A Black Family's Journey

William Lafferty came to Canada in 1830, poor, illiterate, and fleeing from slavery. Yet he became a powerful businessman with successful descendants. The historical record they left behind gives an intimate view of Canadian history from an African-Canadian perspective, from before Confederation to after the Second World War.

---

William Lafferty arrived in Canada destitute and illiterate in 1830, after escaping slavery in the United States.

A Black Family's Journey follows the Lafferty family through a turbulent period in Canadian history. Over three generations, the Lafferty family played roles in pivotal events, including the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and the U.S., women's winning the right to vote, Toronto's expansion from a pioneer outpost to a modern economy, and the development of the black community of Buxton, Ontario.

Canada in the nineteenth century was no haven from prejudice, and the stories of William, his children, and his children's children offer firsthand accounts of black Ontarians responding to racism with a mix of assimilation, solidarity, and the pursuit of personal excellence. The record they left behind is a rare and detailed account of changing racial and class dynamics in Ontario from the 1830s to the mid-twentieth century.