Thornton and Lucie Blackburn

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted September, 2006

On the grounds of a school at the corner of Sackville Street and Eastern Avenue are two historic plaques, near the bottom left in the photo above, that tell us about the lives of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn who arrived in Toronto via the Underground Railroad. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque says this:

Plaque coordinates: 43.653664 -79.359307

The Blackburn's determination to build free lives provides a window on the experience of many refugees in the Underground Railroad era. Having fled slavery in Kentucky, they were arrested in Detroit in 1833. Their capture sparked riots and in the confusion they managed to escape to Upper Canada. Here, the government twice defended them against extradition, and by 1834 the couple had settled in Toronto. Respected citizens, they established the city's first cab company, worked for Abolition and contributed to the well-being of their community.

The Parks Canada plaque says this:

In 1985, archaeologists digging on this site uncovered fascinating clues to Toronto's history as a terminus of the famous Underground Railway. From 1834 to 1890, this site had been the home of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, refugee slaves from Kentucky who started Toronto's first taxicab company.

Thornton and Lucie Blackburn escaped on July 3, 1831 by taking a steamboat up the Ohio River from Louisville to Cincinnati and then a stagecoach to Michigan. Their recapture in Detroit two years later resulted in the "Blackburn Riots of 1833". Detroit's Black community staged a dramatic rescue and aided the Blackburns across the border to safety in Canada. Despite two extradition requests by Michigan's governor, they were allowed to remain free and begin their new lives in Canada.

The Blackburns became well-known members of Toronto's African Canadian community. They helped to build Little Trinity Anglican Church, and contributed to efforts organized to assist other freedom-seekers, both in Toronto and at Buxton in southwestern Ontario. Thornton participated in the "North American Convention of Colored Freemen" at St. Lawrence Hall in September of 1851, and was an associate of George Brown in anti-slavery activities.

The excavation of the Blackburn's former home remains the only archaeological dig on an Underground Railway site ever conducted in Toronto. In 1999, the Department of Canadian Heritage designated Thornton and Lucie Blackburn "Persons of National Historic Significance" in recognition of their generosity to the less fortunate and their lifelong resistance to slavery and racial oppression.

Related Toronto plaques
St. Lawrence Hall
George Brown
Little Trinity Church

Related Ontario plaques
The Buxton Settlement

More
Public Service

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

August 15, 2010
this is a wonderful storry about canadain history. in reading some of your letters i can easy see why people in Canada are very confuse about canadian black history. when Dr. george Williams was trying to get American black history reconize in the Usa and eventely carters g woodson who succeeded, this was not a world absractly history. this was about the usa only, for example Matthew henson who accompy perry expedition,and was the first to reach the pole its, a matter or record that American at that time that didn,t honor black for any acheivements. many black invention that help put ameria at the top of the world in all area of acheivement but this is not canadian or caribean history. seems that both groups or other groups would research the history of achievement from its own country. to piggyback off of america is totally misleading and very unjust
SC mcdonald

Posted March 20, 2009
For further information on this couple's remarkable story, see the book "I've Got a Home in Glory Land" by Karolyn Smardz Frost. It's a fascinating and thrilling tale.
G Trew, ON

Posted March 16, 2009
My goodness what an enlightening story. As an African Canadian woman, I really cherish this history and hold in high esteem the price my fellow ancestors paid for me to be a free woman in North America.
K Sawyer, BC

Posted September 8, 2008
Have there been any words of Lucie and Thornton preserved for us?
duke.vipperman@sympatico.ca

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