It was dark there all the time : Sophia Burthen and the legacy of slavery in Canada / Andrew Hunter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hunter, Andrew, 1963- author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Enslaved women--Canada--Biography.

Enslaved women.

Enslaved persons--Canada--Biography.

Enslaved persons.

Slavery--Canada.

Slavery.

Slave trade--Canada.

Slave trade.

Enslaved persons--Canada--Social conditions.

Enslaved persons--Emancipation--Canada.

Freed persons--Canada--Biography.

Freed persons.

Imperialism--Social aspects.

Imperialism.

Postcolonialism--Social aspects.

Postcolonialism.

Enslaved persons--Emancipation.

Enslaved persons--Social conditions.

Burthen, Sophia.

Canada.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

327 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Fredericton, New Brunswick : Goose Lane Editions, [2022]

Summary:

"'My parents were slaves in New York State. My master's sons-in-law . . . came into the garden where my sister and I were playing among the currant bushes, tied their handkerchiefs over our mouths, carried us to a vessel, put us in the hold, and sailed up the river. I know not how far nor how long -- it was dark there all the time.' These words, recorded by Benjamin Drew in 1855, provide Sophia Burthen's account of her arrival as an enslaved person into what is now Canada sometime in the late 18th century. In It Was Dark There All the Time, writer and curator Andrew Hunter builds on the testimony of Drew's interview to piece together Burthen's life, while reckoning with the legacy of whiteness and colonialism in the recording of her story. In so doing, Hunter demonstrates the role that the slave trade played in pre-Confederation Canada and its continuing impact on contemporary Canadian society. Evocatively written with sharp, incisive observations and illustrated with archival images and contemporary works of art, It Was Dark There All the Time offers a necessary correction to the prevailing perception of Canada as a place unsullied by slavery and its legacy."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. What's in a Name?

2. On Whiteness

3. Allelopathy

of Black Walnut

4. "A Goodly Portion of the Life of Benjamin Drew" (and Mine)

5. Ley Lines: At Fishkill

6. "So That His Master Might Have Him Again"

7. On the "North" River

8. The White City

9. On the Mohawk Trail

10. "And Then We Came by Land"

11. In the Longhouse

12. A Now as Well as a Then

13. "The Pen-and-ink Work"

14. Of Black Currant

15. "The Interior Inhabited Parts"

16. Numbers

17. "Beaten or Shaped by Hammering"

18. "Decus et Tutamen (An Ornament and a Safeguard)"

19. What's in a Name? (Again)

20. "To Pierce the Heart of the Recipient with Love"

21. The Humble Petitions

22. Hoardings of Amnesia

23. In the Current

24. Tempus Fugit

25. "And the Gardener Forever Held the Peace".

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Hunter, Andrew, 1963- It was dark there all the time.

ISBN:

9781773102191

1773102192

OCLC:

1262748884

Publisher Number:

99991096751