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Black History

 

             Canada is a place full of cultural wealth. Many different kinds of people, cultures, and races live in Canada and call it their home. One race that had a significant role in the construction, molding and forming of Canada is the Black people and they really are not ever shown any gratitude for what they have done. This country owes them for what they have done and it is sad that we do not learn about Black history, not even in our high school Canadian history courses do we lean about black people in Canada. They did so much for their country even when life was not fair to them. .
             Ever since the discovery of the New World, black people have lived in Canada and have not been treated fairly. Slavery played an enormous role in the formation of Canada. Perhaps the first Black person to arrive in Canada was named Mattieu da Costa. He was a guide and translator with a French expedition led by Pierre de Gua, Sieur du Monts. This expedition established a colony called Port Royal in they year1605 and by 1613, it became a major urban center in the Maritimes. Another early arrival who came to Canada was a young Black boy who had been captured from his homeland in Madagascar. He arrived in New France in 1628 and was sold to a colonist. The boy was then given the name Oliver Lejune and he was forced to live as a domestic servant. Oliver passed in the year 1654 when he was in his early 30's. As the colony of New France grew the demand of field, workers and servants did as well and in the year 1689 King Louis 12 of France allowed settlers to use slaves. .
             In the early 1600's, British, French, Spanish, Dutch and Swedish settlements dotted the east coast of North America. The Europeans fought with each other all the time and because of this the British was able to gain control of the Thirteen Colonies along the east coast. "By 1775, about 500 000 Blacks were enslaved in the Thirteen Colonies, making up approximately 20 percent of the total population.


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