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When Jennifer Dow saw the page her daughter was given to read for a high school Black history lesson, she thought resources for the course must be lacking,
The page was a news article about a picnic at Elm Hill, a small community near Gagetown and one of the earliest Black settlements in Canada.
Dow and her daughter were at that picnic to celebrate their heritage.
“We had a giggle over it because on the second page was a picture of my daughter and I,” Dow said.
Though funny in the moment, as a Black history researcher, Dow said it was a signal that teachers in New Brunswick need better material to help them present the province’s Black history.
Conversation with the Education and Early Childhood Development Department led to the creation of Beyond Borders, a book written by Dow and published by the government.
The book is about Black heritage in New Brunswick and the people of African descent who’ve come to the province.
Dow said her research shows students that Black history in New Brunswick goes back to pre-Loyalist times, to more than 300 years ago.
“I hope that this book … gives a sense of belonging for newcomers coming here so they can say, ‘Oh, look, you know, this person that came in 1783 was born in the same place my relative was or I was,’” said Dow.
Jennifer Dow has written Beyond Borders, which provides a timeline of more than 400 years of Black history in New Brunswick. The book will be used in schools around the province in both languages and will be available in public libraries.
Dow is from Fredericton and the sixth generation of her family in New Brunswick.
She has traced her roots in the province to two Black Loyalists who arrived in 1783 and served as part of the British military during the American Revolutionary War.
Another one of her ancestors who immigrated to New Brunswick was born in Trinidad in the 1820s.
Dow hopes the book, which is already available to anglophone schools, can be the start of integrating Black history into the school curriculum.
“It’s really important that by the time that my granddaughter reaches school, that Black history isn’t seen as something separate. It isn’t seen as something that is only done out of obligation in February.”
The book is in chronological order including first-hand immigration stories.
“I didn’t feel like that was my story to tell from,” Dow said. “I come from the descendant community and I wanted these stories to be authentic and told from people that had experience.”
Wrote for young students
The book is written and illustrated for Grades 3 to 5, but Dow has heard of older students getting their hands on it as well.
“I’ve heard from high school teachers that are using it and even adults that just like that it is an easy read. It’s not too technical.”
The book will be translated into French for francophone schools and will be available in public libraries too.
The illustrator is Christopher Thomas, who grew up in Ontario in the 1980s and comes from a Caribbean immigrant family.
He said the book will teach kids more than what he knew at the same age.
“I knew some of the history, but then not a lot of it was taught to us in school,” said Thomas, who is a graphic designer. “So something like this is perfect for the children, right? So I want to be part of this.”
Two of the kids he hopes it enlightens are his own sons going through school.
Thomas said he put his “heart and soul” into the project and focused on making the information digestible for elementary students.
“It’s very engaging and that’s like something that my kids, when they’re looking at the book, they asked me a lot of questions about like ‘Oh, what’s going on here? What’s going on here?’”
The book will also come with activities and other online materials for students to work on. One of the activities is filling out a class census similar to one that Dow features in the book.
That 1824 census is of Westmorland County, which includes Moncton.
A lot of Dow’s research comes from primary documents that she got from archives in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Dow has also found useful information through online databases and old newspapers.
Dow is a board member of the New Brunswick Black History Society and REACH New Brunswick, which researches the graves of Black New Brunswickers.
Dow learned her own history from her mother who got it from her mother — something she hopes to pass on.
“My daughter will come in and check and she’ll ask questions. ‘What are you looking into?’
“And I can show her whether it’s primary source documents I’m looking at, tell her the stories that I just found and see how both of my children have taken an interest.”
