A Black slave was brought to Hamilton by force. This Dundas man was fined for honouring her

Andrew Hunter awoke on July 1 ready to begin a long-planned passion project: erect signs around Dundas reminding residents of the town's past ties to slavery and racism.

He started with four of them - custom made and 30 by 120 centimetres - and pinned them below boundary markings in high-traffic areas that border Dundas. Each were topped with the name Sophia Burthen Pooley, a Black woman who was brought to Hamilton against her will in the early 1800s and enslaved by Joseph Brant and later Samuel Hatt.

I felt strongly that Sophia's story deserved to be told," said Hunter, a local author and artist who recently penned a book about Pooley's life. I wanted to do something very specific to Dundas that worked with public history."

Within a day, two of the signs disappeared.

Hunter replaced them.

Then they disappeared again.

And again. And again.

On and on this back-and-forth went, and still goes. Of the 90 signs Hunter has put up around Dundas in the past four months - paid out of pocket for $10 to $15 a piece - he said just five remain. The rest are either vandalized or missing.

I don't know where they've gone or who took them."

One clue rests with the city.

Public works staff removed two of Hunter's signs - one on Osler Drive, the other on Cootes Drive - in early November due to a violation of sign bylaws.

Hunter was slapped with $200 fines for each, charges he recently appealed for reasons beyond a financial hit.

He said his goal isn't to make the signs official," but rather have them spark discussions about how we perceive historical figures in local communities.

I know putting up a sign without permission is illegal. I'm not arguing that," said Hunter. What upsets me is the content and what I'm addressing is not being talked about.

The only reason I've kept putting up signs and putting up signs is because of the lack of considered, empathetic, thoughtful response to this issue."

A city spokesperson couldn't confirm whether the signs were removed because of a complaint.

Staff are unable to disclose any further information as it's currently an active investigation," said Michelle Shantz.

Part of that investigation played out during a city heritage committee meeting Sept. 24, where members discussed Hunter's placing of sign on a 217-year-old heritage building at 2 Hatt St.

One committee member, Tim Ritchie, said the issue of taking down the sign warrants a gentler approach" that recognizes Pooley's history and doesn't involve bylaw or fines.

Another member, Robin McKee, agreed the information on the sign is important, but said erecting it on private property could be trespassing.

I'm not opposed to the information on the plaque. I'm opposed to someone doing it on their own on a heritage property," said McKee of 2 Hatt, a remnant of the Hatt family legacy. It's similar to graffiti."

Hunter doesn't see what the fuss is about.

All the sign does is honour the presence of a woman who was held here enslaved," he said.

Pooley was enslaved by Mohawk leader Joseph Brant for around five years before Samuel Hatt, the co-founder of Dundas, purchased her for $100 at age 12, according to McMaster University professor Ameil Joseph, who teaches in the School of Social Work and whose areas of research include postcolonial theory and critical race theory. She escaped to the Waterloo region in her 40s, married Robert Pooley and died in 1860.

But not much else is known about one of the first non-natives to arrive in Hamilton: Pooley's only believed interview was conducted by American abolitionist and author Benjamin Drew in 1855.

That, said Joseph, underscores the importance of acknowledging her in the context of Dundas's tainted history.

It's one of the only accounts we have from slaves of this area who describe their own story in relation to some pretty prominent historical figures," he said. For that reason, it's the kind of thing we should respect and acknowledge."

Joseph said fining Hunter doesn't do enough to address the issue at hand. There needs to be conversation, not penalty, in recognizing a town's history for what it is.

We cannot have any honest conversations about the legacies of racism without acknowledging the history and its impacts on the contemporary realities of it in our daily life."

Hunter never imagined his project would evolve in the way it has - but he doesn't plan to stop erecting signs, no matter how many fines he gets. He said halting the initiative would help erase history."

Dundas has a long history of championing figures like the Hatt family in a very biased, celebratory way, but without acknowledging those that did the work and labour and who weren't rich or privileged," he said. And that's all I'm trying to do, and will keep doing until we have honest conversations."

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com