North is Freedom: Descendants of Freedom-Seekers on the Underground Railroad

This evocative photographic essay celebrates the descendants of freedom-seekers who escaped slavery in the United States in the years before the American Civil War.  Some came entirely alone and unaided; others found their way to Canada with the help of a clandestine network of “conductors” and “stations” called the “Underground Railroad.”  Approximately 30,000 men, women and children fled north to freedom, settling from the Maritimes as far west as the Manitoba border.  Most came to what is now Ontario, to places such as Windsor, Chatham, Buxton, the Niagara Peninsula, Owen Sound, and larger cities like Hamilton and Toronto.

Some 150 years later, starting in 2016, Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc began exploring the northern end of the “Underground Railroad,” presenting 30 images of descendants.  Black and white, young and old, these are the grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren of once-enslaved African Americans who have contributed to the growth of this great nation