Local Black history intern Max Bennett developed an exhibit for the Amherstburg Freedom Museum on the lives of Black settlers in the post-Underground Railroad period.
The latest local Black history exhibit at the Amherstburg Freedom Museum, “For Friends and Family: Social Organizing in Late Nineteenth Century Amherstburg,” is the work of recent grad Max Bennett (BA 2024), this year’s local Black history intern.
Under the supervision of history professor Gregg French and Amherstburg Freedom Museum assistant curator Lorene Bridgen-Lennie, Bennett, who uses they-them pronouns, conducted independent research and used the museum’s Family History Collection, along with sources from the Alvin D. McCurdy Fond and The Amherstburg Echo, to discuss the organizational work of persons of African descent in 19th-century Amherstburg.
The exhibit includes displays in the museum gallery and online network diagrams which demonstrate the interconnectivity between individuals and institutions in multiple organizations, in addition to international and intergenerational links. Bennett’s exhibit focuses on the lives of Black settlers in Amherstburg in the post-Underground Railroad period and demonstrates the extensive activity occurring in the region in the 19th century which created a foundation for 20th century activism.
Most of the material Bennett had to work with is the result of family history research by Dr. Bridgen-Lennie. There are 66 family histories on the website to date. Bennett focused on a couple dozen of them.
“For this project I had to pick one specific topic to represent social organizing in this community,” Bennett says. “So I wanted to talk about intergenerational skill sharing, social networks and mutual aid, uplifting the community.”
The network diagrams and the exhibit show the links between organizations ranging from etiquette groups, literary societies, philanthropic societies, theatrical performance groups, and the Freemasons.
“I felt like these kinds of organizations best fit the themes of social organizations,” says Bennett.
The network diagrams Bennett created visually depict, by organization, what school or church hosted it and the people who were members. Scanning the names of members of the various groups soon reveals the interconnectivity within the community.
“So the Oxford Club was a performance group, like a theater troupe,” says Bennett. “If you look at the membership list, many are involved in literary societies and mutual aid organizations. And they’re also gaining skills from being involved in these clubs. Often challenging people’s ideas.
“I was working with minute books for these clubs where people are literally writing what happened at meetings. I was having to work out what everyone’s saying. You figure out there’s sometimes little dramas within these groups as well. You can read the records of who’s paying when, who’s paying late.”
Bridgen-Lennie calls “For Friends and Family” significant for many reasons.
“It not only narrows the focus to highlight Amherstburg’s significance, but it also demonstrates that Canada did have a civil rights movement in the 19th century through groups such as fraternal orders, literary societies, and etiquette groups that helped to lay the foundation for future activists,” she says.
“This is a history to be very proud of and I hope that it helps visitors to challenge what they think they know about our country’s history and starts a conversation about our region’s significant Black history.”
The exhibit grew out of a group project Bennett and some of their classmates undertook during the Winter 2024 semester in a third-year level course taught by Dr. French. The project received support from an undergraduate research experience grant from the Centre for Teaching and Learning.
The Local Black History Internship program, established by French in 2023, is a partnership between the Department of History and the Amherstburg Freedom Museum.
“This is just one of the many paid experiential learning opportunities that we, in the Department of History, are providing to our students through our connections with local non-profit organizations in Windsor-Essex, particularly those groups that focus on underrepresented groups from the region’s diverse past,” French says.