It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada

Artist and curator Hunter (Every. Now. Then.: Reframing Nationhood) disputes the myth that Canada was a haven from slavery in the 19th century in this meandering and scholarly look at the life of enslaved woman Sophia Burthen. Born in 1775 in Duchess County, N.Y., Burthen was kidnapped as a girl by her master's sons-in-law and brought to Fort Niagra, where she was sold to Haudenosaunee chief Thayendanegea, also known as Joseph Brant, who took her north to present-day Hamilton, Ontario. Burthen lived and worked for 20 years in the household of Thayendanegea and his third wife, who abused her. Seven years after she was sold to a white man for $100, Burthen walked away from her owner (he didn't try to stop her), married a Black man who soon abandoned her, and eventually joined a community established by Black settlers. Hunter wanders through etymology and art history to show how whiteness shapes the past, segueing, for example, from a description of Burthen's journey up the Hudson River after her kidnapping to a discussion of how the Hudson River School of painting "eras[ed] the presence of the enslaved." Hunter's analyses will intrigue academic theorists and those interested in racial justice issues, but readers looking for a richer depiction of Burthen's experiences will be disappointed. The lack of focus leaves this otherwise intriguing treatise feeling a bit too diffuse. Illus. (Jan.)