The North Star

Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln

By: Julian Sher

Narrated by: Julian Sher

FINALIST FOR THE 2023 MAVIS GALLANT PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 J. W. DAFOE BOOK PRIZE

A riveting account of the years, months and days leading up to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and the unexpected ways Canadians were involved in every aspect of the American Civil War.

Canadians take pride in being on the “good side” of the American Civil War, serving as a haven for 30,000 escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. But dwelling in history's shadow is the much darker role Canada played in supporting the slave South and in fomenting the many plots against Lincoln.
The North Star weaves together the different strands of several Canadians and a handful of Confederate agents in Canada as they all made their separate, fateful journeys into history.
The book shines a spotlight on the stories of such intrepid figures as Anderson Abbott, Canada’s first Black doctor, who joined the Union Army; Emma Edmonds, the New Brunswick woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist as a Union nurse; and Edward P. Doherty, the Quebec man who led the hunt to track down Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
At the same time, the Canadian political and business elite were aiding the slave states. Toronto aristocrat George Taylor Denison III bankrolled Confederate operations and opened his mansion to their agents. The Catholic Church helped one of Booth’s accused accomplices hide out for months in the Quebec countryside. A leading financier in Montreal let Confederates launder money through his bank.
Sher creates vivid portraits of places we thought we knew. Montreal was a sort of nineteenth-century Casablanca of the North: a hub for assassins, money-men, mercenaries and soldiers on the run. Toronto was a headquarters for Confederate plotters and gun-runners. The two largest hotels in the country became nests of Confederate spies.
Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, The North Star is a sweeping tale that makes long-ago events leap out of the book with a relevance to the present day.

©2023 Julian Sher (P)2023 Knopf Canada

Critic reviews

"A thrill. . . . In Sher’s telling, we get memorable details . . . and rich characterization. . . . [The North Star] is an important corrective to the history Canadians have clung to for far too long.” —Montreal Review of Books

“Fascinating. . . . A riveting . . . read that makes one think about how the Civil War affected the nation and its lingering role in the South’s development . . . . [The North Star] will remind readers why knowing and remembering our past is essential.” —Seattle Book Review

“A fascinating read. . . . [The North Star] shines a light on Canada’s little known and troublesome role in the American Civil War. . . . 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.” —Oakville News