I do have sufficient evidence to prove that I, my mom, and my children are descendants of the Queen’s Bush community. The documentary trail from my grandmother back through my Robinson ancestors (Myrtle Mae to William A. to John A.) to Peter Taylor and Margaret White is solid.

The question of whether we are descendants of escaped slaves are free Blacks is harder to answer, however. The answer could be one or both. Nevertheless, given that all my earliest known ancestors residing in Queen’s Bush hailed from slave-owning states, namely Maryland and Virginia, the evidence points more strongly in the direction that we are living legacies of slaves who struggled to obtain freedom despite the cost.

I believe there is evidence that I descend from known escaped slaves. Peter Taylor and Margaret White lived near Samuel White and Hannah (Gray) White. According to Brown-Kubisch (2004), Samuel White (at least) was born into slavery in Maryland. Given data from three successive censuses of Canada (1851, 1861, and 1871)—all of which agree that Samuel White was born in Maryland—his birth date ranges from about 1786 to about 1794. (Keep in mind that the accuracy of census data depends on the memory of the individual respondent.)

Brown-Kubisch reported that Hannah Gray was born in Maryland as well, but given the three aforementioned censuses of Canada, we cannot be so sure. The 1851 Census indicates Maryland, the 1861 Census says merely “U.S.”, and the 1871 Census says Virginia. Her birth year ranges from about 1788 to about 1802, depending on which census one goes by.

The two oldest children still living with them at the time of the 1851 Census, Henry (born circa 1828) and Sarah (born circa 1833), were both listed as born in Virginia. The family had arrived in Canada by 1834 as another child, David, was born that year in Canada. The 1851 Census listed another son, Jacob, born in Canada about 1836. By 1861 they appear to have two more children, Elizabeth and Frederick White, both born circa 1844, and possibly a grandson, Charles Smith, who was born about 1854.

Brown-Kubisch (2004) made no mention of my great-great-great-grandmother Margaret White, thus does not make any connection between her and Samuel White and Hannah (Gray) White. It is no surprise, because she appears to infer the family relationships mentioned solely from household data in the 1851 and 1861 censuses.

But I do believe there is evidence contained within the census data. Samuel White and Hannah (Gray) White lived near Peter Taylor and Margaret (White) Taylor in Peel Township according to the 1851 Census. Samuel White and his family are listed on page 37. Peter Taylor and his family are listed on page 38, the third or fourth household (depending on whether or not Lucinda Ross is part of Cornelius Taylor’s household (or vice versa) from Samuel White’s.

The two families are listed together on page 21 of the 1861 Census. By then, only one other household—that of David and Sarah Austin (the handwriting looks like Austin, at least)—separated them. It may be that Sarah Austin is actually Sarah White, Samuel and Hannah (Gray) White’s daughter, as David Austin is listed as a labourer, as are Samuel and Hannah’s sons, Jacob and Henry. Thus, it is possible that the White and Austin households are one, in which case they live adjacent to Peter and Margaret (White) Taylor.

In either case, I believe the reduced number of households between the White and Taylor families between 1851 and 1861 reflect the beginning of the exodus of squatters from Queen’s Bush. Both the White and Taylor families left Queen’s Bush later in the 1860s. Brown-Kubisch (2004) reports that Samuel White sold his farm to a John Fenton.

What is irrefutable, however, is that Samuel and Hannah (Gray) White lived next to Peter and Margaret (White) Taylor after those two families left Queen’s Bush. In the 1871 Census of Amabel Township in Bruce North district, Samuel and Hannah lived next to Peter and Margaret. They are listed on the same page, with Samuel and Hannah, now quite elderly, living in household No. 73 and Peter and Margaret in household No. 74.

Other evidence to a potential relationship is that some names repeat among both families. Peter and Margaret have a son named Samuel. Samuel and Hannah have a son named David, as do Peter and Margaret. Samuel and Hannah have a son named Henry. Peter and Margaret have a son named James Henry. Peter and Margaret have a son named Albert, as does Margaret’s brother Samuel (assuming my hypothesis is correct that they are siblings).

So sure, while my assertion that Margaret White is the daughter of Samuel White and Hannah Gray is conjecture, it is conjecture backed by a good bit of consistent evidence over at least a 20-year period.

—

I have heard of many African Americans today being ashamed of the fact that their ancestors had once been held in bondage. It is a sentiment I cannot understand. None of our ancestors volunteered to be treated as property.

