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THE SLAVE IN CANADA

The Honorable WILLIAM RENWICK RIDDELL

LL.D,; F. R. Hist. Soc; F. R. Soc. Can.; &c, &c.

JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF ONTARIO

JJ-;

Reprinted from The Journal of Negro History, Vol. V, No. 3, July, 1920

THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO
LIFE AND HISTORY

WASHINGTON, D. C.

1920

THE SLAVE IN CANADA

The Honorable WILLIAM RENWICK RIDDELL

LL.D.; F. R. Hist. Soc; F. R. Soc. Can.; &c, &c.

JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF ONTARIO

s;kif£

Reprinted from The Journal of Negro History, Vol. V, No. 3, Juiy, 1920

-I 1 • ) ) •> • 1 J ) •» ■)

■

THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO
LIFE AND HISTORY

WASHINGTON, D. C.

1920 / / *7 /

ft>

PRESS OF

THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY

LANCASTER, PA.

it. ifxi,

I • • •

a • • ••

« • • * • • » i

PREFACE

When engaged in a certain historical inquiry, I found
occasion to examine the magnificent collection of the Cana-
dian Archives at Ottawa, a collection which ought not to
be left unexamined by anyone writing on Canada. In that
inquiry I discovered the proceedings in the case of Chloe
Cooley set out in Chapter V of the text. This induced me
to make further researches on the subject of slavery in
Upper Canada. The result was incorporated in a paper,
The Slave in Upper Canada, read before the Eoyal Society
of Canada in May 1919, and subsequently published in the
Journal of Negro History for October, 1919. Some of
the Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada and the editor
of the Journal of Negro History have asked me to ex-
pand the paper. The present work is the result.

I have spent many happy hours in the Canadian Ar-
chives and have read all and copied most of the documents
referred to in this book; and I cannot omit to thank the
officers at Ottawa for their courtesy in forwarding my labor
of love, in furnishing me with copies, photographic and
otherwise, and in unearthing interesting facts. It will not
be considered invidious if I mention "William Smith, Esq.,
I.S.O. and Miss Smillie, M.A., as specially helpful. My
thanks are also due to Messrs. Herrington, K.C., of Na-
panee, F. Landon, M.A., of London, Mrs. Hallam and Mrs.
Seymour Corley of Toronto, General Cruikshank of Ot-
tawa, the Very Reverend Dean Raymond of Victoria, as
well as to many others of whose labors I have taken ad-
vantage. This general acknowledgment will, I trust, be
accepted in lieu of special and particular acknowledgment
from time to time.

The chapter on the Maritime Provinces is almost wholly
taken from the Reverend Dr. T. Watson Smith's- paper on
Slavery in Canada in the Nova Scotia Historical Society's
Collections, Vol. X, Halifax, 1899.

William Renwick Riddell

Osgoode Hall,

Toronto, February 5, 1920

iii

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface iii

Chapter I. Before the Conquest 1

Chapter II. The Early British Period 11

Chapter III. After the Peace 31

Chapter IV. Lower Canada 43

Chapter V. Upper Canada, Early Period 54

Chapter VI. Fugitive Slaves in Upper Canada 78

Chapter VII. Slavery in the Maritime Provinces .... 97

Chapter VIII. General Observations 114

Index 116

THE SLAVE IN CANADA

CHAPTER I

Before the Conquest

That slavery existed in Canada before its conquest by
Britain in 1759-60, there can be no doubt, although curi-
ously enough it has been denied by some historians and
essayists.1 The first Negro slave of which any account is
given was brought to Quebec by the English in 1628. He
was a young man from Madagascar and was sold in Quebec
for 50 half crowns.2 Sixty years thereafter in 1688,
Denonville, the Governor and DeChampigny, the Intendant
of New France, wrote to the French Secretary of State,
complaining of the dearness and scarcity of labor, agri-
cultural and domestic, and suggesting that the best remedy
would be to have Negro slaves. If His Majesty would

1 For example in Garneau's Histoire du Canada (1st Edit) Vol. 2, p. 447
after speaking of correspondence of 1688-9 referred to in the text he says of
the answer of the authorities in Paris:

1 ' C '6tait assez pour f aire echouer une enterprise, qui aurait greffe sur
notre societe la grande et terrible plaie qui paralyse la force d'une portion si
considerable de 1 'Union Amencaine, Vesclavage, cette plaie inconnue sous
notre ciel du Nord" — "That was effective to strand a scheme which would
have engrafted upon our society that great and terrible plague which paralyses
the energies of so considerable a part of the American Union, Slavery, that
plague unknown under our northern sky. ,}

a He was sold by David Kertk or Kirke the first English Conqueror of
Quebec. England held her conquest only from 1629 to 1632, if it be per-
missible to call Kirke 's possession that of England when he was repudiated
by his country. Relations des Jesuites, 1632, p. 12 : do. do. 1633, p. 25. Much
of the information which follows concerning slavery in Quebec is taken from a
paper in the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Montreal, 1859, De L'escla-
vage en Canada, written by M. Jacques Viger and Sir L. H. LaFontaine. I have
made an independent investigation and am satisfied that the facts are truly
stated. This general acknowledgment will prevent the necessity of particular
reference.

In a local history of Montreal, Memoirs de la Society Historique de
Montreal, 1869, p. 200, there is a reference to Panis slaves in Montreal in 1670.

2 The Slave in Canada

agree to that course, some of the principal inhabitants
would have some bought in the West Indies on the arrival
of the Guinea ships. The minister replied in 1689 in a
note giving the King's consent but drawing attention to
the danger of the slaves coming from so different a climate
dying in Canada and thereby rendering the experiment of
no avail.3

The Indians were accustomed to make use of slaves,
generally if not universally of those belonging to other
tribes: and the French Canadians frequently bought In-
dian slaves from the aborigines. These were called
"Panis."4 It would seem that a very few Indians were
directly enslaved by the inhabitants: but the chief means
of acquiring Panis was purchase from les sauvages.

The property in slaves was well recognized in Inter-
national Law. We find that in the Treaty of Peace and
Neutrality in America signed at London, November 16,
1686,5 between the Kings of France and England, which
James II had arranged shortly after attaining the throne,

s ' ' Mais il est bon de leur f aire remarquer qu 'il est a craindre que ces
negres, venant d'un climat si different, ne perissent en Canada et le projet
serait alors inutile. " "II est a craindre " that the prospect of "le projet' '
being "inutile" was more alarming than that of "ces negres" perishing in
frozen Canada.

* The name Pani or Panis, Anglicized into Pawnee, was used generally in
Canada as synonymous with "Indian Slave" because these slaves were
usually taken from the Pawnee tribe. It is held by some that the Panis
were a tribe wholly distinct from the tribe known among the English as
Pawnees — e.g., Drake's History of the Indians of North America. Those
who would further pursue this matter will find material in the Wisconsin
Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, p. 103 (note) ; Viger and Lafontaine,
L'Esclavage en Canada cited above n. 2; Michigan Pioneer and Historical
Collections, Vol. XXVII, p. 613 (n) ; Vol. XXX, pp. 402, 596; Vol. XXXV,
p. 548; Vol. XXXVII, p. 541. From Vol. XXX, p. 546, we learn that Dr.
Anthon, father of Prof. Anthon of Classical Text-book fame, had a "Panie
Wench" who, when the family had the smallpox "had them very severe"
along with Dr. Anthon 's little girl and his "seltest boy" — "whaever they got
all safe over it and are not disfigured." Thwaites, an exceedingly careful
writer, in his edition of Long's Travels, Cleveland, 1904, says in a note on
page 117; "Indian Slavery among the French was first practised in the
Illinois Country." He gives no authority and I know of none.

sBeferred to in Chalmers' Collection of Treaties "between Great Britain
and Other Powers, London, 1790, p. 328: Pap. Off. B. 25.

The Slave in Canada 3

Article 10 provides that the subjects of neither nation
should take away the savage inhabitants, or their slaves
or the goods which the savages had taken belonging to the
subjects of either nation, and that they should give no as-
sistance or protection to such raids and pillage. In 1705
it was decided that Negroes in America were " moveables, ' '
meubles, corresponding in substance to what is called "per-
sonal property' ' in the English law.6 This decision was
on the Coutume de Paris, the law of New France.

The Panis and Negro slaves were not always obedient.
Jacques Randot, the Intendant, April 13, 1709, made an
ordinance on "the Subject of Negroes and Savages called
Panis." In this he recited the advantage the colony
would acquire by certainty of ownership of the savages
called Panis "whose nation is far removed from this
country" and that certainty could only be brought about
through the Indians who capture them in their homes and
deal for the most part with the English of Carolina, but
who sometimes in fact sell them to the Canadians who are
often defrauded of considerable sums through an idea of
liberty inspired in the Panis by those who do not buy,7 so
that almost daily they leave their masters under the pre-
text that there are no slaves in France— that is not wholly
true since in the islands of this Continent all the Negroes
bought as such are regarded as slaves.

The further recital says that all the colonies should be
on the same footing, and that the Panis were as necessary
for the Canadians for the cultivation of the land and other
work as the Negroes were for the islands, that it was neces-
sary to assure the property in their purchases those who
have bought and those who should buy in the future. Then
comes the enactment "Nous sous le bon plaisir de Sa

e We shall see later in this work that by the English law, the ' 'villein' '
was real property and in the same case as land: also that when Parliament
came to legislate so as to make lands in the American Colonies liable for debts,
11 Negroes" were included in " hereditaments' ' and therefore "real estate."

7 Thus early do we find the Abolitionist getting in his fiendish work — the
enemy of society, of God and man!

4 The Slave in Canada

Majeste ordonnons, que tons les Panis et Negres qui ont
ete achetes et qui le seront dans la suite, appartiendront en
pleine propriete a ceux qui les ont achetes comme etant leurs
esclaves." "We with the consent of His Majesty enact
that all the Panis and Negroes who heretofore have been
or who hereafter shall be bought shall be the absolute prop-
erty as their slaves of those who bought them."8

This ordinance was not a dead letter. On February 8,
1734, Grilles Hocquart, the Intendant at Quebec issued an
ordinance in which he recited that in 1732 Captain Joanne
of the Navy brought a Carib slave of his to Canada and
employed him as a sailor ; that he had deserted when Cap-
tain Joanne was ready to embark for the West Indies ; and
that the master had seen and recognized him a short time
theretofore in the Parish of St. Augustine but on reclaim-
ing him certain evil-disposed persons had facilitated his
escape. The ordinance directed all captains and officers
of the militia to give their assistance to the master in re-
covering the Carib slave and forbade all persons to conceal
him or facilitate his escape on pain of fine or worse.9

Slavery thereafter tended to expand. The Edict of Oc-
tober 1727 concerning the American islands and colonies
and therefore including Canada in the preamble spoke of
the islands and colonies being in a condition to support a
considerable navigation and commerce by the consumption
and trade of Negroes, goods and merchandise, and the
measures taken to furnish the necessary Negroes, goods

s This ordinance is quoted (Mich. Hist. Coll., XII, p. 511, 517) and its
language ascribed to a (non-existent) "wise and humane statute of Upper
Canada of May 31, 1798" — a curious mistake, perhaps in copying or printing.

In Kingsford's History of Canada, Vol. 2, p. 507, we are told: "In 1718,
several young men were prosecuted on account of their relations with Albany
carried on through Lake Champlain. One of them, M. de la Decouverte, had
made himself remarkable by bringing back a Negro slave and some silver
ware. One of the New York Livingstones resided in Montreal and was gen-
erally the intermediary in these transactions. ' ' The author adds in a note:
"This negro must have been among the first brought to Canada. "

9 " A peine d 'amende arbitraire et de plus grande peine si le cas y
escheoit. ' '

The Slave in Canada 5

and merchandise. It was decreed that only such Negroes,
goods, and merchandise should be received by the islands
and colonies as should be brought in French bottoms.
Very explicit and rigid regulations were made to that end.

Some of these slaves were too vindictive to be good
servants. There is given by Abbe Gosselin in a paper in
the Transactions, Royal Society of Canada for 1900, an ac-
count of a mutiny of part of the garrison at Niagara in-
cited by a Panis probably in the service of an officer at the
post. Some of the mutineers were sentenced to death but
made their escape while the Panis, Charles, was sent to
Martinique with a request to the authorities to make him a
slave and to take every precaution that he should not
escape to Canada or even to the English colonies. A
female slave of color belonging to Mme. de Francheville
who had been bought in the English Colonies set fire to her
mistress' home the night of the 10-11 April 1734, thus
causing a conflagration which destroyed a part of the city
of Montreal. The unfortunate slave was apprehended and
tried for the crime then and for long after a capital felony.
Being found guilty, she was hanged June, 1734.

The increase in the number of slaves made necessary
some regulation concerning their liberation. September 1,
1736, Gilles Hocquart, the Intendant already mentioned,
made an ordinance concerning the formalities requisite in
the enfranchisement of slaves. Reciting that he had been
informed that certain persons in Canada had freed their
slaves without any other formality than verbally giving
them their liberty, and the necessity of fixing in an in-
variable manner the status of slaves who should be en-
franchised, he ordered that for the future all enfranchise-
ments should be by notarial act and that all other attempted
enfranchisements should be null and void.

Slaves unable to secure their freedom by legal means,
however, undertook sometimes to effect the same by flight.
A royal decree of July 23, 1745, recited the escape of three
male and one female Negro slaves from the English West

6 The Slave in Canada

India Island of Antigua to the French Island of Guadeloupe
and there sold. There followed a decision of the Superior
Council of Guadeloupe that the proceeds of the sale be-
longed to the King of France and Negro slaves belonging
to the enemy when they came into a French colony became
at once the property of His Majesty. To make clear the
course to pursue for the future, the decree declared that
Negro slaves who escape from enemy colonies into French
colonies and all they bring with them belong to His Majesty
alone in the same way as enemy ships and goods wrecked
on his coasts.

With all of this security the ownership of slaves became
common. In the Registers of the Parish of La Longue
Pointe is found the certificate of the burial, March 13, 1755,
of the body of Louise, a female Negro slave, aged 27 days,
the property of M. Deschambault. In the same Parish is
found the certificate of baptism of Marie Judith, a Panis,
about 12 years of age belonging to Sieur Preville of the
same Parish, November 4, 1756. On January 22, 1757, one
Constant a Panis slave of Sieur de Saint Blain, officer of
Infantry, is sentenced by de Monrepos, Lieutenant-Gover-
nor civil and criminal in the Jurisdiction of Montreal,10 to
the pillory in a public place on a market day and then to
perpetual banishment from the jurisdiction.

The conquest of Canada begun at Quebec in 1759 and
completed by the surrender to Amherst of Montreal by de
Vaudreuil in 1760 had some bearing on slavery. One of
the Articles of Capitulation, the 47th, provided that "the
Negroes and Panis of both Sexes shall remain in the pos-
session of the French and Canadians to whom they belong;
they shall be at liberty to keep them in their service in the
Colony or to sell them : and they may also continue to bring
them up in the Roman religion."11

i° 'Canada was at this time divided into three Jurisdictions or Districts —
those of Quebec, Trois Rivieres and Montreal.

11 There are trifling variations in the English text in the several versions
in the Capitulations and Extracts of Treaties relating to Canada, 1797;
Knox's Journal, Vol. 2, p. 423: Documents relative to the Colonial History of

The Slave in Canada 7

Having now reached the end of the French period, it
will be well to say a word as to the rights of the slaves.
There is nowhere any intimation that there was any differ-
ence in that regard between the Negro and the Panis. The
treatment of the latter by their fellow Indians depended
upon the individual master. The Panis had no rights
which his Indian master was bound to respect. Eemem-
bering the persistence of customs among uncivilized
peoples, one may conclude that the description given of
slavery among the Chinook Indians about a century later
will probably not be far from the mark concerning the
Indians of the earlier time and their slaves.

Paul Kane, the celebrated explorer and artist,12 in a
paper read before the Canadian Institute13 in 1857 said:
"Slavery is carried on to a great extent along the North-

the State of New York, Vol. 10, p. 1107. That in the text is from Shortt &
Doughty 's Constitutional Documents 1759-1791, Canadian Archives Publica-
tion, Ottawa, 1907. There is no substantial difference in terminology and
none at all in meaning. I give the French version, as to which there is no
dispute: "Les Negres et panis des deux Sexes resteront En leur qualite
d'Esclaves, en la possession des frangois et Canadiens a qui lis apartiennent;
II lour Sera libre de les garder a leur Service dans la Colonie ou de les
vendre, Et lis pourront aussi Continuer a les faire Elever dans la Eeligion
Komaine. "

i- The Province of Ontario is the proud possessor of the entire series of
Paul Kane 's paintings.

is Now the Koyal Canadian Institute. The paper appears in Series II
of the Transactions, Vol. 2, p. 20 (1857).

The use by the Indians of Slaves is noted very early: for example in
Galinee's Narrative of the extraordinary voyage of LaSalle and others in
1669-70 the travellers are shown to have obtained from the Indians, slaves as
guides. See pp. 21, 27, 43 of Coyne's edition, 4 Ont. Hist. Soc. Papers
(1903). These Indians were accustomed to take their slaves to the Dutch.
Ibid., p. 27.

Still there is not very much in the old authors about slavery among the
Indians: the references are incidental and fragmentary and the institution is
taken for granted. Thus in Lescarbot's History of New France, published in
1609, the only reference which I recall is on pp. 270, 449 of The Champlain
Society's edition, Toronto, 1914; speaking of the Micmacs the author says:
"... the conquerors keep the women and children prisoners . . . herein
they retain more humanity than is sometimes shown by Christians. For in any
case, one should be satisfied to make them slaves as do our savages or to
make them purchase their liberty."

8 The Slave in Canada

West Coast and in Vancouver Island and the Chinooks.
. . . The inhabitants still retain a large number of slaves.
These are usually procured from the Chastay Tribe who
live near the Umqua, a river south of the Columbia empty-
ing into the Pacific. They are sometimes seized by war-
parties but are often bought from their own people. . . .
Their slavery is of the most abject description: the
Chinook men and women treat them with great severity
and exercise the power of life and death at pleasure.' '

Kane gives shocking instances of this. He tells of a
chief who sacrificed five slaves to a colossal wooden idol
he had set up and says that the unfortunate slaves were
not considered entitled even to burial but their bodies were
cast out to the crows and vultures.

Amongst the French such an extreme of barbarity did
not obtain. Their law was based upon the civil law, that
is, the law of Eome, which in its developed form recog-
nized the slave as a human being. The Eoman world was
full of slaves. Not only were there slaves born but debtors
sometimes sold themselves14 or their children. The crim-
inal might be enslaved. In early pagan times the slave had
no rights. He was a chattel disposable according to the
will of his master who had jus vitce necisque, who could
slay, mutilate, scourge at pleasure.15 In the course of time

!* It will be remembered that the ancient law of Eome, the Twelve Tables,
authorized creditors to take an insolvent debtor, kill him and divide his body
amongst them, a real execution against the person more trenchant if not more
effective than the capias ad satisfaciendum dear to the English lawyer.

is Everyone has shuddered at the awful picture drawn by Juvenal in his
Sixth Satire of the fashionable Roman dame who had eight husbands in five
years and who ordered her slave to immediate crucifixion. When her husband
mildly ventured to suggest that there should at least be some evidence of guilt
and that no time should be considered long where the life of a man is in
question he was snubbed, just as the Roman lady who was expostulated with
for taking her bath in the presence of man slaves asked "An servus homo?"
The horrible but pithy dialogue reads:

"Pone crucem servo. " "Meruit quo crimine servus
Supplicium? Quis testis adest? Quis detulit? Audi.
Nulla umquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est"
"O demens, ita servus homo est? Nil fecerit, esto.
Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas. "

—Juvenal, Sat, VI, 11. 219-223.

The Slave in Canada 9

this extreme power was restrained. Hadrian forbade the
killing of slaves, Marius allowed the slave to lay an in-
formation against his master. The prefect at Rome and
the presidents of the provinces took cognizance of crimes
against the slave : and Constantine allowed a master to go
free on killing his slave in chastisement only if he used rods
or whips, but not if he used sticks, stones or javelins or
tortured him to death.16 Hard as was his lot, the unhappy

"The cross for the slave I" "What is the charge? What is the evidence?
Who laid the information? Hear what he has to say — No delay is ever great
where the death of a man is in question. " "You driveller! So a slave is
a man! Have it your own way — he did nothing. I wish it, that is my order,
my wish is a good enough reason. "

The natural death for a Roman slave was on the cross or under the
scourge.

16 Constantine also by his Constitution No. 319 provided for slaves becom-
ing free: the Constitution referred to in the text is No. 326. The best short
account of slave legislation in Rome which I have seen is in a paper read by
the late Vice Chancellor Proudfoot of the Ontario Court of Chancery, Feb-
ruary 7, 1891, before the Canadian Institute. Trans. Can. Ins., Series IV,
Vol. 2, p. 173. Many of the judgments of Vice Chancellor Proudfoot (vener-
abile nomen) show a profound knowledge and appreciation of the Civil Law.

The following is taken from Prof. Sherman's great work Roman Law in
the Modern World, Boston, 1917. The learned author has laid philosophical
lawyers of all countries under heavy obligations by this splendid book, as
noted for its lucidity as for its learning.

Vol. 1, 69. "To inflict unnatural cruelty upon — and finally to kill — a
slave was prohibited by Augustus Claudius and Antoninus Pius. Moreover,
because by natural law all men were born free and equal (see Digest, 50, 17,
32) the Emperor often restored to slaves the status of a freeborn person. "

I, 146. "Constantine . . . abolished crucifixion as a punishment; en-
couraged the emancipation of slaves. . . ."

I, 150. "... It is regrettable that Christianity did not change other
parts of the Roman law of persons which ought to have been reformed. The
chief example of this failure is slavery, which the law of Justinian fully
recognized. The inertia of past centuries as to slavery was too great to be
overcome. St. Paul 's attitude towards slavery was to recognize the status quo,
and he did not counsel wholesale emancipation. But Christianity continued
the progress of the pagan law along the lines of mercy and kindness, e.g., to
poison a slave or brand him was treated in later Imperial Roman law as
homicide, and manumission was made easier; but the Church did not recognize
the marriage of slaves until over 300 years after Justinian's death."

II, 434, "In Roman law . . . the slave was a thing or chattel — nothing
more legally. Slaves could no hold property — slaves could not marry, their
actual unions were never legally recognized. ' '

10 The Slave in Canada

slave had at least some rights in the later civil law, few
and slight as they were, and these he had under the Cou-
tume de Paris, the law of French Canada.

II, 436, "With the advent of Greek culture and Christianity the harsh
manners of ancient Kome became greatly altered. "

II, 828, "One feature of the Lex Aquilia is . . . that it granted an action
in damages for the unlawful killing of . . . the slave of another man." Inst.,
413, pr; Gaius 3, 210.

II. 829, ". . . the owner had his option either of suing the culprit for
damages under the lex Aquilia or of causing him to be criminally prosecuted. ' '
Inst., 4, 3, 11 Gaius 3, 213.

II, 935, "A free person called as a witness could not be subjected to tor-
ture, but a slave could be tortured."

CHAPTER II
The Early British Period

When Canada passed under the British flag by conquest
there was for a time confusion as to the law in force.
During the military regime from 1760 to 1764 the authori-
ties did the best they could and applied such law as they
thought the best for the particular case. There was no
dislocation in the common affairs of the country. When
Canada was formally ceded to Britain by the Treaty of
Paris, 1763,1 it was not long before there was issued a
royal proclamation creating among other things a " Gov-
ernment of Quebec' ' with its western boundary a line
drawn from the " South end of Lake Nipissim"2 to the
point at which the parallel of 45° north latitude crosses
the River St. Lawrence. In all that vast territory the Eng-
lish law, civil and criminal, was introduced.3 It is impor-
tant now to see what was the law of England at the time
respecting slavery.

The dictum of Lord Chief Justice Holt: "As soon as a
slave enters England he becomes free,"4 was succeeded by
the decision of the Court of King's Bench to the same
effect in the celebrated case of Somerset v. Stewart,5 where
Lord Mansfield is reported to have said: "The air of Eng-
land has long been too pure for a slave and every man is
free who breathes it."6

1 See this Treaty which was concluded at Paris, February 10, 1763 " au Nom
de la Tres Sainte & indivisible Trinite, Pere, Fils & Saint Esprit"— Shortt &
Doughty, Constitutional Documents, 1759-1791, pp. 73 sqq.

2 What we now call Lake Nipissing.

3 See the Proclamation, Shortt & Doughty, Const. Docs., pp. 119, sqq.

* Per Hargrave, arguendo, Somerset v. Stewart (1772), Lofft 1, at p. 4;
the speech in the State Trials Eeport was never actually delivered.

s (1772) Loftt, 12 Geo. Ill, 1, (1772) 20 St. Trials, 1.

6 These words are not in Lofft or in the State Trials, but will be found
in Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, Vol. II, p. 419, where the words are

2 11

12 The Slave in Canada

James Somerset,7 a Negro slave of Charles Stewart in
Jamaica, "purchased from the African coast in the course
of the slave trade as tolerated in the plantations," had been
brought by his master to England "to attend and abide
with him and to carry him back as soon as his business
should be transacted. ' ' The Negro refused to go back,
whereupon he was put in irons and taken on board the
ship Ann and Mary lying in the Thames and bound for
Jamaica. Lord Mansfield granted a writ of habeas corpus
requiring Captain Knowles to produce Somerset before
him with the cause of the detainer. On the motion, the
cause being stated as above indicated, Lord Mansfield re-
ferred the matter to the full court of King's Bench; where-
upon, on June 22, 1772, judgment was given for the Negro.8
The basis of the decision and the theme of the argument
were that the only kind of slavery known to English law
was villeinage, that the Statute of Tenures enacted in 1660,
expressly abolished villeins regardant to a manor and by
implication villeins in gross. The reasons for the decision
would hardly stand fire at the present day. The investiga-
tion of Paul Vinogradoff and others have conclusively es-
tablished that there was not a real difference in status

added: "Every man who comes into England is entitled to the protection of
the English law, whatever oppression he may heretofore have suffered and
whatever may be the color of his skin. Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu
candidus esses" — and certainly Vergil's verse was never used to a nobler pur-
pose. Verg. E. 2, 19.

William Oowper in The TasTc, written 1783-1785, imitated this in his
well-known lines:

"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Eeceive our air, that moment they are free.
They touch our country and their shackles fall. "

7 1 use the spelling in Lofft. The State Trials and Lord Campbell have
"Somersett" and "Steuart." '

8 This was in direct opposition to the opinion of Sir Philip Yorke, At-
torney General (afterwards Lord Chancellor Lord Hardwieke) and Sir Charles
Talbot, Solicitor General (afterwards Lord Chancellor Lord Talbot) who had
pledged themselves to the British planters for all the legal consequences of
Slaves coming over to England. The law of Scotland agreed with that of
England.

The Slave in Canada 13

between the so-called villein regardant and villein in gross,
and that in any case the villein was not properly a slave
but rather a serf.9 Moreover, the Statute of Tenures deals
solely with tenure and not with status.

But what seems to have been taken for granted, namely
that slavery, personal slavery, had never existed in Eng-
land and that the only unf ree person was the villein, who,
by the way, was real property, is certainly not correct.
Slaves were known in England as mere personal goods and
chattels, bought and sold, at least as late as the middle of
the twelfth century.10 However weak the reasons given
for the decision, its authority has never been questioned
and it is good law. But it is good law for England, for
even in the Somerset case it was admitted that a concur-
rence of unhappy circumstances had rendered slavery
necessary1 * in the American colonies ; and Parliament had
recognized the right of property in slaves there.12 Con-
sequently so long as the slaves, Panis or Negro, remained
in the colony they were not enfranchised by the law of the
conqueror but retained their servile status.

The early records show the use of slaves. General
James Murray, who became Governor of the Quebec Forti-

9 See e.g., Vinogradoff, Villeinage in England, passim. Hallam's Middle
Ages (ed. 1827), Vol. 3, p. 256; Pollock and Maitland, History of English
Law, Vol. 1, pp. 395, sqq. Holdsworth 's History of English Law, Vol. 2,
pp. 33, 63, 131 ; Vol. 3, pp. 167, 377-393.

i° See Pollock and Maitland 'a History Eng. Law, Vol. 1, pp. 1-13, 395,
415; Holdworth's Hist. Eng. Law, Vol, 2, pp. 17, 27, 30-33, 131, 160, 216.

""So spake the fiend and with necessity,

The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds."

Paradise Lost, Bk. 4, 11. 393, 394.
Milton a true lover of freedom well knew the peril of an argument based upon
supposed necessity. Necessity is generally but another name for greed or
worse.

12 For example, the Statute of (1732) 5 Geo. II, c. 7, enacted, sec. 4,
"that from and after the said 29th September, 1732, the Houses, Lands,
Negroes and other Hereditaments and real Estates situate or being within
any of the said (British) Plantations (in America) shall be liable" to be
sold under execution. Note that the Negroes are "Hereditaments and Eeal
estate," as were the villeins — a rule wholly different from that of the French
law.

