♪ Yo ♪ (upbeat music) (clock ticking) - Hey, everyone, it's Cory.

Let's play a quick game of Fact or Cap.

I'll give you a statement, and if you think the statement is true, then it's a fact.

But if you think the statement is false, then it's cap.

Got it?

Okay.

Statement one, fact or cap?

I can beat anyone of you all in a dance battle.

(record scratches) That is a fact!

(laughs) (dark hip-hop music) Woo!

(Cory sighs) Now that we know you all can't see me in a dance battle, let's move on to the next state.

Fact or cap?

New York was always a free state that outlawed slavery, which meant slaves that escaped to New York never had to worry again.

That is cap.

(drum roll) (audience sighing) It's sort of a double cap.

Firstly, New York did not outlaw slavery until 1827, hundreds of years after the transatlantic slave trade forced Africans on a deadly displacement to the new world.

And secondly, the term slave is so nasty and demeaning.

I don't call my ancestor slaves, so we will refer to them as freedom seekers, okay?

Last statement.

Fact or cap?

In the heat of slavery, freedom seekers, with some help from abolitionists, escape to Canada and created an entire town, where they thrived, owned businesses, and built a world-famous church.

That is a fact.

(audience cheering) Now, before we dive into the incredible history of the Salem Chapel, let's make sure we're all on the same page.

Earlier, I mentioned the term abolitionist.

Do you know what an abolitionist is?

These are people who sought to abolish, end slavery around the world.

Wouldn't you want to put an end to a system where even as a kid, you had to work 12 hours a day without getting paid?

You never got to eat the food you enjoyed.

You were banned from reading, writing, and speaking your own language.

Everything you, your parents, your BFF did was controlled for the rest of your life.

Imagine that you heard about a journey you and your fam could take that would set you free from all of this.

Would you want to do it?

And that's where the Underground Railroad comes in.

Now, I'm sure you've heard of it, but do you truly understand what the Underground Railroad was?

No, it wasn't underground, and it wasn't even a railroad.

Imagine you're planning a road trip, and it's a really long trip, so you know you're going to have to stop along the way for some food, for some gas, to use the bathroom, except on this trip, you don't have a car.

Only a few specific stops were safe for you, and if you got caught, you're getting chained, whipped, starved.

Scary, right?

But you weren't alone.

Along the way, a secret network of people we've nicknamed conductors had your back, protecting you on your way to freedom.

The Underground Railroad was like that, and people did some seriously wild and slick moves to avoid getting caught.

They snuck out in the night, followed the North Star, journeyed through rain in disguises.

(thunder cracking) One dude even shipped himself in a box full of biscuits and water to Philadelphia!

So when New York finally abolished slavery, the Underground Railroad must have ended here.

Freedom!

Right?

If only it were that easy.

This is Congress in 1850.

You can tell by the funny clothes, right?

Yeah, you all see the dude with the receding hairline?

He's balding 'cause of all the stress.

See, at this time, the country was on the brink of civil war, and you already know it was because of slavery.

But to keep the South from dipping out on the country or seceding from the union, president Millard Fillmore, who by the way, was from Buffalo, signed a set of laws called the Compromise of 1850 to try and keep the country united.

Now, one of those laws was a nasty deal.

It's called the Fugitive Slave Act.

Now, I need you to remember this one, because it allows officers the ability to (dark country music) "use such reasonable force and restraint as may be necessary" to kidnap freedom seekers anywhere in the country.

(audience booing) It's tragic.

With this law, true freedom could only be found beyond our borders, which brings us back to the start.

What would you do if there's nowhere in the country you can be safe?

Do you give up and say, hey, we tried.

Let's head back to slavery, I guess, or do you keep moving forward to find safety in a different country where slavery had been abolished for decades?

I don't know about you all, but I would want to keep going.

Tons of freedom seekers not only did that for themselves, they risked their lives to lead others to freedom, too, like the OG, Ms. Harriet Tubman, (bright chiptune jingle) or as I like to call her, Auntie Harriet.

(bright chiptune jingle) This heroic woman is the definition of standing on business.

Did you know that at just 12 years old, she fought off her enslaver from beating a man who was trying to escape?

This led her to getting hit in the head with a two-pound weight, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury that impacted her for the rest of her life.

That didn't stop her from greatness.

As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, she led hundreds of freedom seekers into Canada by way of the Suspension Bridge right in Niagara Falls, and she never got caught.

Bam!

Now, remember, history's a long journey.

Hold up!

This always seems to be where the story ends for freedom seekers, but freedom is not the end, my friends.

