New Amherstburg exhibit aims to shine light on unheralded stories of the Underground Railroad

‘Beyond the Underground Railroad: A History of Black Settlement in Nineteenth Century Amherstburg' seeks to tell the untold stories of the Underground Railroad in Amherstburg, Ont. It is a brainchild of University of Windsor masters’ student, Karleigh Kochaniec. (Ricardo Veneza/CTV News Windsor)

An exhibit at the Amherstburg Freedom Museum opened this week with a focus on telling the stories of those who settled in the town often overlooked as part of the history of the Underground Railroad.

On Thursday, the museum officially opened the exhibit dubbed ‘Beyond the Underground Railroad: A History of Black Settlement in Nineteenth Century Amherstburg.’

It was the creation of a University of Windsor masters’ student, Karleigh Kochaniec.

“There’s a lot of local history that we’re not aware of that’s not made super public,” said Kochaniec when asked about the focus of the exhibit.

“When it comes to Black history in Amherstburg, people often think of it as freedom seekers coming to Canada and it ending there,” Kochaniec added. “Whereas this exhibit is trying to tell people that that history continues on beyond just entering Canada and settling there.”

Kochaniec is completing a Black history internship at the museum, in partnership with UWindsor, the museum and a Mitacs Accelerate Grant. She decided to focus on four settlements in the town and how they became self-sufficient communities unto themselves, as well as a woman named Julia Turner, who lived in the area and owned property — a rarity for the time.

“She was someone that I was really interested to learn more about,” said Kochaniec. “She was a woman who never married, but she taught as a teacher for most of her life all around Windsor-Essex and she owned lots of property.”

Through the process, Kochaniec worked to track down Turner’s properties and better tell the story of a remarkable woman at time of significant oppression faced by the Black community.

“She kind of went against the status quo in a way. It wasn’t very common for a woman to be unmarried, especially her entire life and also for a woman to work outside the home as well as own property. To see how she was able to do that all herself is pretty amazing,” said Kochaniec.

The exhibit shares the location of those sites setup by those fleeing enslavement and more details about those locations in Amherstburg including the churches and schools they built as well as the businesses they began.

The exhibit is set to run until Dec. 31.