Oakville’s First Black Entrepreneurs
Joe Wordsworth, John Cosley and other African American entrepreneurs who built early businesses in Oakville — from barber shops to patented inventions and newspapers.
“Conductor” James Wesley Hill
Escaped slave James Wesley Hill — ‘Canada Jim’ — led 700–800 African Americans to Oakville via the Underground Railroad and helped build its strawberry industry.
The Underground Railway
How the Underground Railroad moved African Americans from U.S. slavery to freedom in Canada, doubling Ontario’s Black population after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.
Underground Railway to Oakville
Oakville became a Port of Entry in 1834 and a gateway to Canada for African Americans escaping slavery, with Captain Robert Wilson among its notable conductors.
Settlement & Slavery in Upper Canada
How Loyalists brought African Americans — free and enslaved — to Upper Canada after 1783, and how Simcoe’s 1793 Anti-Slavery Act made Ontario the ‘Promised Land.’