It's only the beginning.

So what happens when freedom seekers finally find the freedom they deserve?

Let me put you on.

♪ Yo ♪ (upbeat hip-hop music) Woo!

Our neighbor to the north might look familiar, but Canada is a unique country with its own laws, its own culture.

Heck, Canadians were the first to put pineapple on pizza!

We still love 'em, though.

(upbeat hip-hop music) Canada abolished slavery on August 1st, 1834.

This is why it was called the final stop on the Underground Railroad.

Although the entire country was technically free, some spots felt more welcoming than others.

One of those places was this town just over the border.

Now, at the end of her journey north, Auntie Harriet discovered a freed black community right here in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Early on, black loyalists like Richard Pierpoint, a soldier who fought on the British side of the American Revolution, settled right around here.

but the largest influx of African-Americans in St. Catharines came through the Underground Railroad.

(bright music) Many freedom seekers put down roots right around here by the Salem Chapel, a church made for us by us.

As a matter of fact, Auntie Harriet even got her crib right across the street!

Let's head inside.

(light music) Rochelle?

(light music) Rochelle!

Rochelle!

- I'm right here, Cory.

Come on down.

- Oh.

There you are.

(bright acoustic music) So I wanted to show my friends here a little bit about how life truly began for freedom seekers after escaping slavery.

- Well, you came to the right place.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Rochelle.

I'm a trustee and the resident historian of the Salem Chapel.

- So can you tell us what daily life was like for someone who just got here off the Underground Railroad?

- Absolutely.

Daily life differed for everyone.

So for some people, it was a rags to riches stories, and for others, it was not.

So some people became very prosperous.

They were business people.

Others, unfortunately, they were petty thieves and criminals, but that was just a small handful.

so I wouldn't be telling you the truth if I said everybody was prospering.

- I guess it kind of seems like after gaining freedom, a whole new struggle began.

Folks were starting from scratch, and they still had to earn a living and contribute to society.

So why here?

What role did churches play in helping freedom seekers find stability and a future?

- So churches played a significant role along the Underground Railroad.

So this church, for example, would shelter freedom seekers when they arrived.

This church would also provide them with finances, money, if they needed it, and it would also provide them with food or clothing.

The churches also served as night schools for freedom seekers.

At night school, they would learn how to read and write, and of course, spelling and arithmetic.

- Wow, I don't think I knew any of that.

So after slavery was finally abolished in America after the Civil War, what did people do?

Did they just go back to the US and find family members?

Did they pick up their lives that they began back home?

- Yes, so thousands returned to the United States, to the South in particular, because they were searching for their loved ones they left behind.

Others, they moved to cosmopolitan cities, such as Chicago and New York.

But then again, you also had thousands that stayed behind here in Canada and put down roots, such as my immediate family.

They put down roots here in St. Catharines, and the church was their last stop, and the church is still churching today, - (laughs) All right now.

It's amazing to think about how far our people have come and the amazing progress that can be made by joining together as a community.

- It truly is amazing.

Sometimes we often think of freedom seekers as being helpless individuals who needed to be rescued.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When freedom seekers arrived in Canada, they supported each other and they built a beautiful community and futures together.

(upbeat music) - Wasn't that fascinating?

Did you ever think about what life was like after slavery?

If you did, extra gold star for you, 'cause not many people do.

Let's recap real quick.

The transatlantic slave trade forced kidnapped Africans to work in the Americas, and freedom seekers began rebelling and escaping the plantations from the jump.

The network that led people from enslavement to freedom evolved into what we know as the Underground Railroad.

Canada outlawed slavery in 1834, and New York followed in 1837, but in 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act meant nowhere in the US was safe for freedom seekers.

So abolitionists like Auntie Harriet, Frederick Douglass, and others went into overdrive to get freedom seekers all the way up to places like St. Catharines in Canada, where they built a community of mutual aid and support for one another around the Salem Church.

Woo.

That about covers it, right?

Let me know if I missed something now.

And you know, just because slavery is illegal now doesn't mean the struggle for freedom is over.

Modern-day abolitionists and their allies are still fighting for freedom when it comes to civil rights, genocide, and equality all over the world.

One thing I've learned from Auntie Harriet is, you don't have to wait to be an adult to make a change.

You can be a 12-year-old just doing what you know is right and transform our world.

Now, remember...

I guess I'll let him take it from here.

(computer beeps) History surrounds you and includes you.

So go ahead, make history, and maybe one day, I'll be telling your story right here on Compact History.

- Ah, why does my jaw feel like I've been smiling for 10 minutes straight?

(upbeat music)