A train rolled into Downsview Station just before midnight Sunday, filled with the thump of drums, the recitation of poetry, and the joy of hundreds of people celebrating Emancipation Day.

The TTC provided the Freedom Train — a Line 1 subway train — for the festivities Sunday night and people of all ages and ethnicities showed up at Union Station to commemorate the day the British Empire abolished slavery — Aug. 1, 1834.

“The train was pretty packed. All the seats were taken,” said Itah Sadu of A Different Booklist — a bookstore which, along with the Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train Ride committee, arranged the event.

After listening to speeches and opening remarks, attendees boarded the train at 11:40 p.m., and rode north for about 20 minutes. Riders sang traditional freedom songs — “This Little Light of Mine” and “By the Rivers of Babylon” — drummed, listened to speeches and poetry, and ended up at Downsview Station around midnight.

A couple even exchanged wedding vows at Union Station before the train departed — which, to Sadu, was rather symbolic.

“We know — and we remember — that prior to slavery, we had the joy of family,” Sadu said. While on the Underground Railroad, she said, it’s quite likely families found and lost each other.

Other Emancipation Day commemorations were held over the weekend. Toronto Caribbean Carnival takes its roots from celebrations held in the Caribbean after emancipation — and other Simcoe Day events also make reference to it. But Sadu thought people might want to celebrate more than just the historic day.

“I think people wanted to recognize that . . . people like Harriet Tubman were emancipators,” Sadu said, referring to the escaped American slave who led hundreds to freedom in Canada.

Among the attendees Sunday was Cecil Roach, co-ordinating superintendent with the York Regional District School Board.

“I came with family to show respect to all the people whose shoulders we stand on, those who fought,” said Roach.

Canada has a history of slavery and a history of being a haven for those escaping slavery from America, said Roach.

Sunday’s event also gave people — children especially — a new perspective on riding the subway, Sadu said.

“They’re seeing the train as something they’ve actually experienced in another way . . . It challenges them to be imaginative,” Sadu said.

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People attended from and as far away Sarnia and Windsor.

“The annual Freedom Train Ride on the TTC is an important event for our city, and an occasion not to be missed,” said TTC Chair Josh Colle.