Mary and Henry Bibb, art by Komi Olaf
An uncredited poem from ‘Voice of the Fugitive‘, January 15, 1851, Sandwich, Canada West, credited as edited by Henry Bibb
Tune—’Oh Susannah‘
I’m on my way to Canada,
That cold and dreary land;
The dire effects of Slavery
I can no longer stand.
My soul is vexed within me so,
To think that I’m a slave,
I’ve now resolved to strike the blow,
For freedom or the grave.
O! Righteous Father,
Wilt thou not pity me,
And aid me on to Canada,
Where colored men are free?
I heard old Queen Victoria say
If we would all forsake
Our native land of slavery,
And come across the Lake,
That she was standing on the shore,
With arms extended wide,
To give us all a peaceful home
Beyond the rolling tide.
Farewell old Master!
That is enough for me—
I’m going straight to Canada,
Where colored men are free.
I’ve served my master all my days,
Without a dime’s reward;
And I’m forced to run away,
To flee the lash abhorred.
The hounds are baying on my track—
The master’s just behind,
Resolved that he will bring me back
Before I cross the Line.
Old Master!
Don’t come after me—
I’m going up to Canada,
Where colored men are free.
Grieve not, my wife—grieve not for me;
O! do not break my heart;
For nought but cruel slavery
Would cause me to depart.
If I should stay to quell your grief,
Your grief I would augment;
For no one knows the day that we
Asunder may be rent.
O! Susannah!
Don’t you cry for me—
I’m going up to Canada,
Where colored men are free.
I heard old master pray last night—
I heard him pray for me—
That God would come, and in his might,
From Satan set me free.
So I from Satan would escape,
And flee the wrath to come—
If there’s a fiend in human shape,
Old Master must be one.
O! Old Master,
While you pray for me,
I’m doing all I can to reach
The land of Liberty.
Ohio’s not the place for me;
For I was much surprised
So many of her sons to see
In garments of disguise.
Her name has gone thro’out the world
Free Labour, Soil, and Men—
But slaves had better far be hurled
Into the Lion’s Den.
Farewell, Ohio!
I’m not safe in thee:
I’ll travel on to Canada,
Where colored men are free.
I’ve now embarked for yonder shore,
Where Man’s a Man’s by Law;
The vessel soon shall bear me o’er
To shake the Lion’s paw.
I no more dread the Auctioneer,
Nor fear the Master’s frown;
I no more tremble when I hear
The baying negro hounds.
O! Old Master!
Don’t think hard of me—
I’m just in sight of Canada,
Where colored men are free.
I’m landed safe upon the shore,
Both soul and body free:
My blood, and brain, and tears no more
Will drench old Tennessee;
But I behold the scalding tear
Now stealing from my eye,
To think my wife—my only dear,
A slave must live and die.
O, Susannah!
Don’t grieve after me;
For ever at the Throne of Grace
I will remember thee.
Also
A Conversation with Robyn Maynard, from Duke University Press (2025)
The newspaper that broke ground for Black Canadians, by Adrian Harewood (2025)
Lord Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment, by Andrew Lawler (2025)
The 1968 Rodney Riots in Kingston Jamaica Revisited, from Jamaicans.com (2024)
The Crisis in Haiti is the Result of Racist Colonialism, by Krys Cerisier (2024)
Dismantling the Haitian State (feat. Canada), by The Breach (2024)
Mining Blackness, by Fitsum Areguy (2024)
Lulu Anderson, by Bashir Mohamed (2023)
The Rodney Rebellion: Black Power in Jamaica, by Chinedu Chukwudinma (2022)
Black on the Prairies, by Omayra Issa & Ify Chiwetelu (2021)
The Colour Bar at the Canadian Border: Black American Farmers, by Steve Schwinghamer (2021)
General Tubman: St. Catharines, 1858, Part I, II and III by Rochelle Bush (2021)
How Canada helped kill an anti-imperialist hero, by Cassandra Kislenko (2021)
Dr. Barbara Althea Jones: A Fascinating Figure in McGill’s History, by McGill Libraries (2020)
Fitz St. John: A Longshoreman’s Longshoreman, by the ILWU (2020)
Defunding the Police Will Save Black and Indigenous Lives in Canada, by Sandy Hudson (2020)
The Struggle Against Anti-Blackness in Canada, by Robyn Maynard (2020)
Remember/Resist/Redraw #18: The Sir George Williams Protest (2019)
The Somalia Affair, by Richard Foot (2019)
Albertan rediscovers theatregoer’s fight against segregation 104 years ago, by Rachel Ward (2018)
Remembering the ‘Somalia Affair,’ by Ali Amad (2018)
Remember/Resist/Redraw #02: Chloe Cooley, Black History, and Slavery in Canada (2017)
Policing Black Lives: The Colour Line, by Robyn Maynard (2017)
Richard Pierpoint, by Zach Parrott (2016)
“’70: Remembering a Revolution” in Trinidad and Tobago, by Paul Hébert (2016)
Regina’s Radical University Students Hosted the Black Panthers in 1969, by Ashley Martin (2016)
Samuel R. Ward, by the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association (2015?)
Josiah Henson, by Eli Yarhi (2015)
Marie-Joseph Angélique, by Afua Cooper (2014)
Viola Desmond, by Russell Bingham (2013)
An Exchange Between Sam Greenlee and Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite (2007)
Institutional Racism, by Howard Adams (1988)
Henry Bibb Walton, by John K. A. O’Farrell (1985)
Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia, by Crawford Kilian (1978)
The Black Man in a White Society, by Barbara Jones (1969)
A Black Woman Speaks Out, by Barbara Jones (1968)
From DuBois to Fanon, by C.L.R. James (1967)
Racism and Culture, by Frantz Fanon (1956)
The Domain of the Marvelous, by Suzanne Césaire (1941)
Hands off the Colonies!, by George Padmore (1938)
The Shape of Fear, by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois (1926)
The African Roots of War, by W. E. B. DuBois (1915)
Lynch Law in America, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1900)
A Piece of History, by Lucy E. Parsons (1895)
John Brown, by Élisée Reclus (1867)
Extradition Case of John Anderson, 1860-1861, from Wikipedia
Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court (1859)
The Servile War, by Joseph Déjacque (1859)
The Chatham Vigilance Committee and the 1858 Rescue of Sylvanus Demarest, from Wikipedia
The Narrative of Sophia Pooley (1856)
Negrophobia on Canadian Steamboats, from The Provincial Freeman (1854)
Fugitive Slaves in Canada, from The Provincial Freeman (1854)
Negro Emigration & American Racism, from The Provincial Freeman (1854)
Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1849)
UK Slavery Abolition Act (1833), from Wikipedia
On the Constitution and the Union, by William Lloyd Garrison (1832)
The Baptist War of 1831, from Wikipedia
Black Refugees of the War of 1812, from Wikipedia
Upper Canada Act Against Slavery (1793), from Wikipedia
Royal Ethiopian Regiment, 1775–1776, from Wikipedia
