Crime Prevention Through Tours of the Old Prison of Trois-Rivieres

Photo: Musée québécois de culture populaire

Tours of the Old Prison of Trois-Rivières have an unexpected preventive effect on some visitors. Disturbed by what they've seen, many declare they will never break the law, because now they know what to expect if they do.

"The Hole" at the Old Prison of Trois-Rivières

Photo: Musée québécois de culture populaire

Conditions in "the hole" were straight out of the Middle Ages: a dirt floor, no windows, no light, prisoners clad only in their underwear?

Inside Trois-Rivières' Old Prison

Photo: Musée québécois de culture populaire

The former prison in Trois-Rivières reopened in 2002. But unlike other jails, those who cross its threshold do so of their own volition.

Feeling Like a Felon in Trois-Rivières, Québec

Of all Quebec tourist attractions, the former prison in Trois-Rivières can truly boast of having a captive audience.

BY HUGO PARADIS

When our group got to "the hole," the prison's solitary-confinement cell, an elderly man asked the guide for a flashlight. After studying the wall closely, he extracted a crumpled piece of paper from one of the cracks. "Right," he declared, "this is where the tour ends for me." And he left the cell.

It turned out that long ago, the man had been an inmate in this very jail. Not only that, he had put in some time in the hole. Knowing that one of his pals was going to have a turn in the hole later on, he had left a note for the guy. But the friend was abruptly transferred to another prison, and never got the message. Forty years later, jammed into a crack in the wall, the note was still there.

A variety of visitors walk the gloomy corridors of the Old Prison of Trois-Rivières, from young and old to foreign tourists and the morbidly curious. And some, like the elderly man, are actually former prisoners, returning not to the scene of their crime, but to the scene of their incarceration.

The prison, which was the longest-operating jail in Canada when it was shut down in 1986, re-opened in August of 2002 as a rather unusual museum ? one that's dedicated to showing visitors what life behind bars was like in the 1960s and 1970s. This is a museum where the guides explain to those from "the outside" what life was like "on the inside." And they know what they're talking about. They're all ex-convicts themselves.

As they lead visitors from cell to cell on a tour of the facility, the guides cover every facet of prison life, from the convict code to the violence, despair, solitude and faith. It's a fascinating glimpse into prison life that also includes videotaped reminiscences of former prisoners, including well-known union leader Michel Chartrand.

Although the tours were designed purely to educate people, they also seem to have a preventative effect on some visitors, who are so disturbed by what they see that they decide then and there they're never going to break the law.

But then the Old Prison of Trois-Rivières wasn't exactly known for its comfort. Opened in 1822 and now classified as a historic monument, it was forced to shut down in 1986 for health reasons.

"Before they stopped using it, conditions in 'the hole' were straight out of the Middle Ages," says Claire Plourde of the Québec Museum of Folk Culture, which operates the prison museum. "It had a dirt floor, there were no windows and no light, and prisoners were thrown in there dressed only in their underwear."

To date, nearly 50,000 visitors have toured the facility. And as of this year, tourists can spend a full night in the prison - an experience Plourde promises is very different from, say, overnighting at the youth hostel in Ottawa, housed in a building that used to be a jail. "We give people a real prisoner-style experience," she says. "They spend the night in a cell on a real prison bed, and in the morning they get an honest-to-goodness jailhouse breakfast of porridge and cold toast."

Maybe not solitary confinement, but certainly voluntary confinement...

For more information on this or other Canadian destinations, visit the Canadian Tourism Commission's website at www.travelcanada.ca.

source: Canadian Tourism Commision

This reproduction is not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced, nor has it been made in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Old Prison of Trois-Rivières, Quebec

Photo: Musée québécois de culture populaire

Once Canada's longest-operating jail, the Old Prison of Trois-Rivières is now a museum where interpreters explain to "outsiders" what life was like "on the inside."

Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site in Dresden, Ontario

Photo: Cathy Stapells

Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site in Dresden, Ontario is the burial place of Josiah Henson. His autobiography inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to pen Uncle Tom's Cabin, credited by President Abraham Lincoln as a catalyst of the American Civil War.

Josiah Henson House, Dresden, Ontario

Photo: Cathy Stapells

This humble house in Dresden, Ontario became a crucial link in the Underground Railroad when it was settled by Josiah Henson, who escaped slavery in Kentucky. His autobiography inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to pen Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Salem Chapel in St. Catharines, Ontario

Photo: Eva Salter

A poignant site on the Niagara Freedom Trail, Salem Chapel, British Methodist Episcopal Church was once a headquarters for the Underground Railroad, the network that guided slaves from the United States to freedom in Canada.

Bertie Hall, Fort Erie, Ontario: interior shot

Photo: Eva Salter

Bertie Hall is a stately, 1830 Greek Revival-style home that reportedly served as a safe haven for freedom seekers who crossed the Niagara River. Today it houses the Mildred M. Mahoney Doll's House Gallery. Its basement quarters impact visitors with a recreation of the former slaves' habitat

Bertie Hall, Fort Erie, Ontario

Photo: Eva Salter

Lest we forget, follow the Freedom Trail

The brave network of people who hid slaves and guided them to freedom in Canada became known as the Underground Railroad. Ontario's route of historic sites honours those who fought for Black freedom and rights.

BY CATHY STAPELLS

If walls could talk, a tiny church in St. Catharines would tell a huge story. Salem Chapel, British Methodist Episcopal Church was once a headquarters for the Underground Railroad, the network that guided slaves from the United States to freedom in Canada.

