Nancy's Story Teaching Resource

By Cynthia Wallace-Casey, PhD 
University of Ottawa
Honorary Research Associate
Fredericton Region Museum 

This Education Guide is intended to complement the short Heritage Fair video prepared by the Fredericton Region Museum, entitled “The Slavery Trial of Nancy, February 4-8, 1800”. The purpose of this material is to enhance your students’ learning experience, and to help create awareness that slavery really did happen here in New Brunswick. 

Nancy’s powerful story of human bondage is rarely shared in the classroom, due to the disturbing nature of the language of the time, and the cruel realizations that New Brunswick’s colonial past has been far less than ideal. Nancy’s story, however, gives us all reason to pause and reflect upon equality, liberty, justice, and freedom. 

Before viewing the video, please discuss the language and concepts students will encounter. Inside this guide you’ll find information to assist, as well as transcripts of the archival evidence presented in the video. You will also find guiding questions designed to lead your students in thinking about the Historical Significance of Nancy and her trial. Read more...

Remembering and Reconciliation: Teaching and Learning the Legacy of Residential Schools in Canada

By Cynthia Wallace-Casey, PhD 
University of Ottawa

History Education Research Journal, Volume 19, Number 1, 29 April 2022, pp. 1-18:

Abstract: In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada released a Final Report containing 94 Calls to Action. Included were calls for reform in how history is taught in Canadian schools, so that students may learn to address such difficult topics in Canadian history as Indian Residential Schools, racism and cultural genocide. Operating somewhat in parallel to these reforms, social studies curricula across Canada have undergone substantial revisions. As a result, historical thinking is now firmly embedded within the curricula of most provinces and territories. Coupled with these developments are various academic debates regarding public pedagogy, difficult knowledge and student beliefs about Canada’s colonial past. Such debates require that researchers develop a better understanding of how knowledge related to Truth and Reconciliation is currently presented within Canadian classrooms, and how this may (or may not) relate to historical thinking. In this paper, I explore this debate as it relates to Indian Residential Schools. I then analyse a selection of classroom resources currently available in Canada for teaching about Truth and Reconciliation. In so doing, I consider how these relate to Peter Seixas’s six concepts of historical thinking (Seixas and Morton, 2013), as well as broader discussions within Canada about Indigenous world views, historical empathy and Reconciliation.  Read more...

Two-Volume Black History Special Edition Publication

Guest editor: Cynthia Wallace-Casey, PhD 

University of Ottawa 

It’s been an honour to participate in the development of this two-volume series of The Officers’ Quarters, devoted to Black history in New Brunswick. When I was first invited to embark on this journey in 2019, those of us at the Fredericton Region Museum were amazed at what little representation of Black history existed within the museum’s walls. Certainly, significant groundwork had already commenced in 2017, however, with the publication of a special Black History edition of The Officers’ Quarters. Thanks to guest editor Mary Louise McCarthy-Brandt, and the York-Sunbury Historical Society publication team, the stage was set to explore lesser-known aspects of Fredericton’s past. In that issue, readers were introduced to the historic slavery trial of Nancy; as well as descendants of Black Loyalist Solomon Kendall who lived on “The Hill” in Lower Queensbury. Readers were also reminded of the extraordinary significance of St Peter’s Church in Springhill, where there existed an “equality in Christ” rarely witnessed in Canadian history. This landmark publication left many of us wanting to learn more. 

Les Collections et les études sociales du N.-B.

Webinare Association Patrimoine Nouveau-Brunswick 
27 janvier, 2021 

Facilitatrice:  Dr. Cynthia Wallace-Casey, Université d'Ottawa

Ce webinaire aider à combler le fossé entre les éducateurs et les professionnels de musée au profit des jeunes. Les experts du musée apprendront à travailler avec les éducateurs en fonction des programmes actuels pour exciter les jeunes d’aujourd’hui à propos de L’histoire du N.-B. Afin qu’ils comprennent et/ou se connectent à leur passé et à leur communauté. Retrouvez l’enregistrement ici….

Museum Collections and NB Social Studies: Bridging the Two

Association Heritage New Brunswick Webinar
January 20, 2021 

Facilitator:  Dr. Cynthia Wallace-Casey, University of Ottawa

In this webinar I demonstrate ways to bridge the gap between educators and museums  - to benefit young people. Museum experts will learn to work with educators (based on the current curricula) to develop programs that excite youth about NB History, as well as connect to classroom needs.  Access the webinar here

RAN AWAY: The Slavery Trial of Nancy

By Cynthia Wallace-Casey, PhD 

Honorary Research Associate

Fredericton Region Museum

It wasn’t until 1834 that slavery became illegal in New Brunswick. Up until that year, people could be bought or sold as property, with they and their children receiving no hope of freedom for as long as they lived. A typical bill of sale would be worded as such: 

This Indenture witnesses that for and in the consideration of the sum of fifteen pounds New Brunswick currency paid me, I do hereby bargain, sell and deliver unto my son John, a negro boy named Sippeo to be his property and his heirs and successors during the life of the said negro, the receipt of which money from the said John HARDING I do hereby acknowledge; and I, the said George HARDING, do also warrant the said property against all claimants whatsoever. In witness whereof I do hereby set my hand and seal at Maugerville, this eighth day of July in the year of our Lord 1797. – Be It remembered that on the tenth day of February 1802, personally appeared before me the above named George Harding and acknowledged the above signature to be his hand and seal and that he delivered the above instrument for the above mentioned purposes. Elijah MILES, J.P. [1]

Abolitionist coin (Credit: Joe Gee,
New Brunswick Black History Society)

Many prominent Loyalists were slave-owners—including the first Mayor of Saint John Col. Gabriel G. Ludlow, as well as Col. Edward Winslow, Major John Coffin, Rev. Jonathan Odell, Cpt. William Bailey, and Cpt. Stair Agnew. Historian Watson Smith has estimated that more than 400 “servant” slaves were brought to the region between 1783 and 1784. 

By the turn of the century, however, the anti-slavery movement had become very active in this province. Two of the leaders in this initiative were Saint John lawyers Samuel Denny Street and Ward Chipman. In 1800 they challenged the legality of slavery in New Brunswick by bringing to trial the case of Nancy, an individual who had been enslaved for more than fourteen years. 

'I want to remember': Student narratives and Canada's History Hall

My recent publication in the Yearbook of the International Society for History Didactics, Volume 40, 2019, pp. 131-199:

In this journal article I explore student-constructed narrative interpretations of Canada’s History Hall. Drawing from an empirical investigation that included student visitors, as well as adult facilitators at the Canadian Museum of History, I reveal the “big ideas” that students (n=26) constructed about Canada’s past, and how these related to their museum experience. 

This inquiry is part of a larger investigation (supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) that explores: 1) how the Canadian History Hall represents such difficult topics in history as First Nation settler colonial experiences and Residential Schools; 2) the national narratives that students construct from such a learning experience; and 3) the potential role for museum spaces in enabling Historical Thinking. Read more...