For Tracy Lee, learning her family’s history has given her fresh insight into the incredible lives of her ancestors; and a new passion for sharing their legacy.
Lee is a fifth-generation Black Canadian from Brantford, who inspires individuals through educational presentations that celebrate her heritage and aim to ignite a sense of pride and belonging. She travels across Ontario to share her presentation, titled “And Then What Happened…. Black Canadian History – the untold stories,” which weaves together music, storytelling, and a keynote speech spanning over 200 years of her family’s history and highlighting the contributions and legacy of Black Canadians.
One of Lee’s ancestors, Andrew Lucas, came to Brantford in 1805. Prior to that he worked on a plantation, Lee said, and was owned by then-General Andrew Jackson, who later became the seventh president of the United States. According to an 1886 newspaper article about his life, Lucas was able to escape slavery, worked his way north, and crossed into Canada at Black Rock on the Niagara River.
“He stayed in the Niagara area for some time, and then by 1846 he ended up in Brantford,” Lee said. He worked as a driver for the express company in Brantford for 29 years and lived to be 124 years old, according to the 1886 article, though his actual age is unconfirmed.
Lucas was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, and his descendants have stayed in Brantford for quite some time – including Lee, who grew up here.
Lee has been learning about her family’s history more and more over the last few years, aided by her husband, who Lee describes as a “want-to-be genealogist,” professional historians, digital archives, and websites like ancestry.ca.
“My husband started out going through archives and census and finding out the names of who they were, where they were, to make sure we’re documenting information correctly,” Lee said. She then used archived newspapers to “put the flesh on the bone,” as she calls it, getting the information about “who they were, what they were, what they did, and it makes it more personable.”
One article she found was an 1885 interview, done by The Globe Newspaper with her ancestor Andrew Lucas.
“He talked about his time on Andrew Jackson’s plantation. He talked about how it was while he was running for his life, and he talked about when he got to Canada and what he did afterwards,” Lee said. “I don’t know how many people can say that they actually can read the words of their third-great-grandfather and see and understand what his life was like, what his journey was like.”
As she learns more about her own ancestors, she also learns more about “so many different settlements and other freedom seekers that came to Canada,” Lee said.
These stories are some of those included in her presentation, And Then What Happened. She’s spoken to audiences across Ontario, most often talking to students grades four to 12, as well as universities, corporations, libraries and historical societies.
The presentation shares stories from her own history and from how Black Canadians have contributed to the development of Canada.
“Some of the areas that have been developed in Brantford, or even like all through Ontario, I should say a lot of people do not even realize that they were Black settlers that actually helped clear cut space and develop the land that we now live on,” Lee said.
The title of the presentation comes from Lee continually asking, as she learns more about this history, ‘and then what happened?’
“The freedom seekers came to Canada, but then what happened?” Lee said. “There’s not a lot of information about this. It’s like we fell off the edge of the Earth, but there’s so much out there that can be talked about and celebrated and rejoiced.”
By sharing these stories, audiences “start to really understand the sacrifices that were made by these people and how they helped to take part in developing where we are now,” Lee said. “I know they did it for themselves and for their generations to come, but truly, all of Canada has benefited from the areas that these people made their home.”
During Black History month in February, Lee has several presentations scheduled across Brantford, Hamilton, and more, and a February 9 musical event in Kitchener.
Though it’s tiring work, Lee said that she’s thankful to be able to “shed some light on this subject” and considers it her “purpose in life.”
Something she shares in her presentation is a copy of her third-great-grandfather’s free papers.
When she first saw the free papers, it was an emotional experience, Lee said. “That he had to have free papers was just crazy.” She shares them in her presentation now to show the audience how they “talk about these people as if they were cattle,” noting information like their height, weight, scars, colouring and age.
“They were just treated as property, there was no human touch whatsoever,” Lee said. “Being able to talk about them feels like I’m almost giving back their dignity, giving back their culture and giving back their humanity.”
