King was a white man who had
inherited slaves after the death of his
father-in-law, a plantation owner in
Louisiana. King eventually brought
these former slaves to Buxton so they
could live as free men and women. His
small settlement began to grow after
the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. It
became Canada’s most successful black
settlement.
Former Tennessee plantation slaves
Dennis Calico and his wife Jane settled
in Buxton not long after arriving in
Canada in 1853. They were the great-
great-great- grandparents of Shannon
Prince, the curator of the Buxton
National Historic Site and Museum
in Buxton, Ontario. Buxton is located
about 50 miles from Detroit, Michigan.
According to Prince, not all
Canadians welcomed the arrival of
Dennis, Jane, and other black settlers.
Some whites attempted to block the
formation of the Buxton settlement.
King’s life was even threatened.
“There was racism here in Canada
as well, even though Canada abolished
slavery in 1834,” says Prince. “It was
not against the law to discriminate.” It
wasn’t until 1954 that Canada passed
a law that prohibited discrimination
in public places. Until that time, many
establishments refused service to
blacks.
Although discrimination was
outlawed by the time Prince attended
high school in Buxton in the 1960s, it still
took place. She was once refused service
at a restaurant while traveling with her
high school sports team. At the time, she
was the only black girl on the team.
Because Prince understands how
upsetting it is to experience racism, she
suspects that is why her grandparents
rarely spoke about their family’s history.
Much of what Prince has learned about
Some Buxton men take a break
from working on the railroad.
This photo is an early street scene
after Buxton was founded in 1849.