Document Archives | Our Black Heritage: Early Black Settlers of York-Sunbury Counties (New Brunswick) 1783-Present

Chloe Russel, Fortune Teller

The Complete Fortune Teller and Dream Book, 1827.

I’m not Going to be Your Checky Box

Embrace [the past]. If you were born here in New Brunswick, this is part of your history also. Embrace it. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid. Rosalie Soutar

Make Your Ancestors Proud

I would say definitely… your lives matter. Your dreams matter. Your voices matter. I kinda liken the moment to the moment of the early 60s… of the Civil […]

Proud Descendants Serve in First World War

Illustrated here are Fredericton’s first volunteers for the No 2 Construction Battalion: Manzer Eatman, George H. Claybourn, James Hector, John Eatman, and Frank Claybourn. Transcription Fredericton’s First Members […]

The Mysterious Stranger

Jack Paterson was the one who apprehended the notorious thief Henry More Smith, known as the Lunar Rogue, in 1814.

York-Sunbury Black Family Names

By 1871, there were nearly 250 families who self-identified as “African.” They lived in communities scattered throughout York and Sunbury counties. These are the family names, many of […]

Georgianna Jaques

“…if you dream you are in company with a young man, whose person and conversation is pleasing to you, you may depend that you will one day become […]

The Long Walk to Sierra Leone

Sierra Leona held the hope for many of freedom from the broken promises and harsh, humiliating treatment they received in New Brunswick. Any Black settler wishing to emigrated […]

Jack Paterson

“…There he found a barrack or hovel, filled with hay, belonging to Jack Patterson [sic], a mullato…” – Sheriff William Bates, Kingston, 1814 When Nathaniel Lad and eight […]

Anne Allen’s Will

Like Caleb Jones, Judge Allen depended upon slaves and servants to operate his 2,000-acre estate on the outskirts of Fredericton. When Isaac Allen’s daughter died at Springhill in […]

We the Free Blacks of New Brunswick

Three of the Free Blacks who signed this petition on March 18, 1790 were Bob Stafford (denied land in Maugerville in 1783), as well as Samuel Wright and […]

Remembering William Francis (1816 – 1894)

William Francis’ father, Joseph Francis, came to Fredericton as a slave and servant to the Odell family. His mother, Hannah, came to Fredericton as a slave and servant […]