Faded Markers Series: Abolitionism
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
This is another cache in the Faded Markers Series. This series will mainly focus on older, near forgotten burial plots of pioneers in the Niagara Region and beyond. The goal of this series is not necessarily the length of the walk nor the difficulty of the find, but rather a simple reverence for those who came before us to shape our area.
Here stood a Baptist church erected in 1830 through the exertions of a former British soldier. John Oakley, who although white, became pastor of a predominantly negro congregation. In 1793 Upper Canada had passed an act forbidding further introduction of slaves and freeing the children of those in the colony at twenty-five. This was the first legislation of its kind in the British Empire. A long tradition of tolerance attracted refugee slaves to Niagara, many of whom lie buried here.
Two solitary tombstones with barely legible legends are all that’s left of the cemetery, which is now a lawn in a park and near the street. Black members of this church had escaped slavery in the United States and were attracted by Upper Canada's promise of a limited freedom for blacks. That liberty for blacks was a tenuous matter was shown when two blacks were murdered while trying to free Solomon Moseby, a fugitive slave from Kentucky who was incarcerated in the local jail in 1837.
This church, erected in 1829 by the exertions of John Oakley, who came to Fort George in 1814 and had charge of the Field Train Department, was removed some time ago, being no longer used. At one time several hundred escaped slaves found shelter under the British flag, and here are buried many of these dusky Africans, but one white child was buried here in 1832, that of the above mentioned Rev. John Oakley, who was a teacher and preacher.
Here too is buried a hero whose name should not be forgotten, though it is unrecorded in marble or granite. Herbert Holmes, a teacher and exhorter, who organized a band of colored men of several hundreds to surround the jail and pre-vent the return of Mosely, an escaped slave from Kentucky, who was by law ordered to be given up. The civil and military authorities were called out, soldiers, constables, sheriff, and the Riot Act read. The prisoner escaped, but Holmes and Green were shot and lie buried here, having given their lives to save their brother from slavery. Were not they heroes indeed, and should not their names be commemorated?
William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of the Rebellion of 1837, drew attention to the Moseby case in a full account in The Constitution (4 October 1837) when the notorious Sir Francis Bond Head, then lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, ordered the extradition of Moseby and his return to the slave-owner. The account precipitated a concerted effort to free Moseby who had been pursued across the border by his master who accused him of having stolen a horse to make his getaway. Moseby was captured in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) and imprisoned. More than 20 blacks and whites, including a number of women, resisted the British soldiers in a battle to free him from the jail. Several were wounded and two blacks, Jacob Green and Herbert Holmes, were killed. They were buried in an unmarked grave in the Baptist plot. Moseby made his escape to Montreal and then to England. These events remain one of the earliest instances of black and white unity against racism, slavery and oppression. Mackenzie’s Draft Constitution in 1837 declared in Article 8: “People of color who have come into this State, with the design of becoming permanent inhabitants thereof, and are now resident therein, shall be entitled to all the rights of native Canadians, upon taking an oath of affirmation to support the constitution.”
To find this cache, you must first read the inscription of the first marker, that being the left one if looking straight on from the plaque.
This may prove difficult as the inscription is weathered, but you can get a "feel" for the words....let your fingers do the walking.
Now, from the Negro Burial Ground plaque, plot a course South-East from the plaque and walk the distance in meters, equal to that of George's age in years.
The cache is a small container filled with various items and a logbook, but no writing utensil, so please bring your own.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)