On a summer day in 1831, Thornton and Lucie Blackburn left Louisville with little certainty about what awaited them. They were enslaved, newly married and facing the possibility that Lucie could be sold away from her husband. Their escape began on a steamboat and took them through Cincinnati and into Michigan, where they tried to build a life beyond the reach of Kentucky slaveholders. Freedom there proved fragile. Two years later, the couple were arrested in Detroit, setting off unrest that became known as the Blackburn Riots. Lucie escaped across the Detroit River. Thornton followed soon after. Eventually, they settled in Toronto, where they built a home that would later become an important archaeological site. There, they established a new life and became part of a growing Black community seeking security and opportunity in Canada.
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