This was the home of William Lyon Mackenzie, leader of the Rebellion of 1837 and Toronto’s 1st mayor. He was also a newspaper publisher and editor. He held an anti-slavery stance. Mackenzie served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He used his four newspapers to express his disapproval of slavery and to encourage the equal treatment of Upper Canada’s Black population.
1837
During the Rebellion of 1837, the rebels planned to seize the city by non-violent means, remove the sitting elite-dominated government, and install a responsible government, which would be more representative of and concerned with the common citizen. Mackenzie tried to recruit Black men, however the Black population held strong support for the British colonial government because their freedom was secured under them. Mackenzie felt they held what he described as an “unfounded fear of a union with the United States.”
Roughly 1,000 Black Canadians participated as militiamen for the BR colonial govt. They were organized into five units and were known as the “Coloured Corps.” They fought in Toronto, Chatham, Hamilton, Sandwich (Windsor), and the Niagara area along the border. Approximately 120 “Coloured Corps” fought in Toronto under Colonel Samuel Jarvis and helped to disperse the rebels. The rebellion was quelled and three years later in 1841, Upper and Lower Canada were unified to form Canada West.
A historic site
Today, as a historic site, Mackenzie offers programming on Toronto’s Black history, including the story of Mary Ann Shadd Cary in their printing program. The original Provincial Freeman press is at the Buxton Museum and National Historic Site.
Mackenzie used his newspapers, the Constitution, the Colonial Advocate, Mackenzie’s Gazette, and Mackenzie’s Weekly Message, to express his disapproval of slavery and to encourage the equal treatment of Upper Canada’s Black population.