Editing Essex County, Ontario (section)

===Settlement 1820 to 1870===
[[File:"Underground"_routes_to_Canada,_Map_cropped_to_display_Southern_Ontario,_Canada.jpg|thumb|right|A number of settlements of Black slaves in Essex County are identified on this 1898 [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Underground%22_routes_to_Canada_(NYPL_b10341074-5365491).jpg map] of ''"Underground" Routes to Canada''.<ref name="Chadwick">{{cite book | last = Chadwick | first = Bruce | title = Traveling the underground railroad : a visitor's guide to more than 300 sites | url = https://archive.org/details/travelingundergr00chad | url-access = registration | publisher = Carol Pub. Group | location = Secaucus, NJ | page=[https://archive.org/details/travelingundergr00chad/page/272 272] |year = 1999 | isbn = 0806520930 }}</ref>]]
Longer roads began to appear in the county after the [[War of 1812]], the first of which followed Indian trails.  [[Thomas Talbot (Upper Canada)|Colonel Thomas Talbot]] contributed to road development, and Talbot Road was named for him.  Talbot Road followed a natural ridge of glacial moraine which stretched from Windsor to [[Point Pelee]].

The establishment of good roads led to further settlement along the 'Middle Road' and in the area of what is now [[Leamington, Ontario|Leamington]]. Settlers of this era were often emigrants from Britain and Ireland; in the 1840s the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] led to significant immigration.  The village of Maidstone was the centre of the Irish community, and an area known as the "Scotch Colony" appeared along the shore of Lake St. Clair to the north.

In 1854 the [[Great Western Railway (Ontario)|Great Western Railway]] connected the Detroit frontier with the east, crossing Essex County.  The Canadian terminal was in Windsor, which consequently forged ahead of the other towns of the county.  Other railway lines were built that connected settlements in Kingsville, Harrow, Essex and Leamington.

Essex County was also a destination of the [[Underground Railroad]]. In the 19th-century Black Americans came to Essex county by way of [[Point Pelee National Park|Pelee's Point]], Gosfield (now [[Kingsville, Ontario|Kingsville]]), [[Colchester, Ontario|Colchester]], [[Sandwich, Ontario|Sandwich]], and [[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]].<ref name="Switala">{{cite book | last = Switala | first = William | page=144 |title = Underground railroad in New Jersey and New York | publisher = Stackpole Books | location = Mechanicsburg, PA | year = 2006 | isbn = 9780811746298 }}</ref> Those who stayed in the area settled in the communities of [[Fort Malden]], [[Sandwich, Ontario|Sandwich]], [[New Canaan, Ontario|New Canaan]], [[Leamington, Ontario|Mersea]], and nearby [[Dawn Settlement]] (now [[Dresden, Ontario|Dresden]]), [[Buxton]] (now [[North Buxton, Ontario|North Buxton]] and [[South Buxton, Ontario|South Buxton]]), [[Chatham, Ontario|Chatham]], and [[Elgin, Ontario|Elgin]]. The major settlement areas were [[Amherstburg, Ontario|Amherstburg]] and [[Windsor, Ontario|Windsor]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The freedom-seekers : Blacks in early Canada|last=G.|first=Hill, Daniel|date=1981|publisher=Book Society of Canada|isbn=0772552835|location=Agincourt, Canada|oclc=8114887|page=48}}</ref><ref name="Switala"/><ref name="Chadwick"/> The [[John Freeman Walls Historic Site]] in Maidstone ([[Lakeshore, Ontario|Lakeshore]]) is testament to this period.  Many of the descendants of the fugitives moved back to the United States to support the Northerners ([[Union Army]]) in the [[American Civil War]], (1861–1865), or to reconnect with family after [[Emancipation Proclamation|emancipation]]. Many families stayed.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Promised Land: History and Historiography of the Black Experience in Chatham-Kent's Settlements and Beyond|last1=de B’béri|first1=Boulou Ebanda|last2=Reid-Maroney|first2=Nina|last3=Wright|first3=Handel Kashope|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2014|isbn=9781442667464|location=Toronto}}</ref>