Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

History

Supervisor

Shire, Laurel

Abstract

In 1922 Matthew Bullock, a young Black North Carolinian was arrested in Hamilton, Ontario having fled the United States following the lynching of his teenage brother. His deportation and subsequent extradition cases received significant attention from the Canadian and American press. Historians Sarah-Jane Mathieu and John C. Weaver have discussed the case in the context of Black community formation and the development of the Canadians courts respectively. However, neither place significant focus on how the Ontario press covered the case. In this thesis, I argue that press and legal responses to Matthew Bullock were informed by a Canadian whiteness shaped by imperial identities and widespread anti-Black racism. Influenced by pop cultural expressions of anti-Black racism such as blackface minstrelsy and films like Birth of a Nation, white Ontarians presented Bullock as either a dangerous criminal, or as victim without agency in need of British imperial protection. Canadians have and continue to view Black people as inherently foreign and other, shaping ongoing legacies of white supremacy. Understanding Canadian whiteness, and structural racism requires a discussion of anti-Blackness in the Canadians settler colonial context.

Summary for Lay Audience

In 1922 Matthew Bullock, a young Black North Carolinian was arrested in Hamilton, Ontario having fled the United States following the lynching of his teenage brother. His deportation and subsequent extradition cases received significant attention from the Canadian and American press. In this thesis, I argue that press and legal responses to Matthew Bullock were informed by a Canadian whiteness shaped by imperial identities and widespread anti-Black racism. Influenced by pop cultural expressions of anti-Black racism such as blackface minstrelsy and films like Birth of a Nation, white Ontarians presented Bullock as either a dangerous criminal, or as victim without agency in need of British imperial protection. Understanding Canadian whiteness, and structural racism requires a discussion of anti-Blackness in the Canadians settler colonial context.

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