Nevertheless, I feel a bit of pride in having a personal connection to that dark period of history, that I descend from those who bucked that vile system and risked their lives in a very personal fight and flight for freedom.

Bibiliography

Brown-Kubisch, Linda. 2004. The Queen’s Bush Settlement: Black Pioneers 1839-1865. Toronto: Natural Heritage Books.

Cooke, William. 2015. “The Queen’s Bush Settlement.” Stalking Dead People (blog), William Cooke. 27 Nov 2022. http://stalkingdeadpeople.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-queens-bush-settlement.html.

Drew, Benjamin. 1856. The Refugee: Or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada. Boston: John P. Jewett.

Ontario Heritage Trust. 2008. “The Queen’s Bush Settlement, 1820-1867.” King’s Printer for Ontario. Last Modified 2 Aug 2008. Accessed 27 Nov 2022.

https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/pages/programs/provincial-plaque-program/provincial-plaque-background-papers/queens-bush-settlement.

Pavlakos, Raphaela. 2021. “The Forgotten History of Wellington County: Queen’s Bush Settlers and their Legacies.” The Black Past in Guelph: Remembered and Reclaimed (blog), University of Guelph. 27 Nov 2022. https://blackpastinguelph.com/2021/02/15/the-forgotten-history-of-wellington-county-queens-bush-settlers-and-their-legacies/.

Siebert, Wilbur H. 1898. The Underground Railroad: From Slavery to Freedom. New York: MacMillan Company.

MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (DML) — The woman on the left is my grandmother, Yut-Seul Yee (or Yee Yut-Seul in proper Chinese naming order). The woman on the right is my great-grandmother, Myrtle Mae Robinson Yee (or Jackson or something else). My great-grandmother tended to be guarded about her origins.

Actually, she outright lied about them. Sometimes the reason was understandable, such as to get around anti-miscegenation laws in effect at the time that she remarried after my great-grandfather Yee Jock Leong’s death. Other times, I’m not sure why—maybe because of some unnecessary shame over the fact that she descended from former slaves.

My great-grandmother was born Myrtle Mae Robinson. My mom was always under the impression that my great-grandmother was half-Chinese and half-Spanish. According to my mother’s “Statement of Personal History” from the time of her enlistment in the U.S. Air Force, my mom listed Myrtle’s birth details as 5 Apr 1894 in Santa Barbara, California. We have a vague Bible record to back that up.

But that past was a fiction created by my great-grandmother. I cannot say with certainty why she was so secretive about her past. I am sure some of her motivation stemmed from the daily racism she encountered in American life. She did pass herself off as white, for example, in order to remarry an Irishman in Indiana after my great-grandfather, Yee Jock Leong (1883-1936) died. She and my great-grandfather (who was persecuted by the federal government as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Acts) faced a racist backlash from his Chinese family when their relationship began. So it may make sense that, after my great-grandfather’s death, my great-grandmother tried to rewrite our—or at least her—family history.

If she was embarrassed by her history, she need not have been. It is one thing to dissemble to get around laws that had no business being on the books, but as for the rest . . . well, slavery wasn’t a choice.

The fact is that African Americans did not submit to slavery. They resisted in many ways. They often intentionally worked slowly and inefficiently, sometimes they sabotaged their owner’s crops and property. They planned or participated in what was largely unsuccessful revolts. The most effective resistance option, yet one fraught with danger, was escape to freedom. In the years before the Civil War, many escaped.

The Underground Railroad was a conduit for escaped slaves to flee to freedom in Canada, a British dominion where slavery had been outlawed. Canada was an ideal location for escaped slaves to flee to, as it was under no obligation to return escaped slaves back to the United States, whereas escaped slaves (and free blacks) in the U.S. were under constant fear of being “arrested” and returned to (or kidnapped into as in the case of Solomon Northrup) bondage under the Fugitive Slave Law.

—

My great-grandmother’s cover story began to unravel because of a family mystery that I was damned determined to solve.

My mom never knew who her father was, and my grandmother died with the secret. In the 1980s, I was sent to Cincinnati, Ohio, for some USEPA training as part of my job. Given that my mom was born in nearby Dayton, I went there to see if I could find her birth certificate. I found nothing for my mom, therefore found no solution to the mystery I started with.

