The North Star by Julian Sher: Book Review

There are 60 pages - yes 60 - of sources and endnotes in Julian Sher's latest book, The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots against Lincoln. And that number is just a fraction of the more than an estimated 100,000 books written about the American Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln.

The North Star is indeed another in this voluminous cannon but from what a different angle. This 400-page book shines a light on Canada's little-known and troublesome role in the American Civil War, telling of events long forgotten and also those quietly buried beneath the weight of history. 

It makes for a fascinating read, all the more because while Lincoln's assassination is familiar to all of us, Sher delves into the little-known part played by Canadians sympathetic to the Confederacy cause.  

The North Star reads like the mystery it actually is as it details the many unpalatable facts about this country's interference in and sympathy with another country's civil war and the assassination of its lawfully elected president. 

A handy cast of characters and their affiliations is provided near the beginning of the book, and the text is interspersed with maps and photos of all the main characters in addition to a comprehensive index.

Julian Sher is a former Toronto Star investigative journalist, filmmaker and author based in Montreal, Quebec. For ten years, he worked with the CBC's The Fifth Estate, initially as an investigative producer and then as a senior producer. This is his seventh book.

When Sher began his talk about The North Star at a recent book and authors series by Burlington's Different Drummer bookstore, there was a sudden snapping to attention of heads and audible exclamations of surprise from the 200+ attendees.

So why do we have so little knowledge about the dark role Canada played in 'giving aid and comfort' to the slave South, as well as the plot to assassinate Lincoln when our justifiably laudable role in the underground railroad is so very well-known?

Each February, Black History Month in Canada is awash with stories about slaves 'riding' this railroad to freedom in this country and America's northern 'free states'.  We are very proud that this town was known as a key stop on that journey.

But the underground railroad is only one aspect of this tumultuous period in North American history.  Little is known and even less understood about the aid given to the American "slave states" by members of the Canadian political and business elite. How the Catholic church helped accomplices of Lincoln's assassin hide for months in the Quebec countryside. That John Wilkes Booth, the handsome and well-known actor, who shot the president on the evening of April 14, 1865, as he was watching a play in Ford's Theatre in Washington, had visited Canada before and after the deed was done. 

But perhaps the most astonishing incident of historical amnesia in this book of barely believable incidents is that it was not until six years ago that a plaque honouring the Confederacy was removed from the wall of The Bay in Montreal.  

Yes, Canada did indeed serve as a haven for several of the Confederacy's murderous plots and operations, yet as well as these troublesome facts, Sher relates the stories of intrepid Canadians who were on the right side of history; Emma Edmonds of New Brunswick who disguised herself as a man and enlisted as a Union nurse; Canada's first black doctor Anderson Abbot who served in the Union army; and Quebecer Edward P. Doherty who led the hunt for the assassin.

Many of us believe history is written by the winners, as did English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who coined that phrase.  On the other hand, President Lincoln believed 'history is not history unless it is the truth.' 

Sher's timely exploration of this unpalatable slice of Canadian history not only inches us closer to what really happened in those far-off days but teaches us the need to know, however unpalatable.

As the author says in conclusion:  'We need to remember the crimes and complicity of those in Canada who fought to preserve a world of slavery and inequality – and the heroism of those who fought to change it.'

The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots against Lincoln by Julian Sher was published by Knopf Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada in April 2023.