Document generated on 10/01/2021 3:17 a.m. Ontario History On Their Own Terms Temperance in Southern Ontario’s Black Community (1830-1860) Lorene Bridgen Volume 101, Number 1, Spring 2009 Article abstract This article examines the role of African Canadians in southern Ontario’s URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065675ar temperance movement and the extent to which temperance offered them DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065675ar freedom. It discusses African Canadians who drank, including the Reverend John Jackson and James T. Rapier, and the participation of key figures such as See table of contents Henry Bibb, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, William Whipper and the Reverend Israel Campbell, who supported the cause of temperance by offering individual support, organizing voluntary reform and endorsing legal enforcement. Also Publisher(s) analyzed are the contributions of Whites to African-Canadian temperance. It concludes that African Canadians played a more important role in the cause of The Ontario Historical Society temperance than previously known. ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Bridgen, L. (2009). On Their Own Terms: Temperance in Southern Ontario’s Black Community (1830-1860). Ontario History, 101(1), 64–82. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065675ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2009 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ ONTARIOOn Their HISTORY Own Terms: Temperance in Southern Ontario’s Black Community (1830-1860) by Lorene Bridgen uring the mid nineteenth cen- or. Black leaders believed that remaining tury, African Americans entered temperate would prove to Whites that Canada in search of freedom. they were a moral people, who deserved DThey found their place in Southern On- their freedom. tario through their participation in the The Black community was far from temperance movement, which played homogeneous, as their attempts to a major role in the African-Canadian achieve a temperate society clearly dem- community’s struggle for equality and re- onstrate. Some believed in the right to spect. Through it, Black temperance ad- drink any kind of alcohol, either all the vocates sought to improve the lives and time or in moderation, while others only reputations of their fellow community accepted beer and wine. Of those who members. This paper will document the practised temperance, some believed in extent and diversity of this significant ac- organized voluntary temperance, while tivism in Southern Ontario’s Black com- others preferred the rigours of legally en- munity and the degree to which temper- forced temperance. Still others followed ance offered freedom.1 the ideal of individual temperance which Enslaved and free Blacks continu- consisted of practising temperance in all ously struggled for freedom in the Unit- things, without the assistance of laws or ed States; the law kept many enslaved, societies. No matter the method, temper- while many Whites refused to recognize ance advocates chose to be involved. the citizenship of those who were free. This article begins with a brief de- As a result, many free Black leaders en- scription of the historiography of tem- couraged temperance, which was linked perance before going on to discuss drink- to respectability. The fight for freedom ing among African Canadians, including through temperance was also critical to the negative stigma that some associated African Canadians, but there has been with it. Finally, there will be a discussion little discussion of it in Canada, possibly of African-Canadian temperance in three because Canadian Black history empha- groups: individual supporters, organized sizes issues such as the incoming of refu- voluntary temperance reformers, and ad- gees. Although Canadian Blacks were vocates of legally enforced temperance. legally free after 1834, Whites still saw These types will also include Whites who them as economically and socially inferi- worked with Black leaders directly or on 1 I would like to thank Dr. Christina Simmons and Dr. Nina Reid-Maroney for their advice and as- sistance in writing this article. Ontario History / Volume CI No. 1 / Spring 2009 a more independent level.2 Primary documents such Abstract as personal narratives, and This article examines the role of African Canadians in south- newspapers such as the ern Ontario’s temperance movement and the extent to which Voice of the Fugitive and temperance offered them freedom. It discusses African Cana- the Provincial Freeman dians who drank, including the Reverend John Jackson and illustrate the extent to James T. Rapier, and the participation of key figures such as Henry Bibb, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, William Whipper and which these groups were the Reverend Israel Campbell, who supported the cause of tem- or were not involved. perance by offering individual support, organizing voluntary reform and endorsing legal enforcement. Also analyzed are A Brief the contributions of Whites to African-Canadian temperance. It concludes that African Canadians played a more impor- Historiography of tant role in the cause of temperance than previously known. Temperance Résumé: Dans cet article nous examinons la participation emperance in the Af- des Afro-Canadiens dans les mouvements de tempérance dans rican-Canadian com- le sud de l’Ontario, et dans quelle mesure ces mouvements pu- T rent contribuer à leur libération. Nous étudierons le cas d’Afro- munity has long been over- Canadiens comme le Révérend John Jackson ou James T. Ra- looked. Historians have pier, qui buvaient, et le rôle clef joué par des personnes comme written about Whites and Henry Bibb, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, William Whipper et le Aboriginals in Canada, Révérend Israël Campbell. Offrant des soutiens individuels, incitant à des réformes volontaires, appuyant le recours à des and Whites and African mesures légales, ils se firent les champions de la tempérance. Americans in the United Les contributions des Blancs à l’action des Afro-Canadiens States. But temperance dans les mouvements de tempérance, seront aussi analysées. was a critical issue to Af- De cette étude, il ressort que les Afro-Canadiens ont joué un rican Canadians as well, rôle beaucoup plus important que celui qu’on leur accorde généralement dans la défense de la cause de la tempérance. mainly because temper- ance offered them a way to take control of their lives in a country without slavery. This is a key dustrial English working class used al- point that scholars have ignored. cohol to escape the pressures of labour, Drinking and temperance were af- but with industrialization time became fected by the broad cultural changes money to employers and drinking was brought about by industrialization. E.P. seen to hamper discipline and produc- Thompson argues that a change in the tivity. As pre-industrial, home-based sense of time affected labour discipline, production was replaced by a more ef- including the use of alcohol. The pre-in- ficient, factory model, drinking, once 2 The Reverend William King, a White minister, worked independently with African Canadians. In 1849, he established the Buxton/Elgin settlement which voluntarily abstained from all intoxicating liquor. Donald George Simpson, Under the North Star: Black Communities in Upper Canada Before Confedera- tion (1867) (Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc., 2005), 267. ONTARIO HISTORY part of familial bonding, was now dis- drank, arguing that the production and couraged.3 consumption of alcohol corresponded to While labour provides a deeper social and cultural categories such as la- understanding as to why people would bour, family life, and economic develop- practise temperance, it is not the only ment. He examines the social history of catalyst at work. Paul Johnson, in his drinking in Canada and shows that tem- study of Rochester, New York, argues perance advocates drastically changed that the middle class saw evangelical- perceptions of alcohol over the course of ism as a way to rid the world of sin while the nineteenth century.6 providing a more efficient workplace. These sources provide a clearer un- And Sharon Anne Cook argues that in derstanding of temperance, but they do the late nineteenth century the Ontario not include the Black community. In Women’s Christian Temperance Union a valuable American source that does, (WCTU) had a vision for society which Donald Yacovone argues that the organi- resulted in an “evangelical feminism;” a zational experience African-American climate in which women felt liberated leaders gained in the fight for temperance from the constraints of their inferior helped the emergence of an independent status just as working-class men might. black nationalist movement, and also that The emancipating theology of evangeli- Black leaders joined this cause in support calism eventually caused them to view of principles such as industry and econo- temperance as a moral and religious is- my designed to uplift the race. Although sue.4 Yacovone mentions African Americans Jan Noel, in her study of abstinence in who owned property in Canada, he does British North America, argues that tem- not investigate how their time in Canada perance evolved from a zealous, religious might have contributed to their thoughts movement into a more worldly concern on temperance.7 This study will demon- and that temperance altered factors such strate how active the cause of temperance as labour, and the economy.5 was in the African-Canadian community Rather than emphasizing abstain- and therefore how it influenced incom- ers, Craig Heron discusses those who ing African Americans. 3 E.P.