The Reverend Richard Preston came from Virginia tobacco slavery. He fled to Nova Scotia in 1816 (where he was miraculously reunited with his mother on the very day of his arrival). He thereafter became, with extraordinary swiftness, a leading and beloved community leader, exhorting Black Nova Scotians to build their own churches, agitate for abolition, and school their children.

Written and performed by Toronto Poet Laureate George Elliot Clarke