Osgoode Hall is a site of importance for Black history in Toronto and Ontario. Several legal challenges to American Slavery happened in Osgoode Hall courts. The building represents the role of the Ontario Justice System in protecting freedom seekers and challenging American slavery.
Extradition of John Anderson
The extradition hearing for freedom seeker John Anderson was held there in 1861. Anderson was ordered returned by Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson. Black community members from near and far protested in front of Osgoode Hall. However, Britain’s Privy Council and Toronto's Court of Common Pleas reversed the decision due to a technicality and Anderson was acquitted. This was the last extradition case of a freedom seeker in Ontario.
Freedom seeker Thornton Blackburn worked as a waiter in Osgoode Hall, waiting on lawyers before he established his taxi company, the first taxi company in Toronto in 1837. Known as The City, their horse-drawn taxi was painted red with yellow trim, and collected passengers from the cabstand at Church Street, just north of King. The Blackburns were the subject of the first extradition case of freedom seekers in the province in 1833. The government refused to return Lucy and Thornton Blackburn to enslavement in the United States, setting a legal precedent.
The couple was very involved in the Underground Railroad movement. They helped other freedom seekers find affordable accommodation and employment in the city. There is a national plaque at Inglenook Community School, the site of the Blackburn homestead, recognizing them as persons of national historical significance.