The Underground Railroad: next stop, Toronto (new edition)

The Underground Railroad: next stop, Toronto (new edition), Adrienne Shadd, Afua Cooper, Karolyn Smardz Frost

Black people have been part of what is now Canada for more than four centuries – but as we have become aware in recent years, the stories of their lives, achievements and challenges are still largely untold.  The Underground Railroad, first published in 2003 and re-issued by Dundurn Press last year, provides a well-executed measure toward correcting that. Shadd and Cooper are Black community historians of the first order and Smardz Frost, an archeologist as well as historian, was part of the team that discovered the first underground railroad site in Canada. Slim in size (145 pages) but impeccably researched, the book traces the growth of the Black community in Toronto in a way that leaves the reader – by intent – wanting more.