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Rose City Roots · Timeline · Chapter 5 of 11

Freedom Shore

1830S TO TODAY

After the Slavery Abolition Act took effect on 1 August 1834, thousands of freedom seekers crossed the river. Black communities in Windsor and Sandwich built churches, newspapers and the region's biggest summer festival.

Timeline

  1. 1800s Across the river to freedom. The University of Windsor's digital exhibit gathers early Black history in Sandwich. Sources: University of Windsor · Parks Canada
  2. 1 January 1851 Voice of the Fugitive. Henry and Mary Bibb publish their abolitionist newspaper at Sandwich. The Refugee Home Society follows in 1851. Sources: Dictionary of Canadian Biography · Canadian Typography archive
  3. 1851 Sandwich First Baptist Church. Built by Underground Railroad settlers at 3652 Peter Street; a National Historic Site. Sources: Parks Canada · Canada's Historic Places
  4. 24 March 1853 The Provincial Freeman. Mary Ann Shadd issues a first, trial number in Windsor; regular publication followed in Toronto. Sources: Canadian Encyclopedia · Parks Canada
  5. 1868 to 1961 BME Church, McDougall Street. The British Methodist Episcopal Church at 363 McDougall Street was built in 1868 and demolished in 1961, part of the McDougall Street Corridor's Black heritage. Sources: University of Windsor · McDougall Street Corridor
    Ontario Chapel (African), later the British Methodist Episcopal Church at 363 McDougall Street, 1913
    Ontario Chapel (African), later the British Methodist Episcopal Church at 363 McDougall Street, 1913. Compiled by Harry Wentworth Gardner; photographer uncredited. From Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 1913, page 15, panel 11. Public domain.
  6. 1909 Jack Johnson at Lagoon Park. The City of Windsor's Emancipation monument panels say boxer Jack Johnson appeared at the 1909 Emancipation celebration in Lagoon Park, Sandwich, before about 10,000 people. Sources: City of Windsor: Emancipation Celebration Monument
  7. 1932 to 1966 The Greatest Freedom Show on Earth. Walter Perry began organizing Windsor's Emancipation celebrations about 1932. The large Jackson Park festivities ran every year from 1935 to 1966. The 1967 celebration was cancelled after the Detroit uprising, and Perry died on 17 August 1967. Read the full story: Jackson Park. Sources: CBC News, 2 Aug 2019 · UWindsor Scholaris: Emancipation Celebration Programs · JPP Exhibitions: 1967 celebration cancelled
  8. 1 August 2026 A monument in Jackson Park. The City's Emancipation Celebration Monument opened on Emancipation Day 2026, with an arch shaped like the old bandstand and murals by Dennis K. Smith. Sources: City of Windsor: Emancipation Celebration Monument · City of Windsor news release, 1 Aug 2026

A plaque on Freedom Shore

Ontario Heritage Trust plaque for the Catholic Colored Mission of Windsor
Ontario Heritage Trust provincial plaque for the Catholic Colored Mission of Windsor, photographed 17 November 2022. This is the plaque, not a period photograph of the mission. Photograph: Nheyob, 17 November 2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Catholic Colored Mission of Windsor, 1887 to 1893

Ontario Heritage Trust provincial plaque 1887 to 1893

A short-lived Catholic mission serving Black Windsor residents, marked by an Ontario Heritage Trust provincial plaque. The Trust's background paper is the date guide (1887 to 1893). The provincial plaque is shown here. Parishes and Peoples remains paused; the mission sits here on Freedom Shore, not as a substitute parish chapter.

Sources: Ontario Heritage Trust background paper · Ontario Heritage Trust plaque record

More Freedom Shore people

County and post-settlement civic names that sit beside Bibb, Shadd and Perry on this chapter.

Portrait of Delos Rogest Davis
Delos Rogest Davis. Public domain portrait via Wikimedia Commons. Column-sized gif; not upscaled.

Delos Rogest Davis

Called to the Ontario bar 15 November 1886 Law / Freedom Shore

One of the earliest Black lawyers called to the Ontario bar, after a special statute let him bypass articling blocked by racial prejudice. He settled in Colchester Township and practised in Amherstburg. Tie: Colchester / Amherstburg practice.

Sources: Dictionary of Canadian Biography · Canadian Encyclopedia
Windsor News placeholder for John Freeman Walls. A Rose City Roots tile asking for a photograph of this subject.
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John Freeman Walls

Settled at Puce, Essex County, 1846; Underground Railroad terminal Freedom Shore / Essex

Escaped slavery in North Carolina and settled at Puce (today Lakeshore) in 1846. His homestead became a terminal on the Underground Railroad. The John Freeman Walls Historic Site and Underground Railroad Museum keeps the story. Tie: settled Puce, Essex County.

Sources: Visit Windsor Essex site page · John Freeman Walls Historic Site
Laura Smith Haviland, 1881
Laura Smith Haviland engraving, 1881. Public domain. Local Windsor-Essex detail stays as on the card; portrait identity verified as Haviland (not Secord).

