Tracing the waves of Black migration to Quebec

A portrait of Mathieu Da Costa. (Courtesy of Dr. Henry V. Bishop / copyright 1975 Halifax, N.S.)

The waves of Black migration to Canada go back to the early 1600s. The first recorded Black person to set foot on Canadian soil was Mathieu Da Costa, a free man hired by Europeans as an interpreter.

Although there is no record of him arriving in what would become Montreal, Da Costa is believed to have worked with Samuel de Champlain along the St. Lawrence River and in Quebec City around 1608.

He is also recorded at Port-Royal — now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia — around 1605.

Despite this long history, the presence of Black people in Canada is still largely absent from the country’s historical narrative.

Canada’s participation in enslavement is often erased from history books, in favour of a story that focuses on Canada as a safe haven and downplays more than two centuries of slavery on this land.

Renowned Montreal historian, author and educator Dorothy W. Williams has uncovered a lot of what has been erased. Through her work, including Blacks in Montreal: 1628-1986, she has documented Black life from early slavery through modern times.

“History is messy. We don’t really understand — that’s always been one of my issues. We really don’t understand how Canada came together, and what were the issues that brought Canadians, British back then, together at that time to create this country called Canada,” Williams said in a recent interview.

“One of them was the relationship with Blacks. And I think that is something that they don’t really understand. And how Canadians see themselves as having been better than the Americans comes from the fact that this history has never been told to them.”

For Black History Month, here is a timeline of the waves of Black migration to Quebec, produced in collaboration with Williams.