by Stephen Weir

Black Heritage Society’s Dorothy Abbott and famed photographer Yuri Dojc look out the windows of the Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) at the city of Detroit. For the next seven months, their new photographic exhibition of descendants of the Underground Railroad celebrates the direction of freedom – South. (The gallery sits on the edge of the Detroit River in downtown Windsor, south of Detroit).

On Thursday November 21st, Abbott and Dojc will open their well-traveled photographic exhibition celebrating the descendants of freedom-seekers who escaped slavery in the United States before the American Civil War. Some made the journey entirely alone; others found their way to Canada with the help of a clandestine network of “conductors” and “stations” called the “Underground Railroad.” Many passed through Detroit and into Windsor. Due to a quirk in the border line between the U.S. and Canada, Windsor is actually south of Detroit—hence the suggestion to temporarily rename the “North to Freedom” exhibition!

This evocative photographic essay highlights the descendants of those freedom-seekers. Approximately 30,000 men, women, and children fled north to freedom, settling in the Maritimes to as far west as the Manitoba border. Most came to what is now Ontario, to places like Windsor, Chatham, Buxton, the Niagara Peninsula, Owen Sound, and larger cities such as Hamilton and Toronto.

Some 150 years later, beginning in 2016, Canadian photographer Yuri Dojc began exploring the northern end of the Underground Railroad, presenting 30 images of descendants. Black and white, young and old, these are the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren of once-enslaved African Americans who have contributed significantly to Canada.

The exhibition of Dojc’s work has been curated by Dorothy Abbott, who has served as a volunteer director for three Ontario non-profit organizations: the Ontario Black History Society, the Grey County Black Heritage Society, and the Owen Sound Emancipation Festival.

After a decades-long career in the financial sector, Abbott took on the role in 2018 as producer of North is Freedom, Dojc’s exhibit documenting the stories of descendants of formerly enslaved families who settled in Ontario and the east coast.

Yuri Dojc is a renowned Toronto photographer and artist, known for his dedication to historical narratives. His journey began in commercial photography, which eventually grew into a lifelong commitment to documenting history. Displaced in 1968 by the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Dojc sought refuge in Canada.

His series North is Freedom: The Legacy of the Underground Railroad is a testament to his ability to convey powerful stories through art. Dojc has also documented the last living Holocaust survivors in Slovakia in his internationally exhibited series Last Folio.

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