Little Trinity (Trinity East) was home to slavery escapees.

They had no children; never learned to read or write; no photo of them has come to light.

Like so many of God’s saints they were almost forgotten. But Lucie & Thornton Blackburn’s silent story says much about the spiritual heritage of Toronto.

When Lucie's Kentucky owner decided to sell her "down the river" in the brutal slave markets of the Deep South, they escaped from slavery. Slave hunters tracked them down to Detroit, Michigan in 1833 and re-captured them. Their crime: stealing the property of their slave owners (that is, themselves). A friend, Mrs. French, brought Lucie a change of clothes. Thus disguised Lucie escaped across the Detroit River to Canada and safety.

Meanwhile, heavily guarded, bound and shackled ,Thornton found his escape more traumatic. The day before he was to be returned to Kentucky, Detroit's African American community rose up in protest. Four hundred men stormed the jail. The commotion turned into a two day riot during which the local sheriff was killed. It was the first race riot in Detroit, resulting in the first ever Riot Commission formed in the U.S.

During the commotion, Sleepy Polly and Daddy Walker helped Thornton escape to Canada. The Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Major General Sir John Colborne, twice refused to extradite Lucie and Thornton back to the United States, noting that a person could not steal himself.

Once safely in Canada and reunited with his wife, Thornton settled in the new city of Toronto in 1834. He formed Toronto's first taxicab company, designing, building, and operating a very successful horse-drawn carriage service. He who had been transported to freedom, now drove others to their destination for a fee yes but yet in freedom. The name of his red and yellow box cab: The City.

Lucie and Thornton's commitment to Christ built deep fellowship across Toronto. Their financial contributions helped build Little Trinity Anglican Church in 1842 just around the corner from their home, now the south-east corner of the playground of the Sackville Street School.

Canada and Toronto have thus been a refuge throughout its life for hundreds of refugees of all kinds. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free, no longer to be subject to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 adapted from "I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad" by Adrienne Shadd, Afua Cooper and Karolyn Smardz