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Feb 10, 2020 · It was Sheffield’s nieces, Carolynn and Sylvia Wilson, who were inspired by the photos, and their uncle’s passion for oral history and black pioneers to the area. Together the three created the museum. The Wilson sisters, who were born and raised in Collingwood as seventh-generation Canadians, are the owners and operators of the museum.
Feb 7, 2022 · 00:04:42. This Black History Month, two local women hope to shed light on the stories of Black people before they were slaves. Sylvia Wilson, who co-owns and operates the Sheffield Park Black History Museum in Clarksburg with her sister Carolynn Wilson, has been posting stories of Black Pharaohs and Queens this week for the museum’s Facebook ...
Welcome to Sheffield Park Black History and Cultural Museum! My name is Carolynn Wilson and I am the curator and co-owner of Sheffield Museum. This is where the history of early Black pioneers and settlers in Simcoe and Grey Counties is preserved, restored and experienced. Since 1990, it has been a family endeavour, working closely with my ...
Feb 17, 2023 · When Sheffield Park Black History and Cultural Museum is mentioned, the name Howard Sheffield immediately comes to mind. In the 1980s, he, along with his sister Yvonne (Sheffield) Wilson, and family members set up history displays in the Heritage Community Church.
- A Stop on The Underground Railroad
- Once-Thriving Black Community Gone
- Debate Over Priceville's Namesake
- Disturbing Revelations
- A History Not Known to Many
- Hiding Black Heritage
- 'Honour That History and Lift It Up'
- A Success For A Short Time
In the 19th century, Collingwood — like the town of Owen Sound, about 65 kilometres to the west — was a terminus for theUnderground Railroad. The secret network, made up of Black, white and Indigenous volunteers, helped between 30,000 and 40,000 formerly enslaved African Americans escape to Canada — where slavery remained legal until Aug. 1, 1834, ...
According to the census of 1851, every 50-acre lot along Durham Road in Priceville was settled by a Black family with parents born in the U.S. but most children born in Upper Canada, says Nancy Matthews, chair of the heritage committee of the municipality of Grey Highlands. The road was a key settlement route surveyed in the late 1840s that ran fro...
According to Black oral history, Priceville took its name from Colonel Price, a Black Loyalist soldier credited with having founded the settlement who was most likely a private but went by the first name Colonel. Price brought with him a group of Black settlers, but there's disagreement as to when exactly he arrived — and there have been questions ...
Most Canadians were introduced to the Priceville story in 2000, when the National Film Board documentarySpeakers for the Deadwas released. The film, by Black Canadian filmmakers David (Sudz) Sutherland and Jennifer Holness, shone a light on the desecration of Priceville's Black cemetery and revealed other inconvenient truths. In addition to the sto...
For Priceville residents Doug and Mary Harrison, watching Speakers for the Deadprovoked complicated feelings. On the one hand, they were disturbed to learn about the extent of their community's racist past, but they were also troubled at the way in which the village they loved was being maligned. After raising their family in the Greater Toronto Ar...
Over the decades, the erasure of Priceville's Black past led the remaining descendants of the Black settlers to deny or obscure their bloodlines and try to blend into the white community. Today, there is still a Black community in Priceville; it's just mostly white. "There are Black descendants in the Priceville area who aren't Black," said Norquay...
In the years since the release of Speakers for the Dead, Norquay has played an increasingly active role alongside other residents in trying to tell the story of Black Canadian settlers. "The film galvanized me," she said. "Speakers for the Deadis absolutely crucial to Canada's story." In the years following the film, an annual Black History Month e...
For Natasha Henry, president of the Ontario Black History Society, Priceville is an example that disrupts the myth of Canada as a welcoming refuge for Black people fleeing slavery. "Black settlers did find a measure of freedom," she said, "[but] there's a question as to whether it measured up with their vision of freedom." Harding-Davis says that a...
Feb 13, 2021 · The preservation of Black history was a lifelong work for Howard Sheffield, a direct descendent of early Black settlers and the co-founder of the Sheffield Park Black History and Cultural Museum. Sheffield and his sister Yvonne and niece Carolynn Wilson began their work promoting their family's story and preserving Black history in the area with presentations at Heritage Community Church in ...
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6 days ago · Heritage Community Church, 310 Seventh Street, Collingwood. Dr. Jean Augustine was the first black female Member of Parliament, first black female Cabinet Minister, first Fairness Commissioner in Ontario and introduced the Motion to declare February as Black History Month in Canada. Rita Shelton Deverell – Wednesday, February 26, 10:00 AM ...
