The central location of St. Catharines, protected in the lee of the Niagara Escarpment, had made it the most populated Native Canadian area in Canada early in history. Its picturesque site was attractive to the first settlers who arrived during the American War of Independence as Loyalists. However, there was a need for water power to help with the running of mills. This led to the initiative by William Hamilton Merritt to follow through on the 1793 proposal of Robert Hamilton to create a canal from the Welland River, near Lake Erie, up to Lake Ontario. On October 24, 1829, the first Welland Canal was operational, although work continued on it until 1931 to reduce the number of locks and to enlarge its depth in order to facilitate the quick movement of larger ships through the canal. A writer of the time commented on the appeal of the area:

      No work in Europe or America will bear comparison with its usefulness. In touching upon the mighty results which must soon follow its completion, the truth will assume the appearance of the most extravagant exaggeration, to those who do not make themselves acquainted with the singular geographical position of North America. The great inland seas above the Falls of Niagara, containing more than half the fresh water upon this planet — bounded by upwards of 400,000 square miles of as fertile land as can be found on the globe, and exceeding in length of coast, five thousand miles. These seas, affording the most beautiful and commodious means of internal communication ever beheld, on a scale which science and human labour or the treasures of a world cannot rival — can be approached by ships, only through the Welland Canal, with which in point of usefulness, no other work of the kind in Europe or Asia, ancient or modern will bear any comparison.

      By 1835 St. Catharines was known as one of the terminals of the Underground Railroad. Canadian slavery had been abolished since August 1, 1834, and Upper Canada in the 1850s was still part of the British Empire. One of the symbols of the British monarchy is a lion, so when Harriet would speak of being under the “lion’s paw” it meant to be under the protection of British authority. It was understood that Queen Victoria, her government, and her armies would protect the freedom of self-emancipated people. While few records exist, it is likely that Harriet Tubman supported herself in much the same way she did in Philadelphia or Cape May. She likely worked as a housekeeper, cook, or laundress while in St. Catharines, which is in keeping with the types of jobs that other black women would have had. Service positions were occupations that many blacks and lower class whites were relegated to; only a few were able to break into businesses of their own. But these were people seeking to survive, and any respectable means of earning money for their survival would be acceptable. These were also the types of jobs that would allow Harriet to have the flexibility to begin and quit as she wished, making it easy to leave her job and carry out other rescue missions in the south. Harriet never asked for anything for herself, but if her wages did not supply her with enough money for the care of the many fugitives or self-emancipated people she had living with her, she might have turned to others for assistance.

      Black men, and others, found work on the Welland Canal. The Canal itself helped industries develop that needed labourers — grist mills, flour mills, salt springs, foundries, machine shops, saw mills, woollen factories, distilleries, newspapers, ship yards, and dry docks — and blacks were called in to patrol the Welland Canal to keep the peace between Catholic and Protestant workers of Irish ancestry. The Canal provided cheap and plentiful power for the mills and manufacturing that developed. The security role for blacks was an extension of their military service in the Colored Corps, and continued until the Canal was almost complete and did not need so many workers. The Colored Corps had a role in customs and excise problems as they worked to end smuggling from the United States, and they would later work on road construction.

      St. Catharines had the “look of prosperity and business capabilities, far in advance of its size and appearance.” It was a booming industrial town that needed and welcomed workers. Most of the American- or Canadian-born blacks who appeared in the Canada census by 1861 were self-supporting through working in St. Catharines as labourers, although some were skilled tradespeople such as masons, coopers, barbers, hairdressers, shoemakers, bartenders, boat drivers, or carpenters. Some men or women lived in the homes of wealthier whites and worked as servants, such as cooks, housekeepers, or care givers. Others were self-sufficient through farming. One visitor to the area noted:

      Scattered around, and within five miles, are large numbers of [black] farmers, many of whom have become wealthy since escaping into Canada. Going into the market on Saturday morning, I counted 37 colored persons selling their commodities, consisting of ducks, chickens, eggs, butter, cheese, hams, bacon, vegetables and fruits of all kind.

      For many, St. Catharines’s prosperity made it a likely place to settle in for good, but others moved on to cities serviced by the Canal, Toronto, smaller towns, and, by the end of the Civil War, back to the United States to try to reconnect with family. Blacks tended to live close to each other because they faced similar economic and social barriers, and their homes tended to be on the outskirts of the city on land that was not as desirable at the time. Because they lived close together, churches and schools grew to meet their needs as a community. African Canadians were sometimes settled together, as with the military, or they were attracted to areas where there was tolerance for their presence or because of reasonable rates. The St. Catharines black community lived primarily in the area bounded by North, Geneva, Welland, and Williams Streets. St. Catharines blacks were within this area because Oliver Phelphs and William Hamilton Merritt owned a large tract of land bordering on North Street. In 1835, African Canadians were encouraged to buy land there because they could obtain favourable terms to purchase the land, including long leases. It seems that in some cases payments were not made by the black residents if they were unable to manage the expense and that interest was not charged. Merritt also donated a lot of land for the building of a church and meeting hall for the black community along the North Street area.

      William Hamilton Merritt was the child of former American residents who had fought on the side of the British during the American War of Independence. Not able to remain in the newly independent country, the Merritts initially moved to New Brunswick and then settled in the area now known as St. Catharines. William became a successful businessman and politician, and he was the visionary of the Welland Canal and the Niagara Suspension Bridge. Additionally, as his abolitionist views supported the growing