The Burned-over District and Blacks: A Touch of California Free Love and the Border of British Canada

Abstract:This article asserts that the Burned-over District was important to Blacks, both fugitive and free, before the Civil War. It was a place that was more open and welcoming than other spaces in the United States. The free thinking of groups like the Shakers, the Millerites, the Mormons, and the Oneida Society, as well as the abolitionists and woman’s suffrage advocates, helped to usher in a space friendly to Blacks. Also, the Burned-over District offered access to British Canada, which was a haven for fugitive Blacks and was part of an Atlantic world experience due to the international zone it inhabited.