208:, then member of parliament for Canada West, by Queen's Bush inhabitants asking that parcels of land be divided into smaller, more affordable lots. The letter began with an acknowledgement of their "boldness of squatting into the Queens Bush the way we have," going on to explain that many arrived unable to support themselves or their families. As a result, a decision was made to go into the woods and cultivate unsettled land with the intention of buying it should the opportunity arise Citing their still poor financial situations and an inability to purchase land for cash the authors proposed that parcels of land be sized at 200 hundred acres so that there might be a chance for those already living there to purchase it.
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centres. Working together, these industrious and self-reliant settlers built churches, schools, and a strong and vibrant community life. American missionaries taught local Black children at the Mount Hope and Mount
Pleasant schools. In the 1840s the government ordered the district surveyed and many of the settlers could not afford to purchase the land they had laboured so hard to clear. By 1850 migration out of the Queen's Bush had begun. Today African Canadians whose ancestors pioneered the Queen's Bush are represented in communities across Ontario.
241:, in 1847. Signed by 91 people, many of whom had signed the 1843 effort, the petition staked a claim to the land through a demonstrated allegiance to Queen Victoria and the squatters' role in making Queen's Bush land habitable and agriculturally productive. This time the petitioners had the added support of Hamilton's Black community, including Paolo Brown, Moses Crump and Peter Price who presented a petition objecting to what they viewed violations of property rights.
188:. John Brown and Lucinda Green Brown settled in the area with their children. John had been an enslaved man from Virginia. His wife was born free and they met in Pennsylvania as he made his way to Canada. After starting out in Windsor and St. Catharines, they settled in Wellesley Township around 1843. They had eleven children. Brown owned one cow, one horse, and 120 acres. Keith Bell, the great-great grandson of John Brown, and grandson of Daniel Brown, created a video,
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In the early 19th century the vast unsettled area between
Waterloo County and Lake Huron was known as the "Queen's Bush". More than 1,500 free and formerly enslaved Blacks pioneered scattered farms along the Peel and Wellesley Township border, with Glen Allan, Hawkesville and Wallenstein as important
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As survey work progressed, the situation for those people already living on the land was further complicated. Surveys ignored the presence of existing structures so that multiple family farms were sometimes contained in one plot. A subsequent petition for assistance from government officials was sent
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The survey of
Wellesley Township began in April 1843 under the direction of William Walker. By September of the same year 66,000 acres of land in the southern area of the Queen's Bush had been surveyed and mapped to aid in the selling of the land. Additional survey work was undertaken by Robert W.
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The area was densely wooded with an abundance of wildlife, and the soil was well suited for agricultural endeavours. In a history of Bruce County, Norman
Robertson speculates that the land was so named in order to distinguish it from other large tracts of land purchased from the Crown from groups
81:. Established in 1820 and known as the Queen's Bush Settlement, the community grew to more than 2,000. In the early 1840s, the land on which they lived was surveyed for future sale. Following the survey, many of the Black residents were unable to pay for the land and migrated out of Queen's Bush.
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In 1850 Elgin offered a deal to black and white settlers squatting on land within the Queen's Bush, but the black settlers could not afford the payment terms. Many white settlers were able to remain on their land, and even appropriated the farmed lands of their now-displaced black neighbours. On
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In the 1840s, the government ordered surveys of the district for settlement. The decision was prompted by a heavy influx of migrants from countries such as
England, Scotland and Ireland seeking agricultural land. Recognizing their tenuous claim to land they had cleared and now lived on, existing
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in what is now Canada for the maintenance of the
Protestant church, which received money upon rental or sale of the land. Unlike other clergy reserves, in which every seventh plot was set aside, the Queen's Bush was reserved in its entirety. In 1830, the Commissioner of Crown Lands was made
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Benjamin Drew was commissioned in the early 1850s by the
Canadian Anti-Slavery Society to interview former enslaved people who settled in Canada. Some families from Wellesley were interviewed by Drew. He published the book,
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January 1, 1850 the Queen's Bush was divided into counties, and the counties were divided into townships. Black settlers who lost their farms began a mass migration out of Queen's Bush to other
African-Canadian communities.
181:. The Black community grew to over 2,000 people of African descent by the 1840s. They cleared tracts of land for farming. They also established churches and their children studied at schools run by missionaries.
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A North-Side View of
Slavery. The Refugee: or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by Themselves, with an Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of Upper Canada
227:"being extremely poor having lately emigrated from England, and from the Southern states were we have suffered all the horrors of Slavery, and having no means of purchasing land".
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109:. The terms of the treaty were later called into question as Bond Head had Indigenous leaders sign a copy of a speech rather than a negotiated agreement.
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149:. There were some who also settled on the southern and eastern borders. Black settlers established farms in what are now the villages of
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The request that was denied. The petition included 123 of which 51 were identified as Black settlers by historian Linda Brown-Kubisch.
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dates Black settlement of Queen's Bush to "as early as 1833." Some of these settlers had fought on the side of the
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The history of the county of Bruce : and of the minor municipalities therein, province of Ontario, Canada
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Beginning in 1820, squatters settled on unclaimed land within the Queen's Bush near what would become
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of the Brown family's life in Queen's Bush and of his son, Daniel's settlement in the United States.
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Kerr, surveying 74,627 acres of land that would become Peel Township in Wellington County.
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456:"Wellesley Township Heritage and Historical Society - History of Wellesley Township"
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An Ontario Historical Plaque located on Road 45 near where the
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The Queen's Bush Settlement : Black pioneers, 1839-1865
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and Hamilton, was among the known Canadian terminals of the
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Queen's Bush was a large tract of land between Lake Huron,
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Oliphant and its islands, Lake Huron - Canadiana Online
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Ojibway of Manitoulin Island and the Saugeen Peninsula
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Emancipation Day : celebrating freedom in Canada
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Wellesley Township Heritage & Historical Society
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Wellesley Township Heritage & Historical Society
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The Refugee, Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada
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528:. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books.
339:. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books.
281:List of Underground Railroad sites
233:Another petition was submitted to
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694:Black Canadian culture in Ontario
395:"Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory"
239:Governor General of Upper Canada
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674:History of Ontario by location
399:www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
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374:. Toronto: The Ojibway Crafts
335:Brown-Kubisch, Linda (2004).
485:"The Ontario Heritage Trust"
101:. The land was acquired by
557:Siebert, Wilbur H. (1898).
53:was an area of what is now
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520:Henry, Natasha L. (2010).
419:Robertson, Norman (1906).
588:"Queen's Bush Settlement"
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169:or free Blacks from the
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679:History of Bruce County
645:Drew, Benjamin (1856).
163:Rebellions of 1837–1838
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563:. New York: Macmillan
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