John Freeman Walls Historic Site

The John Freeman Walls Historic Site and Underground Railroad Museum is a twenty-acre historical site located in Puce, Ontario, Canada. During the era of the Underground Railroad, the site was among one of several major terminuses in Southwestern Ontario for fugitive slaves. As it developed, the site became an important nexus for both the local black community and newly arrived fugitive slaves from the southern United States. Today, many of the original buildings remain, and in 1985, the site was opened as an Underground Railroad Museum. The site forms part of the African-Canadian Heritage Tour in Southern Ontario.

Background

In the mid-nineteenth century, black slaves were fleeing the United States by the thousands and coming north to Canada via the Underground Railroad, the vast majority of these fugitive slaves arriving in Southwestern Ontario, crossing mainly over the Detroit River and to a lesser extent the Niagara River. After Emancipation in the British Empire in 1833, the number of slaves coming to Canada grew, and local leaders in the region became concerned that the influx of refugee slaves, estimated to be around 30,000 in 1852, [ Citation
last=Drew
first=Benjamin
title=A North-Side View of Slavery | publisher=John P. Jewett & Company | place=Boston
year=1856 |pages=v .] made it more difficult for Blacks to find jobs in Canada. As early as 1846, meetings were held by local church leaders to help remedy the situation, and later that year, the Refugee Home Society was founded. [ Citation
last=Hill
first=Daniel G.
title=The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada| publisher=The Book Society of Canada Limited| place=Agincourt | year=1981 |pages=74. ] The Society was a community-based organization that gathered funds to purchase land in Southwestern Ontario in order to sell it to refugee slaves at a fair price. The first properties bought and sold by the Refugee Home Society were fifteen kilometers southeast of Windsor, Ontario, in the Townships of Maidstone and Sandwich.

John and Jane Walls

John Freeman Walls, a former slave from North Carolina, arrived in Canada in 1846 with his wife Jane King Walls. Their inter-racial relationship (John being black and Jane being white) caused controversy even after they arrived in Canada, and they often received stares, although according to John, “most” of the refugees were neither black nor white but “various shades of black.” [ Citation
last=Walls
first=Bryan E.
title=The Road That Led to Somewhere| publisher=Olive Publishing Company| place=Windsor
year=1980 |pages=111. ] Upon their arrival, the two toured various settlements in the region, themselves looking for a place to settle. During their journey they passed through the Puce settlement, where the Refugee Home Society had recently purchased land to sell back to refugee slaves, and the two decided to settle in there. Over the next few years, a log cabin was erected, and Walls would have six children and would acquire more than 200 acres of land. [Citation
last=Gibson
first=Susan
title=Up From Slavery: Bryan Walls Raises a Monument to the Underground Railroad
journal=University of Toronto Magazine
year=Winter 2005
url=http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/05winter/F02.asp.] The Walls sent word of their new haven to a Quaker abolitionist couple in Indiana who had married them on their journey into Canada,. [ Citation
last=Walls
first=Bryan E.
title=The Road That Led to Somewhere| publisher=Olive Publishing Company| place=Windsor
year=1980 |pages=136. ] and the site evolved into a terminal station for the Underground Railroad.

The Modern Day Site

The site was first recognized by the government for its historical significance after one of Walls’ descendants, Dr. Bryan E. Walls, wrote a historical novel in 1980 called The Road that Led to Somewhere, a novel which chronicled the Walls’ original journey to the settlement. The novel created interest in the Walls’ story, and in 1985, the John Freeman Walls Historic Site and Underground Railroad Museum was opened. The current site now operates as a history museum. It contains Walls’ original log cabin, the Walls’ family cemetery, as well as the Historic Walkway, an overgrown brush trail that recreates the natural setting fleeing slaves would have had to contend with. [citation |title=The Historic Walkway - John Freeman Walls Historic Site |url=http://www.undergroundrailroadmuseum.com/path.html ] The site also commemorates the modern Civil Rights Movement with a Peace Chapel created in honour of Rosa Parks, inside of which hangs a cross made from bricks from the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. [Citation
last=Gibson
first=Susan
title=Up From Slavery: Bryan Walls Raises a Monument to the Underground Railroad
journal=University of Toronto Magazine
year=Winter 2005
url=http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/05winter/F02.asp.]

Although a historical plaque exists on site, the site is still run by the family and does not receive any government support. [Citation
last=Russel
first=Hillary
year=1997
title=Underground Railroad Parks: A Shared History
periodical=Cultural Resource Management
volume=20
issue=2
pages=18.] The site is administered as a non-profit organization by the Proverbs Heritage Organization, and shares a close relationship with the Motown Historical Museum in Detroit, Michigan. For his contribution to Black History, Bryan Walls has received the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.

References

External links

* [http://www.undergroundrailroadmuseum.com John Freeman Walls Historic Site]