Deeper Dive – Borderland Blacks: Two-Way Movement in Central and Western New York

In the early nineteenth century, Rochester, New York, and St. Catharines, Canada West, were the last stops on the Niagara branch of the Underground Railroad. Blacks in the two cities shared newspapers, annual celebrations, religious organizations, and kinship and friendship ties. Too often, historians have focused on the one-way flow of fugitives on the Underground Railroad from America to Canada when in fact the situation on the ground was far more fluid, involving two-way movement and social collaborations. Black residents possessed transnational identities and strategically positioned themselves near the American-Canadian border where immigration and interaction occurred. In all, this talk reveals that physical separation via formalized national barriers did not sever concepts of psychological memory or restrict social ties.

Dr. dann j. Broyld presents this groundbreaking research both in person at the Museum’s historic Weighlock Building and on Zoom, with a recording available to all who register.

The Deeper Dives speaking series is made possible with funding from the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation.