What's Left of the Queen's Bush Settlement?

Somewhere near a bridge in Hawkesville there's a little sign that's easy to miss. It marks the day, August 1, 1863, when about 2,500 people gathered here to celebrate the end of slavery in the British Empire. Starting around 1820, more than 1,500 free and formerly enslaved Black pioneers cleared farms in the Queen's Bush, the unsurveyed land between Waterloo County and Lake Huron. Many had escaped slavery. They carved farms out of dense bush by hand, then, when the land was surveyed and put up for sale in the 1840s, most couldn't afford to buy the farms they had cleared. In Part 1 of our fall series we drive from near home through Elmira, Three Bridges and Ament Line into Hawkesville, ending at the Emancipation Day plaque. Along the way you'll meet the people who lived here: • John and Eliza Little, who walked into the bush in February with two axes • Sophia Pooley, stolen from her parents in New York at age seven • John Francis and William Jackson, in their own words • Paola Brown, founder of Colbornesburg (1829) • John and Lucinda Brown and their son Daniel • and the neighbours on the 1861 map: Bristow, Musselman, Brubacher, Empey, Hawke and Thomas Do you have Queen's Bush roots? Tell us in the comments. ▶ Missed our winter drives? Watch the Hidden Winter Drive playlist:    • Hidden Winter Drive: Ontario's Forgotten R...   CHAPTERS 0:00 The sign you'll drive right past 0:25 What was the Queen's Bush? 0:44 Today's route 0:55 Setting off from near home 1:57 Bristow's Corners: how Elmira began 5:32 Colbornesburg and the first Black settlers 7:14 John Little: into the wilderness 10:48 The Brubacher lands and Three Bridges 12:26 The survey: why the settlement vanished 14:18 Ament Line: Empey and the Browns 16:12 Into Hawkesville 20:34 A quiet moment 21:08 The Emancipation Day plaque 22:36 Reflection 23:22 In their own words 23:40 Coming in this series SOURCES • Ontario Heritage Trust, "The Queen's Bush Settlement, 1820–1867" plaque and background paper: heritagetrust.on.ca • Benjamin Drew, The Refugee: Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada (1856) • Wellesley Township Heritage & Historical Society • Emancipation Day plaque transcription: hmdb.org/m.asp?m=269047 • Tremaine's Map of the County of Waterloo (1861) • Waterloo Region Generations • Region of Waterloo Museums MUSIC "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Filmed October 25, 2026. Map positions are approximate. #QueensBush #BlackHistory #WaterlooRegion #BackRoads #Ontario