Thornton Blackburn

Thornton Blackburn (c. 1812–1890) was a self-emancipated formerly enslaved man whose case established the principle that Canada would not return slaves to their masters in the United States and thus established Canada as a safe terminus for the Underground Railroad.

Early life

Blackburn was born in Mason County, Kentucky, and grew up in Washington, Kentucky, now part of Maysville, Kentucky. He was first sold at age three. At 14, he was taken to Hardinsburg, Kentucky. Three years later, Thornton was sent to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was hired out to work as a porter for a dry goods company. In Louisville, at the age of 19, he met his future wife Lucie, 28 years old at the time, who was enslaved as a nursemaid."Yale scholar devotes her career to the tale of two escaped slaves"
''New Haven Register'', By Jim Shelton 06/29/2013

Escape

Thornton and Lucie escaped from Louisville to Michigan in 1831.
''Toronto Star'', November 8, 2016. page GT3. Alicia Siekierska. They had been living there for two years when, in 1833, Kentucky slave hunters located, re-captured, and arrested the couple. The Blackburns were jailed but were allowed visitors, which provided the opportunity for Lucie to exchange her clothes and her incarceration with Mrs. George French."BLACK IN TORONTO: The Blackburns escaped the U.S. for new life in Canada"
''Inside Toronto'', Rosemary Sadlier, November 11, 2016 Lucie was then smuggled across the Detroit River to safety in Amherstburg, in Essex County, Upper Canada.

Thornton's escape was more difficult because he was heavily guarded, bound and shackled. The day before Thornton was to be returned to Kentucky, Detroit's black community rose up in protest in the Blackburn Riots. A crowd of about 400 men stormed the jail to free him. During the commotion, two individuals called Sleepy Polly and Daddy Walker helped Thornton escape and eventually find safety in Essex County, Upper Canada. The commotion turned into a two-day riot during which the local sheriff was shot and fatally wounded. It was the first race riot in Detroit, resulting in the first Riot Commission to be formed in the United States.

While the unrest in Detroit continued, Thornton's supporters procured a horse-cart and conveyed Thornton away from Detroit to the northeast. A posse had formed to pursue Thornton and caught up with the cart about one mile outside of Detroit. Thornton's pursuers then discovered that Thornton had disembarked from the cart shortly after it had arrived in the wilderness outside of Detroit. With help from his rescuers, Thornton was able to circle west and south of Detroit. He boarded a boat near the mouth of River Rouge and crossed the Detroit River into Essex County to join his wife.

Once in Essex County, Thornton was jailed briefly while a formal request for his return was issued by the Michigan territorial governor. A reply came from the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Major General Sir John Colborne, who refused extradition to the United States, noting that a person could not steal himself"Roots of Toronto's black community run deeper than you might think: James"
''Toronto Star'', Royson James, Toronto Politics Columnist, November 12, 2016 and that lifetime slavery was too severe a punishment for any crime less than murder.

Toronto

In 1834, Thornton reunited with his wife Lucie in the newly incorporated City of Toronto, where he worked as a waiter at Osgoode Hall. Together, they lived on Eastern Avenue for the next half century.Blackburn, Lucie and Blackburn, Thornton. (2008). In ''The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations'' (Vol. 1, pp. 58–58).

Thornton created Toronto's first taxi service in 1837, named "The City". Though illiterate, he saw the need for a taxi service and so obtained blueprints for a cab from Montreal and commissioned its construction. He started this service by building a red and yellow box cab named "The City," drawn by a single horse and able to carry four passengers, with a driver in a box at the front, which he would operate. It became the nucleus of a successful taxicab company."From Thornton Blackburn to Uber: a brief and varied history of Toronto taxis"
''CBC News'' Joshua Errett, April 9, 2016

Some time in the late 1830s, Thornton made a daring return to Kentucky to bring his mother, Mubby (born in Virginia), back with him to join another son, Alfred, Thornton's brother, who may have arrived in Toronto as early as 1826. The Blackburns continued to be active in anti-slavery and community activities, helping to build the nearby Little Trinity Church, now the oldest-surviving church in Toronto. Thornton participated in the North American Convention of Colored Freemen at St. Lawrence Hall in September 1851, was an associate of anti-slavery leader George Brown, and helped former slaves settle at Toronto and Buxton.

The Blackburns took in African American freedom seekers, including Ann Maria Jackson and her seven children in 1858. The youngest child, Albert, became the first black postman of Toronto. When immigrants came to Toronto, many settled in St. John's Ward. The Blackburns built six homes there that they rented out at nominal rates for former enslaved people.

Thornton died on February 26, 1890, leaving an estate of $18,000 and six properties, and is buried at Toronto's Necropolis Cemetery. Lucie died five years later, on February 6, 1895.

Legacy

In 1999, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated the Blackburns "Persons of National Historic Significance" for their personal struggle for freedom, which was emblematic of so many similar but typically undocumented cases.Thornton and Lucie Blackburn National Historic Person(s)
Directory of Designations of National Historic Significance, Parks Canada, 2005 Also importantly, the Blackburns' situation prompted the articulation of a legal defense against slavery. They were also designated for their contribution to the growth of Toronto, generosity to the less fortunate, and lifelong resistance to slavery. In 2002, plaques in their honour were erected at the site of their excavated house in Toronto, Ontario, and in Louisville, Kentucky.

In 1985, an archaeological dig uncovered the foundations of the Thorntons' home,"This Public Art in Corktown Gives a Glimpse of Toronto Through the Ages"
''Torontoist'', November 3, 2016. Beatrice Paez leading to a book about their lives, ''I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad'', written by historian Karolyn Smardz Frost.

In 2015, a mural near their former home, "Site Specific," was installed. It depicts the history of the neighbourhood, and includes the Thorntons' cab.

In 2016, a conference centre at George Brown College in Toronto was named for Thornton and Lucie Blackburn, and a mural depicting their story has been painted in the building's downstairs lobby.

See also

* Buxton National Historic Site and Museum
* Blackburn Riots

References

Further reading

*A. S. Quinn "The Detroit Riot of 1863; racial violence and internal division in Northern society during the Civil War"
*Adrienne Shadd, Afua Cooper and Karolyn Smardz Frost "The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!"
*"A Glimpse of Toronto's History", Urban Affairs Library, Metro Hall Lobby, 55 John Street, Toronto
* . Winner, 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction; Nominee (Nonfiction), National Books Critics Circle Award 2007. See, Governor General's Award for English language non-fiction.

External links

Thornton and Lucie Blackburn
Historic Sites and Monuments Board federal plaque, Toronto
Kentucky Fugitives
Commonwealth of Kentucky plaque to the Blackburns, Louisville
*http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/blackburn.htm
*https://web.archive.org/web/20070529044806/http://www.toronto.ca/torontoplan/lost.htm

Underground Railroad plaque, Parks Canada, Toronto

National Historic Site plaque, Buxton, Ontario

provincial historical plaque, Buxton, Ontario

Underground Railroad plaque, Parks Canada, Toronto

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackburn, Thornton
Fugitive American slaves that reached Canada
Underground Railroad people
History of slavery in Kentucky
People from pre-statehood Michigan
History of Detroit
History of Black people in Canada
Black Canadian activists
Canadian abolitionists
People from Old Toronto
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
1810s births
1890 deaths
People from Mason County, Kentucky
People from Louisville, Kentucky
People from Essex County, Ontario
Burials at Toronto Necropolis
People enslaved in Kentucky