The Spirit of Christmas Tour of Homes is back!

Alyssa MacLean & Miranda Green-Barteet: “Researching London’s Black History: The Black Londoners Project”

November 11, 2023 at 1:00pm

In partnership with the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at Western University, Words is pleased to host a presentation by Western Professors Alyssa MacLean & Miranda Green-Barteet who are mapping the stories of formerly enslaved Black Londoners.

Alyssa MacLean & Miranda Green-Barteet: “Researching London’s Black History: The Black Londoners Project”
Saturday, 11 November, 1PM
Museum London, Centre at the Forks

In 1856, Benjamin Drew, a U.S. abolitionist, travelled to Canada to transcribe the oral stories of formerly enslaved Black individuals. Among them, 16 individuals who originally settled in London, Ont. Their narratives, recorded in Drew’s book, A North-Side View of Slavery, describe their former enslavers, their escapes and how they made it to Canada.

But what of their lives afterwards?

With Drew’s accounts as their starting point, Western researchers Miranda Green-Barteet and Alyssa MacLean are working to trace the paths these self-liberated individuals took after arriving in London and to better understand their experiences in London. By documenting their journeys through an interactive website hosted by Western Libraries, Green-Barteet and MacLean aim to address a longstanding gap in the history of Black Londoners.

In this presentation, Professors Green-Barteet and MacLean will explore how they are using resources in Western Libraries Archives and Special Collections to support their work creating a Black Londoners Digital Archive. 

As part of the Words Festival, we will also have a display of Western Archives materials at Museum London! To register for the event follow the links for their website: Words – Researching London’s Black History: The Black Londoners Project!