North to Bondage

North to Bondage provides a powerful interruption of the historical silencing of slavery in Canada, detailing the complex origins and intricate social relationships that formed the basis of slavery in the Maritimes. The book thus functions as an important corrective to Canadian narratives of slavery that have functioned largely to erase black presence and suffering in Canada by encouraging a belief that slavery was either non-existent, benevolent, or economically unimportant.

* Canadian Literature *

...North to Bondage is an important work that will become the standard text for understanding Maritime slavery...it not only challenges scholars of early Canada to think about the place and role of slavery but also Canada’s understanding of its national identity. For that reason, it has a place in many different classrooms, including courses on early Canadian history, multiculturalism in Canada, and Atlantic slavery.

-- Jared Hardesty, Western Washington University * American Review of Canadian Studies, Vol. 46 No. 4, February 2017 *

Whitfield’s book places the experiences of enslaved persons at the centre of this history. This is skilfully done given that there are few sources that contain the unmediated voices of enslaved people in Atlantic Canada …[Whitfield] achieves this by combining archival material and histories of slavery in what became the United States and Canada. He demonstrates that enslaved persons negotiated their experiences of enslavement and he shows that they were integral to bringing about the demise of slavery in the early nineteenth century.

-- Eleanor Bird, The University of Sheffield * British Journal of Canadian Studies *
Whitfield’s important and very readable study reinserts Maritimes slavery and black labour into the narrative of Canada’s many beginnings while also keeping the relevant black Atlantic connections in full view. -- Winfried Siemerling, University of Waterloo * Left History *

Whitfield presents a new avenue for understanding the complexities of slavery in Maritime Canada and opens the door for future research. Rather than expanding on traditional research that stresses the freedoms found by enslaved or escaped African-Americans, Whitfield complicates the narratives and creates a more encompassing image of life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries ... North to Freedom will be a welcomed addition to courses in both Canadian and American history, especially those looking to bring in new perspectives that challenge the history of slavery.

-- Amy Mitchell-Cook, University of West Florida * Canadian Journal of History *

North to Bondage is a significant contribution to several subfields of historical research, including African diasporic studies, the history of slavery, early American history, and early Canadian history. At just 118 pages of text and written in accessible prose, it is also very readable and ideally suited for the classroom.

-- Christopher C. Jones, Brigham Young University * Early Canadian History *

Amani Whitfield provides a nuanced and remarkably fulsome picture of the lives of enslaved people in the Maritimes by drawing on runaway advertisements, court documents, and personal papers.

* Immigrants & Minoriti