14 The Slave in Canada

fications and adjoining territory immediately after the fall
of Quebec and in 1763 the first Captain General and Gov-
ernor in Chief of the new Province of Quebec,13 writing from
Quebec, November 2, 1763, to John Watts in New York
speaks thus of the promoting of agriculture in the
Province :

"I must most earnestly entreat your assistance, without
servants nothing can be done, had I the inclination to em-
ploy soldiers which is not the case, they would disappoint
me, and Canadians will work for nobody but themselves.
Black Slaves are certainly the only people to be depended
upon, but it is necessary, I imagine they should be born in
one or other of our Northern Colonies, the "Winters here
will not agree with a Native of the torrid zone, pray there-
fore if possible procure for me two Stout Young Fellows,
who have been accustomed to Country Business, and as I
shall wish to see them happy, I am of opinion there is little
felicity without a Communication with the Ladys, you may
buy for each a clean young wife, who can wash and do the
female offices about a farm. I shall begrudge no price, so
hope we may, by your goodness succeed."14

From time to time slavery makes its appearance in offi-
cial correspondence. Moreover, there are still subsisting
records which show the prevalence of slavery in the
province.15 In January, 1763, there took place at Longueil
the marriage of Marie, slave of baroness de Longueuil, with
Jacques Cesar, slave of M. Ignace Gamelin. From 1763
to 1769 there are found records of the baptism of the

!3 His Commission is dated November 28, 1763, Shortt & Doughty, Consti-
tutional Documents, 1759-1761, pp. 126, sqq.

i* Canadian Archives, Murray Papers, Vol. II, p. 15 : the Quebec Act
mentioned immediately below is (1774) 14 George III, c. 83.

In 1774 the well known Quebec Act reintroduced the former French
Canadian law in civil matters while it retained the English law in criminal
matters; but the change made no difference in the condition of the slave.

15 The three which follow I owe to the interesting paper of Mr. E. Z.
Massicotte, Archivist of Montreal, published in Le Bulletin des Recherches
Historiques for November, 1918, pp. 348 sqq. — the advertisement in the
Gazette is to be found in Terrill's Chronicles of Montreal. The paper was
2^ Spanish dollars per annum, 10 sous per copy, published every Wednesday.

The Slave in Canada 15

children of slaves in the registers of the Parish of
Lachine. In the first issue of the Gazette of Montreal,
June 3, 1778, there is an advertisement by the widow Dufy
Desaulniers, offering a reward of six dollars for the return
to her of a female slave who had run away on the 14th.
She was thirty-five years old and she was dressed in striped
calico of the ordinary cut and was of " tolerable stoutness/ '
Alexander Henry writing from Montreal, October 5,
1778, to the Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand, says that
he had obtained a Judgment in the Court of Common Pleas
against one Gillelande in the colonies who owed him a con-
siderable sum of money. "Hearing that a Negro of his
had deserted from him," said Henry, " and was lurking in
this Province I obtained an execution upon that judgment
and got the negro apprehended— who is still in gaol."
General Powell who was the Commander there sent to
Mr. Gray the Sheriff desiring him to postpone the sale
until such time as the Governor should be made acquainted
with the matter. Mr. Gray thereafter informed Mr. Henry
that he mentioned the affair to Sir Frederick Haldimand,
who likewise ordered the sheriff to postpone the sale until
the Governor could confer with the Attorney-General. The
Attorney-General thereafter informed Mr. Henry that he
had spoken to the Governor, who was of the opinion that
the civil law should take its course. . . . Mr. Gray thought
he should have some definite authority to sell. . . . He
said: "There are some gentlemen from the Upper Coun-
tries15 whom I presume will give more for him than any
person resident here and . . . they are now on their re-
turn.' ' He asked that an order for sale should be sent
before the departure of these gentlemen.15 The higher

16 The ' ' Upper Countries ' ' were Detroit and Michilimackinac, sometimes
including the Niagara region — at this time there were practically no residents
in what became the Province of Upper Canada and is now the Province of
Ontario. The letter is to be found in the Canadian Archives, B. 217, p. 21:
as no further record appears, it is to be presumed that an order was made for
sale by the Sheriff.

The Report of James Monk, Attorney-General at Quebec, about to be men-
tioned is to be found in the Canadian Archives, B. 207, p. 105.

16 The Slave in Canada

price which the gentlemen from the " Upper Countries"
would pay indicates the objection of those in the old settled
parts of the province to slavery.

An official report made in 1778 by James Monk, At-
torney General at Quebec, to the Governor, Sir Guy Carle-
ton, (afterwards Lord Dorchester) gives a sufficiently full
account of an occurrence the subject of much controversy
and correspondence showing the significance of slavery at
that time. The Attorney General examined the several
papers, making a case of complaint, by Joseph Despin of
St. Francois, Merchant, a trader, against Major de Barner
Commanding a Eegiment of Light Infantry Chasseurs of
Brunswick Troops. Despin complained to Brigadier Gen-
eral Ehrenkrook, Commander of the Brunswick Troops at
Trois Eivieres, that Major de Barner by his orders or
otherwise at Midnight of the first of the previous June,
occasioned forcibly to be taken from said Despin a Negro-
woman slave, Despin's property and suffered her to be
carried out of the province. He therefore prayed Briga-
dier General Ehrenkrook, that Major de Barner might
either return to him the said slave with damages or pay to
Despin the value thereof.

Upon this complaint an inquiry was made. In the
course of this inquiry Joseph Despin did not support his
complaint and charge with those legal proofs which could
entitle him to recover from Major de Barner thereupon;
" or induce a Court of Justice to consider Major de Barner
as having either given any others for the taking of, or even
had any knowledge touching the intended escape of the
Slave." The complaint of Despin was then deemed very
justly dismissed.

Upon the dismissal of this complaint Major de Barner
requested of the Governor satisfaction and punishment
upon the accuser, and a notary, one Eobin, who prepared
notarial acts, in an unbecoming affrontive manner. This
request was made under three heads: first, that Despin
might be exemplarily punished, not merely for a false dis-

The Slave in Canada 17

honoring accusation of Major de Barner, a commanding
officer and injurious to his whole battalion, but punishment
for the personal insults to Major de Barner and his char-
acter; second, that Despin might pay the expenses of pre-
paring and making out writings; and third, that the said
Kobin, the notary, may be equally punished for using ex-
pressions in his acts hurtful and indecent to persons of
honor and character.

The Attorney General asserted that there is reason to
conclude from the several testimonies appearing in the
case, that Despin had lost his slave by means of some
soldiers belonging to the Battalion of Chasseurs which
Major de Barner Commanded, though not in the least by
the orders or with the knowledge or consent of Major de
Barner as charged.

One of the most extraordinary stories of the time is told
by William Dummer Powell, afterwards Chief Justice of
Upper Canada, but in 178017 and later practising as a bar-
rister in Montreal. "Meeting in the Street of Montreal an
armed Party escorting to the Provost Guard several female
prisoners and Children/ ' says Mr. Powell, "curiosity was
excited and upon engaging the Non-Commissioned Officer
commanding the Escort, Mr. Powell was informed that
they were Prisoners of war, taken in the Kentucky Country
and brought into Detroit by a Detachment of the Garrison
and now arrived from thence. Further Enquiry after pro-
curing necessary relief to the first wants of the party, drew
from Mrs. Agnes La Force the following Narrative :

"That her husband was a loyal Subject in the Province
of North Carolina,18 having a good Plantation well stocked
and a numerous family. That his political Sentiments ex-

17 In 1778 a much wronged Negro petitioned Haldimand. His petition
dated at Quebec, October 17, 1778, reads: "To His Excellency Frederick

Haldimand, Governor & Commander in Chief of all Kanady and the
territories thereunto belonging,

The Petition of Joseph King humbly sheweth that Your Petitioner has
been twice taken by the Yankys and sold by them each time at Public Vendue :
he has made his escape and brought two white men through the woods: he was

18 The Slave in Canada

posed him to so much Annoyance from the governing
Party, that he determined to retire into the wilderness,
that he accordingly mustered his whole family, consisting
of several Sons and their Wives and Children, and Sons-
in-law with their Wives and Children, a numerous band of
select and valuable Slaves Male and female, and a large
Stock of Cattle, with which they proceeded westward, in-
tending to retire into Kentucky.

"That after' ' the accidental death of the father they
pursued their route to the westward and settled with their
Slaves in the wilderness about five hundred miles from any
civil establishment. After a residence of three years, a
party of regular Troops and Indians from the British
Garrison at Detroit appeared in the plain and summoned
them to surrender. "Relying upon british faith," says
Mr. Powell, "they open'd their Grate on condition of Pro-
tection to their Persons and property from the Indians;
but they had no sooner surrendered and received that
promise than her sons and sons-in-law had to resort to
arms to resist the Insults of the Indians to their wives and
Slaves.18 Several lives were lost and the whole surviving
Party was marched into Detroit, about six hundred Miles,
where the Slaves were distributed among the Captors and
the rest marched or boated eight hundred miles further to
Montreal and driven into the Provot Prison as Cattle into
a Pound."19

This story will be credited with difficulty but accident
some time after put into the hands of Mr. Powell a docu-
ment of undeniable credit, which, however, was unneces-
sary: for on Mr. Powell's representation of the case to Sir

a servant to Captain McCoy last winter in Montreal and came here (Quebec)
last spring. Your Petitioner has gone through many Perils and Dangers of his
life for making his escape from the Yankeys. He hoaps that Your Excellency
through the abundance of Your Benevolence will grant him his liberty for
which your poor Petitioner as in Duty bound will ever pray." Canadian
Archives, B. 217, p. 324.

18 In the Petition referred to post, Mrs. La Force states that her husband
was "late of Virginia."

19 T have followed the Powell MSS. in spelling, capitalization, etc.

The Slave in Canada

F. Haldimand the most peremptory order was sent to the
Commandant at Detroit to find out the slaves of Mrs. La
Force in whose ever possession they might be and to trans-
mit them to their mistress at Montreal. But Detroit was
too far distant from headquarters and interests prompting
to disobedience of such an order too prevalent for it to
produce any effect; and the commandant acknowledged in
answer to a reiterated order that the slaves could not be
produced, although their names and those of their new mas-
ters were correctly ascertained and the following list trans-
mitted with the order.

List of slaves20 formerly the property of Mrs. Agnes La
Force and in possession of others :

in possession of Simon Girty21
Mr. Le Due.

do do
Captn. Graham.
Captn. Elliot.

do do
Mr. Baby
Mr. Fisher.
Capt. McKee.
Bess, Grace Rachel, and Patrick — Indians.

Negro

Scipio

Tim

Ishener

Stephen

Joseph

Peggy

Job

Hannah

Candis

Bess, Gi

13"

The case of Mrs. La Force and some similar cases led
Haldimand to require Sir John Johnson, the Superin-

20 They were taken in an expedition nominally under Captain Bird but
he had little control over the Indians and had only a few men of his own,
British Regulars. He had had bitter experience of the cruelty and unrelia-
bility of the Indians in 1779 but had to go with them in 1780. This was not
one of the two large Forts which Bird took in his 1780 expedition, Fort
Liberty and Martin's Station, but a smaller fortification. It was taken June
26, 1780 (Can. Arch., B. 172, 480) ; that there were several small forts is
certain; that some of the prisoners brought to Detroit were from the small
forts and that they (or some of them) were not rebels appears from the
letter from De Peyster of August 4, 1780 (Canadian Archives, B. 100, p. 441) :
"Ina former letter to the Commander in Chief, ' ' said he, "I observed that it
would be dangerous having so many Prisoners here but I then thought those
small Forts were occupied by a different set of people."

20 The Slave in Canada

tendent of Indian Affairs, to report. He wrote from
Quebec, July 16, 1781, "Several complaints having been
made upon the subject of selling negroes brought into this
Province (Quebec) by scouting parties— who allege a Eight
to Freedom and others belonging to Loyalists who are
obliged to relinquish their properties or reclaim them
by paying the money for which they were sold, I must
desire that you upon the most minute enquiry give in to
Brigadier General Maclean a Keturn of all Negroes who
have been brought into the Province by Parties in any
Eespect under your Directions whether Troops or Indians,
specifying their names, their former masters, whether
Loyalists or Eebels, by whom brought in and to whom sold,
at what price and where they are at present. I shall direct
Cols. Campbell and Claus to do the same by which it will
be in my Power to reduce the Grievances now complained
of and to make such arrangements as will prevent them
in future."

Johnson sent a return of Negroes to Maclean and Ma-
clean, July 26, 1781, sent it on to Haldimand: Claus and
Campbell made returns direct to Haldimand in August of
the same year. Fortunately the covering letters are extant
as are the reports. There is also one Negro, Abraham, re-
ported in a Eeturn of Eebel Prisoners in and about Mon-
treal as having been taken June 18, 1781; and, therefore,
about a year after Mrs. La Force's capture. 21a

"Of the fifty or more slaves named in this list," says
Dr. T. W. Smith, "nearly half were sold at Montreal, a few
being carried by the Indians and Whites to Niagara. The
others were handed to their former owners. i Charles
taken at Balls Town making his escape out of a window in
Col. Gordon's house' was sold to the Eev. David C. DeLisle,

21 The well-known so-called Kenegade, is in reality a loyal subject whose
reputation pays the penalty of a losing cause. The others are all well-known
loyalists of Detroit.

2ia Mrs. La Force *s Petition to Haldimand is still extant. Canadian
Archives, B. 217, p. 116. Her name is included in the list of women and chil-
dren remaining at Montreal, the list being dated Quebec, September 11, 1782,
and she being given as of Virginia and taken June 26, 1780.

The Slave in Canada 21

the Episcopal rector at Montreal, for £20 Halifax currency ;
Samuel Judah, Montreal, paid £24 for ' Jacob' also a slave
of Col. Gordon, a rebel master, but for a Negro girl of the
same owner he gave £60; Nero, another of Col. Gordon's
slaves, captured by a Mohawk Indian, Patrick Langan sold
to John Mittleberger of Montreal for £60; 'Tom' was sold
by Captain Thompson of Col. Butler's Eangers for £25 to
Sir John Johnson who gave him to Mr. Langan ; and Wil-
liam Bowen, a Loyalist owner, sold his recovered slave
'Jack' for £70 to Captain John McDonell of the Eangers.
'William,' who was also sold for £30 to Mr. McDonell and
afterwards carried to Quebec, had been taken from his
master's house by Mohawk Indians under Captain John
the Mohawk with a wagon and horses which he had got
ready to convey his mistress Mrs. Fonda wife of Major
Fonda to Schenectady . . . another Negro man, name un-
known, was sold 'by a soldier of the 8th Eegiment to Lieu-
tenant Herkimer of the Corps of Eangers, who disposed of
him to Ensign Sutherland of the Eoyal Eegiment of New
York."'

Negroes were not the only victims of Indian raids. In
1782 Powell had another experience, which is indicative of
the practices of the Indians during the Eevolutionary
War.22 In his letter to the Commissary of Prisoners at
Quebec he wrote :

Montreal, 22 August, 1782.,
"Sir

I should make an Apology for the Liberty I take but that I
consider it a public Duty.

When you were here some time since, I am informed that men-
tion was made to you of a young female slave bought of the In-
dians by a Mr. Campbell, a Publican of this Town, and that when

22 The correspondence, &c, is in the Canadian Archives, B. 129, p. 221,
225,- B. 159, p. 152; B. 183, p. 284. A Negro taken "horse hunting" by a
party of Puttewatamies in the West is mentioned August 16, 1782, in B. 123,
p. 290. He belonged to Epharaim Hart from whom he deserted and was taken
about 20 miles up Cross Creek. I copy from a Manuscript of Powell's in my
possession which I have compared with a photostat copy of a manuscript in
the Canadian Archives.

22 The Slave in Canada

you learned that she was the Daughter of decent family in Pen-
silvania23 captured by the Indians at 10 years of age, your Human-
ity opposed itself to the barbarous Claim of her Master and you
Promised that she should be returned to her Parents by the first Flag
with Prisoners.

"In consequence of such a Promise," continued he, "the Child
had been taught to expect a speedy release from her Bondage, and,
finding that her Name was in the List permitted by his Excellency
to cross the Lines with a flag from St. Johns,24 she imagined that
there could be no Obstacle to her Return; but, being informed
that Mr. Campbell had threatened to give her back to the Indians,
she eloped last Evening, and took refuge in my House from whence
a female Prisoner, (sometime a nurse to my children) was to sett
off this Morning for the Neighborhood of the Child's Parents.
Upon Application from Mr. Campbell to Brigadr. Genl. De Speht
setting forth that He had furnished her with money, an order was
obtained for the delivery of the Child to her Master and there was
no time for any other Accommodation than an undertaking on
my part to reimburse Mr. Campbell the Price he paid for her to the
Indians. This I am to do on his producing a Certificate from
some Military Gentleman, whom he says was present at the Sale.
I have no objection to an Act of Charity of this Nature, but all
Political Considerations aside, I am of opinion that the national
Honor is interested that this Redemption should not be the Act
of an Individual. As Commissary of Prisoners I have stated the
Case to you, Sir, that you may determine upon the propriety of
reimbursing me, or not, the sum I may be obliged to pay on this
occasion.

"That all may be fairly stated I should observe that the Child
was never returned a Prisoner,25 nor has drawn Provisions as such —
although there can be no doubt of her political character, having
been captured by our Savages."

23 The western part of Pennsylvania is meant. This region was seething
with conflicts on a small scale between the Loyalists and the Bepublicans.
The Indians for the most part took the side of the former.

24 In what is now the Province of Quebec.

25 In 1780 Germain instructed Plaldimand that "all prisoners from re-
volted Provinces are committed as guilty of high treason not as prisoners of
war" (Canadian Archives, B. 59, p. 54) but a change soon took place and
after some intermediate stages, Shelburne, the Home Secretary, in April, 1782,
instructed Haldimand that all American prisoners were to be held for ex-
change. Canadian Archives, B. 50, p. 164.

The Slave in Canada 23

The reply to this communication was :

"I am favored with your's by Saturday's post and have since
layed it before His Excellency the Commander in Chief, and I have
the Pleasure to inform you that he approves much of your Conduct
and feels himself obliged for your very humane Interposition to
rescue the poor unfortunate Sarah Cole from the Clutches of the
miscreant Campbell ; and I am further to inform you that your letter
has been transmitted by his Secretary to the Judges at Montreal, not
only to make Campbell forfeit the money he says he paid for the
Girl, but if possible to punish and make him an example to prevent
such inhuman conduct for the Future ; but in any Event you shall be
indemnified for the very generous Engagement you entered into."

It has been established that Mr. Powell had redeemed
his word the day it was given and paid Mr. Campbell
Twelve Guineas20 on production of a string of Wampum
delivered by the Indians with the girl and the money paid
by Campbell. A cartel went forward August 22, 1782, and
in the list of prisoners sent south appears the name " Sarah
Coal."27 Haldimand gave Mr. Justice Mabane, the man
of all work of his administration, instructions to see to it
that Campbell did not profit by his inhumanity and also to
take such steps that the practice should not prevail for the
future.

A petition presented to Haldimand in 1783, however,

26 By the Ordinance of March 29, 1777, 17 George III, c. 9, the guinea
was declared equivalent to £1.3.4, Quebec Currency: this would make the price
of the girl, $42.60. See note 30 post. It is to be presumed that Powell was
repaid. He nowhere complains that he was not as he certainly would have
done if he had cause to do so.

Negroes were frequently arriving in the colony and seeking aid and sub-
sistence. For example, we find Thomas Scott, J. P., reporting Thursday,
May 17, 1781: "The Bearer John Jacob a Negro man just arrived from
Montreal has applied to me for relief in his case as set forth in the Annexed
Paper. But as I apprehend that can only be given him by His Excellency
the Governor I respectfully recommend him to His Excellency's notice. "
Canadian Archives, B. 100, p. 72.

27 See Canadian Archives, B. 130, pp. 33, 34.

24 The Slave in Canada

discloses another transaction with the Indians.28 Jacob
Adams presented the petition December 13 of that year
from Carleton Island. He said:

"I have taken a Yankee Boy (by name Francis Cole)29 with a
party of Messesagee Indians — afterwards when I arrived at Carle-
ton Island with the said party of Indians and said Yankee Boy,
the Commanding Officer (Captain Aubrey) demanded the Prison-
ers Vizt. this Boy and an old man30 the Indians refus'd giving
them up on which Capt. Aubrey gave me Liberty to purchase them
and so I did by paying sixteen Gallons Rum for the Boy which cost
me at this place twenty shillings, York Currency, pr. Gallon,31 and
he the said Yankee Boy was to serve me the term of four years
(with his own lawfull consent) for my redeeming him. As for
the old man I likewise bought him for two Gallons Eum but
Capt. Aubrey requested I should send him Prisoner to Your Ex-
cellency. I acted accordingly. I likewise gave a shirt apiece to
each of the two. Chiefs who belonged to said party in like manner I
lost twenty-four shillings York Currency by four Keggs which the
above Eum was put into.32

"Now, may it please Yr Excellency this said Yankee Boy re-
mained very peaceably and quietly with me for the space of two

28 It is more than doubtful that the prohibition of the sale of white
captives by the Indians would be productive of good. The natural result
would rather be that the Indians would kill their white captives at once or
torture them to death. At the best the prisoners would in most cases, if
adults become slaves and if young be adopted into the tribe. There are
numerous instances of white captives being slain because unsaleable while the
Negroes escaped death because they found a ready market. See the story of
Thomas Ridout, post, note 37. The order of Haldimand will be found in the
Canadian Archives.

29 Remembering that Sarah Cole was bought by Campbell from the Indians
at Carleton Island (near Kingston) it seems likely that Francis Cole was her
brother or some other relation. That Adams says nothing of Sarah is not at
all strange.

The Mississagua Indians occupied a great part of the territory now the
Province of Ontario and were always loyal to the British Crown.

so In the ' ' Eeturn of Prisoners who have requested leave to remain in the
Province made at Quebec, November 3, 1782," appear the names of "Mich. &
Phoebe Beach, to remain at Montreal to receive a child with the Savages and
a man at Carleton Island." These were white. The Report of the Negroes
follows. Canadian Archives, B. 163, p. 258.

3i The York Shilling (or shilling in New York currency) was 12£ cents,
one eighth of a dollar.

32 $5.00 for the rum; $3.00 for the "Keggs."

The Slave in Canada 25

months during which Time I took him several Journeys to Fort
Stanwix and Oswego and whilst I was absent he got acquainted
with some of the soldiers on this Island who persuaded him to
get off from me and accordingly he got off in the manner follow-
ing: when Lieut. Peppin of the 5th Kegiment and his Party were
embarking on board the Haldimand to go to Niagara, he privately
got on board and remained there Incog, for one Day and a Night
on which I made an application to Mr. Peppin to make a search
for him and accordingly he did and found him and likewise brought
him before the Commanding Officer who asked the Boy his Reasons
for Running away from me: he replied He did not chuse to live
with me on which Capt. Aubreay has sent him down as Prisoner
to Yr. Excellency.

"May it please Your Excellency I expect your Excellency will
please to take my Case into consideration by granting me the
Request of being paid for what I have lost by said Prisoner or the
Yankee Boy, to be returned to me. . . ."33

There were not wanting at this time or later instances of
those convicted of crime buying their lives by enlistment
for life. One case of a mulatto, a slave, may be here men-
tioned. A mulatto called Middleton was convicted at

33 Canadian Archives, B. 216, pp. 14, sqq.

No proceedings seem to have been taken on this Petition and it is prob-
able that Mr. Adams had to stand the loss on Francis Cole the said Yankee
Boy as Campbell did on Sarah Cole of Pennsylvania.

Indians were not the only slavers. As soon as the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was promulgated, if not before, Boston began to fit out privateers to
prey on British trade. We read of four privateers reported by Governor Mon-
tague as seen in the Straits of Belle Island in 1776, two off Placentia in 1777 and
in 1778 committing daily depredations on the coast of Newfoundland. They har-
ried the unprotected fishermen and the farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador
but some at least of them went further. Those who had demanded political
freedom themselves denied even personal freedom to others. They seized and
carried away into slavery some of the unoffending natives, the Eskimos, who
were freemen and whose only crime was their helplessness. One instance will
suffice. The Minerva privateer of Boston, Captain John Grimes, Master,
mounting 20 nine pounders and manned with 160 men landed on Sandwich
Bay, Labrador, at Captain George Cartwright's station, took his brig, The
Countess of Effingham, loaded her with his fish and provisions and sent her off
to Boston. C'artwright not unnaturally said: "May the Devil go with them. "
"The Minerva also took away four Eskimo to be made slaves of. " W. G.
Gosling, Labrador, Toronto, n. d., pp. 192, 244, 245, 333.

26 The Slave in Canada

Montreal in 1781 of a felony (probably larceny) which
carried the sentence of death. He was an expert mechanic
of a class of men much in demand in the army and he was
given a pardon conditioned upon his enlisting for life. He
chose the Second Batallion of Sir John Johnson's Eoyal
American Eegiment then in Quebec and was handed over
by Sheriff Gray to the officers of that corps after having
taken the oath of allegiance administered to all recruits.34

Many slaves were employed as boatmen, laborers, and
the like, in the army. We find a letter from headquarters
at Quebec to Captain Maurer who was at Montreal, dated
October 6, 1783, which reads :

' ' Having had the Honor to communicate to His Excellency, the
Commander-in-Chief, your intimation that applications have been
made by the Proprietors of some Negro's Serving Capt. Harki-
mer's (Herkimer) Company of Batteau Men to have them restored
to them and desiring to receive His Excellency's Pleasure therein,
I am directed to signify to you His Excellency's Commands that
all such Negro's to be given up on the Requisition of their owners,
provided they produce sufficient Proofs of their Property and
give full acknowledgments or Receipts for them which must be
taken in the most ample manner to prevent future claims and to
have the necessary recourse to those Persons who receive them
should different applications be made for the above Negro's."35

Peace had come36 and there was no more need for a
large army. But it was some years before the Indians of
the western country ceased from their practice of making
prisoners.37

34 See Canadian Archives, B. 61, p. 83, where he is called a Negro. Ibid.,
B. 158, p. 261, where he is called a mulatto.

35 Canadian Archives, B. 215, p. 236.

se The Definitive Treaty of Peace between the mother country and her
revolted colonies, now become the United States of America, was signed at
Paris, September 3, 1783, but it had been incubating for months before that
date.

37 It may not be out of place to give some account of the capture by
Indians of Thomas Eidout, afterwards Surveyor General and Legislative
Councillor of Upper Canada. His story is given in his own words by his
granddaughter, Lady Edgar, in her interesting Ten Years of Upper Canada.

The Slave in Canada 27

Thomas Ridout, born in Dorsetshire, when twenty years of age came to
Georgia in 1774. After trading for a few years he left Annapolis, Maryland,
in 1787 for Kentucky with letters of introduction from George Washington,
Colonel Lee of Virginia and other gentlemen of standing. Sailing with Mr.
Purviance, his man James Black and two other men towards the Falls of the
Ohio, the party was taken by a band of about twenty Indians. Ridout was
claimed by an elderly man, apparently a chief, who protected him from
injury, but could not save his hat, coat and waistcoat. Soon he saw tied two
other young men who had been taken that morning and set aside for death.
Ridout was able to secure their release. The Indians were Shawanese, Potta-
watamies, Ottawas and Cherokees. One prisoner, William Richardson Watson,
said to be an Englishman but who had lived for some years in the United
States, they robbed of 700 guineas and then burnt to death. Purviance, they
beat to death but Ridout was saved by the Indian who claimed him as his
own. A white man, Nash, about twenty-two who had been taken by the
Indians when a child and had become a chief, encouraged him and told him
that he would be taken to Detroit where he could ransom himself. He was
more than once within a hairsbreadth of death but at length he was brought
by his master, Kakinathucca, to his home. He was a great hunter and went
every year to Detroit with his furs for sale, taking with him his wife Metsige-
mawa and a Negro slave. The chief had a daughter Altowesa, about eighteen
years of age "of a very agreeable form and manners. ' ' She saved Ridout
from death from the uplifted hand of an Indian who had his hand over him
ready to strike the fatal blow with his tomahawk.

At the end of three weeks the whole village set off for the Wabash.
Arriving at the Wabash his papers were read by the interpreter, a white man
who had been taken prisoner several years before and held in captivity. The
Indians were assured that Ridout was an Englishman and not an American
and they consented that he might go with his master to Detroit for ransom.
The Indians were excessively enraged at the Americans who they claimed were
the cause of their misfortunes. The preceding autumn the Americans had
come to their village on the Scito River from Kentucky and in times of pro-
found peace and by surprise destroyed their village and many of their people,
their cattle, grain and everything they could lay their hands on.

Ridout witnessed the torture and heard the dying shrieks of an American
prisoner Mitchell who had been captured with his father Captain Mitchell on
the Ohio. The father had been liberated but the son given to a warrior who
was determined to burn him.

After three or four days, Ridout 's master collected his horses and peltry
and with his wife, the Negro and Ridout set out for Detroit. On the way
there were met other Indians among whom was the noted Simon Girty. A coun-
cil was held at which the murderer of Mitchell claimed Ridout as his, but at
length Kakinathucca prevailed and Ridout 's life was again spared. The
murderer asserted that he was a spy but his papers proved his innocence. The
little party went on to Fort Miami where several English and French gentle-
men received Ridout with open arms. Mr. Sharpe clothed him and a French
gentlemen lent a canoe to carry the party and furs 250 miles by water to
Detroit. Reaching Detroit, which, it should be remembered, remained in

28 The Slave in Canada

British hands until August 1796, he was received with every attenton and a
bed was provided for him at Government House. The officers furnished him
with money and gave him a passage to Montreal where he arrived about the
middle of July, 1788. Bidout settled in Upper Canada. In 1799, Kakina-
thucca and three other Shawanese chiefs came to pay him a visit at York,
(Toronto), and were hospitably treated, the great and good Kakinathucea
receiving substantial testimony of the gratitude of the man he had saved
from a death of torture.