Many escaped slaves, or freedom seekers, found sanctuary at the church and in St. Catharines because of ex-slave Harriet Tubman, who guided more than 300 slaves across the Canada/U.S. border during her eight years in St. Catharines.

"Tubman was the greatest 'conductor' on the Underground Railroad, risking her life again and again to bring others to freedom," says Rochelle Bush, historical director of Salem Chapel, built in 1855 and designated a national historic site.

Tubman was born in Maryland around 1820 and escaped from slavery in 1849. Known as "Black Moses" because she led her people to freedom, she returned to the American south 19 times to guide slaves to safety, including her own parents in 1857. "She lived in St. Catharines from 1851 to 1858 and made 11 trips from the city. And she carried a $40,000 bounty on her head," says Bush. Herself a descendent of freedom seekers, Bush's father's family arrived from Richmond, Va., in 1830 and settled in the Oro/Collingwood area. Her mother's family arrived from South Columbia, S.C., in 1844 and settled around St. Catharines.

After the U.S. Civil War, Tubman moved to Auburn, N.Y., where she continued to work for the advancement of rights for blacks and women. She died in her 90s in 1913.

Tubman's story, like that of all the freedom seekers escaping brutal conditions in the American South, is one of desperation and sacrifice. The Underground Railroad gave them hope.

The Railroad is the name for the network of people who hid and guided slaves and refugees to freedom in Canada by following the North Star. It originated in the southern United States and wound its way through the northern states to Canada, where blacks could live as free citizens.

First established as early as the 1500s by sympathetic abolitionists, both black and white, the Railroad reached its peak between 1780 and 1865. Clothed in secrecy, very few facts were recorded about the operation, but historians believe approximately 40,000 freedom seekers reached Canada via the Underground Railroad.

They came to Upper Canada, as Ontario was known in the late 18th century, because it was seen as a safe haven for blacks. In 1793, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe introduced a precedent-setting bill to prevent the importation of slaves into Upper Canada. At the time, more and more Empire Loyalists (British subjects loyal to Britain after the American Revolution) were coming north into Canada and bringing their slaves with them.

Finding a safe haven in Upper Canada became even more intense with the passage of the U.S. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed the capture of runaway slaves in the northern United States. In 1833, the British Parliament had passed the Slavery Abolition Act, giving all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.

Underground Railroad communities exist throughout southern Ontario, extending from Windsor to Toronto and north from Fort Erie to Owen Sound, Thornbury and Barrie. Visitors can explore this dramatic aspect of Canada's past at 29 sites around the province, seven of which lie along Niagara's Freedom Trail in the Niagara/St. Catharines area.

In Fort Erie, for example, a plaque known as "The Crossing" marks the spot on the riverfront where many freedom seekers crossed the swirling Niagara River from Buffalo to Fort Erie. Some were smuggled across by abolitionist boat captains, while others swam across ? some successfully, many not.

"Blacks only travelled across at night. It was an incredibly dangerous time," says Bush, a passionate spokesperson for promoting the history of the Underground Railroad.

Also in Fort Erie is Bertie Hall, which today houses the Mildred M. Mahoney Doll's House Gallery, a collection covering 200 years of dollhouses. However, this stately, Greek Revival-style home reportedly served as a "safe house" for freedom seekers who had crossed the Niagara River.

Bertie Hall was built circa 1830 by William Forsyth Sr., whose two sons, Brock and Nelson, were well-known abolitionists. Slaves would cross the Niagara River in darkness and hide in the safe house until they could be whisked away to more secure locations. Although never proven, rumours abound that an underground tunnel linked Bertie Hall to the river. In the basement, visitors can view recreated quarters of the dark, underground haven of the freedom seekers.

Niagara's Freedom Trail also includes a stop at the St. Catharines Museum at the Welland Canal Centre, where the "Follow the North Star" exhibit explores the Underground Railroad experience and recounts the rich legacy of Niagara's African Canadians.

"There are 27 historic black families in Niagara, with the majority in St. Catharines," says Bush. "At least 7,000 people in the city can trace their roots back to fugitive slaves."

Many other noteworthy sites along the Underground Railroad are located outside the Niagara region. The African Canadian Heritage Tour, the Central Ontario Network for Black History and the Ontario government have created a booklet that details all 29 sites across the province.

In Dresden, Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site and Josiah Henson House celebrate the achievements of Josiah Henson and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Henson escaped slavery in Kentucky with his wife and four children and settled in Upper Canada, where he quickly became an important part of the Underground Railroad. In 1841 near Dresden, he and several other abolitionists purchased 200 acres of land and founded a vocational school for black refugees called the British American Institute, and soon residents plied their trades at local farms, mills and industries.

At age 60, Henson wrote his autobiography. His memoirs inspired Harriet Beecher Stowein the writing of her anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which sold more than 300,000 copies in its first year of publication. President Abraham Lincoln credited the outcry against slavery sparked by her book as the catalyst of the American Civil War. Henson died in 1883 at the age of 94 and is buried at the Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site.

Ontario's Underground Railroad sites honour the sacrifices of so many people who fought for black freedom and rights. It's a fascinating story, one that everyone should learn and no one should forget.

For more information on this destination visit the Canadian Tourism Commission website at www.travelcanada.ca.

source: Canadian Tourism Commision

This reproduction is not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced, nor has it been made in affiliation with or with the endorsement of the Canadian Tourism Commission.