Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives and Canada as Part of the Atlantic World

The Authority File

In the final episode of our four-part series with Dr. Cheryl Thompson, author of Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict, and Freedom, 1812-1897, we turn to the archives. To start, Cheryl walks through the development of her project Mapping Ontario’s Black Archives (MOBA), a digital inventory of public archives on Black history and culture. Cheryl explains that while researching for her book she often encountered white-centered archives and discrepancies between an archive’s listed availability online versus when she arrived in person. This frustration inspired MOBA, which aims to simplify workflows for researchers and spotlight open resources. In collaboration with Cheryl’s Black Creative Lab, MOBA has earned several grants and aims to evolve into storing assets and acting as a model for other provinces to follow, with the goal of scholars using the archives to fuel creative thinking and artistic output.

To close, Cheryl explores Canada’s place within the “Atlantic world,” underscoring how blackface minstrelsy traveled from America to Europe to Canada and back again. Influenced by the social and political climates of each region, the minstrel show may have started in the US, but became a global form of entertainment within the triangular Atlantic context.

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