In 1861, the U.S. Civil War began over the right of each territory to be either a slave state or a free state. African Americans who had moved to Toronto enlisted to fight on the side of the Union army in hopes of ending slavery, as did many African Canadians.

The Underground Railroad was not a physical railroad. This section offers an explanation of what the Underground Railroad was, where the term originated and highlights one of the most celebrated Underground Railroad “conductors”—Harriet Tubman.

Slavery was a profitable institution that existed in the lands we now call Canada and the United States of America. Thanks to abolitionists, laws limiting slavery up north were passed, and the provinces of Canada became the primary destination of African Americans trying to escape slavery.