Читать книгу The Lake Erie Shore - Ron Brown - Страница 15

4 THE BATTL E-SCARRED BOOKENDS Fort Erie ~ Amherstburg

In many ways, although they occupy the opposite ends of Ontario’s Lake Erie shore, Fort Erie and Amherstburg are almost mirror images of one another. Both began as military towns with forts built to protect the Canadian shore from American attack. Both were major destinations for slaves fleeing the oppression of the United States. Both were among the busiest channels for smuggling booze into the United States during the hated days of prohibition, and both form a terminus for scenic riverside drives.

But there the similarities end. While Fort Erie became a busy crossing point into the United States for both cars and trains, and boasts such attractions as a racetrack, clubs, and modern motels, Amherstburg never realized that potential and has remained, relatively, a backwater. Still, both know how to cherish and celebrate their deep historic roots.

Fort Erie

Fort Erie’s first occupants were nomadic groups of Neutral Natives who used the extensive flint beds near the area to fashion arrowheads and spear points. Following the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain gained control of what had been formerly French territory, and set out to secure the new areas with a series of forts. On the shore of the river, they built a small, wooden fort and store. A small settlement began to slowly take shape along the river, centred around Dunbar’s gristmill, built in 1792.

The original wooden fort lasted nearly half a century and was used mainly for transhipping troops and military equipment to the Upper Great Lakes. During the American Revolution the fort continued its role as a supply base for the British. However, its exposure to the fierce winds and waves of the lake caused so much damage that the military embarked on a newer and stronger fort farther from the water.

In 1803, planning began for the new structure, one that would use stone from nearby quarries. But progress was slow, and even by the outbreak of the War of 1812, it remained unfinished. During the war, the partial fort changed hands a number of times, each time being alternately rebuilt or dismantled. The soldiers greatly expanded the fort defences during the American occupation of the site in 1814.

A fierce battle on August 15, 1814, resulted in the loss of 1,000 British troops killed or wounded. The British then began a siege that lasted until September 17, when the Americans finally attacked and destroyed the British gun positions. In November, with the war winding down, the Americans destroyed the fort and withdrew. Although in ruin, the British occupied the site until the 1820s. The ruins, however, continued to attract attention of would-be invaders such as the Fenians¹, who occupied the site briefly in 1866, but, with its lakeside location, and historic appeal, the ruined fort became a popular attraction for picnickers and visitors, among whom were Mark Twain and the Prince of Wales. In 1937, the federal and provincial governments, and the Niagara Parks Commission, embarked upon a major restoration project. While only a small portion of the stone wall is original, such buildings as the officers’ quarters, soldiers’ barracks, and powder magazine have been recreated based upon the plans of American occupiers. Today, costumed guides represent the Natives, the troops and the militia of the day along with commissary officer “John Warren” and a “soldier’s wife.”

Costumed interpreters relive life at Fort Erie during the War of 1812.

But American soldiers were not the only ones crossing the border. In 1793, John Graves Simcoe abolished the importing of slaves into Upper Canada, and began the process of ending slavery in the Canadas. The whole notion of slavery appalled many in the northern United States, where the inhuman benefits of free labour to a plantation economy, as in the American South, held no sway. Outraged abolitionists began to assist slaves in escaping their bonds and resettling in the northern states where they would be free. Southern Ontario, too, became a destination with major terminals being Windsor, St. Catharines, and Chatham, while the key entry points were at Amherstburg and Fort Erie. Because the flow followed set routes, and allowed the escapees to rest at safe houses, or “stations,” it became known as the “Underground Railroad.”

What at first began as a trickle into Ontario grew into a torrent in 1850 when the American president, Millard Fillmore, signed the notorious Fugitive Slave Act, allowing bounty hunters to capture escaped slaves and making it illegal for Americans to harbour them. Not even free Blacks were safe.

Josiah Hensen, the inspiration for Harriet Beacher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom” in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, recalls in his diaries arriving on the banks of the Niagara River at a large house with pillars. That house still stands. It is Bertie Hall. The basement, unlike most homes, is four metres high, with a secret room hidden behind a moveable bookshelf. From this room it is speculated that a tunnel led the short distance to the riverbank through which the runaway slaves could enter the house undetected. (While there is an anomaly in the masonry on the wall that suggests a tunnel entrance, its existence remains only anecdotal.) The history of Bertie Hall suggests, too, that illicit products also might have found their way through this secret corridor.

The Underground Railroad helped thousands of African-American slaves flee to Canada, using such hiding places as the specially equipped basement of Fort Erie’s Bertie Hall.

Harriet Tubman, the legendary “Black Moses,” who guided more than five hundred slaves to Canada, mostly to St. Catherines, is said to have used Bertie Hall, as well. The legacy of the Underground Railroad has left more than merely buildings. A series of meetings at a local hotel resulted in the formation of the Niagara Movement, an initiative that eventually evolved into the widely respected NAACP.²

Bertie Hall is a stunning building in its own right. Built by William Forsyth between 1826 and 1834 and named after Sir Peregrine Bertie, Duke of Ancaster, it displays the Greek Revival style with pillars stretching to the portico above the front entrance. Forsyth, who had built the Pavilion Hotel at Table Rock in Niagara Falls, one of the cataract’s first tourist accommodations, moved to Fort Erie where he acquired an eighty-two-hectare (216-acre) tract of land on the Niagara River.