Ridout 's memorandum of the fate of the other prisoners is terribly signifi-
cant: " Samuel Purviance, Killed; Barland, Killed; Wm. E. Watson, burnt;
James Black, beat to death; Symonds, burnt; Ferguson, sold for corn; a
negro woman unharmed. "

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CHAPTEE III
Afteb the Peace

Early in the summer of 1782, Haldimand received orders
from Sir Guy Carleton then in New York to act only on
the defensive. This was due to the negotiations for peace
being on the way, and from that time it may fairly be said
that Canada was at peace.

One slave felt the movement in the air. This was Plato,
an old Negro slave who had been taken in Carleton's opera-
tions against Fort George in 1780 and brought to. Montreal
where he entered the service of St. Luc, a personage in
those days. Plato had belonged to a Mr. Stringer who, the
slave always asserted, never joined the rebels. But when,
on November 3, 1782, there was made by the Commissary
of Prisoners at Quebec a return of the prisoners who had
requested to remain in the province, Plato's name ap-
peared in the list. The next year he changed his mind and
on July, 17, 1783, he presented a petition to Haldimand
asking him to "excuse these few lines from a slave who
would wish to go again to his own Master and Mistress.''
He added: "The Gentleman I am now living with Mr. St.
Luc says he is very willing to let me go with the first party
that sets out from here" (Montreal).1 Another Negro
slave Roger Vaneis (Van Ness) who had also been taken at
Fort George declined to go. He was living with Lieutenant
Johnson and was to have his freedom on serving for a
time already about completed.2

The declaration of peace, however, brought many more
slaves into Canada. Even before the treaty was signed
some of those who had kept their faith to England's crown
and desired to live and die under the old flag made their

i Canadian Archives, B. 163, p. 258 : Hid., B. 163, p. 324.
2 Ibid., B. 163, p. 258.

32 The Slave in Canada

way to the north. After the peace when the cause was
lost, many thousands came. Many of these had been slave-
holders and they brought their slaves with them. Some
settled in what was afterwards Lower Canada in Sorel and
elsewhere, some in the upper country, around Cornwall,
Kingston, and Niagara, and a very few crossed the river at
Detroit.3

Eeturns made about the time show a large number of
slaves— euphemistically disguised as servants in some
cases. A Eeport of 1784 shows 14 near Cataraqui (Kings-
ton). Another of the same year for the new townships on
the Eiver St. Lawrence beginning at Township No. 1, on
Lake St. Francis and running upwards, gives

1st Battn. late King 's E. Eifles 25

Tps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Part Major Jessup 's Corps 12

Tps. 6. 7 & pt. 8.
2nd Battn.

Tps. 3, 4, Cataraqui 10

Oapt. Grass, Party

Tp. 1 Cataraqui (apparently none)
Part Major Jessup 's Corps

Tp. 2 Cataraqui 12

Major Eogers ' Corps 14

Tp. 3 Cataraqui
Major VanAlstine 's Party of Loyalists* 17

In the return of the disbanded troops and Loyalists at
Sorel the same year, the number of servants is given at 5 ;
none near Chambly, 3 about St. John's, 40 about Montreal,

3 As Britain kept possession of Detroit until 1796, many United Empire
Loyalists settled on the west side of the river at that point. A few remained
on the east side of the Niagara Eiver as Port Niagara was held in the same way.

4 Canadian Archives, B. 168, p. 42l

Different detachments of disbanded regulars on Tp. 5 Cataraqui, detach-
ment of Germans under Baron Kritzenstein on Tp. 5 Cataraqui and Eangers
of 6 Nations Department settled with the Mohawks on Bay of Quinte return
no servants. Canadian Archives, B. 168, p. 42. Eeport dated Montreal, July
1, 1784.

The Slave in Canada 33

and 8 about Lachine.5 In the Niagara district in 1782
the blunt word "slave"6 is used and the number given at
only one. In 1784 the first census in which slaves were
counted was made. In the District of Quebec there were
88, in the District of Trois Rivieres 4, and in the District
of Montreal 212. In what was afterwards the Province of
Lower Canada there were in all 304.

The sale and marriage of Negro slaves continued to be7
recorded. For example, there are extant two notarial
acts of sale of a female Negro slave called Peg, June 9,
1783 from Elias Smith to James Finlay and May 14, 1788
from Finlay to Patrick Langan. In each case the price
was £508 On Januaray 20, 1785 there took place at Christ
Church the marriage of Francis and Jane both slaves to
Colonel Campbell. On March 9, 1785, there was a sale of
a female Negro slave named Sarah, by James Morison,
merchant, as agent for Hugh McAdam, of Saratoga, New
York, to Charles Lepallieur, Clerk of the Court of Common
Pleas. The price was 36 louis. On April 1, 1785 Elizah
Cady of New York, sold to William Ward of Vermont, four
Negroes: Tobi 24 years, Joseph 20 years, Sarah 19 years
and a child six months, the price being 250 louis. On April
26, William Ward sold three of these slaves at Montreal
to William Campbell— that is Tobi, Sarah and the child for
$425. On May 6, William Campbell sold these three slaves
to Dr. Charles Blake for $300.

On September 5, there followed the sale of a Pani slave

b Canadian Archives, B. 168, pp. 44, 47, 48, 51, 55, 61, 63, 67, 68, 71, 77,
September, 1784. See also B. 168, pp. 81, 88, 92, 95, 99, 100, 101, 102. These
may be found in the Eeport for 1891 of the Canadian Archives Department,
pp. 5-20.

6 Ibid., B. 169, p. 1. There is a column for ' ' Male Slaves ' ' and one
for "Female Slaves.' ' Thomas McMicken has the proud monopoly, he had
one male slave. The other fifteen householders had none. But then he had 20
hogs to look after and no one else had more than 14; most many fewer.

7 Canadian Archives, B. 225, 2. p. 406. Massicotte B. E. H. ut supra.
s LaFontaine ut supra, pp. 21, 22.

9 Those in the text are taken from M. Massicotte 's Article, B.R.H. ut
supra. The letter of Campbell is Can. Arch., B. 162, p. 351. That of Doty,
ibid., p. 365: the Report is ibid., p. 385.

34 The Slave in Canada

called Charlotte, aged eighteen years, by Dame Marie-
Josephe Deguire, widow of Jean-Etienne Waden, to Jacob
Schieffelin, auctioneer, for 21 louis. The said slave had
been brought from Upper Canada by Mr. Waden in 1776.
To increase her value it was said that the slave had had
the measles and the small-pox and was not scrofulous nor
had any other defect.

On January 22, 1786, there took place at Christ Church
the marriage of the slaves, Thomas York and Margaret Mc-
Cloud. On March 17, 1787, Samuel Mix, Merchant of Saint-
Jean on the Eichelieu, sold to Louis Gauthier, merchant
tanner of the Faubourg Saint Laurent, a female Negro
slave named Eose aged 14 years for the sum of 40 louis.
On June 6, 1789, Charles Lepallieur resold to James Mori-
son the female Negro slave Sarah whom he had sold to
him in 1785. The price was 36 louis. On the sixth of
June James Morison sold the same Sarah for 50 louis to
Joseph Andrews, at a profit of 14 louis. On April 3, 1790
there was a sale by Oliver Hasting to M. le chevalier Chs.
Boucher de la Bruere, de Boucherville, of a Negro of the
name of Antoine, aged eight years and a half. The price
was 90 minots de ble. On September 9, 1791 followed the
sale at auction of the female Negro slave Eose, aged 19
years, by William Matthews, merchant of Sorel, to Lam-
bert Saint-Omer, Merchant of Montreal, for 38 louis and
5 shillings. This slave had already belonged to S. Mix as
set forth above.

Alexander Campbell writing from Montreal August 16,
1784, to Major Mathews says that having sent to Albany to
recover some of his debts, Adam Fondea of Cauchnawago
of Tryon's County gave as an excuse for not paying his
debt that a certain Negro woman named Dine born in his
own family and his actual property was taken away from
his house by Captain Samuel Anderson of Sir John John-
son's First Batallion, and was still detained by him as
his property. Fondea being willing to pay the debt had
sent a power of attorney to take his slave, sell her and

The Slave in Canada 35

pay the debt with the proceeds. Campbell asked that the
governor should order Dine to be seized and sold as no
Magistrate had the power or the inclination to give such
an order. No attention seems to have been paid to this

request.

On September 15, 1784, James Doty writing also from
Montreal says that "with some difficulty to myself I have
. . . purchased a Negro boy from Lieut. Clench of the In-
dian Department which boy has been allowed his provisions
drawn at Cataraqui (Kingston) from the time of his first
coming into the Province with other Loyalists from N.
York last year." He asked to have this allowance con-
tinued. There was no answer. The report of settlers
near Cataraqui for this year gave 3 " servants' ' and near
Oswegatchie 11. But the importation of Slaves was not
encouraged indiscriminately.10

The accustomed abuses were not wanting. In an action
Poiree v. Lagord in the Court of Common Pleas at Mon-
treal July 1788, it was proved that Lagord had sold to
Poiree in September, 1787, a free Negro for £37.6. He was
ordered to repay the price with interest. Another and
more celebrated case was that of the Negro Nero. In 1780
Haldimand sent a detachment of troops accompanied by
Mohawk Indians to attack Ballstown and the Saratoga
region. They captured a number of Negroes some of them
the slaves of Colonel Gordon of the American service.
These were claimed by the white men and Indians, and as
was the custom, they were brought to Montreal and sold.
One Negro called Dublin was known to be free. He was
liberated and enlisted in the army. Lieutenant Patrick
Langan acted as agent for the Indians and sold Nero to
John Mittleberger for £60, December 5, 1780. Claiming the
Negro as a prisoner of war General Allan Maclean im-

10 In a letter from Henry Hope, Lieutenant-Governor dated Quebec, No-
vember 6, 1786, to Captain Enys, 29th Reg't., we read:

"I am by desire of His Excellency the Commander in Chief (Lord
Dorchester) to require that no negro slaves shall be permitted on any account
to pass into this Province by the Post under your command. ' '

36 The Slave in Canada

prisoned him "in the public Provot." He made his escape
and went to his master Colonel Gordon and Mittleberger
sued Langan in 1788 for the price and for damages. In
January 1789 he was awarded judgment for the £60 and
interest.11 About the same time Eossiter Hoyle, attorney
for the trustees of Mary Jacobs, obtained a judgment in
the Court of Common Pleas at Montreal that Donald Fisher
and Elizabeth his wife should forthwith deliver "two negro
women, the one named Silvia Jane, the other Euth Jane,"
which said Negro women, they had sold to Mary Jacobs by
a notarial deed for £50 or pay £50 with costs.12

There are also in existence advertisements for the sale
of Negroes. In the Quebec Gazette of March 18, 1784, is
the advertisement of the sale of a female Negro slave, price
to be obtained on inquiry of Madame Perrault. In the
issue of March 25, 1785, there is advertised for sale a
Negro of about twenty-five years of age who has had the
smallpox. There appear also a few advertisements for
runaway slaves.

There arose also some complaints like the following:
In 1784 there was presented at Quebec to Sir Frederick
Haldimand, Governor in Chief, a petition from John Black
showing that the petitioner hath served as a seaman in
His Majesty's service on board the sloop, Happy Couple
of New York for which he had a certificate to shew, and
was then living servant to Mrs. Martin, the wife of Captain
Martin of this place, who wanted to deprive him of his
liberty and humbly begged His Excellency to grant him a
passport.13

The immigration into Canada of those who had been
British subjects was ardently desired by the home authori-
ties. To encourage this immigration, the Imperial Parlia-

ii LaFontaine ut supra, pp. 22, 23, 24, 44, 45, 46. Le Monde Illustre De-
cember 9, 1893. Massicotte, Bulletin des Becherches Historiques for November,
1918, pp. 348 sqq.

12 LaFontaine ut supra, p. 43. The advertisements spoken of are on p. 21.

13 Can. Arch., B. 217, p. 397. What if anything was done on the petition
does not appear.

The Slave in Canada 37

ment in 1790 passed an Act14 which had some effect in in-
creasing the slave population. Intended to encourage
"new settlers in His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
in America," it applied to all "subjects of the United
States.' ' It allowed an importation into any of the Ba-
hama, Bermuda or Somers Islands, the province of Quebec
(then including all Canada), Nova Scotia and every other
British territory in North America. It allowed the im-
portation by such American subjects of "Negroes, house-
hold furniture, utensils of husbandry or cloathing free of
duty," the "household furniture, utensils of husbandry
and cloathing' ' not to exceed in value £50 for every white
person in the family and £2 for each Negro, any sale of
Negro or goods within a year of the importation to be void.
After the division of the Old Province of Quebec into
Upper and Lower Canada in 1791 the course of slavery was
different.15

It seems appropriate to close this chapter by adding a
number of available advertisements including some of
runaway apprentices.16

II s'est enfui de chez les Soussignes, la nuit du 12 du courant,
Un Negre Esclave nomme POMPE d 'environ cinq pieds cinq pouces
d 'hauteur, robuste, il a ete achete dernierement de M. Perras,
negociant de cette ville; il avoit sur lui quand il a decampe un
gilet et des culottes brunes: Celui qui le ramenera aura HUIT
PIASTRES de Recompense, et les frais raisonnables qu'il aura
faits. Quiconque le retirera chez lui sera poursuivi suivant la
derniere rigueur de la Loi, par

JOHNSTON & PURSS.

RUN-AWAY from the subscribers, in the Night of the 12th inst.
a Sailor Negro Slave named POMPEY, about 5 Feet, 5 Inches

i* (1790) 30 George III, c. 27.

15 The division of the Province of Quebec into two provinces, that is,
Upper Canada and Lower Canada, was effected by the royal prerogative, See.
31, George III, c. 31, the celebrated Constitutional Act of Canada. Technically
and in law, the new province was formed by Order in Council, August 24, 1791,
but there was no change in administration until December 26, 1791.

is These I owe to the kindness of the officers of the Canadian Archives De-
partment of Ottawa.

38 The Slave in Canada

high, and is Robust; he was lately bought of Mr. Perras, Mer-
chant in this Town; had on when he went away a brown Jacket
and Breeches. Whoever brings him to the Subscribers shall have
EIGHT DOLLARS Reward and reasonable Charges paid. Any
Person Harbouring him will be prosecuted according to the ut-
most Rigor of the Law, by

JOHNSTON & PURSS.
Run-away from the Subscriber, living in Quebec, on the Even-
ing of the 9th Instant, an indented Servant Woman, named
Catharine Osburn, about 20 or 21 years of Age, red f ac 'd, very fat
and rough skin'd, about 5 Feet 5 Inches high, a little mark'd with
the Small-Pox; She had on a purple colour 'd Stuff Jacket flower 'd
with green and white, a blue thick Kersey Petticoat, blue Stock-
ings with White clocks, an old red Cloak; and took with her two
new Shifts of good Dowlas Linen, seven plain and two lac'd caps.
She was inticed away by two discharg'd soldiers, John Linsey and
John McDonald, said to be going for New-England. McDonald
was formerly Turnkey at the Gaol; they were both of the 60th
Regiment. Whoever takes them up, and secures them, so that
they may be brought to Justice, shall receive Five Dollars Reward
for each of them; and whoever secures the Woman, or brings her
to her Master, shall receive Five Dollars Reward, and all reason-
able Charges, paid by William Laing.

N. B. All Persons are forbid to harbour or carry any of them
off. It is thought that they are still harbour 'd in and about this
City Quebec, 14th March, 1767.— Quebec Gazette, 1767.

Whereas William Russey, an article 'd Servant to Mr. Suckling,
of this City, hath lately run-away, and absented himself from the
Service of his said Master : If any Person will give Information to
the said Mr. Suckling of the said Servant, so that he may be ap-
prehended and brought before John Collins, Esq; one of His
Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the District of Quebec, shall,
upon such Apprehension and Bringing, receive Eight Dollars Re-
ward, to be paid by me the Subscriber: And any Person or
Persons who shall, after this Notice, employ, harbour or conceal
the said Servant, will be prosecuted with the utmost Severity of
the Law, by me,

Geo. Suckling.
Quebec, 14th April, 1767.

— Quebec Gazette, 1767.

The Slave in Canada 39

Run-away, from James Crofton, Vintner in Montreal, the Third
of May, 1767, a Mulatto Negro Slave, named Andrew, born in
Maryland Twenty-three Years of Age, middle sized, very active
and sprightly, has a remarkable large Mouth, thick lips, his Fingers
crooked, speaks good English and French, a little Dutch and Earse ;
is supposed to have with him forged Certificates of his Freedom,
and Passes. Whoever takes up and secures the said Negro, so that
his Master may have him again, shall have Eight Dollars Reward,
besides all reasonable charges, paid by Mr. Henry Boone, Mer-
chant, at Quebec, or James Crofton, at Montreal.

N. B. He is remarkable for being clean dres'd and wearing a
Handkerchief tied round his Head: is very well known to all the
Gentlemen at Quebec, that has been in Montreal, and who have
used my House, and was Three Months with Mr. Joseph Howard,
of Montreal Merchant, last Summer in Quebec. — Quebec Gazette,
1767.

TO BE SOLD,

For no Fault, the Owner having no employ for him,

A likely Negro fellow, about 23 or 24 Years of Age; under-
stands Cooking, waiting at Table, and Houshold Work, &c, &c.
He speaks both English and French. For further Particulars
enquire of the Printers. — Quebec Gazette, 1770.

From the Subscriber, on Sunday morning the 24th ult, about
four o'Clock, a Negro Lad named NEMO, born in Albany, near
eighteen years of age, about five feet high full round f ac 'd, a little
marked with the Smallpox, speaks English and French tolerably;
he had on when he went away a double-breasted Jacket of strip 'd
flannel, old worsted Stockings, and a pair of English Shoes. Also
a Negro Wench named CASH, twenty-six years old, about 5 feet
8 inches high, speaks English and French very fluently; she
carried with her a considerable quantity of Linen and other valu-
able Effects not her own; and as she has also taken with her a
large bundle of wearing apparel belonging to herself, consisting of
a black satin Cloak, Caps, Bonnets, Ruffles, Ribbons, six or seven
Petticoats, a pair of old Stays, and many other articles of value
which cannot be ascertained, it is likely she may change her dress.
All persons are hereby forewarned from harbouring or aiding them
to escape, and Masters of vessels from carrying them off, as they
may depend on being prosecuted to the utmost rigour of the Law;

40 The Slave in Canada

and whoever will give information where they are harboured; or
bring them back to the Subscriber at Quebec, or to Mr. George
Ross, Merchant at Sorel, shall have TEN DOLLARS Reward for
each, and all reasonable charges. HUGH RITCHIE.

N. B. The Lad was seen at Sorel on Friday morning the 29th
ult. and there is reason to believe they are both lurking thereabout.

Quebec, November 2, 1779.

— Quebec Gazette, 1779.

Ran- Away on Sunday the 24th of October, JOHN BARCLAY,
an Apprentice, aged 15 years, small of his age, has short black and
lank Hair, dark hazle Eyes, good complexion a little freckled,
speaks good English and a little French: had on when he went
away a light grey Coat and Waistcoat, and stript cotton Trowsers
with leather Breeches under them. Whoever will apprehend him
or give information so that he may be apprehended, shall receive
Five Guineas Reward from

SHOOLBRED & BARCLAY.

Quebec, November 2, 1779.

— Quebec Gazette, 1779.

Run Away from his bail, an indented servant man named
Christian Miller, born in Germany, by trade a Tailor, he is about
5 feet 9 or 10 inches in stature, well made, middling long black
hair, speaks English tolerably well, he was formerly a servant to a
German Hessian officer, one Mr. Seiffort, Lieutenant in Capt.
Schoels regiment, has very much the art and behvaiour of a sham
beau and has a variety of cloaths, viz. a Maroon Coat, a brown
ditto, lined with light blue silk, the one had Gold the other Silver
Buttons, a brown Great Coat and a variety of Waistcoats and
Breeches: Whoever will apprehend the said Run-away, so as the
subscriber may have him in custody shall receive FIVE GUINEAS
reward, over and above any reasonable expences; and all masters
of vessels, officers of the army and others, are forwarn'd not to
harbour or entertain him nor to be aiding in his escape, on pain of
being prosecuted as the law directs.

Note. If apprehended at Quebec, apply to Mr. Wm. Laing,
Merchant, or to the subscriber at Montreal.

(Signed) JOHN MITTLEBERGER.

Montreal, 4th July, 1782.

Quebec Gazette 1782.

The Slave in Canada 41

Kan Away from the subscriber, on Thursday evening the 21st
instant, an Apprentice Boy named JOSEPH POWERS, a Shoe-
maker, about fifteen years of age, of a fair complexion short hair,
speaks English and French, had on when he went away a Blanket
Coat, light blue Waistcoat and Breeches very dirty, a Check Shirt
much wore, a round Hat, and a pair of Slippers: this is to give
notice to the public that they are not to harbour the said Appren-
tice in their houses or families, otherwise they will be prosecuted
as the law directs.

ALEXR. WALLACE.

Quebec, November 27, 1782.

— Quebec Gazette, 1782.

Ran-Away from the Printing-Office, On Monday night last,
an Apprentice Lad named Duncan M'Donell, about 19 years of
age, about five feet five inches high, of a fresh complexion; speaks
English, French and Erse: all persons are hereby forwarn'd from
harbouring him, as they may depend on being prosecuted to the
utmost rigour of the Law, and whoever will bring him back shall
have One Guinea Reward from the

PRINTER.

Quebec, April 17, 1783.

— Quebec Gazette, 1783.

TO BE SOLD.

A NEGRO WENCH about 18 years of age, who came lately
from New York with the Loyalists. She has had the Small Pox —
The Wench has a good character and is exposed to sale only from
the owner having no use for her at present.

Likewise will be disposed of a handsome Bay Mare.

For particulars enquire of the Printer.

— Quebec Gazette, 1783.

A Gentleman going to England has for sale, a Negro-wench,
with her child, about 26 years of age, who understands thoroughly
every kind of house-work, particularly washing and cookery : And
a stout Negro — boy, 13 years old: Also a good horse, cariole and
harness. For particulars enquire at Mr. William Roxburgh's
Upper-town, Quebec, 10th May, 1785.

— Quebec Gabette, 1785.

42 The Slave in Canada

To be SOLD together.

A Handsome Negro Man and a beautiful Negro Woman
married to one another: the man from twenty-three to twenty-
four years of age, between five and a half and six English feet
high: the woman from twenty-two to twenty-three years of age;
both of a good constitution. For further information, such as
may be desirous of purchasing them must apply to Mr. Pinguet, in
the Lower-town of Quebec, Merchant.

— Quebec Gazette, 1788.

CHAPTEE IV
Lower Canada

The Province of Lower Canada continued the former
law— in criminal matters, the English law, in civil matters
the French law. It was not long before the status of the
slave became a burning issue. At the first session of the
first Parliament1 of the new Province Lower Canada, Mr.
P. L. Panet, a member of the House of Assembly, moved
(January 28, 1793) for leave to introduce a bill for the
abolition of slavery in the province and leave was unani-
mously given. On the twenty-sixth of February, Panet in-
troduced a bill pursuant to leave given, and it was read in
French and in English. On the eighth of March, Mr. B.
Panet proposed the first reading of the bill and it was so
read. On the nineteenth of April Mr. P. L. Panet moved
that the bill be taken into consideration by the Committee
of the Whole on the following Tuesday. The motion was
debated and Mr. Debonne moved an amendment to table the
bill, which was carried 31 to 3.2 There was no further
effort toward legislative dealing with slavery until 1799.3

The sale of Negroes continued as indicated by the

1 Under the Canada Aet of 1791, the provinces had each a parliament
or legislature, an upper house, the Legislative Council, of nominated mem-
bers, not fewer than seven in Upper and not fewer than fifteen in Lower
Canada, and a lower house, the House of Assembly, sometimes called the House
of Commons, elected by the people, not fewer than sixteen in Upper and not
fewer than fifty in Lower Canada.

2 In the sister province a bill to the same effect was more fortunate in the
same year a little later. This will be considered in the next chapter.

3 In a work of some authority, Bibaud's Pantheon Canadien, page 211, it
is said that " Joseph Papineau, Notary Public, Member of the Legislative As-
sembly for Upper Quebec presented about 1797 a petition of the citizens of
Montreal for the abolition of slavery. ' ' If that be the case there was nothing
done on the petition, but it seems probable that the author refers to the peti-
tion of 1799 spoken of later in the Text.

4 43

44 The Slave in Canada

records.4 On the twelfth of May, 1794, Francois Boucher
de la Periere and Marie Pecaudy de Contrecoeur, his wife,
gave liberty to James, their Negro slave, aged 21 years, on
condition that he should live in the most remote parts of
the upper country. If, however, he left those parts, he
should return to slavery. On the fifteenth of December,
1795, Frs. Dumoulin, merchant of Bout de Pile sold to
Myer Michaels, merchant, a mulatto named Prince, aged
18 years, for the price of 50 louis.

On the sixteenth of January, 1796 there was found a bill
of sale of a female Negro slave named Eose, dated January
15, 1794, the vendor being P. Byrne, the purchaser Simon
Meloche, for the price of 360 shillings, deposited with the
Notary J. P. Delisle. On the third of September John Shu-
ter by notarial act promised his Negro, Jack, to give him
his liberty in six years, if, in the meantime, he served him
faithfully. Later, on November 2, 1803, Shuter declared that
Jack had fulfilled his obligation, and he accordingly emanci-
pated him. On the thirteenth of September, J. B. Eoutier,
merchant of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, sold to Louis
Charles Foucher, Solicitor-General of His Majesty, Jean
Louis, a mulatto, aged 27 years, height 5' 10", the price being
1300 shillings. Eoutier declared that he had bought Jean
Louis as well as his mother at the Island of Saint-Domingue
in 1778. On the twenty-third of November Cesar, a free
Negro of New London, Connecticut, engaged for ten years
as a domestic to Dr. John Aussem, living in the Faubourg
Saint Antoine, with a salary of 30 louis in advance. Dr.
Aussem reserved to himself the right to sell the services of
his domestic to whomsoever he pleased during the ten years.

On the twenty-fifth of May, 1797 Dame Marie-Catherine
Tessier, Widow of Antoine Janisse, in his lifetime a voy-

* From Massicotte ut supra in Le Bulletin des Becherches Eistoriques, Vol.
II, p. 136, it is said: "Une annonce publiee dans la Gazette de Qu&bec vers:
cette epoque (L e., 1797) represente un nfcgre courant a toutes jambes. 'II est
offert une recompense honnete a qui remenera a son maltre marchand de Trois
Rivieres son eselave fugitif C'e pauvre diable pensait sans doute que la loi
qu'on proposait pourrait pas d'effet retroactif . ' '

The Slave in Canada 45

ageur, liberated her slave Marie Antoine de Pade, an In-
dian, aged 23 years, in recognition of her services which she
had rendered her, and in addition gave her a tronssean. On
the twenty-fifth of Angnst Thomas Blaney, gold painter,
sold to Thomas John Sullivan, hotel-keeper of Montreal, the
Negro Manuel about 33 years old for 36 louis, payable in
monthly instalments of three louis each. On the same date
and before the same notary, Sullivan promised the slave to
liberate him in 5 years, if he served him faithfully. On
the twenty-second of November George Westphall, form-
erly Lieutenant of the 6th Regiment, who owed 20 louis
to Richard Dillon, proprietor of the Montreal Hotel in
security for payment, delivered to his creditor a mulat-
ress, a slave called Ledy, aged 26 years. She was to work
with Mr. Dillon until he was repaid what was owed him by
Westphall for principal and interest.

In the year 1793, there came up in the Court of Appeal
at Quebec a case involving slavery but nothing was really
decided. The plaintiff Jacob Smith sued Peter McFarlane
in the Court of Common Pleas for taking away his wife
and her clothes and detaining them. McFarlane claimed
that Smith's wife was his slave. The Court of Common
Pleas gave the plaintiff judgment for £100 and McFarlane
appealed to the Court of Appeal. The Court pointed out
that it was for McFarlane to prove that Smith's wife was
his slave and that he had not done so: but as there had
been error in the proceedings the case was sent back to be
retried. It is important to notice that the court considered
that if McFarlane could prove that Smith's wife was his
slave, he had the right to take her away.5

A lawsuit also arose over the Negro Manuel (Allen)
sold August 25, 1797, to Thomas John Sullivan. When
Blaney sold him for £36 Sullivan paid down only half and
the balance with interest £30.15.2 was sued for in the Court
of King's Bench at Montreal in 1798. Sullivan pleaded
that Manuel was not the plaintiff's slave but a free Negro

s LaFontaine ut supra, pp. 49-51.

