In the early 17th century, a group of French colonists ventured from France to the northern coastal regions of North America. In 1604, the group established the first permanent French settlement in North America at Port-Royal, in present-day Nova Scotia. The area eventually became known as Acadia, and the people and their decedents known as Acadians. (continue...)
Canada has the reputation of the frozen north, but to Martin Luther King and thousands of other black Americans, Canada was a sort of North Star—a gleaming beacon of hope that they followed and fought their way to. From 1840 to 1860, Canada emblemized freedom from oppression, and it was there that many brave enslaved people risked their lives to enter. This struggle was known as the Underground Railroad. (continue...)