Black History Month; Lucie and Thornton Blackburn

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Black History Month; Lucie and Thornton Blackburn

2 February 2011 23 views No Comment

Illustration shows the Toronto shoreline in the 1830s, when Thorton and Lucie Blackburn, who’d escaped from from slavery in Kentucky, arrived in a Toronto undergoing a burst of growth. Photo courtesy of Public Archives of Canada

By Erica Phillips

The next time you catch a cab in Toronto, remember Lucie and Thornton Blackburn.

Fugitive slaves from Kentucky who eventually made Toronto their home, Thornton Blackburn ran the first taxicab company in Upper Canada in 1837.

While working as a waiter at Osgoode Hall Thornton observed that the city lacked the kind of transportation options that were found in Montreal. He ordered the design from Lower Canada and had Paul Bishop create the red and yellow horse drawn cab, which was capable of carrying four passengers.

Blackburn named his cab The City. His business venture, the first of its kind in Toronto, lasted into the 1860’s and was soon copied by others. Blackburn, though illiterate became a prominent and revered member of Toronto’s Black community. They were designated as nationally historically significant persons in 1999, because of their role in abolition and the development of extradition laws.

The fascinating story of Lucie and Thornton Blackburn is documented in the book, I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of The Underground Railroad by Karolyn Smardz Frost.