46 The Slave in Canada

and that he had run away March, 1798, at Montreal where
he continued to be : and Sullivan claimed to' be reimbursed
the £18 which he had paid. On the sixth of October Manuel
himself came into the suit and claimed that "by the laws
of this land he is not a slave but a freeman.' ' Evidence
was given that he had absconded from Sullivan's service
alleging as a reason that he was a freeman, "that other
blacks were free and that he wanted to be free also." In
February, 1799, the court held that no title or right to sell
Manuel has been shown and dismissed the action directing
the return of the £18.6

In 1797 the Imperial Act of 1732 for the sale of Negroes
and other hereditaments for debt in the American Planta-
tions was repealed so far as it related to Negroes7 but this
made no difference in their status. The courts, however,
were becoming astute in favor of assisting those claiming
freedom. In February, 1798, a certain female Negro slave
called Charlotte belonging to Miss Jane Cook left her mis-
tress and refused to return. On information laid she was
committed by the magistrates to prison. She sued out a
writ of habeas corpus from the Court of King's Bench at
Montreal and Chief Justice, James Monk, ordered her re-
lease. On this becoming known, the Negroes of the city
and district of Montreal became very threatening in their
demeanor. Many renounced all service and one woman
called Jude who had been bought at Albany in 1795 for
£80 by Elias Smith, a merchant of Montreal, left her
master and was committed to prison in the same way by
the magistrates. Being brought up in the Court of King's
Bench at Montreal on habeas corpus, Chief Justice Monk
discharged her March 8, 1798 without deciding the question
of slavery. The Chief Justice declared that he would set
free every Negro, articled apprentice, or domestic servant
who should be committed to prison in this way by the

e LaFontaine ut supra, pp. 52 & 56.

7 For the Act of 1732 (5 George II, c. 7) see ante p. 13. The repealing Act
was (1797) 37 George III, c. 119 (Imp.).

The Slave in Canada 47

magistrates. But this was because the statute in force at
that time8 which gave power to the magistrates to cause
such due correction and punishment to be ministered to an
apprentice as they thought fit and this empowered them to
commit apprentices to the house of correction as a punish-
ment, but it gave no authority to commit to a common gaol
or other prison.

These decisions alarmed the owners of slaves: and a
petition from many inhabitants of Montreal was presented
to the House of Assembly April 19, 1799, by Joseph Papi-
neau. This petition set forth the ordinance of the In-
tendant Eandot in 17099 the Act of 1732,10 that of 1790,11
the facts concerning Charlotte, Jude and the other Negroes,
the judgments of Chief Justice Monk, and the absence of
any house of correction. It prayed that an Act should be
passed that until a house of correction should be estab-
lished every slave, Panis or Negro who should desert the
service of his master, might be proceeded against in the
same way as apprentices in England, and be committed to
the common gaol of the District; and further that no one
should aid or receive a deserting slave, or that there should
be passed a law declaring that there was no slavery in the
Province or such other provision concerning slaves should
be made as the House should deem convenient.12 The peti-
tion was laid on the table.

In 1799 there was passed an Act providing houses of
correction for several districts, but no provision was made

s The Statute of 1562, 5 Elizabeth, c. 4, not repealed until 1814, 54 George
III, c. 96 (Imp.).

9 See ante, p. 3.

io Ibid., p. 13, n. 12.

ii Ibid., p. 37.

i2 "Ou qu'une loi puisse etre passee declarant qu'il n'y a point d'esclav-
age dans la Province; ou telle autre provision concernant les esclaves que cette
Ohambre, dans sa sagesse, jugera convenable. ' ' The Act of 1799 providing for
houses of correction (really the common goal) was 39 George II, c. 6 (L. C),
and was to be in force for two years. It was amended and continued for four
years by the Act (1802) 42 George III, c. 6 (L. C.) and again by (1806) 46
George III, c. 6 (L. C), until January 1, 1810 when it expired.

48 The Slave in Canada

concerning slavery. Perhaps the wisdom of this house
proved insufficient to devise any "provision convenable. ' '

The next year another petition was brought in by Papi-
neau from certain inhabitants of the District of Montreal
saying that doubts had been entertained how far property
in Negroes and Panis was sustainable under the laws of the
province. They cited Eandot's ordinance, the recognition
of slavery for years, and stated that in a recent case the
Court of King's Bench at Montreal in discharging a slave
of Mr. Fraser's who had been committed to the house of
correction by three justices of the peace, had expressed
the opinion that the Act of 1797 13 had repealed all the laws
concerning slavery. They asked that the House should
pass an act declaring that with certain restrictions slavery
did exist in the province and investing the owners with full
property in the slave; and that this chamber should also
pass such laws and regulations in the matter as should be
thought advisable.14

The petition on motion of Messrs. Papineau and Black
was referred to a committee of five, Papineau, Grant,
Craigie, Cuthbert and Dumas. The committee reported
and Cuthbert introduced on April 30, 1800, a bill to regulate
the condition of slaves, to limit the term of their slavery
and to prevent further introduction of slavery in the
province. The bill passed the second reading and was
referred to the Committee of the Whole, but got no further.
The next year Cuthbert introduced a similar bill with the
same result, and again in 1803. The reason for the failure
of these attempts was that any legislation on slavery would
in view of the decisions of the courts be reactionary and
change for the worse the condition of the slave.

The most celebrated of these decisions was in the case

is See ante, note 7. The effect of this Act was probably not as stated.
The slave of Mr. Fraser's was Robin alias Robert to be spoken of infra,
pp. 49, 50.

14 The two reasons given for the request are the familiar ones. The peti-
tioners had paid large sums for the slaves who had left them and "they are
all wholly convinced that that class of men really lazy leading an idle and
abandoned life would attempt to commit crime. "

The Slave in Canada 49

of Kobin, alias Eobert, a black. James Fraser, a Loyalist
of the colony of New York, became the owner of Eobin a
Negro man in 1773, before the American Eevolution. The
colonies were snccessfnl and provisional articles of peace
were signed November 30, 1782. Congress proclaimed
them April 11, 1783 and it was almost inevitable that they
would become a permanent and definitive treaty. Article
VII provided for the speedy evacuation by the British
forces of territory to be allotted to the United States of
America "without carrying away any negroes or other
property of the American inhabit ant s." There was al-
lowed full time for everyone who desired to live under the
British flag to leave New York. James Fraser made up
his mind to go to Nova Scotia and obtained a pass from
William Walton, the Magistrate of Police of the city, for
his slave Robin and another, Lydia, September 23, 1783.15
Fraser went to Shelborne, Nova Scotia, and the following
year in September he went to "the Island of St. John,"16
accompanied by Robin who was and acknowledged himself
to be Fraser 's property. Afterwards Fraser brought him
to the Current of Saint Mary near the city of Montreal
where Fraser became a farmer. Robin, infected with the
pernicious doctrines of freedom then rather prevalent left
Fraser, March 19, 1799, and went to live with Richard, a
tavern keeper in Montreal. Fraser laid an Information
before Charles Blake, a justice of the peace, and January
31, 1800, Charles Blake, Robert Jones and James Dunlop,
justices of the peace of the District of Montreal committed
Robin to the "Common Gaol and House of Correction at
Montreal" with a warrant to Jacob Kuhn "Keeper of His

is The definitive treaty was in fact signed September 3, 1783, but not
ratified by Congress until January 14, 1784. The armistice had been con-
cluded January 20, 1783. In the definitive treaty, Article VII contains the
same provisions as to Negroes as the corresponding article in the preliminary
articles.

!6 Isle St. Jean so called from about the end of the sixteenth century until
1798, when it was given the name Prince Edward Island out of compliment to
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (father of Queen Victoria), then commanding
the British Forces in North America. The name it still retains.

50 The Slave iist Canada

Majesty's Jail and House of Correction" to receive "a
negroman named Eobert who refuses to go home to his
owner and him safely to keep till he may be discharged or
otherwise dealt with according to law."

In the February Term 1800 of the Court of King's
Bench for the District of Montreal17 Mr. A. Perry, his ad-
vocate, obtained a writ of habeas corpus and on the tenth
of February the black was produced in court. Mr. Perry
for the black and Mr. Kerr for James Fraser presented
their arguments upon this day and on the thirteenth of
February, and after consideration and consultation the
court five days later ordered the discharge of Eobin alias
Eobert from his confinement under the warrant.18

The decision proceeded on the ground that the Act of
1797 which repealed the provision for the sale of Negroes
to answer a judgment had revoked all the laws concerning
slavery. Eemembering that the Act of 1732 was intended
to change the common law of England which did not allow
the sale of land under a writ of execution, fieri facias, it
should probably be considered that the sole effect of the
repeal of the act as regards Negroes was to exempt them
from sale under fieri facias, without affecting their status.
And it is well known that slavery continued in the West
India Islands and in Upper Canada long after the Act of
1797.

it The Judges were James Monk, Chief Justice and Pierre Louis Panet
and Isaac Ogden, Puisne Justices.

18 LaFontaine ut supra, pp. 56-63. It has often been said that it was
Chief Justice Osgoode who gave the death blow to slavery in Lower Canada.
For example, in James P. Taylor's Cardinal facts of Canadian History, To-
ronto, 1899j on p. 88 we find a statement that in 1803, Chief Justice Osgoode in
Montreal declared slavery inconsistent with the laws of Canada. But Osgoode
became Chief Justice of the Province in July, 1794. Continuing as such Chief
Justice, he became Chief of the Court of King's Bench for the District of
Quebec later on in the same year on the coming into force of the Act of 1794,
34 George III, c. 6, which erected two Courts of King's Bench, one for each
District. James Monk became Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench for
the District of Montreal, which position he retained until 1825. Osgoode re-
signed his position and went to England in 1801 and lived in England until his
death in 1824: he was never Chief Justice at Montreal.

The Slave in Canada 51

The effect of the decisions while not technically abolish-
ing slavery rendered it innocuous. The slave could not be
compelled to serve longer than he would, and the burden of
slavery was rather on the master who must support his
slave than on the slave who might leave his master at will.
The legislature refusing to interfere, the law of slavery
continued in this state until the year 1833 when the Im-
perial Parliament passed the celebrated act which forever
abolished slavery in British Colonies from and after Au-
gust 1, 1834.19

As Lower Canada passed no legislation on slavery, the
extradition of fugitives was made impossible and Canada
became therefore an asylum for the oppressed in the United
States. Before the Act of 1833 there was one instance of
a request from the Secretary of State of the United States
for the delivery up of a slave. The matter was referred to
the Executive Council by Sir James Kempt, the Admin-
istrator of the Government.20 The report of the Execu-

io One result of these decisions was to induce the escape of Negro slaves
from Upper Canada where slavery was lawful to Lower Canada. For example
one hears of two of the three slaves whom Captain Allan brought with him into
Upper Canada from New Jersey running away to Montreal. The owner pursued
them to Montreal and searched for them in vain for ten days. The third slave,
a woman, he sold with her child.

The Statute is (1833) 3, 4, William IV, c. 73 (Imp.). One result of this
Act is exceedingly curious and to the philosophical lawyer exceedingly interest-
ing. Slaves which had been real estate, as soon as the act was passed ceased to
be such, and the benefit to be obtained from their labor until fully enfran-
chised and the money to be paid by the legislature as compensation for their
freedom became personal estate. See the luminous judgment of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council in Richard v. Attorney General of Jamaica,
Moore's Report of Cases in the Judicial Committee (1848), Vol. 6, p. 381.

In a note on p. 35 of a paper in the Transactions of the Royal Society of
Canada, 1900, on La Declaration de 1732, M. 'Abbe Auguste Gosselin, Litt.D.,
F.R.S., Can., we read:

''On trouve dans le livre de Mgr. Tanguay A travers les Registres, p. 157,
une notice sur 1 'Esclavage au Canada, avec un ' Tableau des families possedant
des esclaves de la nation des Panis. ' L 'esclavage ne fut definitivement aboli
par une loi, en Canada, qu'en 1833. "

The learned author does not mean that there was legislation on slavery in
Canada in 1833, or that it was Canadian legislation which abolished slavery;
for such was not the case.

20 From September 8, 1828, to October 19, 1830.

52 The Slave in Canada

tive Council shows the view held that ' ' the Law of Canada
does not admit a slave to be a subject of property."

At a meeting of the Executive Council of the Province
of Lower Canada held at the Council Chamber in the
Castle of St. Lewis, on Thursday, June 18, 1829, under Sir
James Kempt, the Administrator of the Government, the
following proceedings were had:

"Report of a Committee of the whole Council. Present The
Honble. the Chief Justice in the Chair, Mr. Smith, Mr. DeLery,
Mr. Stewart, and Mr. Cochran. On Your Excellency's reference of
a letter from the American Secretary of State requesting that Paul
Vallard accused of having stolen a Mulatto Slave from the State
of Illinois may be delivered up to the Government of the United
States of America together with the Slave.
"May it please Your Excellency,

"The Committee have proceeded to the consideration of the
subject matter of this reference with every wish and disposition to
aid the Officers of the Government of the United States of America
in the execution of the laws of that dominion and they regret
therefore the more that the present application cannot in their
opinion be acceded to.

"In the former cases the Committee have acted upon the prin-
ciple which now seems to be generally understood that whenever a
crime has been committed and the perpetrator is punishable ac-
cording to the Lex Loci of the country in which it is committed,
the country in which he is found may rightfully aid the police of
the country against which the crime was committed in bringing
the criminal to justice — and upon this ground have recommended
that fugitives from the United States should be delivered up.

"But the Committee conceive that the crimes for which they
are authorized to recommend the arrest of individuals who have
fled from other Countries must be such as are mala in se, and are
universally admitted to be crimes in every nation, and that the
offence of the individual whose person is demanded must be such
as to render him liable to arrest by the law of Canada as well as by
the law of the United States.

"The state of slavery is not recognized by the law of Canada
nor does the law admit that any man can be the proprietor of
another.

The Slave in Canada 53

''Every slave therefore who comes into the province is im-
mediately free whether he has been brought in by violence or
has entered it of his own accord ; and his ' liberty cannot from
thenceforth be lawfully infringed without some cause for which
the law of Canada has directed an arrest.

"On the other hand, the Individual from whom he has been
taken cannot pretend that the slave has been stolen from him in
as much as the law of Canada does not admit a slave to be a sub-
ject of property.

"All of which is respectfully submitted to Your Excellency's
Wisdom."21

21 Canadian Archives, State K, p. 406.

CHAPTER V
Upper Canada— Early Period

The first Parliament of the Province of Upper Canada
sat at Newark formerly and now Niagara-on-the-Lake, Sep-
tember 17, 1792. The very first act of this first Parliament
of Upper Canada reintroduced the English civil law.1
This did not destroy slavery, nor did it ameliorate the
condition of the slave. It was rather the reverse, for as
the English law did not, like the civil law of Eome and the
systems founded on it, recognize the status of the slave at
all, when it was forced by grim fact to acknowledge slavery,
it had no room for the slave except as a mere piece of
property. Instead of giving him rights like those of the
"servus," he was deprived. of all rights, marital, parental,
proprietary, even the right to live. In the English law and
systems founded on it, the slave had no rights which the
master was bound to respect.2 At one time, indeed, it was
understood in the English colonies that the master had the
jus vitce necisque over his slaves; but at the beginning of
the eighteenth century the Crown much to the anger and
disgust of the colonists made the murder of a Negro a
capital offence, and at least some of the governors vigor-
ously upheld this decision.3

Upper Canada was settled almost wholly by United
Empire Loyalists who had left their homes in the revolted
colonies and kept their faith to the Crown. Many of them

iThe Statute is (1792) 32 George III, c. 1 (U. C).

2 Compare the opinion of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States in the celebrated Dred Scott case. 19 Howard, 354, pp. 404, 405.

s See as to this Reginald W. Jeffery, The History of The Thirteen Colonies
of North America 1497-1763 (London), p. 190. This interesting work which
I have found accurate gives Governor Spotswood as enforcing the royal decree
rigidly.

The Slave in Canada 55

brought their slaves as well as their other property to the
new land. The statute of 1790 encouraged this practice.4

The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada was
Col. John Graves Simcoe. He hated slavery and had
spoken against it in the House of Commons in England.
Arriving in Upper Canada in the summer of 1792, he was
soon made fully aware by the Chloe Cooley case that the
horrors of slavery were not unknown in his new province.
There came up to the Executive Council the complaint that
a Negro girl thus named had been cruelly forced across
the border and sold in the United States by one Vroomen.
Much indignation was expressed by both citizens and
officials.

* See ante, p. 37.

5 This is copied from the Canadian Archives, Q. 282, pt. 1, pp. 212 sqq. ;
taken from the official report sent to Westminster by Simcoe. There is the
usual amount of uncertainty in spelling names, Grisley or Crisley, Fromand,
Frooman, Froomond or Fromond (in reality Vrooman).

The following is a report of a meeting of his Executive Council:

"At the Council Chamber, Navy Hall, in the County of Lincoln, Wednes-
day, March 21st, 1793.

1 ' Present
"His Excellency, J. G. Simcoe, Esq., Lieut.-Governor, &c, &c,
The Honble. Wm. Osgoode, Chief Justice,
The Honble. Peter Eussell.

"Peter Martin (a negro in the service of Col. Butler) attended the Board
for the purpose of informing them of a violent outrage committed by one
Fromand, an Inhabitant of this Province, residing near Queens Town, or the
West Landing, on the person of Chloe Cooley a Negro girl in his service, by
binding her, and violently and forcibly transporting her across the River, and
delivering her against her will to certain persons unknown; to prove the truth
of his Allegation he produced Wm. Grisley (or Crisley).

"William Grisley an Inhabitant near Mississague Point in this Province
says: that on Wednesday evening last he was at work at Mr. Froemans near
Queens Town, who in conversation told him, he was going to sell his Negro
Wench to some persons in the States, that in the Evening he saw the said Negro
girl, tied with a rope, that afterwards a Boat was brought, and the said Froo-
man with his Brother and one Vanevery, forced the said Negro Girl into it,
that he was desired to come into the boat, which he did, but did not assist or
was otherwise concerned in carrying off the said Negro Girl, but that all the
others were, and carried the Boat across the River; that the said Negro Girl
was then taken and delivered to a man upon the Bank of the Eiver by Froo-
mand, that she screamed violently and made resistance, but was tied in the
same manner as when the said William Grisley first saw her, and in that con-

56 The Slave in Canada

The Attorney-General was John White6 an English
lawyer of no great eminence indeed but of sufficient skill to
know that the brutal master was well within his rights in
acting as he did. He had the same right to bind, export,
and sell his slave as to bind, export, and sell his cow.
Chloe Cooley had no rights which Yrooman was bound to
respect; and it was no more a breach of the peace than if
he had been dealing with his heifer. Nothing came of the
direction to prosecute and nothing could be done unless
there should be an actual breach of the peace.

It is probable that it was this circumstance which
brought about legislation. At the second session of the
First Parliament which met at Newark, May 31, 1793, a
bill was introduced and unanimously passed the House of
Assembly. The trifling amendments introduced by the
Legislative Council were speedily concurred in, the royal
assent was given July 9, 1793, and the bill became law.7

Simcoe, as was his duty, reported to Henry Dundas
afterwards Lord Melville, Secretary of State for the Home
Department concerning this Act September 28, 1793.

dition delivered to the man . . . Wm. Grisley farther says that he saw a negro
at a distance, he believes to be tied in the same manner, and has heard that
many other People mean to do the same by their Negroes.

il Resolved — That it is necessary to take immediate steps to prevent the
continuance of snch violent breaches of the Public Peace, and for that pur-
pose, that His Majesty's Attorney-General, be forthwith directed to prosecute
the said Promond.

' ' Adjourned. ' '

6 John White was called to the bar in 1785 at the Inner Temple. He
practised for a time but unsuccessfully in Jamaica and through the influence
of his brother-in-law, Samuel Shepherd, and of Chief Justice Osgoode was ap-
pointed the first Attorney General of Upper Canada. It is probable, but the
existing records do not make it certain, that it was he who introduced and had
charge in the House of Assembly of the bill for the abolition of slavery passed
in 1793, shortly to be mentioned. His manuscript diary is still extant, a copy
being in the possession of the writer: One entry reads under date Newark
Tuesday March 6 1793 "John Young from Grand River came with Mr. Mac-
Michael respecting his runaway negro. Rec'd 5 Dols.,,

7 The statute is (1793) 33 Geo. Ill, c. 7 (U. C). The Parliament of
Upper Canada had two houses, the Legislative Council, an upper house, ap-
pointed by the Crown ; and the Legislative Assembly, a lower house or House of
Commons, as it was sometimes called, elected by the people. The Lieutenant

The Slave in Canada 57

Simcoe had discovered that there was much resistance to
the slave law. There were many plausible arguments of
the demand for labor and the difficulty of obtaining
"Servants to cultivate Lands." "Some possessed of Ne-
groes," said he, "knowing that it was very questionable
whether any subsisting Law did authorize Slavery and
having purchased several taken in war by the Indians at
small prices wished to reject the Bill entirely; others were
desirous to supply themselves by allowing the importation
for two years. The matter was finally settled by under-
taking to secure the property already obtained upon condi-
tion that an immediate stop should be put to the importa-
tion and that Slavery should be gradually abolished."8

The Act recited that it was unjust that a people who
enjoy freedom by law should encourage the introduction
of slaves, and that it was highly expedient to abolish
slavery in the province so far as it could be done gradually
without violating private property. It repealed the Im-
perial Statute of 1790 so far as it related to Upper Canada,
and to enact that from and after the passing of the act
"No Negro or other person who shall come or be brought
into this Province . . . shall be subject to the condition of
a slave or to bounden involuntary service for life." With
that regard for property characteristic of the English-
Governor gave the royal assent. The bill was introduced in the Lower House,
probably by Attorney General White, as stated in last note, and read the first
time, June 19. It went to the committee of the whole June 25, and was the
same day reported out. On June 26 it was read the third time, passed and sent
up for concurrence. The Legislative Council read it the same day for the first
time, went into committee over it the next day, June 28, and July 1, when it
was reported out with amendments, passed and sent down to the Commons
July 2. That house promptly concurred and sent the bill back the same day.
See the official reports: Ont. Arch. Reports for 1910 (Toronto, 1911), pp. 25,
26, 27, 28, 32, 33. Ont. Arch. Rep. for 1909 (Toronto, 1911), pp. 33, 35, 36, 38,
41, 42.

s Canadian Archives, Q. 279, 2, p. 335.

White in his diary says "To the 21 June, some opposition in the House
not much" — under date June 25 when the Bill was in Committee of the whole
he says "Debated the Slave Bill hardly: Met much opposition but little argu-
ment."

58 The Slave in Canada

speaking peoples, the act contained an important proviso
which continued the slavery of every " negro or other
person subjected to such service" who had been lawfully
brought into the province. It then enacted that every
child born after the passing of the act, of a Negro mother
or other. woman subjected to such service, should become
absolutely free on attaining the age of twenty-five, the
master in the meantime to provide " proper nourishment
and cloathing" for the child, but to be entitled to put him
to work, all issue of such children to be free whenever born.
It further declared that any voluntary contract of service or
indenture should not be binding longer than nine years.
Upper Canada was the first British possession to provide
by legislation for the abolition of slavery.9

9 Simcoe was almost certainly the prime mover in the legislation of 1793.
When giving the royal assent to the bill he said: "The Act for the gradual
abolition of Slavery in this Colony, which it has been thought expedient to
frame, in no respect meets from me a more cheerful concurrence than in that
provision which repeals the power heretofore held by the Executive Branch of
the Constitution and precludes it from giving sanction to the importation of
slaves, and I cannot but anticipate with singular pleasure that such persons as
may be in that unhappy condition which sound policy and humanity unite to
condemn, added to their own protection from all undue severity by the law of
the land may henceforth look forward with certainty to the emancipation of
their offspring." See Out. Arch. Rep. for 1909, pp. 42-43.

I do not understand the allusion to "protection from undue severity by
the Law of the land. " There had been no change in the law, and undue
severity to slaves was prevented only by public opinion. It is practically
certain that no such bill as that of 1798 would have been promoted with
Simcoe at the head of the government as his sentiments were too well known.

Vermont excluded slavery by her Bill of Rights (1777), Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts passed legislation somewhat similar to that of Upper Canada
in 1780; Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784, New Hampshire by her Con-
stitution in 1792, Vermont in the same way in 1793; New York began in
1799 and completed the work in 1827, New Jersey 1829. Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa were organized as a Territory in 1787 and
slavery forbidden by the Ordinance, July 13, 1787, but it was in fact known
in part of the Territory for a score of years. A few slaves were held in
Michigan by tolerance until far into the nineteenth century notwithstanding
the prohibition of the fundamental law (Mich. Hist. Coll., VII, p. 524).
Maine as such probably never had slavery, having separated from Massachu-
setts in 1820 after the Act of 1780; although it would seem that as late as
1833 the Supreme Court of Massachusetts left it open when slavery was

The Slave in Canada 59

It will be seen that the statute did not put an end to
slavery at once. Those who were lawfully slaves remained
slaves for life unless manumitted and the statute rather
discouraged manumission, as it provided that the master
on liberating a slave must give good and sufficient security
that the freed man would not become a public charge. But,
defective as it was, it was not long without attack. In
1798, Simcoe had left the province never to return, and
while the government was being administered by the time-
serving Peter Eussell,10 a bill was introduced into the
Lower House to enable persons " migrating into the prov-
ince to bring their negro slaves with them." The bill was
contested at every stage but finally passed on a vote of
eight to four. In the Legislative Council it received the
three months ' hoist and was never heard of again.11 The

abolished in that State (Commonwealth v. Aves, 18 Pick. 193, 209). (See
Cobb's Slavery, pp. clxxi, clxxii, 209; Sir Harry H. Johnston's The Negro
in the New World, an exceedingly valuable and interesting work, but not
wholly reliable in minutiae, pp. 355 et seq.)

10 Eussell became administrator of the Government of Upper Canada,
July 21, 1796, and held that position until the arrival of the new Lieutenant-
Governor General Peter Hunter, August 16, 1799.

ii Ont. Arch. Rep. for 1909, pp. 64, 69, 70, 71, 75; ibid, for 1910, pp. 67,
68, 69, 70.

The bill was introduced in the Lower House by Christopher Eobinson,
member for Addington and Ontario. He was a Virginian Loyalist, who in
1784 emigrated to New Brunswick, and in 1788 to that part of Canada, later
Lower Canada; and in 1792 to Upper Canada. Accustomed from infancy to
slavery, he saw no great harm in it — no doubt he saw it in its best form.

The chief opponent of the bill was Robert Isaac Dey Gray, the young
Solicitor General, the son of Major James Gray, a half -pay British Officer.
He studied law in Canada. He was elected member of the House of Assembly
for Stormont in the election of 1796, and again in 1804.

The motion for the three months' hoist in the Upper House was made
by the Honorable Richard Cartwright seconded by the Honorable Robert
Hamilton. These men, who had been partners, generally agreed on public
measures and both incurred the enmity of Simcoe. He called Hamilton a
Republican, then a term of reproach distinctly worse than Pro-German would
be now, and Cartwright was, if anything, worse. But both were men of
considerable public spirit and great personal integrity. For Cartwright see
The Life and Letters of Hon. Bichard Cartwright, Toronto, 1876. For
Hamilton see Riddell's edition of La Roche foucault's Travels in Canada in
1795 (Toronto, 1817), in Ont. Arch. Rep. for 1916; Miss Carnochan's Queen-

60 The Slave in Canada

argument in favor of the bill was based on the scarcity of
labor which all contemporary writers speak of, the induce-
ment to intending settlers to come to Upper Canada where
they would have the same privileges in respect of slavery
as in New York and elsewhere ; in other words the inevit-
able appeal to greed.

After this bill became law, slavery gradually disap-
peared. Public opinion favored manumission and while
there were not many manumissions inter vivos12 in some
measure owing to the provisions of the act requiring secur-
ity to be given in such case against the free man becoming
a public charge, there were not a few emancipated by will.13

ston in Early Years, Niagara Hist. Soc. Pub. No. 25; Buffalo Hist. Soc. Pub.
Vol. 6, pp. 73-95.

There was apparently no division in the Upper House although there
were five other Councillors in addition to Cartwright and Hamilton in attend-
ance that session, viz.: McGill, Shaw, Duncan, Baby and Grant; and the bill
passed the committee of the whole.

12 Slaves were valuable even in those days. A sale is recorded in Detroit
of a "'Certain Negro man Pompey by name" for £45 New York Currency
($112.50) in October, 1794; and the purchaser sold him again January, 1795,
for £50 New York Currency ($125.00). (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIV, p. 417.)
But it would seem that from 1770 to 1780 the price ranged to $300 for a man
and $250 for a woman (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIV, p. 659). The number of
slaves in Detroit is said to have been 85 in 1773 and 179 in 1782 (Mich. Hist.
Coll., VII, p. 524).

