About the Museum

Amherstburg Freedom Museum, previously known as 'the North American Black Historical Museum', is located in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. It is a community-based, non-profit museum that tells the story of African-Canadians' history and contributions. Founded in 1975 by local residents, it preserves and presents artifacts of African-Canadians, many of whose ancestors had entered Canada as refugees from United States slavery. They found it relatively easy to enter Canada from across the Detroit River. Although Michigan was a free territory and state, many refugee slaves continued to settle in Canada in order to be beyond the reach of the US Fugitive Slave Acts. The Museum complex which houses permanent and temporary exhibits, and consists of the museum building, the Taylor Log Cabin-a historic home from that period, and Nazrey African Methodist Episcopal Church, National Historic Site.