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The Queen's Bush was an area of what is now
Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario (census population 2,796,367 in 2021) is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula, bounded by Lake Huron (includ ...
, between
Waterloo County Waterloo County was a county in Canada West in the United Province of Canada from 1853 until 1867, then in the Canadian province of Ontario from 1867 until 1973. It was the direct predecessor of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Situated on ...
and
Lake Huron Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is shared on the north and east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the south and west by the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the lake is derived from early French ex ...
, that was set aside as clergy reserves by the colonial government. It is known as the location of communities established by Black settlers, many formerly enslaved in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, in what would become
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. 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.


History

Queen's Bush was a large tract of land between Lake Huron,
Georgian Bay The Georgian Bay () is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is t ...
, and lands developed in the east and the southeast. It bordered what are today the Townships of Wellesley and
Peel Peel or Peeling may refer to: Places Australia * Peel (Western Australia) * Peel, New South Wales * Peel River (New South Wales) Canada * Peel Parish, New Brunswick * Peel, New Brunswick, an unincorporated community in Peel Parish * Pee ...
. The land was acquired by
Francis Bond Head Sir Francis Bond Head, 1st Baronet KCH PC (7 December 1793 – 20 July 1875) was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada during the rebellion of 1837. Biography Head was an officer in the corps of Royal Engineers of the British Army from 181 ...
on behalf of the Upper Canada in 1836 as part of the Manitowaning Treaty with the Ojibway of Manitoulin Island and the Saugeen Peninsula. 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. 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 including the
Canada Company The Canada Company was a private British land development company that was established to aid in the colonization of a large part of Upper Canada. It was incorporated by royal charter on August 19, 1826, under the ( 6 Geo. 4. c. 75) of the B ...
and the German Company. The land was settled later than other tracts in Southwestern Ontario because it had been set aside as clergy reserves 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 responsible for managing leases and settlement on unsurveyed land in Queen's Bush.


Settlement

Beginning in 1820, squatters settled on unclaimed land within the Queen's Bush near what would become
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
, St. Clements, and
Wellesley, Ontario Wellesley is the rural, north-western township (Canada), township of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. It encompasses and had a population of 11,260 in the Canada 2016 Census. History By 1805, many Mennonites from P ...
. There were some who also settled on the southern and eastern borders. Black settlers established farms in what are now the villages of
Wallenstein Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland (; 24 September 1583 – 25 February 1634), also von Waldstein (), was a Bohemian military leader and statesman who fought on the Catholic side during the Thirty Years' War (1618–16 ...
and Hawkesville. Historian Natasha L. Henry-Dixon dates Black settlement of Queen's Bush to "as early as 1833." Some of these settlers had fought on the side of the British Crown in the
Rebellions of 1837–1838 The Rebellions of 1837–1838 (), were two armed rebellion, uprisings that took place in Lower Canada, Lower and Upper Canada in 1837 and 1838. Both rebellions were motivated by frustrations with lack of political reform. A key shared goal was r ...
, but many were either fugitives from the Southern American states or free Blacks from the Northern states. Queen's Bush, along with Toronto, Wellesley, Galt and Hamilton, was among the known Canadian terminals of the
Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...
. 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. In 1851, there were eight African Canadian families in the northern part of Wellesley Township. 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, ''Mutual Respect'' of the Brown family's life in Queen's Bush and of his son, Daniel's settlement in the United States.


Survey of land

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 inhabitants began efforts to secure their investments given that many were not in financial situations to purchase it outright. In the fall of 1842 a letter was sent to
James Durand James Durand (1775 – 22 March 1833) was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada. He was born in Abergavenny, Wales in 1775 and came to Upper Canada in 1802 to deal with delinquent accounts on behalf of a group of London merchants ...
, 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 icBush 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. 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. Kerr, surveying 74,627 acres of land that would become Peel Township in Wellington County. 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 to newly appointed Governor-General of the Province of Canada, Charles Metcalfe, asking that the land be granted to the existing inhabitants due to their unfavourable financial situations, who described themselves as: "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". The request that was denied. The petition included 123 of which 51 were identified as Black settlers by historian Linda Brown-Kubisch. Another petition was submitted to
Earl of Elgin Earl of Elgin ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin, Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 Ju ...
, then Governor General of Upper Canada, 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. 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 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.


Legacy

An Ontario Historical Plaque located on Road 45 near where the Conestogo River crosses the road reads to following description; 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, ''The Refugee, Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada''.


See also

*
List of Underground Railroad sites The list of Underground Railroad sites includes abolitionist locations of sanctuary, support, and transport for former slaves in 19th century North America before and during the American Civil War. It also includes sites closely associated with pe ...


References


Further reading

* {{cite book , last1=Drew , first1=Benjamin , title=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. , date=1856 , publisher=John P. Jewett and Company , location=Boston , url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/drew/drew.html , access-date=10 September 2021 History of Ontario by location History of Bruce County Black Canadian settlements Pre-emancipation African-American history Black Canadian culture in Ontario