13 A number of interesting wills are in the Court of Probate files at
Osgoode Hall, Toronto. One of them deserves special mention, viz.: that of
Robert I. D. Gray, the first Solicitor General of the Province, whose death was
decidedly tragic. In this will, dated August 27, 1803, a little more than
a year before his death, he releases and manumits "Dorinda my black woman
servant . . . and all her children from the State of Slavery," in consequence
of her long and faithful services to his family. He directs a fund to be
formed of £1,200 or $4,800 the interest to be paid to "the said Dorinda her
heirs and Assigns for ever." To John Davis, Dorinda 's son, he gave 200
acres of land, Lot 17 in the Second Concession of the Township of Whitby
and also £50 or $200. John, after the death of his master whose body servant
and valet he was, entered the employ of Mr., afterwards Chief, Justice Powell;
but he had the evil habit of drinking too much and when he was drunk he
would enlist in the army. Powell got tired of begging him off and after a
final warning left him with the regiment in which he had once more enlisted.
Davis is said to have been in the battle of Waterloo; he certainly crossed the
ocean and returned later on to Canada. He survived till 1871, living at Corn-
wall, Ontario, a well-known character — with him, died the last of all those

The Slave in Canada 61

The number of slaves in Upper Canada was also di-
minished by what seems at first sight paradoxical, that is,
their flight across the Detroit Eiver into American terri-
tory. So long as Detroit and its vicinity were British in
fact and even for some years later, Section 6 of the Ordi-
nance of 1787 "that there shall be neither slavery nor in-
voluntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than
as punishment of crime" was a dead letter: but when

who had been slaves in the old Province of Quebec or the Province of Upper
Canada.

In the Canadian Archives, M. 393, is the copy of a letter, the property of
the late Judge Pringle of Cornwall, by Eobert I. D. Gray to his sister Mrs.
Valentine dated at Kempton, February 16, 1804, and addressed to her "at
Captain Joseph Anderson's, Cornwall, Eastern District": speaking of a trip
to Albany, New York, he says:

"I saw some of our old friends while in the states, none was 1 more
happy to meet than Lavine, Dorin 's mother. Just as I was leaving Albany I
heard from our cousin Mrs. Garret Stadts who is living in Albany in obscurity
and indigence owing to her husband being a drunken idle fellow, that Lavine
was living in a tavern with a man of the name of Broomly. I immediately
employed a friend of mine, Mr. Eamsay of Albany, to negotiate with the man
for the purchase of her. He did so stating that I wished to buy her freedom,
in consequence of which the man readily complied with my wishes, and
altho' he declared she was worth to him £100 (i.e., $250) he gave her to me
for 50 dollars. When I saw her, she was overjoyed and appeared as happy
as any person could be, at the idea of seeing her child Dorin, and her children
once more, with whom if Dorin wishes it, she will willingly spend the re-
mainder of her days. I could not avoid doing this act, the opportunity seemed
to have been thrown in my way by providence and I could not resist it. She
is a good servant yet — healthy & strong and among you, you may find her
useful, I have promised her, that she may work as much or as little as she
pleases while she lives — but from the character I have of her, idleness is not
her pleasure, I could not bring her with me, she wanted to see some of her
children before she sets out; I have paved the way for her, and some time
this month, Forsyth, upon her arrival here will forward her to you. . . ."

Then follows a pathetic touch:

"I saw old Cato, Lavine 's father at Newark, while I was at Col1, Ogden'e;
he is living with Mrs. Governeur — is well taken care of & blind — poor fellow
came to feel me, for he could not see, he asked affectionately after the
family. ' '

In the will of the well-known Colonel John Butler of Butler's Eangers
there are bequests to his son Andrew of "a negro woman named Pat": to
his grandson John of "a Negro Boy named George . . . until the said negro
arrives at the years that the Law directs to receive his freedom" and to
John's sister Catharine "a negro girl named Jane" for a similar time.

62 The Slave in Canada

Michigan was incorporated as a territory in 1805, the Ordi-
nance of 1787 became legally and at least in form effec-
tive. Many slaves made their way from Canada to Detroit,
then a real land of the free ; so many, indeed, that we find
that a company of Negro militia composed entirely of
escaped slaves from Canada was formed in Detroit in 1806
to assist in the general defence of the territory.14

14 Michigan Hist. Coll., XIV, p. 659. But the actual effect of the Ordi-
nance of 1787, even after 1805 was not absolute. "As late as 1807 Judge
Woodward refused to free a negro man and woman on a writ of habeas
corpus, holding in effect that as they had been slaves at the time of the sur-
render in 1796, there was something in Jay's Treaty that forbade their
release." Michigan as a Province, Territory and State, 1906, p. 339. "There
is a tradition that even as late as the coming of Gen. John T. Mason, as Sec-
retary of the Territory in 1831, he brought some domestic slaves with him
from Virginia. It is not improbable that a few domestic servants continued
with their old Masters down to the time of the adoption of the State Con-
stitution" (in 1835). Ibid., p. 338, note.

Before Detroit and its adjoining territory were given up by the British to
the Americans under Jay's Treaty, August, 1796, there were many instances
of slaves escaping from the United States territory to British territory in
that neighborhood and vice versa. One instance of escape from British ter-
ritory will suffice.

Colonel Alexander McKee, a well-known and very prominent Loyalist of
Detroit, lost a mulatto slave in 1795 and his friend and colleague Captain
Matthew Elliott sent a man David Tait to look for him in what is now
Indiana. Tait's success or want of success is shown by his affidavit before
George Sharp a justice of the peace for the Western District of Upper
Canada residing in Detroit. The whole deposition will be given as it illus-
trates the terms on which the two peoples were living at the time in that
country, and shows that even then the charges were made which were after-
wards made one of the pretexts for the War of 1812. It is given in the
Mich. Hist. Coll., Vol. XII, pp. 164, 165.

"Deposition

"I being sent by Captain Elliott in search of a Molato man name Bill
the property of Colonel McKee, which was thought to be at Fort Wayne, But
on my Arrival at the Glaize was inform 'd by the officer there that he was
gone, they said he had gained his liberty, by getting into their lines he being
stole from their Country.

"They abused the Gentlemen in this place very & Told me that Governor
Sancom (Simcoe) Colonel England and Captain Elliott caused bills in print to
be dropped near their fort, Encouraging their Soldiers to desert.

"They called Coll McKee & Capt Elliott dam'd rasculs and said that they
gave the Indians Rum to make them Drunk to prevent them from going to
Counsil & That Capt Brent they said was a Dam'd rascul and had done every-

The Slave in Canada 63

The number of slaves in Upper Canada cannot be ascer-
tained with anything approaching accuracy. The returns
of the census of 1784 show that very many of the 212 slaves
in the District of Montreal, which then extended from the
Eivers St. Maurice and Godfrey to the Detroit Eiver de
jure and to the Mississippi de facto, were the property of
the United Empire Loyalists on the St. Lawrence in terri-
tory which in 1791 became part of the new Province of
Upper Canada.

The settlement crept up the St. Lawrence and Lake
Ontario so as to be as far as the Eiver Trent by the end
of the eighteenth century : and Prince Edward County had
also its quota of settlers. Until the nineteenth century had
set in there were practically no settlers from the Trent to
near York (Toronto) but that splendid territory of level
clay and loam land covered by magnificent forests of beech
and maple gradually filled in and by the 30 's was fairly
well settled. In the latter territory there were very few,
if any, slaves.15

Farther east, however, in what became the Eastern and
Midland Districts there were many slaves. It is probable
that by far the greatest number had their habitat in that
region. When York became the provincial capital (1796-7)
slaves were brought to that place by their masters. In the
Niagara region there were also some slaves, in great part
bought from the Six Nation Indians as some of these in the
eastern part of the province were bought from the Mis-
thing in his power against them. But they said in Course of Nine Months
that they Expected to be in full possession of Detroit and all the Country
between their & it & I begged liberty to withdraw when Major Hunt told me
to make the best of my way from Whence I came, while I was getting ready
to return the Serjeant of their Guard came & Told me it was the Majors
orders that I should leave the place immediately & not to stay about any of
the Indian Camps. Which Orders I obeyed.

(signed) David Tait.
Sworn before me at Detroit 4th August 1795.

Geo Sharp, J. P. W. D."
Indian Affairs, M. G. VII.

15 I have found no reliable accounts of slaves in this region — some tradi-
tions which I have investigated proved unreliable and illusory.

64 The Slave in Canada

sissaguas who had a rendezvous on Carleton Island near
Kingston. In the Detroit region there were many slaves,
some of them Panis ;16 and many of both kinds, Panis and
Negro bought from the Shawanese, Pottawattaimies and
other Western Indians, taken for the most part from the
Ohio and Kentucky country. Most of these slaves were
west of the river, few being in the Province of Upper
Canada de jure. Omitting Detroit, the number of slaves
in the province at the time of the Act of 1793 was prob-
ably not far from 500. 17

In the Eastern District, part of which became the Dis-
trict of Johntown in 1798, there were certainly some slaves.
Justus Sherwood one of the first settlers brought a Negro
slave Caesar Congo to his location near Prescott. Caesar
was afterwards sold to a half pay officer Captain Bottom
settled about six miles above Prescott and after about
twenty years service was emancipated by his master.
Caesar afterwards married a woman of color and lived in
Brockville for many years and until his death. Daniel
Jones another old settler had a female Negro slave and
there were a few more slaves in the district.18

16 I cannot trace many Panis slaves in Upper Canada proper ; that there
were some at Detroit is certain and equally certain that some were at one time
on both shores of the Niagara River. I do not know of an account of the
numbers of slaves at the time; in Detroit, March 31, 1779, there were 60 male
and 78 female slaves in a population of about 2,550 (Mich. Hist. Coll., X,
p. 326) ; Nov. 1, 1780, 79 male and 96 female slaves in a somewhat smaller
population (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIII, p. 53) ; in 1778, 127 in a population of
2,144 (Mich. Hist. Coll., IX, p. 469); 85 in 1773, 179 in 1782 (Mich. Hist.
Coll., VII, p. 524); 78 male and 101 female (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIII, p. 54).
The Ordinance of Congress July 13, 1787, forbidding slavery "northwest of
the Ohio River" passed with but one dissenting voice, that of a delegate from
New York, was quite disregarded in Detroit (Mich. Hist. Coll., 1, 415) ; and
indeed as has been said, Detroit and the neighboring country remained British
(de facto) until August, 1796, and part of Upper Canada from 1791 till
that date.

17 This is indicated by a number of facts none of much significance and
all together far from conclusive — but it is a mere estimate perhaps not much
more than a guess and I should not be astonished if it were proved that the
estimate was astray by 100 either way. Indeed contemporary estimates gave
for the Nassau District alone in 1791, 300 Negro slaves and a few Panis.
Col. Mathew Elliott in 1784 brought more than 50 slaves to his estate at
Amherstburg.

The Slave in Canada 65

It is possible that this part of the province was the home
of a Negro who at the age of 101 appeared at the Assize
Court at Ottawa in 1867 to give evidence. He was born in
the Colony of New York in 1766, had been brought to Upper
Canada by his master, a United Empire Loyalist, had
fought through the war of 1812 on the British side, was
present at the Battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane and
was wounded at Sackett's Harbor.19

In the Midland District at Kingston such leading fami-
lies as the Cartwrights, Herkimers and Everetts were slave
owners. Further west the Euttans, Bogarts, Van Al-
stynes,20 Petersons, Aliens, Clarks, Bowers, Thompsons,
Meyers, Spencers, Perrys, Pruyns, speaking generally all
the people of substance had their slaves.21

18 See letter of Sheriff Sherwood, Papers 4'c, Ontario Historical Society
1901, Vol. 3, p. 107. Justus Sherwood came from Vermont, originally from
Connecticut, joined Burgoyne's army in 1777 and came to Canada in 1778,
joined Rogers' Rangers and served during the war. He came to Prescott in
1784. He had had a not unusual experience with the Continentals. His
"Negroe wench and two negroe children" had been seized and" sold to Wm.
Drake." (Second Out. Arch. Bep., 1904, p. 820.) Daniel Jones, father of
Sir Daniel Jones of Brockville, came from Charlotte County, New York (ibid.,
p. 398). He was also a native of Connecticut.

is He was in full possession of all his faculties and had been brought to
Ottawa to prove the death of one person in 1803 and of another in 1814.
The action was Morris v. Henderson "Ottawa Citizen" May 3, 1867. Robert
I. D. Gray mentioned in note 13 above, came from this district.

20 A Van Alstyne — Major Peter Van Alstyne — was elected to represent
Prince Edward County in the first Legislative Assembly when Philip Dorland
was unseated because he would not take the prescribed oath being a Quaker.

21 See the interesting paper read before the Women's Historical Society
of Toronto by Mrs. W. T. Hallam, B.A., and published in The Canadian
Churchman, May 8, 1919, republished in pamphlet form. I am authorized by
Mrs. Hallam to make full use of her researches and I take advantage of this
permission. Mrs. Hallam has also the following:

1 ' There is an old orchard between Collins Bay and Bath, Ontario, now
used as a garden, which belongs to the Fairfield family. The children of this
Loyalist family brought the seeds in their pockets from the old home in Ver-
mont, and here lie buried the slaves belonging to the Fairfield and Pruyn
families. On the way over they milked the cows, which were brought with
them, and sometimes the milk was the only food which they had. The old
Fairfield Homestead, built in 1793, is still standing, but the negro quarters are
unused, for as those who live there say, 'On a hot day you would declare the
slaves were still there.' "

66 The Slave in Canada

It may be noted that there are many records of births,
deaths and marriages of slaves. In the Eegister for the
Township of Fredericksburg (Third Township) of the
Eeverend John Langhorn, Anglican clergyman, we find in
1791, November 13, that he baptized "Bichard son of
Pomps and Nelly a negro living with Mr. Timothy Thomp-
son."22 On October 6, 1793, "Kichard surnamed Pruyn a
negro, living with Harmen Pruyn," on March 2, 1796,
"Betty, snrnamed Levi, a negro girl living with Johannes
Walden Meyers' ' of the Township of Thurlow. On April
22, 1805, "Francis, son of Violet, a negro woman living
with Hazelton Spencer23 Esq. by Francis Green." We find

Miss Alice Fairfield of the White House, Collins Bay, a descendant of
these Fairfields gives the following account in a paper read before the
Woman's Historical Society, Toronto (of which Mrs. Seymour Corley of
Toronto has been good enough to furnish me a copy) "In March 1799,
Stephen Fairfield married Maria Pruyn (from Kinder Hook, N. Y.), whose
marriage portion included several slaves. They remained with the family as
a matter of course after the law had given them their freedom. Of their
devotion a story is told — "Mott" the old black nurse of my great grand-
mother walked to York (Toronto) a distance of 160 miles in cold weather to
warn her of a plot against her property — the shoes were literally worn off her
feet." The writer adds "The Tory branch of the Fairfield family that came
to Canada were from Paulet County, Vermont . . . they brought some
'niggers' as they called their black slaves, into Canada." "The first apples
grown in the country were raised from the seeds of apples with which the
children had filled their pockets at the old home."

A contributor to the Napanee Banner writes:

"There has been considerable controversy of late whether slaves ever
were owned in this section of Canada. The Aliens brought three slaves with
them who remained with the family for years. Thomas Dorland also had a
number of slaves who were members of the house-hold as late as 1820. The
Pruyns who lived on the front of Fredericksburg had, we are informed, over
a dozen slaves with them. The Euttans of Adolphustown brought two able-
bodied slaves with them. Major Van Alstyne also had slaves; so had John
Huyck who lived north of Hay Bay, and the Bogarts near neighbors, and the
Trampours of the opposite side of Hay Bay. The Clarks of Ernestown, now
called Bath, owned slaves who were with them years after their residence in
Canada. The Everetts of Kingston Township and the Cartwrights of King-
ston had theirs."

22 A man of considerable note: in 1800 appointed with Eichard Cart-
wright, Commissioner to settle the finances between the two Provinces.

23 Member for Lenox, Hastings and Northumberland Counties in the first
Legislative Assembly: and afterwards Sheriff.

The Slave in Canada 67

that "Francis, son of Violet ... by Francis Green as was
supposed" was buried January 17, 1806.24

In a paper by the late J. C. Hamilton, a barrister of
Toronto, he says that Lieutenant Governor Sir Alexander
Campbell had favored him with a note concerning slaves
at Kingston, which concluded "I had personally known two
slaves in Canada : one belonging to the Cartwright and the
other to the Forsyth family.25 When I remember them in
their old age, each had a cottage, surrounded by many com-
forts on the family property of his master and was the
envy of all the old people in the neighborhood."26

York (Toronto) and its neighborhood were settled later
but they received their quota of Negro slaves, at least the
town did. In 1880, the Gazette at York announces to be
sold "a healthy strong negro woman, about thirty years
of age; understands cooking, laundry and the taking care
of poultry. N. B. She can dress ladies' hair. Enquire
of the Printers, York, Dec. 20, 1800.' '27

The best people in the capital owned Negroes. Peter
Kussell who had been administrator of the government of
the province and therefore the head of the State adver-
tised in the Gazette and Oracle of February 19, 1806 :

"To be sold: a Black Woman named Peggy, aged forty
years and a Black Boy her son named Jupiter, aged about
fifteen years, both of them the property of the Subscriber.
The woman is a tolerable cook and washerwoman and per-
fectly understands making soap and candles. The boy is
tall and strong for his age, and has been employed in the
country business but brought up principally as a house
servant. The price of the woman is one hundred and fifty
dollars. For the boy two hundred dollars payable in three

2* The Pruyns of Fredericksburg are credited with owning more slaves
than any other family in that region. Mrs. Hallam, ut supra, p. 4.

The above extracts are taken from the Registers published by the Ont.
Hist. Soc, Vol. 1.

25 Both prominent families in Kingston.

26 Trans. Can. Inst., Vol. 1 (1889-1890), p. 106.

27 For this and the following incident see that most interesting book
"Toronto of Old" by Henry Scadding, D.D., Toronto, 1873, pp. 293, 294, 295.

68 The Slave in Canada

years with interest from the day of sale and to be secured
by bond, &c. But one-fourth less will be taken for ready
money. ' '

Peggy was not a satisfactory slave, she had awkward
visions of freedom. On September 2, 1803, Eussell ad-
vertised: "The subscriber's black servant Peggy not
having his permission to absent herself from his service,
the public are hereby cautioned from employing or har-
bouring her without the owner's leave. Whoever will do
so after this notice may expect to be treated as the law
directs.' '

Peggy was not the only slave who was dissatisfied with
her lot. On March 1, 1811, William Jarvis, the Secretary
of the Province "informed the Court that a negro boy and
girl, his slaves, had the evening before been committed to
prison for having stolen gold and silver out of his desk in
Ms dwelling house and escaped from their said master;
and prayed that the Court would order that the said
prisoners with one Coachly a free negro, also committed
to prison on suspicion of having advised and aided the said
boy and girl in eloping with their master's property. ..."
It was "ordered that the said negro boy named Henry
commonly called Prince be recommitted to prison and there
safely kept till discharged according to law and that the
said girl do return to her said master and Coachly be dis-
charged. ' '29

Jarvis had slaves when he resided at Niagara. We find
in the Eegister of St. Mark's Parish there an entry of Feb-

28 Henry Scadding's Toronto of Old, p. 296. Dr. Scadding, speaks of his
"in former times" gazing at Amy Pompadour with some curiosity.

Miss Elizabeth Eussell, sister of the Administrator, had a slave, a pure
Negro Amy Pompadour, whom she gave to Mrs. Denison wife of Captain John
Denison, an old comrade in arms of her brother's.

29 Ibid., p. 292. The boy if he had stolen his master's money would be
guilty of grand larceny, a capital offence at the time and consequently not
tried at the Quarter Sessions. He was, therefore, recommitted to prison to
await the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery commonly
called the Assizes.

The master probably withdrew the charge against the girl and Coachly,
or they may have been so fortunate as that there was no evidence against them.

The Slave in Canada 69

ruary 5, 1797, of Moses and Phoebe, Negro slaves of Mr.
1 ' Sec 'y Jarvis. ' ' Nor is this a unique entry, for we find this :
"1819 April 4, Cupitson Walker and Margt. Lee (of
Colour )," but these may have been free.

There were baptized : ' ' 1793, January 3, Jane a daughter
of Martin, Col. Butler's Negro/ ' "1794, September 3, Cloe,
a mulatto,' ' "1800, March 29, Peggy a mulatto (filia
populi)," "1807, May 10, John of a negro girl (filius
populi) " and in the same list was a soldier shot for deser-
tion, a soldier who shot himself, "an unfortunate stranger,"
"R. B. Tickel, alas he was starved," an Indian child, "Cut-
nose Johnson, a Mohawk chief" and there is recorded
the burial of "Mrs. Waters a negro woman," September
29, 1802.30

Slaves continued to run away. Colonel Butler in the
Upper Canada Gazette of July 4, 1793, advertised a reward
of $5 for his "negro-man servant named John."31 On
August 28, 1802, Mr. Charles Field of Niagara advertised
in the Herald: "All persons are forbidden harbouring, em-
ploying or concealing my Indian Slave Sal, as I am de-
termined to prosecute any offender to the extremity of the
law and persons who may suffer her to remain in or upon
their premises for the space of half an hour, without my

30 See the lists in the Ont. Hist. Soc. Payers (1901), Vol. 3, pp. 9 sqq.

In the list of marriages are found: ''1797, Oct. 12, Cuff Williams and
Ann, Negroes from Mr. C. McNabb"; ''1800, Dec. 1, Prince Eobinson and
Phillis Gibson, Negroes " and six other marriages down to 1831 between per-
sons "of Colour". These last were probably not slaves.

That Joseph Brant, " Thayendinaga, " the celebrated Indian Chief, had
Negro slaves has been confidently asserted and as confidently denied. That
there were Negroes in his household seems certain and their status was inferior.
Whether he called them slaves or not, it is probable that he had full control
of them. See Stone's Life of Brant, New York, 1838. He rather boasted of his
slaves. • He was attended on his journeys and at table by two of them, Patton
and Simon Ganseville. Hamilton in his Osgoode Hall, Toronto, 1904, says
(p. 21): "Thayendinaga lived surrounded with slaves and retainers in bar-
barous magnificence at Burlington." But that is rhetoric.

3i Trans. Can. Inst., Vol. 1 (1889-1890), p. 105.

70 The Slave in Canada

written consent will be taken as offending and dealt with
accordingly."32

There was always a demand for good slaves. For ex-
ample, in the Gazette and Oracle of Niagara October 11,
1797, W. & J. Crooks of West Niagara " Wanted to pur-
chase a negro girl of good disposition": a little later,
January 2, 1802 the Niagara Herald advertised for sale
"a negro man slave, 18 years old, stout and healthy; has
had the Smallpox and is capable of service either in the
house or out-doors. The terms will be made easy to the
purchaser, and cash or new lands received in payment."
On January 18, 1802, the Niagara Herald proclaimed for
sale: "the negro man and woman, the property of Mrs.
Widow Clement. They have been bred to the business of
a farm ; will be sold on highly advantageous terms for cash
or lands."33

Slavery in Upper Canada continued until the Imperial
Act of 183334 but there does not seem to be any record of
sales after 1806. Probably the last slaves to become free
were two who are mentioned by the late Sir Adam Wilson,
Chief Justice successively of the Courts of Common Pleas
and Queen's Bench at Toronto. These were "two young
slaves, Hank and Sukey whom he met at the residence of
Mrs. O'Beilly, mother of the venerable Miles O'Beilly, Q.
C, in Halton County about 1830. They took freedom
under the Act of 1833 and were perhaps the last slaves in
the province."35

32 Dr. Scadding ut supra, p. 295. This is almost the only trace of Panis
slavery in Upper Canada, proper, which I have found. The attempt to make
a crime by the advertiser is not without precedent or imitation : it was, however,
merely a threat and a ~brutum fulmen.

33 Dr. Scadding ut supra, pp. 294, 295.

Such advertisements as these of 1802 indicate an uneasiness as to the
security of the slave property. Dr. Scadding remarks "Cash and lands were
plainly beginning to be regarded as less precarious property than human
chattels/' ibid., p. 295.

3* See supra, p. 51.

ss Trans. Can. Inst., ut supra, p. 106.

These if actual slaves could not have been very young. If they were
brought into the province after the Act of 1793 they would become free ipso

The Slave in Canada 71

In the Detroit neighborhood there were undoubtedly
many slaves, Panis and Negro : most of these were lost to
the province on the delivery up of the retained territory in
1796 under the provisions of Jay's Treaty. But some were
on the Canadian side and some were brought over by their
masters on the surrender. Colonel Matthew Elliott who
settled in 1784 just below Amherstburg brought many
slaves, some sixty it is said. The remains of slave quar-
ters are still in existence on the place. Jacques Duperon
Baby the well-known fur-trader had at least thirty.

Antoine Louis Descompte dit Labadie, who raised a
family of thirty-three children was the owner of slaves
also. He was a wealthy farmer of the Township of Sand-
wich (now Walkerville) and died in 1806, aged 62. On
May 26, 1806, he made at Sandwich his will by which he
made the following bequest: "I also give and bequeath to
my wife the use or service of two slaves that she may select,
as long as she continues to be my widow. ' ' After a number
of bequests there follows: "I will that all my personal
property not here above bequeathed as well as my slaves
with the exception of the two left to my wife, be portioned
out or sold, and that the proceeds arising therefrom be
equally divided between my said wife and the nine chil-
dren36 born out of my marriage with her."

Some of these slaves were probably Panis. There is
extant a parchment receipt dated at Detroit, October 10,
1775, which reads :

" Je certifie avoir vendu et livre au Sieur Labadie, une esclave
Paniese37 no-mmee Mannon pour et en consideration de la quan-
tity de quatre-vingt minots38 de Ble de froment qu'il doit me payer

facto. If born after that Act they "would not properly speaking be slaves at
all but only subject to service until the age of 25.

If they were slaves they must have been at least 37 in 1830; but probably
they were born after 1793 and had not attained the age of 25 in 1833. They
might then be young as described by Sir Adam.

36 Labadie had been twice married.

37 For "Panise."

ss The French minot is 39.36 litres; the Canadian 36.34 litres or 63.94
pints — the bushel is 64 pints — the Canadian minot is consequently almost
exactly one bushel.

72 The Slave in Canada

a mesure qu'il aura au printemps prochain, donne sous ma main
au Detroit ce dixieme jour d'Octobre, 1775.

Temoin (Signe) James Sterling39

Signe) John Porteous.

Some of the reports of judges who presided over crim-
inal assizes, moreover, contain references to slavery. Mr.
Justice Powell tried a Negro, Jack York, with a jury at
Sandwich for burglary in 1800. He was found guilty and
in accordance with the law at that time, was sentenced
to death. Powell respited the prisoner that the pleasure
of the Lieutenant Governor might be known. The Lieu-
tenant-Governor at that time was General Peter Hunter a
rigid disciplinarian. Hunter wrote Powell that as York
had been convicted of "the most atrocious offence without
any circumstances of doubt or alleviation' ' he was to be
hanged. "When York was made aware of his fate, he
promptly escaped from the ramshackle gaol at Sandwich.

In the proceedings Captain McKee informed the judge
that the main witness had "been an Indian prisoner re-
deemed by his father and had lived in his kitchen and he
did not think her credit good. ' ' She was one of Mr. James
Girty's three Negroes and "known to be saucy.' M0

39 Essex Historical Society — Papers and Addresses, Vol. 1, Windsor, Ont.
(1913), pp. 13, 39, 48-52.

This is translated thus: "I certify that I have sold and delivered to Mr.
Labadie a Panis slave called Manon for and in 'consideration of 80 minots
(practically 80 bushels) of wheat which he is to pay me as he has it the coming
spring — given under my hand at Detroit this 10th day of October, 1775.
Witness: (Signed)

(Signed) John Porteous. James Sterling. "

40 The fact was that Jack York had broken into McKee 's dwelling house
to commit rape and he had committed rape on the person of Mrs. Ruth Suffle-
mine (or Stufflemine).

Powell's report is dated from Mount Dorchester, September 22, 1800.
Canadian Archives, Sundries V. C. 1792-1800 ; Hunter's decision in May is in
Canadian Archives Letters Hunter to Heads of Departments, p. 65; York's
escape is ibid., p. 84; the Death Warrant is referred to in Canadian Archives
Sundries U. C. 1792-1800.

There were certainly slaves in the Western District. The will of Antoine
Louis Descomps Labadie made May 26, 1806, contains a bequest "I also give
and bequeath to my wife Charlotte, the use or service of two slaves that she

The Slave in Canada 73

Another report nearly a score of years later may be of
interest. It can be best understood in its historical setting.
During the war of 1812, as soon as the American invasion
of Canada began, prices of all commodities began to soar.41
There was a great demand for beef for the troops regular
and militia and the commissariat was not too scrupulously
particular to inquire the source whence it might come.
The result was that a crime which had been almost un-
known suddenly increased to alarmingly large proportions.
Cattle roaming in the woods were killed and the meat sold
to the army. Prosecutions were instituted in many cases.
It was found that the perpetrators were generally, but by
no means always, landless men, not infrequently refugee
slaves, who had come to the province from the United
States. The offence was punishable with death:42 and con-
victions were not hard to obtain. But the punishment of
death was not in practice actually inflicted.

Whatever the cause, the crime continued until normal
conditions were reestablished when it became as rare as it
had been before the war. At the Fall Assizes, 1819, at
York before Mr. Justice Campbell and a jury, a man of
color, Philip Turner, was convicted of stealing and killing
a heifer and sentenced to death: Mr. Justice Powell who

may select as long as she continues to be my widow.' ' "A black boy slave
to Mrs. Benton, widow of the late Commodore of the Lakes" seems to have
been as bad as Jack York. Convicted at Kingston of a house robbery, a
capital crime he had the ' ' benefit of clergy ' ' that is, set free as a first offence.
But he did not mend his ways. He committed burglary and was convicted at
Kingston 1795 before Mr. Justice Powell. The judge sentenced him to be
hanged but recommended a pardon. He said the boy was said to be 17 but
looked no more than 15 and in view of his education as a slave he hoped that
his " would not be the first capital example." Can. Arch., B. 210.

