Archaeologist, historian, and author.
Winner of the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
KAROLYN SMARDZ FROST
THE BOOKS
STEAL AWAY HOME
ISBN-978-1554682515
The remarkable true story of Cecelia Jane Reynolds, who escaped on the Underground Railroad—and returned for the sake of family.
Born into bondage in Louisville, Kentucky, Cecelia was only fifteen years old in 1846 when she made her perilous journey across the Niagara River. With a fellow freedom-seeker’s aid, she reached Toronto, where she married Underground Railroad conductor Benjamin Holmes and began a new life. But she never forgot the beloved family members she had been forced to leave behind.
I'VE GOT A HOME IN GLORY LAND
ISBN-978-0887622502
It was the day before Independence Day, 1831. As his bride, Lucie, was about to be "sold down the river" to the slave markets of New Orleans, young Thornton Blackburn planned a daring – and successful – daylight escape from Louisville. But they were discovered by slave catchers in Michigan and slated to return to Kentucky in chains, until the black community rallied to their cause. The Blackburn Riot of 1833 was the first racial uprising in Detroit history.
A FLUID FRONTIER
ISBN-978-0814339596
Edited by Karolyn Smardz Frost and Veta Smith Tucker with a foreword by David W. Blight
The U.S./Canadian border along the Detroit River was a boundary that determined whether thousands of enslaved people of African descent could reach a place of freedom and opportunity. In A Fluid Frontier: Slavery, Resistance, and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland, editors Karolyn Smardz Frost and Veta Smith Tucker explore the experiences of the area’s freedom-seekers and advocates, both black and white, against the backdrop of the social forces—legal, political, social, religious, and economic—that shaped the meaning of race and management of slavery on both sides of the river.
ONTARIO'S AFRICAN-CANADIAN HERITAGE:
Collected Writings by Fred Landon, 1918-1967
ISBN-978-1550028140
Edited by Frederick H. Armstrong, Hilary Bates Neary, Karolyn Smardz Frost and Bryan E. Walls
Ontario’s African-Canadian Heritage is composed of the collected works of Professor Fred Landon, who for more than 60 years wrote about African-Canadian history. The selected articles have, for the most part, never been surpassed by more recent research and offer a wealth of data on slavery, abolition, the Underground Railroad, and more, providing unique insights into the abundance of African-Canadian heritage in Ontario. Though much of Landon’s research was published in the Ontario Historical Society's journal, Ontario History, some of the articles reproduced here appeared in such prestigious U.S. publications as the Journal of Negro History.
The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! (new edition forthcoming in 2021!)
The only book ever written about Toronto's role as a major Underground Railroad terminus. Richly illustrated, it traces the journeys of courageous women, men and little children who made the perilous trip north in search of freedom. This unique volume describes the strong community they built in their adopted city, using never-before-published information about Toronto's African Canadian past. Written by three senior historians, The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Freedom! is both engaging and accessible for both youth and adult readers. It offers new insights into this country's rich African Canadian heritage, and details the many contributions freedom-seekers and their descendants have made to the building, not only of Toronto, but also of this nation.