We’ve Been Here

An Exploration of Black History in Perth County

Thanks to a dynamic community curation team and the Stratford-Perth Archives, three new stories featuring the biographies of Black Perth County residents are on exhibit in our Indoor Cooperator’s Theatre. Large-frame images highlighting the stories of Ben Sleet, Joseph Harrison, and Sylvia (Young) Porter are enhanced with accessible virtual content, which is also embedded on our website below. These individuals and their families have attributed a lasting impact on the foundations of our region’s settlement through industrious economic acumen, while nurturing social resiliency for our diverse communities.

Please Note: This exhibit contains offensive language, racial slurs, derogatory terms, and adult themes that some may find distressing and triggering. This information has been shared to offer insight into our communities for academic research and to authentically illustrate context of the 19th and 20th centuries. By displaying these sources, we hope to invite comprehensive interpretation of historical facts relevant to the crimes and dangers of intolerance, while enhancing our understanding of contemporary issues.

Joseph Christopher Harrison

Joseph Christopher Harrison was born in Franklin, Virginia circa 1814. He was first assigned the name of Joseph Hemmingway by his enslavers who, like many, practised the dehumanizing tradition of ascribing the plantation title and name of the plantation owner to slaves. Anecdotes from Joseph’s early youth described him as being tall and thin and was mocked in his early life with the name “Uncle Joe” for expressing his desire for freedom. This was a common 1800s ethnic slur referencing the derogatory literary caricature called ‘Uncle Tom,’ inspired from the book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

At 14, Joseph ran away to Boston and changed his name to Joseph Christopher Harrison, which was merely a pitstop on his journey of emancipation. Uniquely, he learned to read and write with instruction from his friend and fellow slavery fugitive, Richard Brightwell. For 13 years, Joseph’s many skills expanded learning barbering, hair dying, and textile cleaning services. In 1837, he arrived in Canada with a group who also escaped slavery. He then found residence in St. Catharines, then went to Niagara and is recorded working as a servant for a short time under Colonel Teachester in Toronto. By 1841, Joseph was married to Emma Hemingway at Niagara and moved to Hamilton. The following year they had their first child, Harriet H. Harrison (b. 1842) and would have at least four more children in Hamilton, Edward Hemingway Harrison (b. 1844), Harrison (b. 1847), Emma Harrison (circa 1849), and Mabel Harrison (circa 1853).

Farming was the next venture that Joseph pursued when he bought 100 acres in Wellesley Township near Dorking in 1855. Prior to the whole family moving onto the property, Joseph is mentioned as renting in St. Jacobs where it is suspected that he was employed at the St. Jacobs Tannery. It was here that their youngest child was born, Harvey H. Harrison. Not long after, the family officially moved onto the farm located in the region of the Queen’s Bush Settlement. They would cultivate the land and reaped everything from wheat, hay, flax seed, maple sugar, and butter on 20 acres. Livestock was corralled onto 15 acres of his property listing two oxen, a cow, a filly, and two pigs. The farm was quoted at a successful value of $800.00 and $134.00 in assets. Over a decade committed to agriculture, the family was sadly met with tragedy losing four children and Joseph’s mother, Mary Harrison. What became the final push factor to leave the farm, was Joseph’s accident where he injured his back where sources explain that “a load of hay passed over his body.” The family was forced to sell the property in 1870 and temporarily stayed in Kitchener, known as Berlin at the time.

Joseph and his family would become Stratford community members in 1871 when they erected a frame, two-storey building on his newly purchased property at 106 and 108 Downie Street. This served as both a house and store that would be widely acknowledged as one of the town’s first cleaning and dying establishments. Business began to boom at Joseph’s Royal Shaving Saloon where local ads read “fitted up with care and taste” and “sent my razors to Buffalo and had them all concaved, and they are now in excellent trim.” Harrison had connections to family that remained in the USA that may have aided in resources for his shop. Letters reveal that correspondence and excursions were exchanged with family members in Ohio and Massachusetts.  Joseph even travelled back to Virginia in 1878, which was announced in local news ‘activities’ in the Stratford Beacon newspaper at the time.

Rapid success came to Joseph’s business drawing customers from Listowel and New Hamburg where he offered premium dying of suits, dresses, shawls, and lace. The whole family became a part of the enterprise with Harvey as a tonsorial and barber, while Harriet ran the “Human Hair Emporium.” Harvey and Harriet went on to refine their art in Chicago. During their school training, they specialized in hair switches to order. Their combined talents had an outstanding reputation in Stratford, which stimulated growth and their patron network. Eventually, this growing income turned real estate into a premium investment for Joseph; he bought properties on 131 and 137 Nile Street and constructed two homes in 1877. Multiple other properties were acquired by Joseph including those on Falstaff Street.

