The Promised Land Project (PLP) is a multidisciplinary research project that focuses on the study of the role and the evolution of the earliest settlements in the blacks in the region of Chatham-Kent, whose role has been misunderstood and contributions are neglected.

The description of such communities as the "last stop on the underground railroad" refers to an ideology, history suggests that this extraordinary heritage is merely an end, rather than the place of birth of something important and unique. It is not known very well that when Canada became a country in 1867, the sixth group of the population were people of african descent. The history of the canadian national still classifies these citizens of" fugitive slaves " without taking account of their efforts in the fight to end slavery in the United States, on the implementation of civil rights in modern Canada and on the development of social, cultural and economic life of this region. The general objectives of this project are :

1. protect the historical document primary
2. make these documents available to the public
3. to support the new university research and teaching
4. promote community development in the historical region of Canada
5. use the new knowledge generated by the project is to frame the current discussions on the identity ethnoraciale, social justice, migration, and multiculturalism

Purpose

First, the Promised Land Project strives to preserve the historical records documenting the Black experience in Chatham-Kent. The research team and community partners to create a comprehensive database of letters, tax records, newspapers, photographs, oral histories, stories, family, newspapers, and other primary sources important.

From a practical point of view, it is crucial that the documents and the stories related to the project promised land to be preserved properly because most of them are kept in fragile environments. For example, many are kept in basements and back rooms, and are often supported by members of the community who have given up their time to collect the documents of the families, churches, and town halls, in order to avoid that they are not lost. The PLP will help to catalog and preserve these historical documents, covering the period of history beginning with the american Revolution, when the region of southern Ontario began to open to the settlers in Canada, until the birth of the modern civil rights movement in Kent, and ending with an evaluation of black communities today.
And then, going well beyond the collection and archiving of primary material, the PLP facilitates the integration of these materials and new ideas in a common body of knowledge created through the interaction of community partners and academics. From this knowledge, the team of the PLP and the community partners will develop the following : new materials, create new community-based projects in the arts and public history, and advance the debate on the events of historical and contemporary diversity in Canada, will encourage new studies and education. The overall objective is to highlight the historical importance of the communities of the Land of promise as the story hinge of Canada's past and to draw attention to its current relevance as a model of multiculturalism prior to the current discourse of multiculturalism in the era of globalization.

Objectives

The central objective of the project is to protect the main historical documents and make them accessible to the public in order to support new academic research and education, promote community development in the historical region of Canada and use the new knowledge generated by the project to guide the discussions on the identity ethnoraciale, social justice, migration, and multiculturalism.

• by extrapolating from the land register and in combination with other primary sources to explore the contributions to the community of the first Black settlements of Chatham and Dawn ;
• Documenting the joints of the identity and the identification of racial and cooperation (and discrimination) race in the context of the colony's black Chatham and Dawn and articulate as a form of creation community pre-multiculturalist ;
• Create a database that will map and store the historical materials in a single complete archive ;
• Open opportunities for research-action and provide a research training for graduate students ;
• Contribute to the historical inform and bring new perspectives to the contemporary research on migration, race, social justice, and multiculturalism ;
• Develop teaching materials, ranging from articles and erudite books, CD-ROMS and Web sites, interactive scenarios, theater and exhibitions of photographic tests, for use in schools, universities and other public places ;
• Develop interdisciplinary study programmes, integrating a better understanding of the social history and issues of social justice in the classroom university and in the community;
• Take advantage of modern communication technology to make available the facts and historical documents (most of which are not currently collected in a centralized manner or widely known.)

Methods

In order to shed light on the experiences and contributions of Blacks in the history of Canada who have until now been silent in the narratives of socio-historical, the team of researchers of the PLP will bring together educational materials scientist and the public. In addition, they will work with community partners and local municipalities to produce historical sites sustainable. This will include the production of new resources to support the local cultural heritage and education initiatives, supplemented by books, scientific articles, video documentaries, and theatrical performances.

Academic results

• Digital preservation and collection of historical materials and primary national archive, which will become references for future research ;
• Graduate student training and action research;
• Offers new scholarship that challenge the stereotypes, historical, Blacks in Canada, and create a greater appreciation of the diversity of backgrounds and talents of the first migrations black in Canada ;
• Creating a research partnership cross-border long-term between Canada and the United States between all candidates and employees, research units, and institutions, helping to deepen the understanding of migration patterns, the construction of the community and of the contemporary issues of identity, multiculturalism, and social justice. This research collaboration border will be structured in the form of symposia, academic, moving from one site to the other in Canada and the United States, after the term of this CURA.
• Books published : in a collaboration involving academics and researchers of the community, which will appeal to readers, academics and the general public

Results community :

• With the support of the municipality of Chatham-Kent, the PLP will identify special sites that will show the tags for the project in the community ;
• Create exhibitions, mobile, photo-essays, and scenarios theatre from artifacts and historical records found
• Strengthening the sites and initiatives of local search within the municipality of Chatham-Kent, through workshops, public meetings and theatrical performances of local
• Organize public events to annual in order to present the results of the research