Crossing the Border: A Free Black Community in Canada by Sharon A. Roger Hepburn

Abstract

Book Reviews 157 acknowledges asmuch, observing that "the lack of awritten language has hamstrung any attempt to relate to the Indian version of events. It is an immeasurable loss to history" (p. xiv). Alan Gaff is an independent scholar and is careful to define his audience broadly. His clear prose, skillful use of anecdotes, and unobtrusive footnotes will certainly appeal to readers outside of academia. The book is not lacking in scholarly rigor, however. Indeed, thanks to the time Gaff spent examining previously unused newspaper accounts, the book surely sits on a firmer evidentiary basis than any previous work on this topic. Consequendy, Bayonets in theWilderness will find a place both in survey courses on early American history and in the libraries of military enthusiasts. Christopher Bates University of California, Los Angeles Sharon A. Roger Hepburn. Crossing theBorder:A Free Black Community in Canada. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007. Pp. 272. Bibliography. Index. Notes. Photographs. Cloth, $40.00. The past few years have seen an outpouring of writing on black Canadian history and black migration studies. Among these texts is Sharon A. Roger Hepburn's Crossing theBorder:A Free Black Community in Canada. A substantive book with a brief introduction and ten complex chapters, Crossing the Border has four notable features. First, Hepburn squarely takes on the espousal by abolitionists that Canada was a promised land of black freedom and equality as well as the fable touted by Southern slave owners that it was barren, frozen tundra. Second, Hepburn offers a comprehensive profile of the Reverend William King, the founder and primary financier of Buxton, the main community she examines. Third, Crossing the Border explains the inner workings of the Elgin Association and the Buxton Mission, the two rather distinct administrative entities that comprised the Buxton setdement. Finally, Hepburn sustains a narrative throughout her text that emphasizes the experiences of the ordinary people who transformed Buxton from a setdement into a community. Crossing the Border illustrates that Buxton was a complicated, highly ambitious undertaking. The settlement was founded in 1849, it comprised more than seven thousand acres by the end of its first five years, and it lasted formally for more than twenty years. However, even though the 158 Michigan Historical Review Buxton story is about its successful transformation into a true community where residents lived, worked, worshiped, and studied, there is a discernable tension in its history. Hepburn is not able to resolve fully the contradictions created by William King's management of the community. In a variety of ways, King's purpose was to make Buxton residents as independent as possible. At the same time, King not only helped manage the settlement's finances, but also directed the people's spiritual and educational development. What Hepburn does make clear, however, is that Buxton was not a homogeneous society. Its residents were male and female, fugitive and free-born, literate and illiterate, destitute and propertied. Its small number of interracial families meant that from the very beginning Buxton was not even a truly all-black settlement. To its credit, Crossing the Border is a thorough study that features a highly readable narrative drawn from primary sources including Canadian census returns, Elgin Association records, church histories, family papers, newspaper articles, and personal correspondence. The Buxton setdement's significance to Michigan history is twofold. Buxton's proximity to the Michigan/Canadian border?a border that was much more fluid than it is today?makes the study pertinent to Michigan history. Also, although itmay not have seen the human traffic of Buffalo, New York, Detroit was a gateway to freedom in Ontario towns and cities likeWindsor, Amherstburg, and Sandwich. Hepburn's analysis of the ways in which race and class shaped Buxton's history is strong, but gender analysis falls short in comparison. Maureen Elgersman Lee Old Dominion University Mark Hoffman. 'My Brave Mechanics": The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007. Pp. 470. Appendices. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Maps. Notes. Tables. Cloth, $44.95. Mark Hoffman's (My Brave Mechanics" details the service of the First Michigan Engineers throughout America's most pivotal war. What separates this regimental history from other examples of the genre...