Singing the Blues for "The Birdman" Alexander Milton Ross
On March 5th, 2005 the Loyal Blues Fellowship, will be presenting "The End of Winter Blues Festival". One of the objectives of the Festival is to draw awareness to local Bellevillian Alexander Milton Ross "The Birdman"and his work during the 1850's to facilitate the escape of hundreds of enslaved people.
Among the most daring of the Underground Railroad workers was Alexander Milton Ross, born in Belleville, Ont., 13 December, 1832. Alexander Ross was an ornithologist as well as a medical doctor, and often used his interest in birds as a cover for his Underground Railroad activities.
As a child, growing up in Belleville, Dr. Ross' parents had discussed the evils of slavery with him . When Ross met refugees and anti slavery groups in Toronto, he translated their sympathies into action. In 1856 he became actively engaged in the anti slavery struggle in the United States by becoming a personal friend of abolitionist John Brown. Ross' black acquaintances told him about the secret lines of the Underground Railroad and gave him names and addresses of station keepers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. As an ornithologist, Ross traveled throughout the southern states, particularly Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama. Plantation owners let the "Birdman" roam their estates, with no inkling that the flights he hoped to see were not those of birds, but of their slaves.
During the civil war he served for a short time as a surgeon in the National army. Afterward, he was employed by President Lincoln as confidential correspondent in Canada where he rendered important services to the United States government and received the thanks of the President and Secretary, Seward.
At the close of the American Civil War, Dr. Ross returned to Canada to collect and classify Canadian flora and fauna. His findings included hundreds of species of birds, eggs, mammals, reptiles, and fresh water fish, 3,400 species of insects, and 2,000 species of flora.
Between the years 1876 and 1881, Dr Ross was: knighted by the emperor of Russia, and by the kings of Italy, Greece, Saxony and Portugal; a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec and Ontario; a founder of the Society of the Diffusion of Physiological Knowledge; the Ontario Treasurer and Commissioner of Agriculture; Canadian Consul in Belgium and Denmark, and received the decoration of the "Academie Francaise" from the government of France
Like the "Birdman", the blues had a large impact upon our history & culture, and is largely unrecognized in the Quinte area. Blues roots are closely tied to the slave trade in the southern states where stories of the"Birdman" and the Underground Railroad were passed from plantation to plantation through songs and field hollering.
The Loyal Blues Fellowship has chosen to honour Dr. Alexander Milton Ross during "The End of Winter Blues". For more information about Dr. Ross's adventures read Hunter of Dreams A Story of the Underground Railroad by Steven Duff ; about the Loyal Blues Fellowship email: [email protected]
