Freedom and Resistance: History of Black Churches in Canada

Laurier researcher, Professor Carol Duncan, on the history of black churches in Canada.

In 1854, Reverend Richard Preston founded the African United Baptist Association (AUBA), an independent denomination for Black Nova Scotians. Preston, who was born into slavery in Virginia, purchased his freedom in 1816 and travelled to Halifax, where he and other Black Christians encountered forced segregation in mainline Protestant churches. When it was proposed by white parishioners that curtains be installed so the presence of Black people in the balconies could be obscured from view, Preston had enough. He built AUBA, which today is comprised of 19 churches across Nova Scotia.

AUBA and other historically Black churches across Canada do more than meet the spiritual needs of their congregants, says Carol Duncan, a professor in Wilfrid Laurier University’s Department of Religion and Culture whose research is focused on Black church studies in Canada, Caribbean religions in transnational and diasporic contexts, religion and popular culture, and women’s and gender studies.