Weaponized History: The Underground Railroad’s Mythologized Legacy in Canada

ABSTRACT The Underground Railroad remains a popular feature in Canadian narratives. However, public discourse on the subject does not often reach much further than presenting a story of weary enslaved persons finding their way to freedom and happiness in Canada. The communities that they built and who these enslaved persons were outside of their enslaved status is rarely discussed. This uncomplicated telling of history allows Canadians to hold their country up as a historical champion of human rights and use Underground Railroad communities to prove a track record of equality in Canada that misrepresents the historical record. This article discusses the nature of Canadians’ fixation on the Underground Railroad narrative and Canada’s historical uses for this romanticized mythology.