Laura Haviland

Abolitionist; Essex County / Michigan border work Freedom Shore (county)

American Quaker abolitionist active on the Detroit-Windsor corridor and in Essex County refugee aid. Frame as a border helper, not as Windsor-born. Confirm each local claim against period sources before go-live.

Sources: Secondary abolitionist biographies; HOLD local detail for primary check
Portrait of Josiah Henson, taken in London about 1876
Bradshaw and Godart, London, about 1876. About 38 years after 1838. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-11510. No known restrictions on publication. Already cleared on War Chest.

Josiah Henson

Essex Militia, 1837 to 1838; later Dawn settlement, near Dresden Freedom Shore

Historian Irene Moore Davis records that Henson's company of Black volunteers, attached to the Essex Militia, helped capture the Patriot schooner Anne, and that the company defended Fort Malden from Christmas 1837 to May 1838. That is the Windsor-Essex tie. He later settled at the Dawn settlement, near Dresden, which is not in Windsor. The portrait is also on Windsor War Chest beside that account. Tie: documented Essex militia service in 1837 and 1838. He was not a Windsor resident.

Sources: War Chest chronology (Irene Moore Davis / Amherstburg Freedom Museum citation) · Library of Congress portrait record

Schools on Freedom Shore

Mary Ann Shadd Cary's Windsor school of 1851 is already told on Women of Windsor. This chapter adds St. George, the Dunn case, and Mercer Street, and does not rewrite her biography. These were not the city's first public schools in a general sense; Shadd's school was a private integrated school.

Portrait of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, about 1855 to 1860
Mary Ann Shadd Cary, about 1855 to 1860, who opened the 1851 school this card describes. This is her portrait, not a photograph of the school building. Unknown creator. Library and Archives Canada, e011536885. Via Wikimedia Commons (LAC Flickr upload, CC BY 2.0).

Mary Ann Shadd Cary's school, 1851

1851 to 1853; private integrated school Freedom Shore / Women of Windsor

Shadd opened a school for Black refugees in Windsor, with American Missionary Association support, in a former military barracks on the future civic square site. It was a private integrated school, not the city's first public school. Mary E. Bibb also ran an integrated private school soon after. Her newspaper and Windsor years stay on Women of Windsor.

Sources: UWindsor We Were Here · Dictionary of Canadian Biography · live Women of Windsor card
Windsor News placeholder for St. George Coloured School. A Rose City Roots tile asking for a photograph of this subject.
Photo wanted. Share yours through the family photo or story note below.

St. George Coloured School

Opened 1862; closed 1888 Freedom Shore schools

The school opened in 1862 on Assumption near McDougall. It operated for nearly thirty years. It closed in 1888 as trustees moved toward integrated classes after community pressure. An 1850 amendment to the Common Schools Act had legalised racial and religious segregation; this school lived under that clause.

Sources: UWindsor We Were Here
Windsor News placeholder for The Dunn case, 1883. A Rose City Roots tile asking for a photograph of this subject.
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The Dunn case, 1883

Dunn v. Board of Education of the Town of Windsor, 1883 Freedom Shore schools

James L. Dunn challenged the board's refusal to enrol his daughter Jane Ann at Public Central. The court sided with the board. Community pressure afterward helped end formal segregation by the end of the decade. A public school named for Dunn opened in 2022 at 1167 Mercer Street.

Sources: UWindsor We Were Here · case text linked from that exhibit
Mercer Street public school, Windsor, 1913
Mercer Street public school, Windsor, 1913, panel 7 of a souvenir sheet. A sliver of the neighbouring panel remains at the lower right and is not part of Mercer Street School. Souvenir view from Harry Wentworth Gardner, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 1913. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Mercer Street School

Opened 1891; closed after June 1946 Freedom Shore schools

Mercer Street School opened in 1891. Attendance was predominantly Black, and also Jewish and Eastern European. Arson damaged the building in June 1946, and it closed soon after. The site later had a temporary St. Clair College use and is now Brighton Court apartments. James L. Dunn Public School, opened in 2022 at 1167 Mercer Street, stands in the same neighbourhood as a present-day recognition of Dunn.

Sources: UWindsor We Were Here
Public schools souvenir sheet, Windsor, 1913, with Mercer Street labelled as panel 7
The 1913 public-schools souvenir sheet. Panel 7 is labelled Mercer St. Souvenir view from Harry Wentworth Gardner, Windsor, Ontario, Canada, 1913. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Pictures

Sandwich First Baptist Church (early photo)
Sandwich First Baptist Church (early photo). Sandwich First Baptist Church, before 1909. From Frederick Neal, The Township of Sandwich Past and Present (1909), p. 195. Public domain.
Mary Ann Shadd (portrait)
Mary Ann Shadd (portrait). Mary Ann Shadd, 1850s. Photographer unknown. Library and Archives Canada, C-029977. Public domain.
Portrait of Mary Ann Shadd Cary
Portrait of Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Portrait of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, 1855 to 1860. Unknown creator. Mary Ann Shadd Cary collection, Library and Archives Canada, e011536885.
Sandwich First Baptist Church (OHT photo)
Sandwich First Baptist Church (OHT photo). Sandwich First Baptist Church. Ontario Heritage Trust (Doors Open Ontario). CC0.

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