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Being a Descendant of the Underground Railroad with Dr. Rosemary Sadlier

A view of the British American Institute Cemetery at the Josiah Henson Museum of African-Canadian History. A blue historical plaque stands on a grassy area between two large trees, with a small enclosure of weathered headstones behind it and open fields stretching toward the horizon.

Recorded audio interview with Dr. Rosemary Sadlier, completed by Blessing Ogunyemi for the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University.

TRANSCRIPT:

Dr. Rosemary Sadlier: I always knew that I was a descendant of the Underground Railroad because my mother always told me, and I met some of my relatives who lived in ancestral homes that had been occupied by them for generations, not in Toronto, but in other parts of Ontario. And it means a lot to me because we’re sort of told that Black people came, made their way to Canada on the Underground Railroad, and they all left and went back to the United States, and here we are. But what I think is even more fascinating for me is that, over time, I’ve come to learn that my family is connected to all of the first waves of migration of Black people to this country.

On my father’s side, they came into New Brunswick as Black Loyalists, Enslaved Loyalists, and as Refugees of the War of 1812, which is much earlier than my mother’s family, that was like 1783. And my mother’s family came into Canada on the Underground Railroad near London, Ontario. So, that side of my family has been here since probably about 1830. What it means to me is that nothing and everything. Nothing, because it doesn’t change… I don’t get any special treatment. I haven’t got any generational… I have generational experiences being Canadian, and I have generational experience in how to cope with being a Black person in Canada. But what it means is that I am tangible proof, if you will, that there have been Black people in this country since before Confederation, and that we all need to be reminded that this is not a White country. It never really was a White country, and it’s been English and French, but obviously First Nations, but also African, and that’s the part that I think we always need more reminders about.