Descendants of Black communities in Ontario's Grey County preserve history despite adversity

When Gael Jackson first visited her ancestor's home, it stirred something inside her. 

 "I felt the slaves," she said. "I felt their spirit so strong that I had to leave."  

Jackson's ancestors came to Canada in the 1850s, fleeing slavery on the Underground Railroad, a journey that eventually led them to Ontario's Grey County. They settled in a place then called Negro Creek, one of several historic Black settlements dotting the area.

Ontario's early Black settlers often found their new lives in Canada marred by racism. 

"I am so proud that they were strong enough and they had faith enough to come above it," she said. 

Jackson grew up in nearby Owen Sound and recalls anti-Black racism was a part of her childhood as well. 

"There was a lot of prejudice going on at that time, when I was growing up," she said. "But we fought through it with humour, a lot of great stories and everything, and we survived." 

Eventually, Jackson began to write those stories down. She published a book last year. During her research, she learned her ancestors had once lived at Negro Creek.

"I was escalated," she said. "I just was escalated" 

Jackson now lives in Toronto. Her large family have mostly left Grey County, so she said it's especially important for her to preserve their legacy there.  

Preserving that legacy has been a life's work for Carolynn Wilson, co-founder and curator of the Sheffield Park Black History Museum.

She runs the museum with her sister Sylvia, at the site of a former campground in Clarksburg, Ont. It showcases the lives and contributions of the province's early Black communities, the loyalists, soldiers, sailors, entrepreneurs and others who once lived in places like Negro Creek. 

Recently, a sign marking Negro Creek Road was stolen. It's often gone missing over the years, something Wilson believes highlights the need to educate the public about the area's Black history. 

"It's like in our music, the minister would call something, and the people would repeat," she said. "The call is there now …how are we going to respond?"