41 In a memorial by the judges of the Court of King's Bench to the
Lieutenant Governor, January 10, 1814, they point out that prices have doubled
since the war. The prices before the war and at the time were of bread 1 /
and 2 /; of beef 6 d and 1 /; of wood 7/6 and 15/.

42 Before 1772, this was not a crime at all but only a civil trespass; the
Waltham Black Act (1722) 9 George I, c. 22 made it a felony punishable with
death without benefit of clergy. This continued to be the law in England until
the Act (1827) 7, 8 George IV, c. 27 (Imp.), and in Upper Canada until 1841.

74 The Slave in Canada

had been in the Commission of Oyer and Terminer with
Campbell reported to the Lieutenant-Governor43 that there
had as yet been no execution for this offence in the province
and recommended that the sentence should be committed to
banishment for life from His Majesty's dominions.44
Tradition has it that Turner was a refugee from the United
States and begged to be hanged rather than sent back
where he would be again enslaved.45

When the fugitive slave reached the soil of Upper
Canada he became and was free with all the rights and
privileges of any other freeman : but sometimes the former
condition of servitude had unhappy results. One case will
suffice. John Harris was a slave in Virginia. He rented
a house in Eichmond and lived in it with his wife Sarah
Holloway. Harris was a painter and gave the greater part
of his earnings to his master. The wife earned money by
washing and gave to her mistress part of her scanty earn-
ings. The wife's second name was that of her master
Major Halloway in whose house she had been married in
1825 to Harris by the Eeverend Ei chard Vaughan, a Bap-
tist minister, a free man. The couple had three children.

In 1833 Harris effected his escape to Upper Canada and
came to Toronto (then York) in the spring of 1834 under
the name of George Johnstone. In 1847 he obtained from
John Beverley Eobinson, Chief Justice of Upper Canada a
deed of three acres of land part of Lot 12 in the First Con-
cession from the bay east of the river Don in the Town-
ship of York. He died without a will in February, 1851.
The deserted wife after his escape married a man by the

43 Sir Peregrine Maitland.

44 Banishment existed as a punishment in Upper Canada until 1841, when
it was finally abolished and succeeded by imprisonment. Banishment was a
very common alternative for hanging. I have counted as many as four cases
at one assize.

45 The tradition is a floating and rather indefinite one. It has some
plausibility but there is nothing which to my mind can be dignified by the
name of proof. The facts of the Turner case will be found in a Report by
Mr. (afterwards Chief) Justice Powell to Sir Peregrine Maitland 's Secretary
Edward McMahon, November 1, 1819, Canadian Archives, Sundries, TJ. C, 1819.

The Slave in Canada 75

name of Brown. She continued a slave until the fall of
Eichmond and died in 1869 or 1870.46

46 Canadian Archives, Q. 324, pp. 432, 436 Letter, June 8, 1818, from
"Thos. N. Stewart, Capt. H. P. late Royal Newfoundland Regiment" to the
Roght Honourable Earl Bathurst, dated from Barnstable, North Devon.

Turning to a more pleasant subject, while it may not be strictly within the
purview of this treatise, it may be permitted to bring to light from the files of
the Canadian Archives a story of a poor black woman who showed true hu-
manity. It may be considered by some at the expense of her patriotism. That
will not be admitted by everyone, for what share did the Negro have in America
in which he lived more than in Britain which offered him freedom?

When in May, 1813, General Dearborn took Fort George in Upper Canada,
one of his prisoners was Captain Thomas N. Stewart of the Royal Newfound-
land Regiment who was wounded. Taken to the United States, he was with
several other British officers kept for months a close prisoner at Philadelphia as
a hostage under the retaliation system.

"At length," said he, "I with fourteen other officers made my escape
from the prison at Philadelphia by sawing off the iron bars with the springs of
watches, but from the active search which was made ten of my companions
were retaken in the course of three days. I . . . attribute my success (as well
as that of two more British officers) in being enabled to elude the vigilance of
the enemy to the kindness and humanity of a poor black woman to whose pro-
tection we committed ourselves in our real character and situation: and not-
withstanding a reward of one hundred dollars was offered for the apprehension
of each officer without our even being able to reward her in an equal degree,
she persevered in affording us comfort and accommodation, greatly to her own
risk and loss by the total resignation of her small hut and a tender of her
services to our use visiting us only at night with provisions, &c. This she con-
tinued to do for eight days. When it was thought that the active search was
in a great degree abated I ventured by night to leave the abode of this black
woman with the intention of going to the Headquarters of the British Army
in Canada and this I ultimately succeeded in accomplishing. ' '

His companions leaving one by one at different times also succeeded in re-
turning to the service of their country. Having only $70 and having to travel
600 miles, Capt. Stewart could give the woman only $20: and all she received
from all the officers was only $50. He wrote Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State
for War and the Colonies asking that she should be remunerated and saying
that he would "be most happy to give the address and the source thro' which
communication could be made. M

Bathurst replied June 13, asking for particulars, and Captain Stewart
June 18 wrote again on the eighteenth of June saying that the matter required
the utmost circumspection and excusing himself from giving information until
he had communication with America, hoping to point out the precise object
whom "His Lordship has thought worthy of remuneration. ' ' No doubt the
matter then passed into the Secret Service, as no further correspondence is pre-
served in documents open to the public.

Canadian Archives, Q 324, pp. 432, 436.

76 The Slave in Canada

About that time the eldest son came to Canada, and he
brought an action as the heir-at-law against one Cooper,
the person in possession.47 All the facts were clear and the
only difficulty in the way was as to the validity of the
marriage of the Negro. Chief Justice William Buell
Eichards, of the Court of Queen's Bench tried the case at
the Fall Assizes, 1870, at Toronto. Evidence was given
by a Virginia lawyer and judge that there was no law in
Virginia either authorizing or forbidding the marriage of
slaves because "slaves were property and not persons for
marital purposes. ... In short, by the law of Virginia,
slaves were but property, treated as property exclusively,
except where by special Statute they were made persons."48

On this evidence, therefore, the Chief Justice dismissed
the action. The plaintiff appealed to the full Court of
Queen's Bench49 urging that the slaves had done all they
could to make their marriage legal. In vain, they were not
British subjects and the rules of international law were
too rigid to allow of the court holding the marriage legal.
Mr. Justice Wilson in giving the judgment of the Court
said :

"This is, no doubt, an unfortunate conclusion, for the
plaintiff is undoubtedly the child of John Harris and Sarah

47 Two years after her first husband's death, that is, in 1853, the widow
who had then married one Scott sold the lot to Mr. Boomer for $300. Mr.
Boomer sold two acres to Edward Osborne and he to Cooper for $800. By
1871 the land had appreciated in value so as to make it worth a lawsuit. Of
course, the widow never had any right to sell the land, but it was at least
ungracious for her son to repudiate her deed.

48 The law of Virginia as to marriages of slaves even with the consent of
the master was fully and clearly stated by the Court of Appeals of Virginia
in the case of Scott v. Eaub (1872) 88 Virginia, 721. See also the decision
of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Hall v. United
States, 92 U. S. 127; and in Alabama, Matilda v. Gardner, 24 Alabama, 719.

49 The motion was heard in Trinity Term, 34 Victoriae i.e. in February,
1871; see the report in 31 Upper Canada Queen's Bench Eeports, p. 182: Harris
v. Cooper. The Court was composed of the Chief Justice William Buell Eich-
ards, afterward Sir William Buell Eichards, Chief Justice of Canada, Mr. Jus-
tice Joseph Curran Morrison, afterwards a Judge of the Court of Error and
Appeal, and Mr. Justice Adam Wilson, afterwards successively Chief Justice
of the Court of Common Pleas, and of the Court of Queen 's Bench.

The Slave in Canada 77

who were made man and wife in form and by all the usnal
solemnities of real matrimony. The parents were of ma-
ture age, of sound sense, reason and understanding. The
father had a trade which he followed by permission of his
master for a yearly sum which he paid to him for the
privilege, or as it is said 'he hired his own time/ He
rented a house for himself; he was married with the con-
sent of those who could give it by a minister in orders and
in form at least under the sanction of religion: he lived
with the woman he had taken as his wife and had children
by her and left her only to gain his freedom; yet it is mani-
fest by the force of positive human law, there was no
marriage and no legitimate issue.,,5°

so 31 Upper Canada Queen's Bench Reports at p. 195, 1871.

CHAPTER VI
The Fugitive Slave in Upper Canada

Before the Act of 1793, there was some immigration of
slaves fleeing from their masters in the United States.
After the Act of 1793, however, a slave by entering Upper
Canada became free, whether he was brought in by his
master or fled from him. Legislation of the United States
in the same year1 increased the number of those fleeing to
the province under this law. Slaves who had effected their
escape to what were considered free States were liable to
be reclaimed by their masters. Shocking instances of the
forcing into renewed slavery of the escaped slave and even
of enslaving free persons of color are on record and there
are told worse which never saw the open light of day.

1 The first Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States in 1793.
Three years afterwards occurred an episode, little known and less commented
upon, showing very clearly the views of George Washington on the subject of
fugitive slaves, at least of those slaves who were his own.

A slave girl of his escaped and made her way to Portsmouth, N. H. ;
Washington on discovering her place of refuge, wrote concerning her to Joseph
Whipple the Collector at Portsmouth, November 28, 1796. The letter is still
extant. It is of three full pages and was sold in London in 1877 for ten
guineas. (Magazine of American History, Vol. 1, December, 1877, p. 759.)
Charles Sumner had it in his hands when he made the speech reported in
Charles Sumner's Works, Vol. Ill, p. 177. Washington in the letter described
the fugitive and particularly expressed the desire of "her mistress" Mrs.
Washington for her return to Alexandria. He feared public opinion in New
Hampshire for he added: —

"I do not mean by this request that such violent measure should be used
as would excite a mob or riot which might be the case if she has adherents;
or even uneasy sensations in the minds of well disposed citizens. Eather than
either of these should happen, I would forego her services altogether and the
example also which is of infinite more importance. ' '

In other words if the slave girl has no friends or "adherents," send her
back to slavery — if she has and they would actively oppose her return, let her
go — and even if it only be that "well-disposed citizens" disapprove of her
capture and return, let her remain free.

The Slave in Canada 79

Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin about the
same time2 made slaves much more valuable and not only
checked the movement toward gradual emancipation but
increased the ardor with which the fugitive was pursued.
From 1793 the influx of fugitive slaves into the province
never quite ceased. The War of 1812 saw former slaves
in the Canadian militia fighting against their former
masters and Canada as an asylum of freedom became
known in the South by mysterious but effective means.
"As early as 1815 negroes were reported crossing the
Western Reserve to Canada in great numbers and one
group of Underground Railway workers in Southern Ohio
is stated to have passed on more than 1000 fugitives before
1817. "3

It is not proposed here to give an account of the cele-
brated Underground Railway. It is sufficient to say that
it was the cause of hundreds of slaves reaching the prov-
ince.4 Some slaves escaped by their own efforts in what
can fairly be called a miraculous way. No more dramatic
or thrilling tales were ever told than could be told by some
of these refugees. Some having been brought by their
masters near to the Canadian boundary then clandestinely
or by force effected a passage. Some came from far to
the South, guided by the North Star. Many were assisted
by friends more or less secretly. These refugees joined

2 Whitney's first patent was 1784. His rights were firmly established in
1807.

3 Landon, Canada 's Part in Freeing the Slave, Ontario Historical Society,
Papers, etc. (1919), quoting Birney's James G. Birney and His Times, p. 435.

Mr. Landon 's paper is of great interest and value and I gladly avail
myself of the permission to use it.

* A fairly good account of the Underground Eailway will be found in
William Still's Underground Bailroad, Philadelphia, 1872, in W. H. Mitchell's
Underground Eailway, London, 1860; in W. H. Siebert's Underground Eailway,
New York, 1899, and in a number of other works on Slavery. Considerable
space is given the subject in most works on Slavery.

One branch of it ran from a point on the Ohio Eiver, through Ohio and
Michigan to Detroit; but there were many divagations, many termini, many
stations; Oberlin was one of these. See Dr. A. M. Boss, Memoirs of a Re-
former, Toronto, 1893, and Mich. Hist. Coll., XVII, p. 248.

80 The Slave in Canada

settlements with other people of color freeborn or freed
in the western part of the Peninsula, in the counties of
Essex and Kent and elsewhere.5 Some of them settled in
other parts of the province, either together or more usually
sporadically. Toronto received many. These were su-
perior to most of their race, for none but those with more
than ordinary qualities could reach Canada.6

The masters of runaway slaves did not always remain
quiet when their slaves reached this province. Sometimes
they followed them in an attempt to take them back. There
are said to have been a few instances of actual kidnapping.
There were some of attempted kidnapping. Most of these
are merely traditional but at least one is well authenti-
cated.7

In May, 1830, a young man with finely chiselled features,
bright hazel eyes, apparently a quadroon or octoroon ap-
plied for service at the house of Charles Baby, "the old
Baby mansion in the . . . historical town of Sandwich"
in Upper Canada on the Detroit Eiver. He said he had
escaped from slavery in Kentucky, had arrived on the
previous evening at Detroit and had crossed the river to
Canada as quickly as possible. He had been a mason but
understood gardening and attending to horses and had
other accomplishments. He was engaged and proved a

5 The Buxton Mission in the County of Kent is well known. The Wilber-
force Colony in the County of Middlesex was founded by free Negroes but
they had in mind to furnish homes for future refugees. See Mr. Fred Lon-
don's account of this settlement in the recent (1918) Transactions of the
London and Middlesex Hist. Soc., pp. 30-44. For an earlier account see A.
Steward's Twenty Years a Slave (Eoehester, N. Y., 1857).

6 "The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by
force." There can be no doubt that the Southern Negro looked upon Canada
as a paradise. I have heard a colored clergyman of high standing say that
of his own personal knowledge dying slaves in the South not infrequently
expressed a hope to meet their friends in Canada.

7 Souvenirs of the Past, by William Lewis Baby, Windsor, Ontario, 1896.
Mr. Baby is a member of an old French-Canadian family of the highest repute
for honor and public service. Charles Baby was the author's brother. The
author lived with him and tells the story of his own knowledge. The quota-
tions are from Mr. Baby's book.

The Slave in Canada 81

satisfactory servant "respectful, cleanly, capable, lithe and
active as a panther. ' ' His former master came from Ken-
tucky and reclaimed him after the lapse of six months.
The recognition was mutual and immediate. The Ken-
tuckian, offered $2000 to Baby for the return of Andrew
his former slave, but the offer was indignantly refused. It
turned out that Andrew had taken his master's favorite
horse to assist him in his flight but had turned it loose after
riding it some twenty-five miles. Whether for this reason
or for some other, the Kentuckian did not appeal for the
extradition of Andrew8 but determined to use violence.

A short time afterwards five desperadoes from Detroit
attempted to kidnap Andrew while the family were at
Church, but they were successfully resisted by Andrew and
Charles Baby until the service was over and the people
were seen hastening home. The would-be kidnappers made
their escape across the river. Finding it dangerous to
keep Andrew so near the border, the neighbors took up
a subscription and he was sent by stage to York (Toronto).
This place he reached in safety. "He made good" and
lived a respectable and useful life undisturbed by any fear
of Kentucky vengeance.9

The law as to such attempts was authoritatively stated
in 1819 by John Beverley Robinson, Attorney General of
Upper Canada, afterwards Sir John Beverley Eobinson,
Bart., Chief Justice of Upper Canada. The opinion will
be given in his own words :10

"In obedience to Your Excellency's comments I have perused
the accompanying letter from G. C. Antrobus Esquire, His
Majesty's charge d' affaires at the Court of Washington and have
attentively considered the question referred to me by Your Excel-
lency thereupon — namely — " "Whether the owners of several Negro
Slaves who have fled from the United States of America and are
now resident in this Province can be permitted to come hither and

s As was done in the case of Solomon Mosely, spoken of infra, p. 85.

9 I have not been able to verify other tales of attempted abduction to my
satisfaction; there are, however, several stories which may be true.

10 Canadian Archives Sundries, 77. C, 1819.

82 The Slave in Canada

obtain possession of their property, and whether restitution of
such Negroes can be made by the interposition of the government
of this Province" and I beg to express most respectfully my opinion
to your Excellency that the Legislature of this Province having
adopted the Law of England as the rule of decision in all ques-
tions relative to property and civil rights, and freedom of the
person being the most important civil right protected by those
laws, it follows that whatever may have been the condition of these
Negroes in the Country to which they formerly belonged, here
they are free — For the enjoyment of all civil rights consequent to
a mere residence in the country and among them the right to
personal freedom as acknowledged and protected by the Laws of
England in cases similar to that under consideration, must not-
withstanding any legislative enactment that may be thought to
affect it, with which I am acquainted, be extended to these Negroes
as well as to all others under His Majesty's Government in this
Province. The consequence is that should any attempt be made by
any person to infringe upon this right in the persons of these
Negroes, they would most probably call for, and could compel the
interference of those to whom the administration of our Laws is
committed and I submit with the greatest deference to Your Ex-
cellency that it would not be in the power of the Executive Gov-
ernment in any manner to restrain or direct the Courts or Judges
in the exercise of their duty upon such an application. ' ni

Then came a number of applications for the return of
runaway slaves cloaked under criminal charges, the pre-
tence being made that they had committed some crime and
that it was desired to bring them to trial and punishment.
There can be no doubt that in the absence of some constitu-
tional provision every country has the right to keep out
criminals and, if they have entered the country, to hand
them over to the authorities of the country whence they
came ; but the rules of international law have never gone so
far as to make it obligatory on any country to send away
immigrant criminals even if demanded by their former
country. It has always been the theory in Upper Canada
that the Governor had the power independently of statute

11 John Beverley Bobinson was the son of Christopher Robinson mentioned
above.

The Slave in Canada 83

or treaty to deliver up alien refugees charged with crimes.12
This was not wholly satisfactory and the legislature took
the matter up and passed an act governing such cases, Feb-
ruary 13th, 1833, 13 providing for the apprehension of fugi-
tive offenders from foreign countries, and delivering them
up to justice. This provides that on the requisition of the
executive of any foreign country the governor of the prov-
ince on the advice of his executive council may deliver
up any person in the province charged with "Murder,
Forgery, Larceny or other crime which if committed within
the province would have been punishable with death, cor-
poral punishment, the pillory, whipping or confinement at
hard labour/ ' The person charged might be arrested and
detained for inquiry, but the act was permissive only and
the delivery up was at the discretion of the Governor-in-
Council.

It was under this act that the extradition of Thornton
Blackburn was sought but finally refused. The case was
this: Two persons of color named Blackburn, a man and
his wife, were claimed as slaves on behalf of some person
in the State of Kentucky. They were arrested in Detroit
in 1833 and examined before a magistrate, who, in accord-
ance with the law of the United States, made his certificate
and directed them to be delivered over as the personal
property of the claimant in Kentucky. The sheriff took
them into custody but when one of them was on the point

12 The same rule obtained in Lower Canada; (1827) re Joseph Fisher,
1 Stuart's L. C. Eep. 245.

i3 This is the Act (1833), 3 Will IV, c. 7 (U. €.). This statute came
forward as cap. 96 in the Consolidated Statutes of Upper Canada, 1859, but
was repealed by an Act of (United) Canada (1860), 23 Vic. c. 91 (Can.).

The Act of 1833 was drawn by Chief Justice Eobinson and introduced by
him into the Legislative Council of which he was Speaker — it was a ' ' Govern-
ment measure." Notice of bringing in the bill was given November 28,
1832; the bill brought in November 30; read the second time December 3
passed the committee of the whole on the fourth of December and was finally
passed by the Council the following day. It reached the Legislative Assembly
the same day where it was passed without opposition and received the Royal
Assent February 13, 1833.

84 The Slave in Canada

of being removed from the prison to be restored to bis
owner, he was violently rescued and directed across the
river into Canada. On the day before the rescue of Thorn-
ton Blackburn his wife eluded the jailer in disguise and
escaped to Canada.

The Upper Canadian Government was, therefore, called
upon to return these prisoners to the United States. Upon
examining the record in the case, however, the Attorney Gen-
eral of Upper Canada in reply to the Governor for infor-
mation in the case, advised that the so-called offences of
Thornton Blackburn in trying to effect his own escape from
persons seeking to return him to slavery could not be con-
strued as rioting or rescuing a prisoner from an officer of
the law as had been set forth in the requisition papers from
the Michigan authorities and certainly could not be applied
to Thornton Blackburn's wife who, as the evidence showed,
had taken no part at all in the rescue.

The council14 was thereafter called upon to consider the
question whether, if a similar charge had been committed
in Canada, the offenders would be liable to undergo any of
the punishments provided for in the act passed at the
session of the Canadian Legislature in 1833. The Attorney
General15 was of the opinion that had the Governor been
confined to the official requisition that had accompanied it,
he might have been warranted in delivering up these
persons inasmuch as there was evidence on which, accord-
ing to the terms of the Canadian law, a magistrate would
have been warranted in apprehending and committing for

14 At the meeting were present His Excellency Sir John Oolborne, K. C. B.
Lieutenant Governor, the Hon. and Eev. John Strachan, DJD., Archdeacon of
York, the Honorable Peter Bobinson, the Honorable George Herchmer Mark-
land, the Honorable Joseph Fells, and the Honorable John Elmsley. The Execu-
tive Council at that time was very much under the influence of the Chief
Justice and Dr. Strachan, then Archdeacon afterwards the first Anglican
Bishop of York or Toronto.

is Eobert Sympson Jameson an English barrister of the Middle Temple,
a familiar friend of Coleridge and Southey and the husband of Anna Jameson
of some literary note.

The report is from the Canadian Archives, State J., p. 137.

The Slave in Canada 85

trial persons charged with riot, forcible rescue and assault
and battery. The Attorney General believed, however,
that the Governor and the Council were not confined to
such evidence since, though limited in their authority to
enforcing the provisions of the act against fugitives from
foreign States, on being satisfied that the evidence would
warrant the commitment for trial, yet in coming to that
conclusion, they were bound to hear not ex parte evidence
alone but matter explanatory to guide their judgment; for
even with the authority so to do, they were not required
to deliver up any prisoner so charged, if for any reason
they deemed it inexpedient so to do.

The conclusion of the Attorney General, therefore, was
that Blackburn and his wife were not charged with any
of the offences enumerated in the statute of Canada and
that the Governor and Council were not authorized by its
provisions to send them out of the province. He said,
moreover: "It has not escaped our attention as a peculiar
feature in this case that two of the persons whom the
Government of this Province is requested to deliver up are
persons recognized by the Government of Michigan as
slaves and that it appears upon these documents that if
they should be delivered up they would by the laws of the
United States be exposed to be forced into a state of
slavery from which they had escaped two years ago when
they fled from Kentucky to Detroit; that if they should be
sent to Michigan and upon trial be convicted of the riot
and punished they would after undergoing their punish-
ment be subject to be taken by their masters and continued
in a state of slavery for life, and that, on the other hand,
if they should never be prosecuted, or if they should be
tried and acquitted, this consequence would equally follow.' '

The next case was not so happy in its result. It caused
much excitement at the time and is not yet forgotten.
Solomon Mosely or Moseby, a Negro slave, came to the
province across the Niagara Eiver from Buffalo which he
had reached after many days travel from Louisville, Ken-

86 The Slave in Canada

tucky. His master followed him and charged him with the
larceny of a horse which the slave took to assist him in
his flight. That he had taken the horse there was no
doubt and as little that after days of hard riding he had
sold it. The Negro was arrested and placed in the Niagara
Gaol. A prima facie case was made out and an order sent
for his extradition.16

!6 The Executive Council on September 7th 1837 recommended his extradi-
tion. The following is a copy of the Proceedings:

Executive Council Chamber at Toronto Thursday 7th September 1837
Requisition for Solomon Mosely

Read the Requisition of the Governor of the State of Kentucky and other
documents relating to the surrender of Solomon Mosely a fugitive from the
State of Kentucky charged with Horse stealing.

Read also the Attorney General opinion thereon as follows:

Attorney General's Office
Toronto 6th September 1837
Sir,

I have the honor to report that in my opinion there is sufficient proof of
the guilt of Solomon alias John Mosely a fugitive from the State of Kentucky
charged with horse stealing in that Country — to Warrant His Excellency the
Lieutenant Governor (with the advice of the Executive Council) to deliver him
up upon the request made by the Governor of the State referred to.

I have the honor to be &c

(Signed) Cs Hagerman, Atty, Gen
J Joseph Esq,

Civil Secretary.

The Council concur in the above opinion of the Attorney General and
consider that the ease comes within 3rd Wm 4 Ch 7 and therefore advise His
Excellency the Lieutenant Governor to deliver up the Fugitive alluded to in
the requisition of His Excellency the Governor of the State of Kentucky.

— Can. Arch. State J. Upper Canada, p. 595.

In a despatch from Head to Lord Glenelg, October 8, 1837, Can. Arch.
Q. 398, p. 149, Head says: "In a case brought before me only a few days
previous to that which is the subject of this communication (i.e., the Jesse
Happy case) I insisted on giving up to the Governor of the Commonwealth
of Kentucky (a slave) who in order to effect his escape had been guilty of
stealing his Master's horse. It was suggested that the real object was to
get him back to his Master — not to punish him for the crime. But the crime
was perfectly proved and the Council followed the judicial opinion in the
Thornton Blackburn case that as the black had been shown to have committed
an offence clearly coming within the statute of 1833, they could not advise a
course to be taken different from that which should be pursued with respect
to free white persons under the same circumstances." They, therefore, ad-
vised an order for extradition.

The Slave in Canada 87

The people of color of the Niagara region made the
Mosely case their own and determined to prevent his de-
livery up to the American authorities to be taken to the
land of the free and the home of the brave, knowing that
there for him to be brave meant torture and death, and
that death alone could set him free. Under the leadership
of Herbert Holmes, a yellow man17 a teacher and preacher,
they lay around the jail night and day to the number of
from two to four hundred to prevent the prisoner's de-
livery up. At length the deputy sheriff with a military
guard brought out the unfortunate man shackled to a
wagon from the jail yard, to go to the ferry across the
Niagara Eiver. Holmes and a man of color named Green
grabbed the lines. Deputy Sheriff McLeod gave the order
to fire and charge. One soldier shot Holmes dead and
another bayoneted Green, so that he died almost at once.
Mosely, who was very athletic leaped from the wagon and
made his escape. He went to Montreal and afterward to
England, finally returning to Niagara, where he was joined
by his wife, who also escaped from slavery.

An inquest was held on the bodies of Holmes and Green.
The jury found "justifiable homicide' ' in the case of
Holmes. "Whether justifiable or unjustifiable" there was
not sufficient evidence before the jury to decide in the
case of Green. The verdict in the case of Holmes was the
only possible verdict on the admitted facts. Holmes was
forcibly resisting an officer of the law in executing a legal
order of the proper authority. In the case of Green the
doubt arose from the uncertainty whether he was bayon-
eted while resisting the officer or after Mosely had made
his escape. The evidence was conflicting and the fact has
never been made quite clear. No proceedings were taken
against the deputy sheriff; but a score or more of the
people of color were arrested and placed in prison for a

17 To his people he seems to have been known as (t Hubbard Holmes"; he
is always called a "yellow man," whether mulatto, quadroon, octoroon or
other does not appear.

88 The Slave in Canada

time. The troublous times of the Mackenzie Bebellion
came on and the men of color were released, many of them
joining a Negro militia company which took part in pro-
tecting the border.

The affair attracted much attention in the province and
opinions differed. While there were exceptions on both
sides, it may fairly be said that the conservative and gov-
ernment element reprobated the conduct of the blacks in
the strongest terms, being as little fond of mob law as of
slavery, and that the radicals including the followers of
Mackenzie, looked upon Holmes and Green as martyrs in
the cause of liberty. That Holmes and Green and their
followers violated the law there is no doubt ; but so did Oliver
Cromwell, George Washington and John Brown. Every
one must decide for himself whether the occasion justified
in the courts of Heaven an act which must needs be con-
demned in the courts of earth.18

It was, however, only when the alleged crime was recent
and followed up promptly that the rigid rule of extraditing
slaves accused of crime was applied. A case which came
before the Executive Council a few days after Mosely's is
a good illustration of the care taken in such cases. Jesse
Happy, a slave in Kentucky, had made his escape to
Canada, stealing a horse with which he outran his pur-
suers. Knowing the indisposition of the Canadian authori-
ties to return fugitives from slavery, the Governor of Ken-
tucky undertook to have this fugitive extradited on the
ground that he was charged with a felony in that common-
wealth. It appeared that the real object of the application
from Kentucky was not so much to bring Happy to trial
for the alleged felony as to reduce him again to a state of
slavery. In the report of the Attorney General reference
was made to an application for extradition in a case in

18 The contemporary accounts of this transaction, e.g., in the Christian
Guardian of Toronto, and the Niagara Chronicle, are not wholly consistent.
The main facts are clear; although there is some doubt as to the time, the
military guard were ordered to fire.

The Slave iist Canada 89

which the offence had been recently committed, and because
of this fact the requisition was honored. In the case of
Jesse Happy, however, the alleged offence had been com-
mitted four years prior to making an effort to have him
extradited. No process had been issued in the State of
Kentucky nor had any steps been taken to punish him for
felony. It was suggested, therefore, that the real object of
this apprehension was to give him up to his former owners
and to deprive him of the personal liberty secured to him
by the laws of Canada.

