Possibilities for African Canadian intellectual history: The case of 19th‐century Upper Canada/Canada West

Abstract

African Canadian intellectual history of the 19th century resonates with contemporary movements for racial justice such as Black Lives Matter, and the emergence of new scholars and activists in the vibrant field of Black Canadian Studies. Arguing that Black abolitionists and their ideologies of resistance created an intellectual culture both linked to, and distinct from, intellectual cultures elsewhere in the Atlantic world, the essay discusses new scholarship on histories of ideas, calling for a reexamination of the underground railroad as an important conceptual framework, and surveying recent work on women's intellectual histories, histories of religion, and the culture of science. Interdisciplinary research on the Black press in 19th‐century Canada reveals the importance of African Canadian intellectual history for our understanding of narratives of race, ideologies of emancipation, and the place of Canada in the Black Atlantic.