Cross the Border Book Review

Crossing the Border: : A Free Black Community in Canada by Sharon A Roger Hepburn

In his celebrated book Crossing the Border: A Free Black Community in Canada, Sharon A. Roger Hepburn tells the story of Buxton’s settlers, united in their determination to live free from slavery and legal repression. Whereas there is very little written about the Black Canadian community history, the book by Sharon A. Roger Hepburn fills this vacuum and it deals with the Buxton settlement in Ontario. In a close analysis of the importance of this book in the background of the Black Canadian community history, it becomes clear that the work ultimately represents a useful contribution. Thus, Crossing the Border can be acknowledged   as a fundamental book that chronicles the history of Buxton, one of the most successful all-black settlements in nineteenth-century Canada. In her work, Sharon A. Roger Hepburn traces the evolution of educational institutions, businesses, and political structures in Buxton in the mid-1800s and the focus of the author is on the degree to which black settlers achieved autonomy and the control over their lives in a hostile white environment. The author undertakes an important study of Buxton, Ontario, through a comprehensive study of the manuscripts, newspapers, census records, deeds, maps, and other materials and she is effective in recreating a detailed story of the Black Canadian community through the lives of individual people. According to the author, the Black Canadian community, roughly twelve miles south Chatham, close to the shores of Lake Erie in Raleigh Township, Kent Country, espoused freedom and hope for the future and accepted blacks who were single, married, and widowed; young and old; male and female; freeborn and fugitive. “This study chronicles Buxton from its conception and founding through its first decade. A group of individuals, united in their determination to build a heaven for those fleeing slavery and repressive legal statutes,...