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Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America, 1815-1860.

Article Excerpt
Harvey Armani Whitfield. Blacks on the Border: The Black Refugees in British North America, 1815-1860. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Press, 2006. xiii + 179 pp. $24.95 cloth.

This book examines the black experience in nineteenth-century Canada through a specialized study of events in Nova Scotia during the years between the end of the War of 1812 and the eve of the American Civil War. The author finds much to reaffirm the general conclusion that the late Robin Winks made in 1969--namely, that it is difficult to speak of a common African Canadian identity because black communities throughout British North America unfolded from such different backgrounds and proceeded in such different ways. Therefore, Whitfield spends much time comparing black history in Nova Scotia with black history in nearby New England.

The contrasts that Whitfield illuminates are important. He finds that the black community in New England was partly composed of the descendants of northern slaves. While these...

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