As the delivery of the slave under these circumstances
would subject him to a double penalty, the one of being
punished for the crime and the other of being returned
to a state of slavery even if he should be acquitted, the
Canadian authorities were in a dilemma; for punishment
of the felony was in strict accordance with the statutes of
Canada whereas the enslavement of the fugitive was in
direct opposition to the genius of its institutions and the
spirit of its laws. Yet as the council19 could not take the
position that because a man happened to be a fugitive slave
he should escape the consequences of crime committed in
a foreign country to which a free man would be amenable,
action was suspended so as to give the accused time to
furnish affidavits of the facts set forth in the petition on his
behalf, and not wishing to make of this a precedent with-
out the support of the highest authority, the matter was
submitted to the Government in England with a request for
their views upon this case as a matter of general policy.20

Lord Palmerston having had the matter brought to his
attention by Lord Grlenelg, Secretary of State for War and
the Colonies, recognized its very great importance. He ac-
cordingly had it submitted to the Law Officers of the Crown.

19 Present, Allen, Hon. Augustus Baldwin and Hon. William Henry
Draper (afterwards Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, 1856, Chief
Justice of the Province of Upper Canada, 1863, and President of the Court of
Error and Appeal 1868 till his death, 1877).

20 Canadian Archives State J., p. 597.

90 The Slave in Canada

The opinion of these officers Sir John Campbell and Sir
Eobert Mousey Eolfe appears from a letter from W. T. H.
Fox Strangeways, Parliamentary Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs addressed February 25, 1838, to Sir
George Gray of the Colonial Department. This officer
said:

"I have received and laid before Viscount Palmerston
your Letter to me of the 6 December 1837 with its accom-
panying copy of a Dispatch from Sir Francis Head, in
which that officer requests Instructions for his guidance, in
the general case of Fugitive Slaves who, having escaped to
Canada may be demanded from the Canadian Authorities
by the Authorities of the United States on the plea of their
having committed crimes is the last mentioned Country and
in the particular case of Jesse Happy, who having escaped
to Upper Canada more than four years ago, had been
demanded from the Lieut. Governor of that Province, upon
the ground of a charge of Horse Stealing.

" These two questions have by direction of Lord Pal-
merston been submitted to the Law Officers of the Crown,
and I am directed by his Lordship to state to you the
opinion of these officers for the information of Lord
Glenelg.

"The Law Officers report upon the general question,
that they think that no distinction should in the case con-
templated, be made between the demand for Slaves or for
Freemen.

"It is the opinion of the Law Officers that in every case
in which there is such Evidence of criminality as, accord-
ing to the terms of the Canadian Statutes, would warrant
the apprehension of the accused Party, if the alleged of-
fence had been committed in Canada, then on the requisi-
tion of the Governor of the Foreign State, the accused
Party ought to be delivered up, without reference to the
question as to whether he is or is not a Slave.

' i The Law Officers desire however that it should be dis-

The Slave in Canada 91

tinctly understood, that the Evidence for this Purpose must
be evidence taken in Canada, upon which (if false) the
Parties making it may be indicted for Perjury.

"The Law Officers remark further on this point that
the 3rd Section of the Provincial Statute enables the Gov-
ernor to refuse to deliver up a Party, whenever special cir-
cumstances may render it inexpedient to accede to the de-
mand made to the Governor on such a point.

"The Law Officers, reporting upon the subject of Jesse
Happy state that they do not think that there was in that
case such evidence of criminality, as, according to the Laws
of the Province of Upper Canada would warrant the ap-
prehension of Jesse Happy if the offence charged had been
committed in U. Canada.

"The Law Officers indeed go farther, and say that so
far as there is any evidence of the Facts, what took place
was not Horse Stealing according to the Laws of Upper
Canada, but merely an unauthorized use of a horse, with-
out any intention of appropriating it.

"The Law Officers conclude by stating, that upon these
grounds, they are of opinion, that Jesse Happy ought to be
set at liberty, and that instructions to that effect should be
sent to the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada."21

On the ninth of May Glenelg wrote to Sir George Arthur
who succeeded Bond Head as Lieutenant Governor of
Upper Canada, saying: "With reference to my Dispatch to
Sir Francis Bond Head of the 4th December last No 255, I
enclose for your information the copy of a letter from the
Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs stating the
substance of the opinion given by the Law Officers of the
Crown in respect to the restitution of Fugitive Slaves who
may be demanded from the Government of Upper Canada

2i Canadian Archives, G. 84, p. 277. The letter to Sir George Arthur is
Hid., G. 84, p. 275. The despatch from Lord Glenelg to Sir Francis Bond
Head dated January 4, 1837, has endorsed on it a pencil memorandum "Jesse
Happy has been liberated by Lieutenant Governor's command November 14,
1837," ibid., G. 83, p. 238.

92 The Slave in Canada

on the plea of their having committed crimes at the places
from which they have fled. In conformity with the opinion
of the Law Officers of the Crown I have to desire that Jesse
Happy, the individual with respect to whom this question
was raised shall be forthwith set at liberty."

It is impossible not to see that the very stringent rules
laid down by the Law Officers of the Crown at Westminster
were intended to be in favor em libertatis. Happy was re-
leased November 14th, 1837, and so far as appears from
the official records no further application was ever made
for the extradition of a runaway slave until after 1842.
That year the well-known Ashburton Treaty was con-
cluded22 between Britain and the United States. This by
Article X provides that "the United States and Her
Britannic Majesty shall, upon mutual requisitions . . . de-
liver up to justice all persons . . . charged with murder,
or assault with intent to commit murder, or piracy or arson
or robbery or forgery or the utterance of forged paper.
. . . ' ' Power was given to judges and other magistrates to
issue warrants of arrest, to hear evidence and if "the evi-
dence be deemed sufficient ... it shall be the duty of the
. . . judge or magistrate to certify the same to the proper
executive authority that a warrant may issue for the sur-
render of such fugitive.' '

It will be seen that this treaty made two important
changes so far as the United States was concerned. It
made it the duty of the executive to order extradition in a
proper case and took away the discretion. It gave the
courts jurisdiction to determine whether a case was made
out for extradition.23 These changes made it more difficult

22 Concluded at Washington, August 9, 1842.

23 It was held in the Province of Upper Canada that the Act of 1833 was
superseded by the Ashburton Treaty in respect to the United States, but that
it remained in force with respect to other countries (Reg. v. Tubber, 1854, 1,
P. R. 98). Since the treaty our government has refused to extradite where the
offence charged is not included in the treaty. In re Laverne Beebe (1863),
3 P. R. 273 — a case of burglary. The provisions of the treaty were brought
into full effect in Canada (Upper and Lower) by the Canadian Statute of
1849, 12, Vie. c. 19; C. B. C. (1859), c. 89.

The Slave in Canada 93

in many instances for a refugee to escape; but the courts
were astute as ever in finding reasons against the return
of slaves.

The case of John Anderson is a well-known one in evi-
dence. He was born a slave in Missouri. As his master was
Moses Burton, he was known as Jack Burton. He married
a slave woman in Howard County, the property of one
Brown. In 1853, Burton sold him to one McDonald living
some thirty miles away and his new master took him to his
plantation. In September 1853 he was seen near the farm
of Brown, when apparently he was visiting his wife. A
neighbor, Seneca T. P. Diggs, became suspicious of him
and questioned him. As his answers were not satisfactory
he ordered his four Negro slaves to seize him, according to
the law in the State of Missouri. The Negro fled, pursued
by Diggs and his slaves. In his attempt to escape the fugi-
tive stabbed Diggs in the breast and Diggs died in a few
hours. Effecting his escape to this province, he was in
1860 apprehended in Brant County, where he had been
living under the name of John Anderson, and three local
justices of the peace committed him under the Ashburton
Treaty. A writ of habeas corpus was granted by the Court
of Queen's Bench at Toronto, under which the prisoner
was brought before the Court of Michaelmas Term of 1860.

The motion was heard by the full court.24 Much of the
argument was on the facts and on the law apart from the
form of the papers, but that was hopeless from the begin-
ning. The law and the facts were too clear, although Mr.
Justice McLean thought the evidence defective. The case
turned on the form of the information and warrant, a some-
what technical and refined point. The Chief Justice Sir
John Beverley Eobinson, and Mr. Justice Burns agreed
that the warrant was not strictly correct, but that it could
be amended. Mr. Justice McLean thought it could not and
should not be amended.

2* The Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Eobinson, Mr. Justice McLean
(afterwards Chief Justice of Upper Canada) and Mr. Justice Burns.

94 The Slave iist Canada

The case attracted great attention throughout the prov-
ince, especially among the Negro population. On the day
on which judgment was to be delivered, a large number of
people of color with some whites assembled in front of
Osgoode Hall.25 While the adverse decision was an-
nounced, there were some mutterings of violence but the
counsel for the prisoner26 addressed them seriously and im-
pressively, reminding them "It is the law and we must
obey it." The melancholy gathering melted away one by
one in sadness and despair.

Anderson was recommitted to the Brantford Jail.27
The case came to the knowledge of many in England. It
was taken up by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery So-
ciety and many persons of more or less note. An applica-
tion was made to the Court of Queen's Bench of England
for a writ of habeas corpus, notwithstanding the Upper
Canadian decision, and while Anderson was in jail at
Toronto, the court after anxious deliberation granted the
writ28 but it became unnecessary owing to further proceed-
ings in Upper Canada.

25 The se*at of the Superior Courts in Toronto, the Palais de Justice of
the Province.

26 Mr. Samuel B. Freeman Q. C, of Hamilton, a man of much natural
eloquence, considerable knowledge of law and more of human nature; he was
always ready and willing to take up the cause of one unjustly accused and
was singularly successful in his defences. I have heard it said that it was
Mr. M. C Cameron, Q. C, who so addressed the gathering but he does not
seem to have been concerned in the case in the Queen's Bench.

27 The case is reported in (1860) 20 U. Can. Q. B., pp. 124-123. The
warrant is given at pp. 192, 193.

28 The case is reported in (1861) 3 Ellis & Ellis Reports, (Queen's Bench,
p. 487; 30, Law Jour., Q. B., p. 129; 7 Jurist N. S., p. 122; 3 Law Times,
N. S., p. 622; 9 Weekly Rep., p. 255.

It was owing to this decision that the statute was passed at Westminster
(1862) 25, 26, Yic. c. 20, which by sec. 1 forbids the courts in England to
issue a writ of habeas corpus into any British possession which has a court
with the power to issue such writ. The Court was Lord Chief Justice Cock-
burn and Justices Crompton, Hill and Blackburn, a very strong court. The
Counsel for Anderson was the celebrated but ill-fated Edwin James. The writ
was specially directed to the sheriff at Toronto, the sheriff at Brantford and
the jail keeper at Brantford. Judgment was given January 15, 1861.

The Slave in Canada 95

In those days the decision of any Court or of any judge
in habeas corpus proceedings was not final. An applicant
might go from judge to judge, court to court29 and the last
applied to might grant the relief refused by all those previ-
ously applied to. A writ of habeas corpus was taken out
from the other Common Law Court in Upper Canada, the
Court of Common Pleas. This was argued in Hilary Term,
1861, and the court unanimously decided that the warrant
of commitment was bad and that the court could not re-
mand the prisoner to have it amended.30 The prisoner was
discharged. No other attempts were made to extradite
him or any other escaped slave; and Lincoln's Emancipa-
tion Proclamation put an end to any chance of such an
attempt being ever repeated.31

29 Common Law of course, not Chancery.

30 The court was composed of Chief Justice William Henry Draper, C. B.,
Mr. Justice Richards, afterwards Chief Justice successively of the Court of
Common Pleas, of the Court of Queen's Bench and of the Supreme Court of
Canada and Mr. Justice Hagarty, afterwards Chief Justice successively of the
Court of Common Pleas, of the Court of King's Bench, and of Ontario.

Mr. Freeman was assisted in this argument by Mr. M. C. Cameron, a
lawyer of the highest standing professionally and otherwise, afterwards Justice
of the Court of Queen's Bench and afterwards Counsel for the Crown on both
arguments were Mr. Eccles, Q. C, a man of deservedly high reputation, and
Robert Alexander Harrison, afterwards Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's
Bench, an exceedingly learned and accurate lawyer.

The case in the Court of Common Pleas is reported in Vol. 11. Upper Can.,
C. P., pp. 1 sqq.

31 Canadian Archives, Sundries 77. C, 1807.

It would be unfair to the United States to say or suggest that all the
flights for freedom were in the one direction. Very early, trouble was ex-
perienced by Canadian owners of slaves from their running away to the United
States. The following letter tells its own story. D1. M. Erskine the British
representative writing from New York, May 26, 1807, to Francis Gore,
Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, says:

"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th
ult enclosing a Memorial presented to you by the Proprietors of Slaves in the
Western District of the Province of Upper Canada.

"I regret equally with yourself the Inconvenience which His Majesty's
subjects in Upper Canada experience from the Desertion of their slaves into
the Territory of the United States, and of Persons bound to them for a term
of years, as also of his Majesty's soldiers and sailors; but I fear no Repre-
sentation to the Government of the United States will at present avail in

96 The Slave in Canada

checking the evils complained of, as I have frequently of late had occasion to
apply to them for the Surrender of various Deserters under different circum-
stances and always without success.

"The answer that has been usually given, has been, 'That the Treaty
between Great Britain & the United States which alone gave them the Power
to surrender Deserters having expired, it was impossible for them to exercise
such an authority without the Sanction of the Laws.'

"I will however forward to His Majesty's Minister for Foreign Affairs
the Memorial above mentioned in the Hope that some arrangements may be
entered into to obviate in future the great Losses which are therein described. ' '

In the Life and Adventures of Wilson Benson, written by himself
(Toronto, 1876), is found the following, pp. 34-36:

"In 1849 I shipped on the schooner Eose of Milton, Capt. Hamilton,
cruising on Lakes Ontario and Erie. In one trip to the town of Erie, Pennsyl-
vania, for a cargo of coal, while lying at the dock, a diminutive negro man,
with a white beard, came on board the vessel, and inquiried of me if this was
a British vessel. On being informed that it was, he desired to be secreted,
stating that he was a runaway slave, and that his pursuers were on his track.
I at once secreted him in a closet which served as a store-room for vegetables,
&c, and as we were almost ready to set sail, I did not discover his presence
to either Captain or crew until we were some distance out on the lake. When
he appeared, Capt. Hamilton inquired of me where I had obtained ' that child, '
and on being informed, expressed some anxiety, as we were liable to be cap-
tured had we been followed by a steamer. As it was, he merely looked up at
the rigging, and exclaimed, ' Blow, breezes, blow ! ' The negro, who knew no
other name than l Sambo' we brought to Toronto. On one occasion, when I
offered him some molasses, he shook his head and made grimaces expressive of
disgust. He informed me that the slaves employed on the sugar plantations,
when beaten by their masters, in order to obtain an indirect revenge, spat in
the syrup, and committed other filthy things as an imaginary punishment upon
the whites. I frequently saw Sambo in Toronto, and many times he expressed
thankfulness to me for his deliverance. I may here mention that shortly after
the arrival of Sambo on board the Eose of Milton at Erie, two suspicious-
looking men, dressed in plain clothes, came aboard and paced up and down
the deck several times, and as all the crew were absent at the time, I felt some
apprehenson for the safety of the poor fugitive; but seeing nothing of a
suspicious appearance, and the almost entire absence of the crew, they sauntered
away. I made several other trips up and down the lakes during that summer
on the same vessel.' '

CHAPTER VII

Slavery in the Maritime Provinces

The French population of the territory by the sea, the
Acadians, are described by the poet as :

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven.

History does not bear out this idyll; but whatever their
faults, at least the Acadians had the negative virtue of
possessing no slaves,1 Panis or Negro : nor was it until the
coming of the people whose native air was too pure for a
slave that the curse came upon the land.

The permanent settlement by the English of Acadia may
fairly be considered as beginning when in 1749 Cornwallis
founded Halifax.2 Negro slaves were among the popula-
tion of Halifax from the beginning or very shortly after.
Where they came from is uncertain and it has been sug-
gested that they came with the original settlers across the
ocean. In the absence of any other explanation more
plausible, this might be accepted. Lord Mansfield's deci-
sion in the Somerset case was a quarter of a century in the
future. But it seems more probable that they were
brought from the English Colonies, and some almost cer-
tainly were.

The official records of the country exhibit much evi-
dence to this effect. In September, 1751, the Boston Even-
ing Post advertised " Just arrived from Halifax and to be
sold, ten strong hearty, Negro men mostly tradesman, such

i So far at all events as appeared from any records that I have seen; it is
just possible, however, that "La Liberte, le neigre" mentioned in de Meulles,
Census of Acadia in 1696 was a black slave, notwithstanding his name.

2 From 1720 on, Annapolis Royal had a fairly firm government and settle-
ment but it was not until Halifax was founded that it became certain that the
country would remain English.

98 The Slave in Canada

as caulkers, carpenters, sailmakers and ropemakers.3 Any
person wishing to purchase may enquire of Benjamin Halli-
well of Boston.' ' Such an advertisement indicates that
shipbuilding was slack at Halifax and more brisk at Bos-
ton. A conjecture may be hazarded that these slaves had
been taken by their master to Halifax to build ships and
then returned to the colony when required no longer in
Acadia.

Some such conjecture receives a little assistance from a
will still on record in Halifax. It was made February 28,
1752, by Thomas Thomas "late of New York but now of
Halifax' ' and disposed of his "goods, chattels and negros"
including one bequest to this effect: "all my plate and
my negro servant Orange that now lives with me at Halifax,
I leave and bequeath to my son."

In the same year, The Halifax Gazette of May 15 con-
tains the advertisement "Just imported and to be sold by
Joshua Mauger at Major Lockman's store in Halifax,
several Negro slaves as follows: A woman aged 35, two
boys aged 12 and 13 respectively, two of 18 and a man
aged 30." In the Halifax Gazette of Saturday, May 30,
1752, sale is advertised thus: "Just imported and to
be sold by Joshua Mauger, at Major Lockman's store in
Halifax, several negro slaves, viz., a very likely negro
wench, of about thirty-five years of age, a Creole born, has
been brought up in a gentleman's family, and capable of
doing all sorts of work belonging thereto, as needle-work
of all sorts and in the best manner; also washing, ironing,
cooking, and every other thing that can be expected from
such a slave: also two negro boys of about 12 or 13 years
old, likely, healthy, and well-shaped, and understand some
English. Likewise two healthy negro slaves of about 18
years of age, of agreeable tempers and fit for any kind of
business : And also a healthy negro man of about 30 years

s This and most of the facts, dates, etc., in this chapter are taken from
the Eev. Dr. T. Watson Smith's fascinating article The Slave in Canada in the
Nova Scotia Historical Society's Collections, Vol. X, Halifax, 1899.

The Slave in Canada 99

of age." In September 1759, a Halifax merchant, Malachy
Salter wrote to his wife then visiting relatives in Boston
informing her of the state of the family, saying that " Jack
is Jack still bnt rather worse. I am obliged to exercise
the cat or stick almost every day. I believe Halifax don't
afford another such idle, deceitful villain"— "Pray pur-
chase a Negro boy if possible.,,

In the year of the surrender of Montreal, the Halifax
Gazette, November 1, 1760, advertised "To be sold at public
auction on Monday the 3rd of November, at the house of
Mr. John Rider, two slaves, viz., a boy and a girl, about 11
years old ; likewise a puncheon of choice cherry brandy with
sundry other articles."

Some legal sanction, moreover, was given slavery. A
General Assembly the first Elective Legislature in what is
now Canada, met at Halifax in 1757. In 1762 the second
session of the third General Assembly passed an act4
which seems not to have received very much attention from
legists5 and writers. It contains a recognition of slavery.
The act provides by section 2 that "in case any soldier,
sailor, servant, apprentice, bound servant or negro slave
or any other person whatsoever shall leave any pawn or
pledge with a vendor of liquor for the payment of any
sum exceeding five shillings for liquor such soldier, sailor,
servant, apprentice bound servant or negro slave ... or
the master or mistress of such servant, apprentice, bound
servant or negro slave" might by proceedings before a
Justice of the Peace obtain an order for the restoration of
the pawn or pledge— and the vendor might be fined 20
shillings "for the use of the poor."6

For this reason slavery could easily continue as sub-
sequent records prove. In July, 1767, Charles Proctor of

* (1762) 2 George 111, c. 1 (N. S.), Statutes at Large, Nova Scotia,
Halifax, 1805, p. 77.

5 It is referred to in a letter from Ward Chipman to Chief Justice Blowers
to be mentioned later. See post, p. 110, n. 21.

e This Act was continued in 1784 by (1784) 24 George III, c. 14 (N.S.).
Statutes at Large, Nova Scotia, p. 238.

100 The Slave in Canada

Halifax sold Louisa, a "Mulotta" girl, to Mary Wood of
Annapolis for £15 currency7 and next year Mary Wood
assigned the girl to her daughter Mrs. Mary Day. In
June, 1767, James Simonds of the St. John Eiver wrote to
Hazen and Jarvis at Newburyport, Massachusetts, a letter
in which he complains of "that rascal negro, West" who
cannot be got to do a quarter of a man's work. In an
advertisement in a Halifax paper in 1769 are offered for
sale to the highest bidder "two hogsheads of rum, three of
sugar and two well-grown negro girls aged 14 and 12.' '
These were clearly a consignment from the West Indies.
The executors of John Margerum of Halifax deceased, in
their accounts give credit for £29.9.44 "net proceeds of a
negro boy sold at Carolina." In 1770 the executors of
Joseph Gerrish of Halifax lost £30 on the sale of three
Negroes for £150 to Eichard Williams and Abraham Con-
stable, the Negroes having been appraised at £180: and a
Negro boy named John Fame was not then sold. In April
1770, Mrs, Martha Prichard of Halifax, widow, bequeathed
to her daughter, wife of Moses Delesdernier a Negro slave
woman named Jessie. If Mrs. Delesdernier did not wish
to retain the slave, she was to be sold and the proceeds of
the sale given to Mrs. Delesdernier. If she kept her, the
slave at the death of Mrs. Delesdernier was to be the prop-
erty of her son Ferdinand. By the same instrument the
testatrix bequeathed to her grand-daughter a mulatto slave
John Patten two and a half years old.

By the census of the year 1771 the Eev. James Lyon,
the first Presbyterian Minister in Nova Scotia, is shown to
have owned a colored boy, the only Negro in the township
of Onslow and John Young in the township of Amherst
also a Negro boy, the only one in the township. In An-
napolis, Magdalen Winnett owned a man, woman and girl ;
Joseph Winnett owned a woman and a boy; Ebenezer
Messenger and Ann Williams each a man, and John Stork

7 "Halifax currency" was at this time nine-tenths of Sterling £10 cur-
rency = £9 sterling and the 5 / dollar being 4/6 sterling.

The Slave in Canada 101

of Granville owned a man the only Negro in the township ;
and Henry Evans of Annapolis had the previous year
owned a colored girl.

Jacob Hurd of Halifax offered in 1773 a reward of £5
for the apprehension of his runaway Negro, Cromwell, a
" short thick set strong fellow,' ' strongly pock marked
" especially on the nose" and wearing a green cloth jacket
and a cocked hat. In July 1773, in the Nova Scotia Gazette
and Weekly Chronicle the executor and executrix of Joseph
Pierpont of Halifax advertised "a Negro named Prince
to be sold at private sale." This perhaps indicated a
repugnance to offering human beings for sale by auction.
In the Nova Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, March
27, 1775 is an advertisement for the sale of a "likely well-
made negro boy about 16 year old."

In the inventory of the estate of the late John Kock
appeared in 1776 a Negro woman named Thursday. She
was inventoried at £25 but sold for £20. In this year also a
Windsor farmer, Joseph Wilson left by will two Negro
women Byna and Sylla to his wife. In January 1779 the
Nova Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle advertised for
sale an able Negro woman, about 21 year old, "capable of
performing both town and country work and an exceedingly
good cook. ' ' In the same year Daniel Stratford of Halifax
left to his wife a Negro man slave Adam for life, after her
death to become the property of his daughter Sarah
Lawson. Matthew Harris of Picton sold for £50 to
Matthew Archibald of Truro, tanner, a ' ' Negro boy named
Abram, about 12 years of age" born of Harris' Negro
slave in Harris' house in Maryland.

In 1780 rewards were offered, one of 3 guineas, for the
apprehension and delivery at the office of the Command-
ing Officer of Engineers at Halifax of two runaway Negro
men; another "a handsome reward to be paid for secur-
ing in any gaol a Negro boy Mungo about 14 years old and
well built"— the owner Benjamin De Wolfe of Windsor to
be notified. That year the executors of Colonel Henry

102 The Slave in Canada

Denny Denson of West Falmouth debit themselves with
£75 received for " Spruce,' ' £60 for "John" and £30 for
"Juba" and credit themselves with £2.11.6 paid for taking
two of these to Halifax probably for sale there.

Abel Michener of Falmouth advertised in 1781 a reward
of £5 for the capture of a Negro named James ; and Samuel
Mack of Port Medway wanted a Negro named "Chance"
returned.

Eichard Wenman of Halifax in September of that year
agreed to give his Negro, Cato, his liberty "if he will faith-
fully serve my said daughter, Elizabeth Susannah Pringle
two years." Captain Wilson of the transport Friends
requested in 1782 that masters of vessels will not ship as a
seaman his runaway Negro lad Ben, saying: "He is my
own property. ' '

There is no need for further particularization ; for we
now come to the year of the definitive peace between the
mother country and the new republic. As in the upper
country so by the sea there was a great influx of Loyalists,
accompanied in many instances by their slaves. There-
after sales, advertisements for auctions, rewards for run-
away slaves, bequests of slaves, &c, are very common and
there were some manumissions. That, however, was not
the cause of the great increase in the Negro population of
the Maritime Province. The Island of St. John, after-
wards Prince Edward Island had been set off as a separate
province in 1769 but the Province of Nova Scotia included
what became the Province of New Brunswick until 1786.

During the Eevolutionary War, the British com-
manders, Sir Henry Clinton in particular, had made it a
point to invite the slaves to the British line and many had
accepted the invitation. No few of these refugees were of
material service to the British troops in various ways both
menial and otherwise. At the peace Washington demanded
the return of these quondam slaves.8 Sir Gruy Carleton

8 It will be remembered that in the Treaty of Peace it was agreed by
Article VII "His Britanic Majesty shall with all convenient speed and without

The Slave in Canada 103

refused but made a careful inventory of them with full
description, name, former master, etc., so that Washington
might claim compensation from the British Government, if
he saw fit.9 In addition to these slaves somewhere about
3,000 freed Negroes accompanied the British troops on their
withdrawal from New York, nearly all coming to Nova
Scotia. Many of these after suffering great hardships
were sent to Sierra Leone on the West Coast of Africa in
1792. Some remained in the province where their de-
scendants are found until this day; but not in any very
great numbers. The Loyalists, however, retained their
property in their own slaves; and immigration was en-
couraged by the Act of 1790.10

The trade in Negroes was very brisk for some years.
For example, on June 24, 1783, the Nova Scotia Gazette and
Weekly Chronicle advertised for sale a Negro woman, "25
years of age, a good house servant." On December 11,
1783, Captain Alexander Campbell late of the South Caro-
lina Loyalists sold to Captain Thomas Green late of the
Eoyal Nova Scotia Foot a Negro woman named Nancy for

causing any destruction or carrying away any negroes or other property of the
American inhabitants withdraw his armies, garrisons and fleets from the said
United States. ..."

Sir Guy Carleton claimed that the Negroes who had taken refuge in the
British lines at once lost their status of slavery and became free. They were
"not Negroes or other property of the American/ ' a rather technical not to
say finely drawn distinction but in favorem libertatis; and in any event Britain
would not betray the helpless who had put their faith in her.

Q Washington did make a claim ; but the United States had not carried out
its part of the contract and Britain would not and never did pay. Jones'
Loyalist History of New York, Vol. 2. p. 256, says that the number of Negroes
who found shelter in the British lines was 2000 at least; probably this is an
underestimate. Hay's Historical 'Reading at p. 249 gives the number of
Negroes who came into Nova Scotia with their Masters at least 3000 — and of
free Negroes 1522 at Shelburne, 182 at St. John River. 270 at Guysborough,
211 in Annapolis County, and a smaller number at other places. 1200 were
sent to Sierre Leone in 1792.

io See ante, p. 37. The Negro population in 1784 estimated at about 3000
was included in the 28,347 of Disbanded Troops and Loyalists called New
Inhabitants, Can. Arch., Report for 1885, p. 10. There were some free Negroes
in various companies of the British forces in one capacity or another.

104 The Slave in Canada

£40. Nancy two years later was sold by Green to Abraham
Forst of Halifax and a year later still with her child Tom
to Gregory Townsend.

