"It Was Dark There All The Time" Book reading and talkback.

Established in 2011, the mission of the Guelph Black Heritage Society is to restore and maintain Heritage Hall, originally known as the British Methodist Episcopal (BME) Church, built in 1880 by formerly enslaved Black individuals and their descendants who arrived in the area via the Underground Railroad. The building is a cultural, historical and social community centre serving to promote Guelph and Wellington County's distinctive place in Southwestern Ontario's rich Black heritage.

Guelph Black Heritage Society

“It Was Dark There All the Time - Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada” Book Reading and Talkback.

Heritage Hall

The Guelph Black Heritage Society presents “It Was Dark There All the Time - Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada”, a book reading and talkback with curator and historian Andrew Hunter. The event will be held on Thursday September 15, 2022 at 7pm at the Heritage Hall, 83 Essex Street, Guelph. Curator and historian Andrew Hunter’s urgent new book contradicts the myth of Canada as a haven from enslavement, connecting its history with the U.S. and Great Britain as benefactors of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. As Canadians grapple with the ongoing exposure of the country’s history of racism, colonialism, and genocide, Andrew Hunter’s “It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery inCanada” scrutinizes Canada’s pre-confederation slave trade, in turn illustrating how systemic discrimination is a formative piece of Canada’s identity.Part biography of Sophia Burthen, who lived most of her life as an enslaved person in the 19th century, Hunter interweaves Sophia’s life story with a compelling account of how the consequences of enslavement have unfurled over the past 250 years. In highlighting this oft-ignored history, Hunter’s narrative calls on the descendants of white settlers to do more to help end systemic racism.“Hunter’s book is a searing indictment of the historic and ongoing racism experienced by Indigenous and Black Peoples in Canada and the United States. To read it is to peer into the kind but unflinching heart of a white ally who is committed to recognizing, contextualizing, and confronting injustice in the Americas.”—Lawrence Hill, bestselling author of The Book of NegroesFree admission. Suggested donation $10 per person.Doors open at 6:30 PM and the event begins at 7 PM.

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