Using an impressive array of primary and secondary materials, Robin Winks details the diverse experiences of Black immigrants to Canada, including Black slaves brought to Nova Scotia and the Canadas by Loyalists at the end of the American Revolution, Black refugees who fled to Nova Scotia following the War of 1812, Jamaican Maroons, and fugitive slaves who fled to British North America. He also looks at Black West Coast businessmen who helped found British Columbia, particularly Victoria, and Black settlement in the prairie provinces. Throughout Winks explores efforts by African-Canadians to establish and maintain meaningful lifestyles in Canada. The Blacks in Canada investigates the French and English periods of slavery, the abolitionist movement in Canada, and the role played by Canadians in the broader continental antislavery crusade, as well as Canadian adaptations to nineteenth- and twentieth-century racial mores. The second edition includes a new introduction by Winks on changes that have occurred since the book's first appearance and where African-Canadian studies stands today.

Robin W. Winks (1930–2003) was Randolph W. Townsend Professor of History and chair of the Department of History, Yale University.

Robin W. Winks' profile page

"Winks has laid the lasting structure of the history of Black people in Canada in this monumental work, which will endure as the model against which all future historians of this 'event' must gauge their work." Austin Clarke "No review can do justice to the rich data provided by this book. Blacks in Canada will prove a mine of information to scholars for years to come." August Meier, Journal of American History