P.S. NIAGARA
Harriet Tubman Worshipped Here:
Salem Chapel British Methodist Episcopal Church By Andrew Hind Salem Chapel in St. Catharines is an old church, dating back two centuries. But its true value lies with the legacy of the people who worshipped within, including abolitionist Harriet Tubman. From the early to middle 1800s, enslaved African Americans who had escaped bondage sought sanctuary in Canada. Many settled in Ontario’s Niagara peninsula, forming ‘Coloured Villages’ within communities like Niagara-on-the-Lake and St. Catharines. 80
Inspire Niagara & Beyond
In 1820, former slaves in St. Catharines established a branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) and built a small chapel to serve the faithful. Over the next three decades the congregation would grow slowly but steadily, necessitating two moves to successively larger churches. The Black community is St. Catharines, and indeed in many towns in Canada, saw its numbers swell after the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act in the United States in