Joseph died in 1890 with his wife, Emma, passing in 1894. The Harrison Family plot is located at the Avondale Cemetery in Stratford. Their surviving children, Harriet and Harvey, along with their descendants inherited many of the properties, mortgages, and the barber and beauty trade. The location of their beauty parlour and barber shop would move multiple times including to 31 Erie Street and 31 Waterloo Street in Stratford.  It was finally sold by the Harrisons in 1984 when it was noted by local papers as the oldest family business in Stratford.

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Sylvia (Young) Porter

Sylvia (Young) Porter, also recorded as ‘Sylvina,’ was born in Kentucky, circa 1831. She escaped slavery in 1853 and arrived in Canada prior to 1855. Finding work at the Shakespeare Restaurant in the hotel, Sylvia was employed by local saloon keeper, George Thomas. According to Buxton census records, George Thomas was a black proprietor who had ties to the Elgin Settlement (now referred to as Buxton Settlement). Given Sylvia’s expressed reputation as a cook and caregiver, it is possible she worked both as a maid and in the kitchen at the hotel under George’s employ.

At approximately 33 years of age, Sylvia married Wesley Porter in 1861, a black resident of Stratford that was also born into slavery in Kentucky, USA. Wesley worked at the Albion Inn as a driver. They adopted a daughter, Belle (Isabella) from England who moved to Toronto and was still living there according to the 1911 census. Both Sylvia and Wesley attended the Primitive Methodist Church that was locally designated as The Coloured Church. Congregation members were working class people, farmers and many were noted as being former slaves from America that were temporarily being housed at local farms.  Traditionally, their worship services are described as being emotive and participatory in comparison to the other Methodist branches at that time.

Although Sylvia was one of the first to join the Baptist church following a membership drive in 1857, she was also affiliated with the The Primitive Methodist Church in Stratford.  The services quickly found traction with local Black settlers and refugees and until 1884, it was conducted as a circuit. A church on Waterloo Street in Stratford and then several in surrounding communities (Fullarton, Mitchell, Logan, Downie, Sebringville) served as locations, central to the minister from Stratford. In 1884, the Primitive Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church merged to form The Methodist Church, Canada. In Stratford there were at least two Methodist churches that merged in this period. In 1925, The Methodist Church joined with several other denominations to form the United Church. Sylvia and Wesley are logged in census records as Baptists, so once the Methodist churches amalgamated, it is possible they returned to the Baptist church denomination.

Little has been verified regarding the details of Sylvia’s freedom seeking journey in the Underground Railroad. However, her enslaver, Mrs. Ellen. T. Dustin placed a $100.00 reward notice in The Louisville Daily Courier newspaper, which marked Sylvia’s escape around November, 1853. It was here that a remarkable story unfolded in Stratford with the circumstances surrounding Sylvia (Young) Porter’s final settlement in Perth County. In 1856, a headline read, “Stratford Ex Slave Recapture Foiled” when Sylvia’s enslaver, Ellen, and her husband, William G. Stewart, wrote to Constable Townsend of Stratford requesting her return and proposing a kidnapping plan. Ellen also wrote to Sylvia using an entirely different tone that emphasized how the children missed her and she should return to her ‘family.’  She was denied on all accounts and Constable Townsend reported the correspondence to the magistrate.

This was not an isolated case in Canada, and unfortunately not every victim received such a celebrated outcome. What prompted this boldness in many enslavers at the time was the passing of The Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, permitting formerly enslaved individuals to be captured and returned to their “owners” anywhere in the USA, including states where slavery was illegal. Once in Canada, Sylvia was protected by the law and her fellow Stratford residents found only shame and disgust with her enslaver’s actions, as described in the papers. Sylvia’s case became one of the most widely reported recapture attempts in Ontario and garnered attention from many newspapers across North America.

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Ben Sleet

A visionary entrepreneur, Ben Sleet established several lucrative businesses that pioneered lasting markets and proprietorships in the mid to late 1800s, Stratford. Ben was born circa 1827 and managed to escape from Kentucky enslavers to Canada, circa 1850. Like many Underground Railroad refugees in Ontario, he had an early start at the Elgin Settlement in Buxton, Ontario. This tract was founded by Irish Presbyterian Minister, Reverend William King, 15 former American slaves, and other Underground Railroad refugees and abolitionists. Together, they created a joint stock company that aided many newcomers seeking asylum and a new life in Canada.  Ben was specifically listed as a Saloon Keeper living in Stratford in the Buxton census records of 1861, indicating that he had ties to the Buxton community.

