- The archival traces of her life tell the story of a migration from one Black community with British and American affiliations to another with strong Caribbean influences.
- As research associates on the Black Londoners Project at Western University, we are finding historical clues about people like Aurelia Jones and exploring the Black history of London, Ont., by using a digital mapping approach.
- The migrations of Black individuals often reflect the geographic and cultural connections of Black communities across borders and further into the African diaspora.
Black geographies, Canadian myths
Digital Black history projects
- The Black Londoners Project approaches Black history geographically by supplementing the narratives of 16 Black refugees from slavery and racial oppression in the U.S. with archival evidence (among others, personal narratives, census information and newspaper articles) of their lives in London, Ont.
- The website will also connect with other digital Black Canadian History projects:
The Black Press in 19th-century Canada and Beyond explores the history of journalism as intellectual activism in Black Canadian and international history. It is led by Boulou Ebanda de B'béri, research director and professor in the department of communication at University of Ottawa, and Nina Reid-Maroney, history professor at Huron University College;
Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives presents a map of museums and archives that house records of Black-centred histories and is led by Cheryl Thompson, associate professor of performance studies and director for the Laboratory for Black Creativity at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Black oral history, digital mapping
- Digital mapping of Black migrations allows us to centre Black historical presence in public memory and examine Black oral narratives outside of their abolitionist framing.
- The teacher and white abolitionist, Benjamin Drew, published narratives of Black refugees in Ontario in his 1856 anti-slavery report, The Refugee; or, A North-Side View of Slavery.
- However, the attitude of many Black Canadians toward the potential of equality in Canada would change after the 1850s as, for example, access to education became increasingly segregated.
- Many would move within Canada, to the U.S. and other places in search of support from and community with the African diaspora.
Aurelia Jones
- B. Jones’s account, we learned of his spouse, Aurelia Jones (née Bonsor), in the marriage register of Upper Canada/Canada West.
- Following A. B.’s death around 1860, there are few records of Aurelia living in London.
- However, Aurelia reappears in Hutchinson’s Nova Scotia Directory of 1867 and in the 1881 Canada census for Nova Scotia, living in Halifax.
- There, Aurelia lived on Creighton Street with a Black couple from Antigua and Jamaica.
Nova Scotia’s Black communities emerged from layers of migration; for example, Black Loyalists arrived during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), and African Caribbean peoples came looking for work in the 19th and 20th centuries. Creighton Street was a centre of Black Haligonian life well into the 20th century.
Migrations, diasporic connections
- We recognize the irony in writing this piece during Black History Month.
- For Black communities as well as activists and scholars, remembering Black history happens every day of the year.
- Visualizing Black geography asks us to think of more permanent, transnational ways of commemorating Black history and honouring lives like that of Aurelia Jones.
- The Black Londoners Project receives funding from Western's Strategic Priorities Fund.
- David Mitterauer works for Dr. Miranda Green-Barteet and Dr. Alyssa MacLean's Black Londoners Project at Western University.
- Patrick Kinghan works for Dr. Miranda Green-Barteet and Dr. Alyssa MacLean's Black Londoners Project at Western University.
