Welcome to History at Home, bringing the museum
to you.
I'm Sara Byers, Assistant Curator at the Niagara
Falls Museums.
Burr Lockhart Plato
One of the outstanding citizens of early Niagara
Falls was Burr Plato.
Plato was born into slavery in West Virginia
in 1833.
At the age of twenty-three he decided to escape
to freedom.
Along with seven other enslaved people he
made his way along the network of secret routes
and safe houses of the Underground Railway
to Fort Erie, Ontario.
As an enslaved person Burr had no possibility
of an education, but he believed that literacy
was the only sure way to success.
He settled in Niagara Falls and worked as
a farmhand and porter while he learned to
read and write.
With proficiency in these skills he decided
to own his own business and bought a horse
and carriage and became what was known as
a hackman, the taxi service of the day.
He bought a house on Stanley Avenue, married
and eventually had ten children.
Burr was an active member of the British Methodist
Episcopal Church and became aware of its importance
as the centre for the spiritual and social
life of those in the town who had escaped
slavery.
His sense of citizenship also grew and he
wanted to take an active role in civic life.
He ran for councilman in 1886, in what was
then the Village of Niagara Falls.
He was supported not only by the black members
of the community, but by his white neighbours
as well.
In addition to his work ethic and his courage,
Burr Plato had a sense of humour.
Although he was duly elected to public office
in that election, there were members of the
community who would not believe that, quote,
“an illiterate former slave”, end quote,
was suitable as a member of council.
There were those who claimed he could not
possibly be literate and therefore not qualified.
A newspaper report of the time about the newly
elected village council describes a more welcoming
attitude and how Plato met the disparagement.
He obviously handled it with aplomb.
He merely stood up in the meeting and read
aloud the newspaper article in question.
The newspaper noted that outsiders might doubt
the qualification of this man but local people
had decided he was among the best men they
had, and suggested that he would be a first
class warden for 1887.
It proposed he should be sent to the county
council the next year, hoping that he might
there meet other men equally well qualified.
Plato was one of the first Black persons in
Canada elected to political office and he
held the position until he died in 1905 at
the age of 72.
Appreciation for his many contributions to
the life of the community were evident in
the large attendance of friends and colleagues
at his funeral.
Burr Plato rests at Drummond Hill Cemetery
in an area along the east side with many early
Black settlers of Niagara.
Thank you for joining me for History at Home.
I'm Sara Byers.
Editor and Narrator Sara Byers
Special Thanks for Research from Fred Habermehl
Special Thanks for Images from Niagara Falls
Public Library
