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Celebrating Emancipation Day

August 1, 2023 marks the 189th anniversary of the enactment of the Slavery Abolition Act in Canada

Posted in: Historically Speaking , August 1, 2023

^{Emancipation Day Parade, Amherstburg, Ontario, 1894 (Archives of Ontario)}

Today marks the 189^th anniversary of the August 1, 1834 enactment of the British Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, ending slavery across the British Empire.

To celebrate this event, Black communities in the area of Waterloo County, Wellesley Township and Queen’s Bush gathered on August 1^st to mark the day with food, song and fellowship. Notable celebrations were held in 1863, when approximately 2500 people descended upon the village of Hawkesville. In 1894, the day was marked by large celebration in Waterloo, where people attended from across southwestern Ontario. Elmira, Wallenstein, Waterloo, and Hawkesville held regular Emancipation Day Celebrations into the late 1890s. Smaller celebrations would continue to be held over the years but it would not be until 2008 that August 1^st would be recognized as Emancipation Day in Ontario and federally across Canada in 2021.

The passage of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 did not end systemic racism and discrimination in Canada for people of African descent. Emancipation Day reminds all Canadians of the freedom and equality given to the Black community that we must all uphold.

Celebrate Emancipation Day at Kitchener Public Library with a Drumming Workshop with Babarinde on August 2, 2023 at 4:30pm in the Reading Lounge at the Central Library.

Also, check out these Emancipation Day resources, curated by Lauren, Senior Library Assistant, Grace Schmidt Room:

Reads

Policing Black lives : state violence in Canada from slavery to the present / Robyn Maynard

The hanging of Angélique : the untold story of Canadian slavery and the burning of old Montréal / Afua Cooper

In the Upper Country / Kai Thomas

My brother's keeper : African Canadians and the American Civil War / Bryan Prince

Africanthology : perspectives of Black Canadian poets / edited by A. Gregory Frankson

Emancipation Day : celebrating freedom in Canada / Natasha L. Henry

Disorientation : being black in the world / Ian Williams

Afrikan wisdom : new voices talk Black liberation, Buddhism, and beyond / edited by Valerie Mason-John (Vimalasara)

Out of the sun : on race and storytelling / Esi Edugyan

Black matters / Afua Cooper, Wilfried Raussert