Grease Town

Technically, I’m not writing book reviews any more so these are just my thoughts on Ann Towell’s novel, Grease Town.  I’ve already established that very few children’s books are published in Canada featuring a black protagonist; most of the existing books are written by white authors and focus on the migration of African Americans from slavery in the US to freedom in Canada.  Fortunately, Grease Town doesn’t paint Ontario as “the promised land” of milk and honey, and it concludes with the trial of two white men accused of being part of a mob (of more than a hundred men) that burned a shanty town and assaulted the blacks who lived there in March, 1863.  Unfortunately, the writing is rather choppy, the protagonist acts like he’s ten rather than thirteen, and the author seems to have a hard time finding a focus for the narrative.  Orphaned Titus runs away from his strict Aunt Sadie and follows his older brother Lemuel to Oil Springs, a town of rough characters hoping to profit from the recent discovery of oil.  Titus and Lem immediately meet John Longeville, a shady American who cheats and lies his way through life.  Longeville also detests African Americans, and soon begins stirring up trouble among the other white workers.  I don’t doubt that Canadian attitudes about race were greatly influenced by those in (or from) the US, but that doesn’t mean Canadians didn’t already know how to be bigots; this aspect of the story isn’t really examined in Grease Town.  Titus’ Aunt Sadie objects to his friendship with Moses, an escaped slave boy, yet we don’t fully understand the basis for her objection.  What contact has she had with blacks in London, Ontario?  Titus says Moses is the first Negro he’s ever met, so what had his proper Christian aunt seen or heard that led to her racist views?  For some reason, much of the novel seems to focus on Titus’s relationship with his aunt, which I found confusing and tedious.  Moses says very little in the book, though the boys become instant friends and even start a business together.  What did they do with their earnings?  What was life like for Moses before arriving in Canada?  What hopes did he have for the future?  As fugitive slaves, Moses and his family were free to return to the US following the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863.  Blacks were mistreated and exploited as laborers in Oil Springs, so why would they choose to stay in Canada?  I had hoped these questions would be answered, but instead we learn about Titus fighting with Mercy, the Irish housekeeper who has a crush on Lem (though that’s never developed).  We see Titus’s uncle weep over the loss of an oilman friend, but we learn almost no details of the condition of blacks following the mob’s attack.  They’re hiding in the woods, and Lem’s taking them food while Uncle Amos tends to their wounds.  But the focus is on Titus, who has lost his ability to speak after witnessing the brutal assault on his friend.  He has flashbacks and acts out at home…essentially Titus becomes the primary victim, and the major question is, will he be able to testify?  I’m glad this book exists, and commend Ms. Towell for exposing a side of Canadian history that too often gets swept under the carpet (or, literally, buried).  I don’t think there should be an image of a despondent black boy on the book’s cover, however, since this really isn’t Moses’ story.