Segregation in 19th Century Canada

Canadians faced many forms of segregation, or enforced separation of racial groups, during the nineteenth century. They were denied housing in some communities, forced to attend segregated schools, relegated to balcony seating in theaters, and assigned to military units based on their race. Shops, hotels, restaurants, and recreational facilities often limited or prohibited entry based on race. Black people, Indigenous Canadians, and other minorities have been discriminated against in this and other ways by law and custom. Often the legal system supported such practices, although some activists succeeded by suing businesses and organizations that discriminated against them. By the late twentieth century, many forms of segregation were ruled discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Background

Britain and European countries wanting to exploit the natural resources of the Americas began to colonize the northern portion of North America, which became Canada, in the sixteenth century. As greater numbers of transatlantic settlers arrived, Indigenous peoples were forced from the lands where they had lived for thousands of years. Some were enslaved. Some of the colonizers who practiced chattel slavery brought with them enslaved Black persons. Many Europeans believed that they were superior to Black and Indigenous people and imposed their cultures on them. In the nineteenth century, colonization, which had begun on the East Coast, reached the West Coast. Indigenous populations were devastated by diseases against which they had no immunity, and although they often did not want to sign treaties with the colonizers, they were forced to as their numbers and food sources dwindled. By the late nineteenth century, those of European origin far outnumbered the Indigenous population. Indigenous peoples were pushed onto reservations, where they were often isolated and left with few means of feeding and supporting themselves. A government policy of wiping out Indigenous traditions in the late nineteenth century led to practices such as forced removal of children, who were sent to religious boarding schools where they were forced to adopt the practices and language of the dominant culture.

The earliest record of Asians in Canada began in the late eighteenth century. Their numbers greatly increased after 1858, when news of gold in the Fraser Valley drew miners who had migrated from China to San Francisco, California, since 1849. The Canadian Pacific Railroad brought more than seventeen thousand Chinese workers to Canada to lay tracks in the early 1880s. When construction of the railway was completed in 1886, many were left stranded. They traveled across the country looking for work and places where they could live without discrimination.

Overview

Segregation affected many aspects of public life including education, housing, military service, and use of public and private facilities. The practice limited individuals’ opportunities throughout their lives. Often the system of segregation was established, enforced, and practiced by government bodies and officials.

Education

Racially segregated public schools were a fact of life in many parts of eighteenth-century Canada. Legally segregated schools were the norm in Ontario and Nova Scotia, where Black students had to attend separate schools or attend at times that were different from the school hours of White students. In some provinces, segregation was informal. White families might prevent Black students from attending, or school officials might refuse to allow them to enroll. Segregation was still in effect in some Ontario schools until 1965, while the last segregated school in Nova Scotia closed in 1983.

Many Black people were prevented from accessing higher education. Canadian universities often rejected applicants based on race alone. Those Black students who succeeded in attending medical school were accepted as interns at only a few hospitals. Black people who wished to study nursing likewise found their options limited.

Indigenous students typically also attended segregated schools. Those living on reserves were educated in day schools, but many were sent away to Indigenous-only boarding schools, where the focus was on assimilation into White culture and training for work as domestics (for girls) and field hands (for boys). However, in the nineteenth century, some faiths established universities and scholarships with the goal of accepting both White and Indigenous students. Western University, for example, was founded to train students of both races for the Church of England’s ministry in Canada. Methodists sought a royal charter for the University of Toronto’s Victoria College to educate recently converted Indigenous people.

Chinese Canadians and Japanese Canadians were often barred from attending public schools that served White children. If they were enrolled, they were often segregated in separate classes. While schools offered English and French instruction to immigrant children who spoke European languages, Asian families had to pay for private language education.

Home Ownership and Housing

Some land grants were made available to Black veterans; however, the land was often less desirable for farming, and the grants were often smaller than those made to White veterans. Reserves, too, were often on land and in areas that were less valuable to the Indigenous people made to live there, whose traditions often involved hunting, trapping, or fishing.

Black people who migrated or arrived by way of the Underground Railroad sometimes settled in communities established by people who had already arrived from the United States. They often found work as farm laborers. Many were prevented from buying or renting homes in White neighborhoods.

Employment and Trade Unions

Most Black Canadians were blocked from professional careers and were relegated to work as laborers, domestics, and in service industries. When labor unions began to form and gain power in the late nineteenth century, they often refused membership to non-White workers. One exception was the Knights of Labor, a labor reform organization that admitted people of any race except Chinese and was open to women.

Many industries relied on Indigenous Canadians for labor. Among these were canneries and farms, which paid low wages for seasonal work. Indigenous workers were known to go on strike for better wages and conditions, and eventually many cannery workers in the West were replaced by Chinese laborers, who also were paid low wages but were more easily controlled. Unlike Indigenous workers, Chinese workers did not have access to other means of subsistence such as fishing and hunting. Other Indigenous people were migrant workers who moved in and out of Canada and the United States harvesting produce. In the mid-nineteenth century, many Kahnawake Mohawk men became famous as steelworkers and ironworkers constructing railway bridges.

Military Service

Many free and enslaved Black men fought with the British North America colony against the United States in the War of 1812, sometimes in the general ranks. The segregated militia company was known as the Black Corps, Coloured Corps, or Runchey’s Company of Coloured Men. Some were veterans of the American Revolutionary War. The White commander, Captain Robert Runchey, enforced segregation. Although the troops saw combat, they also were assigned to labor jobs such as building and repairing fortifications. In 1821, when land grants were distributed, veterans of the Black Corps received half the acreage of the White veterans, and poorer land at that.

Transportation

Steamboats and stagecoaches were common forms of transportation. Black people were prohibited from purchasing cabin-class tickets on some steamers and often banned from sitting inside stagecoaches; they could only travel on the outside seat.

Bibliography

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Ellis, Jason. “Schooling in Western Canada, 1870–1923: An Anti-Racist Interpretation.” Journal of Canadian Studies, vol. 56, no. 3, 2022, pp. 410–436. DOI: 10.3138/jcs-2022-0004. Accessed 8 June 2023.

Fernandez, Lynne, and Jim Silver. Indigenous People, Wage Labour and Trade Unions: The Historical Experience in Canada. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives—Manitoba Office, March 2017.

Henry, Natasha. “Racial Segregation of Black People in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 8 Sept. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/racial-segregation-of-black-people-in-canada. Accessed 7 June 2023.

Henry, Natasha. “Racial Segregation of Black Students in Canadian Schools.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 30 Aug. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/racial-segregation-of-black-students-in-canadian-schools. Accessed 7 June 2023.

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