New Canaan, Ontario

New Canaan was a small settlement between Essex to the Southeast and McGregor to the Northwest on Maiden Road (Rt. 12) in Essex County, Ontario, today officially part of the town of Essex.[1]

New Canaan
Town
Coordinates: 42.12°N 82.936°W / 42.12; -82.936
CountryCanada
ProvinceOntario
CountyEssex
Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)

The current Town of Essex was created on 1 April 1999 by the amalgamation of the communities of Essex, Harrow, Colchester North, and Colchester South. Harrow comprises the communities of Ambassador Beach, Barretville, Belcreft Beach, Colchester, Edgars, Essex Centre, Gesto, Harrow Centre, Klie's Beach, Leslies Corner, Levergood Beach, Lypps Beach, Marshfield, McGregor, New Canaan, Oxley, Paquette Corners, Seymour Beach and Vereker.

New Canaan was initially settled in the 1820s by Afro-Americans who had escaped from slavery in the American South, many of them from Kentucky.[2][3] When the freedom boundary shifted to the Canada–United States border with the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, additional families seeking refuge and coming along the Underground Railroad into Canada joined the original black settlers in New Canaan.

Notable people
  • Delos Rogest Davis, one of Canada's first Black lawyers and organizer of the former North Colchester Township.[4]

References
  1. The Ontario Government's site, http://www.onterm.gov.on.ca/geo/details_e.asp?letter=n&ind=401 lists New Canaan as a "displaced rural community".
  2. G., Hill, Daniel (1981). The freedom-seekers : Blacks in early Canada. Agincourt, Canada: Book Society of Canada. p. 48. ISBN 0772552835. OCLC 8114887.
  3. Hill, pg. 48: "From 1820s onward, refugees migrated into the townships, villages, and towns of Essex County, including Anderdon, Mersea, Gosfield, Colchester, Maidstone, Rochester, Fort Malden, Harrow, New Canaan, and Amherstburg."
  4. "Biography – DAVIS, DELOS ROGEST – Volume XIV (1911-1920) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
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