1812-1895

Promoted self-sufficiency

Born in Ireland, King moved to the U.S. as a young man and settled near Toledo, OH. One of his first jobs in the country was teaching children of wealthy slave owners in Louisiana. There he also married the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner.

King decided to move to Scotland to study for the ministry, but not before he was deeply moved by witnessing a slave auction. In a short space of time, his wife and their two children died from illnesses. Through his grief, King finished his studies and was sent to Canada as a missionary. In the meantime, his father-in-law had also died and left him the sole heir of property that included 14 slaves. Rev. King started the process of freeing the slaves, and in the fall of 1849, he and the 14 slaves set out to find new lives in Canada.

He convinced the Governor General of Ontario, Lord Elgin, to support a community where former slaves could work towards self sufficiency. Each settler was given 50 acres which they bought back over a ten-year period. The blacks learned carpentry, farming, blacksmithing, milling, and shoemaking in addition to academic subjects. Despite hostility from some neighboring whites, the community, known as Buxton after the name of the British abolitionist who passed that country’s Emancipation Act in 1833, thrived. By 1856, nearly 800 people lived there.

The U.S. Civil War changed Buxton, with some 70 residents enlisting in the Union Army. The community continued to exist, but it was never the same.

It disbanded officially in 1873, but Rev. King’s idea had demonstrated the ability of former slaves to learn and to become self-sufficient.

Intellectual Property of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center