Early Black Community on Hamilton Mountain

Early Black Community on Hamilton Mountain. . , Early Black Community on Hamilton Mountain, Beginning in the 1840s, people of African descent purchased plots of land on the Hamilton Mountain brow along today's Concession Street between Upper Wellington and Upper Sherman Streets. William Bridge Green was a key provider of land to Black settlers, who came from a variety of backgrounds. Most originated in the United States, although Pompey Lewis was African-born and John and Rosanna Spellman were from Santo Domingo. Some were freeborn. Many had been enslaved, and had migrated to free American states before moving north. Others had escaped directly from bondage via the Underground Railroad. They worked as farmers, carters, labourers, skilled trades people and entrepreneurs. Some of these Black landowners divided up their property and sold or rented smaller lots to other Blacks. In 1854, Reverend Joseph P. Williams established an African Methodist Episcopal Church capable of seating 100 people on his property at the top of the future Jolley Cut., Julia Washington Berry operated the tollgate at the top of James Street. William Nelson was caretaker for the Mission Church on Concession Street. Other families included several Johnson households, the Calamese family, the Carters, Connaways, Mallorys, Mortons and Santees. Black barber and leader Josiah Cochrane also bought land here. Although the community later dubbed "Little Africa" persisted for several decades, the vast majority of inhabitants sold their property and purchased homes below the Mountain or moved to other Ontario locales, where some descendants continued to live into the twenty-first century. Hamilton Historical Board City of Hamilton 2012