New Heritage Minutes video shines light on history of slavery in Ontario

For more than 30 years they've been a staple of Canadian culture, telling the story of some of the country's greatest accomplishments in bite-size television clips, but the latest addition to the Heritage Minutes is highlighting Canada's dark history of slavery and the path that led to its eventual demise.

The clip tells the story of Chloe Cooley, an enslaved Black woman living in the Niagara Region in what was known as Upper Canada in the late 18th century. 

"We realized that the history of slavery within what would become Canada was not known and needed to be told," said Anthony Wilson-Smith, president and CEO of Historica Canada, the not-for-profit organization behind the Heritage Minute.

"You can't only tell good stories because you need the awareness that we have to do better in certain areas."

It's not the first time a Heritage Minutes video has touched on darker parts of Canada's history, or the struggles of Black Canadians. But it is among the first illustrating the prevalence of slavery in the years leading up to Confederation. Historians and academics say they hope it'll trigger more discussion about the little-known-history of Black slavery in the colonies that became Canada.

As rumblings of abolition grew louder in the late 18th century, historians say Cooley began to rebel against her "owner," Adam Vrooman, by refusing to work or temporarily leaving the property without permission.

On March 14, 1793, she was kidnapped and forced on a boat across the Niagara River to the United States.

One of the men who witnessed the incident, Peter Martin, later testified to her violent capture and her resistance, which led to a piece of legislation called the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada.

Historica Canada chose OYA Media group — a production company led by Black women — to produce the video. It was shot over two days in Westfield Heritage Village west of Hamilton and the Hamilton Conservation area.

"It has this hard, emotional punch to it because we had to represent what Chloe went through, and we couldn't hold any punches," said Alison Duke, one of the producers and the director of the video. She says the goal was to tell the true story of slavery in Canada.

 "And it wasn't a nice slavery. It wasn't a more sanitized version than what you see on television in the States or what you hear about and read about in the history books. It was just as brutal."

Many of the team members who made the video say they grew up watching Heritage Minutes and often didn't see their histories reflected.

WATCH| The making of the Heritage Minutes video on slavery in Upper Canada:

"I think 2020 kind of put a spotlight on the lack of this content," said Ngardy Conteh George, one of the video's producers, referring to the widespread demonstrations sparked by the murder of George Floyd two years ago by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minn.