would be free or slave. Settlers from both factions rushed west into the area. 

The Civil War effectively began in the west, with abolitionist and pro-slavery settlers killing each other for years in Kansas and Missouri before Fort Sumter. One of the bloodiest incidents of that period was the attack on the antislavery town of Lawrence, Kansas.

The Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court in 1857 ruled that the federal government could not restrict slavery, and that black people, free or enslaved, had no rights that a white person was obliged to respect.

The Harpers Ferry raid on the federal arsenal took place in October 1859. John Brown led the raid, took hostages, and was brought down by Marines sent up from Washington. Colonel Robert E. Lee was the Union officer that oversaw the Marine response, and Brown would later be executed for treason. He would be called the Meteor of the War, the one man who did more than anyone else to bring it about.

Buxton was one of the black settlements, in what is now Ontario. Freed slaves established such communities, with businesses, schools, churches, and a new life for themselves.

Civil War

 Close To Conflict: Canada And The American Civil War is the current special exhibit at the Canadian War Museum, taking place until early January. I had attended the opening night event, and came back in June to properly photograph the exhibit. I found it enlightening and very well put together.

Two neighbours, but different in their approach- the United States and the Canadian colonies in the first half of the 19th century.

The Civil War would be the great cataclysm in American history. And it would be hugely influential on shaping Canada's character.

At the time, Canada was a collection of British colonies and territories. The colonies had their own legislatures and leaders, but Britain still signed off on things.

After the War of 1812, Canadians and Americans started getting along better, and free trade helped move goods and people across the border. The Civil War would change that.

There are a series of videos inside the exhibit featuring current day commentary. Quotes from each are found here at the beginning as to what the Civil War meant for Canada.

The Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850, creating the circumstances where fugitive slaves in the free north could be the subject of hunters looking for escaped slaves. Even free blacks feared for their safety. The Underground Railroad, which had made a point of helping escaped slaves north, extended north into the British North American colonies, as slavery had been abolished completely throughout the British empire a generation before. Thousands of families headed into Canada.

Harriet Tubman was a conductor of the Underground Railroad and one of the giants of the abolition movement. Josiah Henderson, an escaped slave who became a conductor, established a settlement in Ontario for runaway slaves to build a new life in a state of freedom.

Nowhere in the free north states was there safety for black people. The notice from Boston advises caution, even though the state had formally abolished slavery decades before.

This is perhaps the most haunting artifact of the entire exhibit- shackles to restrain a black child by a slave catcher.

Peaceful

Here we have the main stained glass window inside Knox Presbyterian. It was the design of a Scottish artist, William Wilson, and takes as its theme the birth of Christ

I looked back down the aisle.

Another look to the altar.

I headed up to the balcony. This sitting area is found here.

The balcony stained glass is also by Wilson- two decades after he designed the first. He was losing his sight at this point in his life but dictated his design to a colleague, who carried out the work. The theme of this window is Revelations.

A look into the sanctuary below.

I came out into the garden courtyard.

Sanctuary

 Knox Presbyterian Church is downtown, and it is a regular feature for Doors Open. It was founded in 1844. The current church dates to 1932, but looks older. It blends Gothic and Norman influences in its architecture.

In a side room off the entrance hall, historical items of the church were found.

A peek out into the garden. The sanctuary is to the left, and one of the staircases ascending to the balcony is at right.

The sanctuary has these graceful arched columns. Most of the windows are translucent.

A look to the front of the church, and the main altar, with its beautiful stained glass.

Plaques are found at one corner before the altar.

They commemorate the congregation members who fought and died in both World Wars.

Colours of the 207th Battalion are here, placed here after the First World War.

The baptismal font and the pulpit are close by.

Across the way, another pulpit and a grand piano.