Paul Barber, the Black man who shaped Ottawa’s horse racing scene

Horses racing in front of the Aberdeen Pavilion, 1903
Photo: City of Ottawa Archives
Paul Barber with a horseshoe pin on his tie
Photo: Courtesy of Tom Barber
Paul Barber, the Black man who shaped Ottawa’s horse racing scene
By Lauren Roulston
When Queen Victoria chose Ottawa to be the capital of Canada in 1857, the city’s population surged. Construction teams hustled to erect government buildings and homes for civil servants as part of the rapid expansion.
The jobs that opened up in Parliament and the city’s industrial sector welcomed a rich tapestry of newcomers. For Black people at that time, jobs were mainly limited to service-sector jobs like general labour, barbering or cleaning laundry.
Yet Paul Barber, one of Ottawa’s earliest Black residents, stood out as an exceptionally skilled horse trainer who would make significant impacts on the city’s equestrian community.
Tom Barber, Paul’s grandson, lives in Ottawa and has been gathering extensive documentation about the history of his family, particularly his grandfather. According to his research, when his grandfather came to Ottawa around 1885, there weren’t any horse trainers listed in the city directory.
In those days before mass-produced automobiles, he says, people cared deeply for the horses that brought them to and fro. But horses weren’t just trained for the everyday.
“The premier sport, the sport of the elite was horse racing,” says Tom. “They held races on the Ottawa River, right where you see the inter-provincial bridge.”
As horse-racing elites caught wind of his talent for taming and caring for the animals, Paul Barber’s name became well known in the community. In the Glebe, horses raced at Lansdowne Park where Paul’s work played a crucial role.
The Central Canada Exhibition was an end-of-summer staple for over 120 years at Lansdowne. Most attendees came to the fair by horse-drawn cab or by boat along the Rideau Canal, until the streetcar made its debut in 1891.
According to the Historical Society of Ottawa, when the Exhibition opened in September 1888, over 300 horses were on show. There were standard horses, thoroughbreds, carriage horses, saddle horses, hunters and heavy draught horses. They even held Roman chariot races on the racetrack where the football stadium stands today.
Paul Barber’s skills as a horse trainer were rooted in his early life in Kentucky where he was born into slavery. There, he learned from his enslaver, Philetus Swift Barber, who worked with horses. Paul learned to ride and care for the horses, and he trained some of Philetus’s to race.
His grandson Tom has spent countless hours in libraries and archives, poring over maps, newspapers, pictures and public records. He also flew to Kentucky around 2003 and headed to the mansion where Philetus Swift Barber lived.
Rosewell, an 1825 mansion, sits at the end of a long driveway surrounded by lush grass. “At this house, my grandfather at four years old comes into [Philetus’s] possession,” Tom says. He walked up to the grand entrance of the estate with its tall white columns, then knocked on the door.
Tom recalls a short woman in a housecoat opening the door for him. “Hello, my name is Tom Barber,” he said. “I’m the grandson of Paul Barber. He was a slave for Philetus Swift Barber, and I hear he lived here.”
She told him to wait while she fetched her husband. “This is where I get shot,” Tom jokes when he retells the story. Instead, the man took him down to the basement surrounded by thick stone walls. He was showing Tom the space where his enslaved grandfather would have slept with other slaves.
Paul Barber learned a lot in Kentucky and ventured to cities like Louisville and Bardstown. “Kentucky was innovative in all aspects of horses,” says Tom. The state famously stands as a cornerstone of horse racing history, with iconic tracks like Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.
There’s also a precedent for Black excellence in Kentucky horse-racing, even though it was a racially segregated society. Tom points to the early years of the Kentucky Derby when most winning horses had either a Black jockey or trainer.
The National Bureau of Economic Research says 13 out of 15 jockeys in the very first Kentucky Derby were Black. They dominated the sport until around 1903 when Jim Crow regulations began to push them out.
After emancipation, Paul stayed and kept working with Philetus for many years. When he decided to move from Kentucky, the Barbers gave him some money and new clothes for the journey. Cecilia Barber, Philetus’s wife, even left land for Paul in her will.
When he studies the past, Tom Barber considers himself a time-traveller. Looking back, he says, “you have to erase all your prejudices.” Through his years of research, Tom Barber has not only uncovered the legacy of his innovative and esteemed grandfather but also connected to a broader Black history in North America.
Lauren Roulston is a graduate of Carleton University’s Journalism program currently working in radio.