It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada

by Andrew Hunter

“My parents were slaves in New York State. My master’s sons-in-law … came into the garden where my sister and I were playing among the currant bushes, tied their handkerchiefs over our mouths, carried us to a vessel, put us in the hold, and sailed up the river. I know not how far nor how long — it was dark there all the time.”

Sophia Burthen’s account of her arrival as an enslaved person into what is now Canada sometime in the late 18th century, was recorded by Benjamin Drew in 1855. In It Was Dark There All the Time, writer and curator Andrew Hunter builds on the testimony of Drew’s interview to piece together Burthen’s life, while reckoning with the legacy of whiteness and colonialism in the recording of her story. In so doing, Hunter demonstrates the role that the slave trade played in pre-Confederation Canada and its continuing impact on contemporary Canadian society.

Evocatively written with sharp, incisive observations and illustrated with archival images and contemporary works of art, It Was Dark There All the Time offers a necessary correction to the prevailing perception of Canada as a place unsullied by slavery and its legacy.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Canada

328 pages, Paperback

Published January 25, 2022

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Andrew Hunter is a curator, artist, writer, and educator.

Hunter was previously the Frederik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, where he produced major exhibitions and publications including Every Now Then: Reframing Nationhood, In the Ward: Lawren Harris, Toronto & the Idea of North, and Colville.

Born in Hamilton and a graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Hunter has held curatorial positions across Canada, including at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He has taught at the Ontario College of Art and Design University and the University of Waterloo and lectured on curatorial practice across Canada, the United States, England, China, and Croatia. He is a member of the advisory board for the Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery at NSCAD.

Reviews

[Jim Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A damn fine book that exposes the roots of Canadian racism, racism that persists to this day.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important book but not only because of the denial of slavery in Canada but because of the two brilliant young women that the author Andrew Hunter met. Morayo and Moyo Akande made a short film, 1745, about two sisters escaping their slavery in Scotland. Have only seen a trailer on Youtube but can't wait to see the rest.

[Sonya Noack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if I'd read it quicker. I read this book over the course of two months, and I think because I read it so slowly, it made it harder for me to enjoy. Had I spend a couple weeks reading only this book, I would have liked it a lot more. Because I didn't read it consecutively, it took away my understanding and comprehension of the book. I liked reading it, and I enjoyed the topics, but sometimes it was hard for me to get into it. I wish I could've sat down and read this so I enjoyed it more, but overall it was still a good read.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very important topic, but the writing was kind of rambling in places and there were some details that didn't really need to be there, which made it a difficult read