"'Likely to become a Public Charge': Examining Black Migration to Eastern Canada, 1900-1930" in Unsettling the Great White North: African Canadian History
Many Canadians tend to imagine themselves as part of the "Great White North," typified by images of snow and wilderness, tropes which reinforce ideologies based on Canadian innocence, "freedom," and a nation founded on British and French European-ness. The presence of enslaved, freed, and migratory persons of African descent in Canada has always presented a potential source of disruption to that image.
An exhaustive volume of leading scholarship in the field of Black Canadian history, Unsettling the Great White North highlights the diverse experiences of persons of African descent within the chronicles of Canada’s past. The book considers histories and theoretical framings within the disciplines of history, sociology, law, and cultural and gender studies to chart the mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization in "multicultural" Canada and to situate Black Canadians as speakers and agents of their own lives. Working to interrupt the myth of benign whiteness that has been deeply implanted into the country’s imagination, contributors use chronological, regional, and thematic analyses to reconsider and uncover new narratives of Black life in Canada.
Claudine Bonner is an Associate Professor in Acadia University’s Sociology department. Her research and teaching interests include African diaspora studies, critical race theory, equity and social justice, education and community history.
Other publications from this author include:
- "Labouring for Change: Narratives of African-Nova Scotian Women, 1919 – 1990" in Reid-Maroney, N. (ed). Women in the Promised Land: New Essays in African Canadian History. Nina Reid-Maroney, Boulou Ebanda de B'béri, Wanda Thomas Bernard, eds. (Women's Press / Canadian Scholars 2018). (2018)
- "A Daughter of Promise – Diary of a Female African-Canadian Teacher in Rondeau, 1907" in The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond, Nina Reid-Maroney, Handel K. Wright, Boulou Ebanda de b'Béri, eds. (University of Toronto Press, 2014), 90-105. (2014)
- "Kinship and Community Care in African Nova Scotian Communities." in Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 4 (1) (2013)