Thornton Blackburn

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Thornton Blackburn and his wife Ruth (or Lucie) were escaped slaves from Louisville, Kentucky. They had been settled in Detroit, Michigan, for two years when, in 1833, Kentucky slave hunters located, re-captured, and arrested the couple. The Blackburns were jailed but allowed visitors, which provided the opportunity for Ruth to exchange her clothes - and her incarceration - with Mrs. George French; Ruth was then spirited across the Detroit River to Canada, and safety.

Thornton’s escape was more difficult as he was heavily guarded, bound and shackled. The day before Thornton was to be returned to Kentucky, Detroit's African American community rose up in protest. A crowd of some 400 men stormed the jail to free him. During the commotion that ensued, two individuals called Sleepy Polly and Daddy Walker helped Thornton escape to Canada. The commotion turned into a two day riot during which the local sheriff was killed. It was the first race riot in Detroit, resulting in the first ever Riot Commission formed in the U.S. Further, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Major General Sir John Colborne, refused extradition back to the United States, noting that a person could not steal himself.

Once safely in Canada and reunited with his wife, Thornton settled in the new city of Toronto, arriving in 1834, where he formed Toronto's first taxicab company, for which he designed, built, and operated Toronto's first horse-drawn carriage taxi cab service.

In 1999, the Canadian government designated the Blackburns "Persons of National Historic Significance" for their important contribution to the growth of Toronto and, in 2002, plaques in their honour were erected in Louisville, Kentucky, and in Toronto.

[edit] External links

• http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/blackburn.htm
• http://www.toronto.ca/torontoplan/lost.htm

[edit] Additional Reading

• A. S. Quinn "The Detroit Riot of 1863; racial violence and internal division in Northern society during the Civil War"

• Adrienne Shadd, Afua Cooper and Karolyn Smardz Frost "The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto!"
• Karolyn Smardz Frost "I've Got A Home In Glory Land", Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, February, 2007

• "A Glimpse of Toronto's History", Urban Affairs Library, Metro Hall Lobby, 55 John Street, Toronto, Ontario.