Underground Railroad was only part of the story

Support for Confederacy far more complex than our national lore suggests, Barry Sheehy says.

Canadians like to recall how British North America was the northern terminus of the Underground Railroad, which sent thousands of fugitive slaves to Canada seeking safety. Between 30,000 and 50,000 slaves are estimated to have crossed the border, primarily into southern Ontario (then Upper Canada). They were supported by an active abolitionist movement, again based largely in Upper Canada. It was a notable moral and policy achievement, and has become part and parcel of Canadian lore.

Less known, but worth recalling as Black History Month draws to a close, is that the full story of Canada’s — and Montreal’s — role in that era is more complicated. While British North America allowed thousands of runaway slaves to seek refuge here, it was equally accepting of Confederate exiles, operatives and spies.

In what is now Ontario, a colony of escaped slaves established itself in St. Catharines, under the leadership of the redoubtable Harriet Tubman. They founded the British Methodist Episcopal Church, Salem Chapel, which still stands today. A few blocks away, the forward base of the Confederate Secret Service operated across from the Niagara and District Bank, which they largely controlled. Both Tubman’s colony and the Confederate Secret Service operated side by side without incident, and with the tacit approval of the authorities.

There were regional differences of opinion regarding fugitive slaves and the Confederacy; abolitionist sentiment was strongest in Upper Canada, but as one moved east, support for the Confederacy grew.

This juxtaposition of Confederate operatives and runaway slaves operating side by side also played out in Montreal, then Canada’s centre of business and banking. Runaway slaves served as staff in hotels like the Donegana on Notre-Dame St., even as the institution catered largely to Confederate exiles and secret operatives. The same was true at St. Lawrence Hall on St. James St. and the Ottawa Hotel, which received both Confederate and Union spies and was one of the few hostelries where Lincoln’s agents were welcome in a largely pro-Confederate Montreal.

The government did nothing to stop the increasingly brazen efforts of the Confederate Secret Service to use Canada as a base for blockade running, assaults on the new American currency dubbed the Greenback, as well as armed attacks on U.S. banks.

While Britain was officially neutral, allowing it and its colonies to trade with both sides, many in positions of authority quietly hoped for a Southern victory. Why? Because a permanently divided and forever-bickering United States represented less of a threat to the survival of British North America than a unified, militarized, aggressive neighbour.

This bias showed itself in many ways. For example, Canadian banks gladly accepted rich Confederate deposits. These deposits were sufficient to give the Confederate Secret Service effective control of some institutions, including the Bank of Ontario on Place d’Armes in Montreal, which became a centre of money laundering. John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, visited the bank practically every day during his stay in Montreal in October 1864.

British shipyards and factories provided vessels and arms to the South. In many cases, blockade runners were manned by British captains and seamen. Wealthy Canadians, including noted politicians, formed consortiums to provision and launch blockade runners. Montreal served as a meeting place for those looking to trade food and arms to the Confederacy in return for cotton.

Powerful American interests were also at work in Montreal orchestrating trade between the North and South. By 1864, the Northern war efforts had become utterly corrupt and Montreal played host to much of this corruption. Even Lincoln’s White House was not above participating in food-for-cotton trading with the Confederacy. So, what is the lesson here? History is often more complicated and contradictory than our national lore might suggest.