I did find birth records for my grandmother and birth and death records for her two siblings (both of whom died in infancy). The family physician, an A.A. Smith, consistently listed my great-grandmother’s race as “Negro” or “Colored.”

Initially, I dismissed the notations. My great-grandmother had something of the look of a Filipina—which would fit the story my mother believed of her being half Chinese/half Spanish—and with the darker skin it could have been an honest mistake on the doctor’s part. My dismissal of his identification changed when I (trained as a biologist) started investigating genetic ancestry. I encouraged my mom to take it up, too. We found that we both have African American ancestry.

Smith, the family doctor, actually knew what he was talking about.

As I began searching for more records of my great-grandmother’s ancestry, I started finding plenty of records for a Myrtle Mae Robinson in Ann Arbor. Add to that the fact that we discovered in my grandmother’s scrapbooks a lot of material showing that my great-grandmother grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it is easy to infer that something did not add up with my great-grandmother’s self-professed backstory.

Myrtle Mae Robinson’s parents, according to the 1900 U.S. Census (above), were William A. and Hannah Robinson. Hannah Robinson was named Hannah Marie Woods at the time of her marriage to William Robinson in Ann Arbor on Nov. 20,1890. She was listed in the 1900 U.S. Census as Black. Her death certificate (May 30, 1908) said she was born in Kentucky on Aug. 4, 1862, and that her parents were Calace Taylor and Catherine Cox. Hannah’s trail to the past ends with the names of her parents and her origins in Kentucky.

William A. Robinson (1863-1937) is another matter. He frequently appears in the U.S. Census from Michigan (1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930; much of the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed in a fire). His home still exists in Ann Arbor (at least it did the last time I looked at the image on Google Maps). He is consistently listed as Black and that he was born in Canada. His parents were John A. Robinson (ca. 1836-after 1910) and Harriet Ann Taylor (ca. 1847-1898).

All the U.S. Census records in which John A. Robinson is named (1870, 1880, 1900, 1910) list his birthplace as Virginia and his race as Black. The birthplace of his parents is variously listed as Kentucky (1880), Virginia (1900), or Africa (1910).

As yet, I have found no records of John Robinson’s sojourn in Canada in that nation’s records, but I know that he lived there before returning to the United States after the Civil War. Several of his children were born there: in addition to my great-great grandfather, William, my great-great-great-uncles James H. (ca. 1865) and John W. (1869) and my great-great-great-aunt Elzina (1867) were born in Canada. His wife, Harriet Ann Taylor, was also born in Canada.

By 1870, John Robinson, Harriet Taylor, and their children William A., James H., Elzina, and John W. resided in Pittsfield, Michigan.

Harriet Ann Taylor is listed in the 1861 Canadian Census as living with her parents, Peter Taylor (ca. 1814-1880) and Margaret White (ca. 1828-1888), in Peel Township in southern Ontario near the modern cities of Kitchener and Guelph. She is listed as Black in the 1861 Census of Canada and in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census.

Peter Taylor is listed as a farmer in the 1851 Census of Canada for Peel Township and living with his wife, Margaret, his daughter Harriet; son Samuel; and daughter Janie (probably Margaret J.). His birthplace is variously listed as Maryland or Virginia. His birth year ranges from 1811 to 1815, depending on the source. The 1861 Census of Canada lists three additional children: David, Frances, and James. The 1871 Census of Canada revealed an additional child, Albert.

Margaret White’s birthdate is harder to pin down, ranging from 1821 to 1831, depending on the source consulted. Her birthplace, like Peter Taylor’s, is given as either Maryland or Virginia.

By 1880 their family was living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. According to the 1880 U.S. Census, Peter Taylor’s and Margaret White’s parents were born in Virginia. The family’s religion is listed in Canadian Census data as Western Methodist (1851), Episcopal Methodist (1861), or Methodist (1871). This may prove relevant later.

This leaves me with (at least) three confirmed African American ancestors who were born in the United States and who were living in Canada before or during the Civil War:

• My great-great-great-grandfather John A. Robinson,
• My great-great-great-great-grandfather Peter Taylor,
• My great-great-great-great-grandmother Margaret White.

From the time I discovered the Canadian Connections, I suspected my ancestors had taken the Underground Railroad to freedom. But I had little evidence to back it up until I learned more about their community in Peel Township, Wellington County, Ontario. That community was commonly called Queen’s Bush.