His exact arrival in Stratford is uncertain, but he came with his wife Elizabeth or “Betsy” around the 1850s. Neither Betsy nor Ben were afforded a public education in Stratford with prejudicial limitations that were nationally standardized through segregation, underfunding, and inaccessibility. Ben Sleet was no exception to this pattern of educational disparity, however, despite the circumstances he managed to be a proprietor, contractor, and builder.

Ben was expediently resourceful in Stratford by first establishing an ‘eating and coffee house’ in the downtown square. Across from the market house, Sleet’s Market Refreshment Hall, also registered as a saloon, offered an assortment of “oysters, fried and pickled pigs’ feet, tripe and other refreshments…the Best Wines and Liquors.” This list of delicacies was affordable at the time and appealed to a wide patronage. Oysters, for example, were ranked high amongst the wealthy in the early 1800s, but by the 1860s they became more common and their value dropped. For those that could ‘stomach’ tripe that was mainly stewed from cow, sheep, or pig digestive organ lining (also called paunch or hog maw), it was served up at Ben’s eating house no matter your social or financial status.

By the 1870s, Ben owned an icehouse, stable, and cottage west of Waterloo Street near Water Street. His ice cutting rights to the Avon River, which was often in the form of a permit, license, or letter from town officials, began in the early 1860s according to newspaper ads. It was a dangerous, seasonal job, but sorely needed for perishables before modern refrigeration technology existed. Many businesses and clients including general stores, hotels, and railways relied on this service for maintaining their own products and would often contract with local ice-cutters like Ben.

February into March was the ideal time in Southwestern Ontario for cutting ice. The job required snow removal equipment like saws, chutes, chisels, picks, many shovelling hands, and reliable horse teams that sometimes perished in the risky footing. The ice would be cut into square blocks, 12-18 inches thick and weighed between 200-300 pounds to ensure the longevity of the ice for consumers. Ben’s operation offered delivery and pick–up, which suggested a variety of clients and the necessary transporting sleighs to carry large quantities for Ben’s orders. His icehouse was close to the river that stored the product for the upcoming warm seasons. The business had a high profile and even offered ice picks to customers with Ben Sleet’s name printed on the handle – one of these picks is currently within the museum’s collection. The icehouse passed on to James Sleet, Ben’s son, who would partner with William Keane. They continued the business and changed its location to Morenz Drive after the original icehouse was razed.

The assets that Ben would need for his icehouse, easily translated into his major community project, the first covered public skating rink in Stratford, also known as the Victoria Rink. Ben strategized with the town by hollowing out the low land beside the Avon River, then proceeded to build an embankment. At first, it was not covered but well maintained and therefore easier to skate on than the rough and unpredictable river ice. The small, covered version of the rink was built by Ben Sleet circa 1864 and located on the Avon River near the flax mill. Stratford residents could even buy memberships for skating, ranging from $3.00 for men, $1.50 for ladies, and $5.00 for families. There was also preparation and time allotments for curlers quoted in Ben’s newspaper ads. He leased out the rink for many years, but eventually the Stratford parks board purchased the land from Ben Sleet’s executor and son, James Sleet.

Ben’s industry appeared to be unlimited, with several other jobs ongoing. Stratford officials would frequently contract Ben and those that worked for him to clean and water the streets. This process reduced dust for travellers and the downtown core keeping storefronts tidy and windows clear. He also owned The Corn Exchange Hotel before it was bought by Thomas Holliday in 1864, who possessed the original brick house of the Stratford Perth Museum and part of the property where the Stratford-Perth Archives currently resides (2026). Ben was also invested at home with at least 9 children, some of whom moved away for school, employment, and marriage and became inspirations in their own lives. Much like his daughter, Ms. Jessie Sleet Scales (1865-1956), the first U.S. public health nurse and medical pioneer in New York City. Upon Ben’s death in 1891, his wife Betsy would survive him another 34 years and be granted life occupancy for $15.00 a month at their cottage on 20 Waterloo Street. Thanks to Ben’s ambitions, Stratford became an evolving city attracting future entrepreneurs that secured his many undertakings long after his passing.

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