A shipment was made by John Wentworth from Halifax
to Surinam, Dutch Guiana, of nineteen Negro slaves, "all
American born or well seasoned . . . perfectly stout,
healthy, sober, orderly, industrious and obedient.' ' These,
said he, "I have had christened and would rather have
liberated them than send them to any estate that I am not
sure of their being treated with care and humanity which
I shall consider as the only favour that can be done to me
on this occasion "by his correspondent.11

On October 29, 1787, John Rapalje, a Eoyalist, sent from
Brookligne (Brookland or Brooklyn Ferry) to George
Leonard by desire of his (B's) father a Negro woman
named Eve about 35 years and her child named Suke about
15 to sell as he himself cannot go to Nova Scotia. Eve
was one of the best servants "perfectly sober, honest" and
the only fault she had was her near sight.

The records show occasional manumission also. In 1784
the inventory of the estate of John Porter late of Cornwallis,
a Negro man is valued at £80. That same year Charles
Montague of Halifax says: "I have only one Negro, named
Francis; he is to have his freedom.' ' In May 1787, Mar-

n The Negroes sent were Abraham, James, Lymas, Gyrus, John, Isaac,
Quako, January, Priscella, Rachel, Venus, Daphne, Ann, Dorothy and four
children Celia, William, Venus, Eleanora — reserving Matthew and Susannah at
home. All these had been christened, February 11, 1784. " Isaac is a
thorough good carpenter and master sawyer, perfectly capable of overseeing
and conducting the rest and strictly honest; Lymas is a rough carpenter and
sawyer; Quako is a field negro has met with an accident in his arm which
will require some indulgence. The other men are sawyers and John also a
good axeman. Abraham has been used to cattle and to attend in the house,
&c. All the men are expert in boats. The women are stout and able and
promise well to increase their numbers. Venus is useful in the hospital, poultry
yard, gardens, etc. Upon the whole they are a most useful lot of Negroes."

John Wentworth, last Eoyalist Governor of New Hampshire and after-
wards Sir John Wentworth, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, doubtless
believed himself to be a good man and a good Christian.

The story of Eve and Suke infra is told by Archdeacon Raymond, 3 N. B.
Mag., 1899, p. 221.

The Slave in Canada 105

garet Murray, widow of Halifax by her will manumitted
her two Negro women Marianne and Flora; and (when he
was 21) her Negro boy Brutus. From the records of a
trial at Shelburne, in a magistrate's court in 1788 it ap-
pears that one Jesse Gray of Argyle had sold a Negro
woman for 100 bushels of potatoes. At a trial the owner-
ship by Gray was proved and the sale confirmed.

We now come to the times of a Chief Justice whose
heart was set on destroying slavery in the province of
Nova Scotia, therein wholly differing from the Chief Justice
of New Brunswick, George Duncan Ludlow, who had re-
ceived his appointment on the separation of that province
in 1784. The forward-looking jurist was Thomas Andrew
Strange who became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in
1791. 12 The same impulse for liberty which about this
time was noted in the upper country mainfested itself from
time to time by the sea. Slaves ran away from their
masters ; the masters pursued and imprisoned them. Some
blacks claimed freedom without fleeing. When a writ of
habeas corpus came up in the Supreme Court, Chief Jus-
tice Strange did his best to avoid giving a decision. He
knew that slavery was lawful but he knew it was detest-
able and he pursued a course which did not require him to
stultify himself but which would nevertheless confer sub-
stantial benefits upon the black claiming liberty.

He endeavored in every case to bring the parties to an
agreement to sign articles whereby the master would have
the services of the Negro for a stated time, after the expira-
tion of which the Negro received his freedom. When the
master refused this, as sometimes there was a refusal, the
Chief Justice required the matter to be tried by a jury,
which usually found for the Negro.13

i2 He went to England in 1796 (it was said, for a visit) resigned Ms posi-
tion in Nova Scotia, was Knighted and appointed Recorder of Fort St. George,
Bombay, India.

13 A collateral ancestor of my own, the Reverend Archibald Riddell, had
the advantage of a similar proceeding a century before. Being apprehended
for taking part in the uprising of the Covenanters in Scotland he was given

106 The Slave in Canada

The practice adopted was like the practice in cases of
alleged villenage in England. It was recognized that
slavery might exist in Nova Scotia, but it was made as diffi-
cult as possible for the master to succeed on the facts.
Except the act already mentioned there was no statute
recognizing slavery and an attempt in 1787 to incorporate
such a recognition in the statute law failed of success by a
large majority. The existing act, too, was given what
seems a very forced and unnatural interpretation so as to
emasculate it of any authority in that regard.

Salter Sampson Blowers, the Attorney General, fully
agreed with the Chief Justice's plan. On one occasion he
threatened to prosecute a person for sending a Negro out
of the province against his will.14 The Negro managed to
get back and the master acknowledged his right, so that no
proceedings were necessary. After a number of verdicts
for the alleged slaves, masters were generally very willing

(or sold) with others to a Scottish Laird who chartered a vessel and proceeded
to take his human chattels to America for sale. The plague broke out on the
ship, the Laird and his wife died of it as did some of the crew. When the
ship reached New Jersey, there being no master, the "slaves" escaped up
country. The Laird's son-in-law and personal representative came to America
and claimed Eiddell and others. The governor called a jury to determine
whether they were slaves and the jury promptly found in their favor. Eiddell
preached in New Jersey until the Eevolution of 1688 made it safe for him to
return to Scotland. Juries in such cases are liable to what Blackstoue calls
"pious perjury." All this practice was based upon the common law pro-
ceedings when a claim was made of villenage. When a person claimed to be
the lord of a villein who had run away and remained outside the manor unto
which he was regardant, he sued out a writ of neif, that is, de nativo
habendo. The sheriff took the writ and if the nativus admitted that he was
villein to the lord who claimed him, he was delivered by the sheriff to the
lord of the manor; but if he claimed to be free, the sheriff should not seize
him but the Lord was compelled to take out a Pone to have the matter tried
before the Court of Common Pleas or the Justices in Eyre, that is, the assizes.
Or the alleged villein might himself sue out a writ of libertate probanda: and
until trial of the case the lord could not seize the alleged villein. The curious
will find the whole subject dealt with in Fitzherbert 's Natura Brevvwm,
pp. 77 sqq.

I* This is very much like the Chloe Cooley case in Upper Canada. I do
not know what form the prosecution could possibly take if the Negro was in
fact a slave. See Chapter V, note 5 ante, p. 55.

The Slave in Canada 107

to enter into articles whereby the slave after serving faith-
fully for a fixed number of years was given his freedom.

After Blowers became Chief Justice, 1797,15 he con-
tinued Chief Justice Strange 's practice with marked re-
sults. In one case of which he tells where he had dis-
charged a black woman from the Annapolis gaol on habeas
corpus and an action had been brought, the plaintiff proved
that he had bought her in New York; but the Chief Justice
held that he had not proved the right of the seller so to
dispose of her and directed the jury to find for the de-
fendant which they promptly did.

Slavery continued, however. Almost every year we
find records of sales, advertisements for runaway slaves,
bequests of slaves, &c, till almost the end of the first decade
of the 19th century, the latest known bill of sale is dated
March 21, 1807 and transfers a " Negro Woman named
Nelly of the age of twenty five or thereabout." It was,
however, decadent and from about the beginning of the
19th century was quite as much to the advantage of the
Negro in many cases as that of the master.

16 It is said that August 1797 was the date of the last public slave sale
at Montreal, that of Emmanuel Allen for £36.

The last advertisement for sale by auction of a slave in the Maritime
Provinces seems to be that in The Eoyal Gazette and Nova Scotia Advertiser
of September 7, 1790, where William Millet of Halifax offers for sale by
auction September 9 "A stout likely negro man and sundry other articles."

In 1802 the census showed that there were 451 Blacks in Halifax; in 1791
there were 422.

Dr. T. Watson Smith says in a paper ll Slavery in Canada" republished
in "Canadian History/' No. 12, December, 1900, at p. 321.

"About 1806, so Judge Marshall has stated, a master and his slave were
taken before Chief Justice Blowers on a writ of habeas corpus. When the
case and the question of slavery in general had been pretty well argued on
each side, the Chief Justice decided that slavery had no legal place in Nova
Scotia. ' '

I have not been able to trace such a decision and cannot think that it has
been correctly reported. Dr. Smith is wholly justified in his statement "there
is good ground for the opinion that this baneful system was never actually
abolished in the present Canadian Provinces until the vote of the British
Parliament and the signature of King William IV in 1833 rendered it illegal
throughout the British Empire. "

108 The Slave in Canada

A final effort to legalize slavery in Nova Scotia was
made in 1808. Mr. Warwick, member for Digby Township,
presented a petition from John Taylor and other slave
owners setting up that the doubts entertained by the courts
rendered their property useless and that the slaves were
deserting and defying their masters. They asked for an
act securing them their property or indemnifying them for
their loss. Thomas Eitchie member for Annapolis intro-
duced a bill to regulate Negro servants within the province.
The bill passed its second reading January 11, 1808, but
failed to become law; and the attempt was never renewed.

New Brunswick was separated from Nova Scotia in
1784. The Chief Justice of that province was not as averse
from slavery as his brother of Nova Scotia. One of the
most interesting and celebrated cases came before the Su-
preme Court of New Brunswick in Hilary Term, February
1800. Captain Stair Agnew who had been an officer in the
Queen's Bangers settled opposite Fredericton. He was a
man much thought of as is shown by his being chosen for
thirty years to represent York County in the Legislature.
He owned a slave Nancy Morton16 who claimed her free-
dom and whom apparently he had put in charge of one
Caleb Jones. A writ of habeas corpus was obtained di-
rected to Jones and the matter was arranged to be argued
before the full court of four judges. For the applicant ap-

i6 I. Allen Jack, Q. C, D. C, L., of St. John, New Brunswick, gives a full
account of this case from which (and similar sources) most of the facts are
taken. In a paper read before the Royal Society of Canada May 26, 1898,
Trans. B. S. Can., 1898, pp. 137 sqq., Dr. Jack conjectures that Nancy Morton
is the Negro female slave conveyed by bill of sale registered in the office of
the Register of Deeds, St. John's, N. B. Slaves were treated as realty as
regards fieri facias under the Act of 1732 (see ante, p. 13, n. 12) and at least
" savoured of the realty." The bill of sale registered January 31, 1791, was
dated November 13, 1778, aud was executed by John Johnson of the Township
of Brooklyn in King's County, Long Island, Province of New York. It con-
veyed with a covenant to warrant and defend title to Samuel Duffy, Inn-
keeper for £40 currency (say $100) "a, certain negro female about fourteen
years of age and goes by the name of Nancy," pp. 141, 142. However that
may be, Stair Agnew bought Nancy from William Bailey of the County of
York in the Province of New Brunswick for £40 with full warranty of title
as a slave.

The Slave in Canada 109

peared Ward Chipman17 and Samuel Denny Street; for the
master, Jonathan Bliss, Attorney General of the province,
Thomas Wetmore, John Murray Bliss, Charles J. Peters
and Witham Botsf ord, all men of ability and eminence. On
the Bench were Chief Justice Ludlow and Puisne Justices
Allen, Upham and Saunders.

The addresses of the Attorney-General and Mr. Chip-
man are extant. The former divided his speech into thirty-
two heads ; the latter took eighty pages of foolscap for his.
The arguments were extremely able and exhaustive,18
everything in history, morals and decided cases being
brought to bear. The case took two full days to argue and
after careful consideration the court divided equally, the
Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Upham affirming the right
of the master and Mr. Justice Allan and Mr. Justice
Saunders held for the alleged slave.

The return of Jones to the writ was that Nancy "was
at the time of her birth and ever since hath been a female
Negro slave or servant for life born of an African Negro
slave and before the removal of the said Caleb Jones from
Mary Land to New Brunswick was and became by purchase
the lawful and proper Negro slave or servant for life of
him the said Caleb Jones . . . , that the said Caleb Jones
in the year of our Lord 1785 brought and imported the
said . . . Nancy his Negro slave or servant for life into
the Province of New Brunswick . . . and has always
hitherto held the said . . . Nancy as his proper Negro,
slave or servant for life ... or by laws he has good right
and authority to do. . . ."19

17 He was born in Boston in 1753, the son of John Chipman, a member of
the Bar. Graduating at Harvard, he joined the Boston Bar and practised
in that City until 1776. After the Peace he went to England and in 1784
sailed for New Brunswick of which he was appointed Solicitor General. After
a quarter of a century of successful practice he was appointed 1808 a puisne
judge of the Supreme Court. He died in February, 1826.

His services to Nancy Morton were given without fee or hope of reward.

is That of Mr. Chipman is given in Trans. B. Soc. Can., 1898, pp. 155-184.

19 It will be seen that the return sets up that Jones bought and owned
the slave and the case was argued on that hypothesis, but the historians say
that Captain Stair Agnew was the owner. The point is not of importance.

110 The Slave in Canada

The Chief Justice based his opinion on what he called
the "Common Law of the Colonies"— and although that
expression was ridiculed at the time and has been since,
there is no difficulty in understanding it. He meant custom
recognized as law not contained in an express legislative
enactment. In that sense a modern lawyer will agree that
he was right. Practically all the English colonies had
slavery thoroughly recognized and often without or before
legislation; and all the well known legal maxims asserted
the cogency of such custom.20 Mr. Justice Allen considered
that no human power could justify slavery— and his brother
Saunders agreed with him. It would seem that these
judges were concerned with what the law should be, the
others with what it actually was.21

In the result the return was held sufficient and the
master had his slave. But the decision of the divided
court had its effect. Agnew reconveyed Nancy to Wil-
liam Bailey from whom he had bought her and she bound
herself to serve for fifteen years, then to receive her free-
dom.22 The result of this case was that while slavery was

20 Mos regit legem, Mos pro lege, Leges moribus servient, Consuetudo est
optimus interpres legum, custom is the life of the law, custom becomes law,
&c, &c. That slavery was necessary and therefore legal in the American
Colonies was admitted in the Somerset case.

21 The modern lawyer, in my opinion, would find no difficulty in coming to
the same conclusion as the Chief Justice.

Mr. Chipman in his interesting correspondence with Chief Justice Blowers
(Trans. B. Soc. Can., 1898, pp. 148 sqq.) admits that if his opponents had hit
upon the Nova Scotia Statute of 1762 as revised in 1783 "the conclusiveness
of their reasoning on their principles would have been considered as demon-
strated. " He adds: "In searching your laws upon this occasion I found this
clause but carefully avoided mentioning it," which raises a curious question
in legal ethics.

22 The reconveyance to Bailey, a quit claim deed, is witnessed by George
Leonard and Thomas Wetmore and is dated February 22, 1800. The in-
denture by which Nancy bound herself for fifteen years is dated February
23, 1800.

If Dr. Jack is right in his conjecture the argument took place when she
was 36 and she would receive her freedom when she was 51. Agnew chal-
lenged Judge Allen for some reflection upon him by the Judge; the challenge
was declined and Agnew then challenged Street who accepted — and they
fought a bloodless duel. Street later in 1821 fought a duel with George Lud-

The Slave in Canada 111

not formally abolished, it before many years practically
ceased to exist.23

Prince Edward Island was called Isle St. Jean until
1798. In this island slavery had the same history as in
the other maritime provinces. Shortly after the peace
Negro slaves were brought into the Island by their United
Empire Loyalist masters. As late as 1802 we find re-
corded the sale of "a Mulatto boy three years old called
Simon" for £20, Halifax currency, then £18 sterling, and
a gift of "one Mulatto girl about five years of age named
Catherine." We also find Governor Fanning (1786-1804),
freeing his two slaves and giving one of them, Shepherd, a
farm.

In Cape Breton which was separate from 1784 to 1820,
Negro slaves were found as early as the former date:
"Cesar Augustus, a slave and Darius Snider, black folks,
married 4th September 1788," "Diana Bestian a Negro
girl belonging to Abraham Cuyler Esq" was buried Sep-
tember 15, 1792 and a Negro slave was killed in 1791 by
a blow from a spade when trying to force his way into a
public ball in Sydney.24 In this province, too, slavery met
the same fate.

There is now to be mentioned an interesting series of
circumstances.25 During the War of 1812-15 the British
navy occupied many bays and rivers in United States terri-

low Wetmore over words which passed on leaving the Court. Wetmore was
struck in the head and died in a few hours. Street was tried and aquitted.
One result of this case was that Mr. Justice Upham freed his slaves. His wife
had six inherited from her father and he himself had some, one a girl born
in the East Indies whom he had bought from her master in New York, the
master of a ship, afterwards married a soldier in Colonel Allen's regiment.

23 What is believed to be the last advertisement for the sale of a slave
in any maritime province is in the New Brunswick Boyal Gazette of October
16, 1809 when Daniel Brown offered for sale Nancy a Negro woman, guaran-
teeing a good title. The latest offer of a reward for the apprehension of a
runaway slave is said to be in the same paper for July 10, 1816.

24 For this act the perpetrator was excluded by his masonic lodge; being
brought to trial before the Supreme Court in August 1792 he was " honourably
acquitted" and afterwards he was reinstated by his lodge.

25 Seldom mentioned and never much boasted of in the United States.

112 The Slave in Canada

tory and in some cases troops were landed where there was
a slave population. These forces came into possession of
many slaves, mostly voluntary fugitives, some seduced and
some taken by violence from their masters. Admiral
Cochrane in April 1814 issued a proclamation inviting all
those who might be disposed to emigrate from the United
States for the purpose of becoming free settlers in some of
"His Majesty's Colonies". to come with their families on
board of the British men of war and offering them the
choice of joining the British forces or being sent as free
settlers to a British possession. He did not say " slaves"
but no one could mistake the meaning.26 Negroes came
in droves. Some were taken to the Bahamas and the Ber-
mudas where their descendants are to be found until this
day; many were taken to Nova Scotia and New Bruns-
wick.27

When the Treaty of Peace was concluded at Ghent, De-
cember 24, 1814 the United States did not forget the slaves
who had got away from the home of liberty. Article 1 pro-
vided for the delivery up of all places taken by either party
without carrying away any property captured "or any
slaves or other private property." The United States
demanded the restoration of "all slaves and other private
property which may now be in possession of the forces of

26 The word. Camouflage may be new. The practice antedated humanity.

27 There is a record of 371 arriving at St. John from Halifax on May
25, 1815, by the Romulus, who had taken refuge on board the British Men of
War in the Chesapeake. The Negro settlement at Loch Lomond was founded
by them.

At the Census of 1824, 1421 ll persons of color" were found in New
Brunswick. The Very Eev. Archdeacon Raymond, an excellent authority,
thinks most of these "were at one time slaves or the children of slaves, ,y but
many were not slaves in New Brunswick.

Those that were brought by Admiral Cochrane to Halifax became a great
burden to the community. It was proposed in 1815 by the British Govern-
ment to remove them to a warmer climate, but this scheme does not seem to
have been carried out. By a census taken in 1816 there was found to be 684
in Halifax and elsewhere in Nova Scotia. In the winter of 1814-15 they had
suffered rather severely from small pox and were vaccinated to prevent its
spread. Some were placed on Melville Island.

The Slave in Canada 113

His Britannic Majesty.' ' The British officers refused to
surrender the slaves contending that the real meaning of
the treaty did not cover the case. At length in 1818 a
convention was entered into that it should be left to the
Emperor of Eussia28 to decide whether the United States
by the true intent of Article 1 was entitled to the restitu-
tion or full compensation for the slaves.

In 1822 the Emperor decided in favor of the United
States. Thereupon the next year (1824) a mixed com-
mission of two commissioners and two arbitrators deter-
mined the average value to be allowed as compensation;29
for slaves taken from Louisiana $580: from Alabama
Georgia and South Carolina, $390; from Virginia, Mary-
land and all other States $280.

The commissioners adjourned for the purpose of en-
abling evidence to be obtained as to the numbers. Clay
submitted to the British Government that 3601 slaves had
been taken away but was willing for a settlement to accept
the price of 1650. Britain declined, but the commissioners
failed to agree and finally by diplomacy in 1827 Britain
agreed to pay £250,000 or $1,204,960 in full for slaves and
other property. Thus Britain assured the freedom of
more than 3,000 slaves and paid for them, a fitting prelude
to the great Act of 1833 whereby she freed 800,000 slaves
and paid £20,000,000 for the privilege.30

28 Presumably because he had the greatest number of serfs in the world
and was, therefore, the best judge of slaves.

29 Of course, Britain refused to give up a single fugitive. She could not
betray a trust even of the humblest. She knew that in ''the land of the free
and the home of the brave ' ' for the Negro returned to his master, to be brave
was to incur torture and death and death alone could make him free.

so The Act (1833) 3, 4 William III, c. 73 (Imp.), passed the House of
Commons August 7 and received the Royal Assent August 28, 1833; and there
were no slaves in all the British world after August, 1838.

CHAPTER VIII

General Observations

The curse of Negro slavery affected the whole English
speaking world; and that part of the world where it was
commercially profitable resisted its abolition. The British
part of this world does not need to assert any higher sense
of justice and right than had those who lived in the
Northern States ; and it may well be that had Negro slave
service been as profitable in Canada as in the Cotton States,
the heinousness of the sin might not have been more mani-
fest here than there. Nevertheless we must not too much
minimize the real merit of those who sought the destruction
of slavery. Slaves did not pay so well in Canada as in
Georgia, but they paid.

It is interesting to note the various ways in which
slavery was met and finally destroyed. In Upper Canada,
the existing slaves, 1793, remained slaves but all those
born thereafter were free, subject to certain conditions of
service. There was a statutory recognition of the existing
status and provision for its destruction in the afterborn.
This continued slavery though it much mitigated its sever-
ity and secured its downfall in time. But there were slaves
in Upper Canada when the Imperial Act of 1833 came in
force. The Act of 1793 was admittedly but a compromise
measure ; and beneficial as it was it was a paltering with sin.

In Lower Canada, there was no legislation, and slavery
was never formally abolished until the Imperial Act of
1833; but the courts decided in effect if not in form that
a master had no rights over his slave, and that is tanta-
mount to saying that where there is no master there is no
slave. The reasoning in these cases as in the Somerset
case may not recommend itself to the lawyer but the effect
is undoubtedly, " Slaves cannot live in Lower Canada.' '

114

The Slave in Canada 115

In Nova Scotia, there was no decision that slavery did
not exist. Indeed the course of procedure presupposed
that it did exist, but the courts were astute to find means
of making it all but impossible for the alleged master to
succeed ; and slavery disappeared accordingly.

In New Brunswick the decision by a divided court was
in favor of the master; but juries were of the same calibre
and sentiments in New Brunswick as in Nova Scotia and
the same results were to be anticipated, if Nova Scotian
means were used ; and the slave owners gave way.

In the old land, judicial decision destroyed slavery on
the British domain ; but conscience and sense of justice and
right impelled its destruction elsewhere by statute; and
the same sense of justice and right impelled the Parliament
of Great Britain to recompense the owners for their prop-
erty thus destroyed. If there be any more altruistic act of
any people in any age of the world's history I have failed
to hear or read of it.

In the United States, slavery was abolished as a war
measure. Lincoln hating slavery as he did would never
have abolished it, had he not considered it a useful war
measure. No compensation was paid, of course.1 Every-
where slavery was doomed and in one way or another it
has met a deserved fate.

1 1 had with the late Hon. Warwick Hough of St. Louis, Missouri, who
had been an officer in the Southern Army, several conversations on the subject
of slavery. He gave it as his firm conviction that, had the South succeeded in
the Civil War, it would shortly have itself abolished slavery and sought re-
admission to the Union. His proposition was that the power and influence
of the planter class were waning, while the manufacturers, merchants and the
like were increasing in number and influence and they would have for their
own protection abolished slavery. I have not met a Northerner or a Canadian
who agreed with this view; but a few Southerners have expressed to me their
general concurrence with my friend's proposition.

INDEX

Acadia, Slavery in, 97

Allen, Mr. Justice, opinion re slavery

in N. B., 110
American prisoners in Revolutionary

War, treatment of, 22 (n)
Anderson, John, refugee slave in U.

C, case of, 93, 94, 95
Anthon, Dr., his Panis slave, 2 (n)
Antoninus Pius, law re slaves, 9 (n)
Arbitration between Great Britain

and United States, re refugee slaves,

113
Augustus, Claudius, law re slaves, 9

(n)
de Barner, Major, complained of in

Province of Quebec for slave steal-
ing, 16, 17

Bird, Captain Henry, captures La
Force Settlement (1780), 19 (n)

Blackburn, Thornton, refugee slave,
case of, 83, 84

Blaney v. Sullivan, 45, 46

Blowers, Salter Sampson, Attorney
General, Nova Scotia, policy re al-
leged slaves, 106; as Chief Justice
N. S., 107

Brant, Captain Joseph, Indian Chief,
his slaves, 69 (n)

Campbell, 'Col., report on slaves

brought to Canada by Indians and

others (1784), 20
Cape Breton, slaves in, 111
Carib slave (1732), 4
Carleton, Sir Guy (See Dorchester,

Lord)
Cataraqui (See Kingston)
Chambly, slaves at, 32
De Ghampigny, Intendant of New

France, suggests importation of

Negro slaves (1688), 1

(i 'Charles, ' ' Panis slave, mutiny and

banishment of to Martinique, 5
re Charlotte, a Negress, 46
Chinook Indians, slavery among, 7
Christianity and slavery, 9 (n)
Claus, Colonel, report on slaves

brought into Canada by Indians,

etc., 20
Cole, Francis, "Yankee boy," white

slave, 24, 25
Cole, Sarah, Pennsylvania girl, white

slave, 21, 22, 23
Conquest of Canada (1760). Articles

of Capitulation, 6, 6 (n), 11
Constantine 's law re slavery, 9, 9 (n)
Cooley, Chloe, a Negro slave, case of

in U. C, 55
Coutume de Paris (See law, French-
Canadian)
Cowper, William, the poet, England

and slavery, 12 (n)
Cuthbert, M.P.P., petition re slaves,

L. C, 48

Davis, John, the last survivor of slav-
ery in Canada, 60 (n)
Denonville, Governor of New France,
suggests importation of Negro
slaves (1668), 1
Despin, Joseph, complaint of kidnap-
ping slaves in Province of Quebec,
16, 17
District of Quebec, Slaves in, 63

Montreal, Slaves in, 63

District, Eastern, Slaves in, 63, 64

, Midland, Slaves in, 63, 64, 66,

66 (n), 67 (See Kingston)

, Nassau (Home), 63, 64 (n)

-, Hesse (Western), 71

Dorchester, Lord (Sir Guy Carleton),
complaints to, 16, 17; orders to
Haldimand, 31; suspends importa-

116

Index

117

tion of slaves, 35 (n) ; refuses
American demand for refugee
slaves, 102, 103; his contention as
to their status, 103 (n)
Drake's History of the Indians of
North America, quoted, 2 (n)

Eastern District (See District, East-
ern)

de Francheville, Mme., her slave
hanged for arson (1734), 5

Galinee's Narrative, quoted, 7 (n)

Garneau 's History of Canada, quoted, 1

Gosselin, Abbe, quoted, 5

Gray, Robert Isaac Dey, Solicitor-
General Upper Canada, opposes Bill
to allow importation of slaves into
U. C, 59 (n), sets his slaves free
by his will, 60 (n)

Guinea, Slaves from, 2

Hadrian 's Law re slavery, 9
Haldimand, Sir Frederick, Governor

of Quebec, 15, 17 (n), 18, 19, 23;

orders from Dorchester, 31
Halifax, founded, 97, slaves in, 97, 98,

99, 100, 101, 107 (n), 112 (n)
Hallam's Middle Ages, referred to,

13 (n)
Happy, Jesse, refugee slave, case of

in U. CL, 88, 90, 91
Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor (See

Yorke, Sir Philip)
Harris v. Cooper, 75, 76, 77
Henry, Alexander, request to seize

and sell fugitive slave, 15
Hocquart, Gilles, Intendant of New

France, Ordinance re slaves (1738),

4; ordinance re enfranchisement, 5
Holdsworth 's History of English Law,

cited, 13 (n)
Holt, Lord Chief Justice, dictum as to

slavery in England, 11
Hough, Hon. Warwick (St. Louis),

views as to result upon Southern

slavery had South been successful

in Civil War, 115 (n)

Indian slaves (See Panis)
Indians, Chinook (See Chinook In-
dians)

capture and enslavement of

whites by, 3, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24,
26 (n)

capture and enslavement of Ne-

groes by, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26,
29, 30
— Micmac, slavery among, 7 (n)

Jameson, Robert Sympson, Attorney
General, Upper Canada; opinion re
refugee slaves in U. C, 84, 85

Joanne, Captain, his Carib slave, 4

Johnson, Sir John, Superintendent
General of Indian affairs in Can-
ada, report as to slaves brought in-
to Canada (1781), 19, 20, 29, 30

re Jude, a Negress, 46

Juvenal, quoted, 8 (n)

Kane, Paul, description of Indian

Slavery, 7, 8; paintings, 7 (n)
King, Joseph, petition to Haldimand,

17 (n)
Kingsford's History of Canada,

quoted, 4 (n)
Kingston, slaves at, 32, 34, 65, 67

(and see District, Midland)
Kirke, Sir David, sells first Negro

slave in Quebec (1628), 1

La Fontaine, Sir L. H., paper on slav-
ery in Canada, 1 (n) ; 2 (n)
La Force, Agnes, story of emigration

and capture (1780), 17, 18, 19, 20
La Longue Pointe, register of slaves, 6
La Salle's Voyage (1669^70), 7 (n)
Law, English, re villeins, 3 (n) ; 12,
105 (n), re slaves, 3, 11, 12, 13
(n),54

, English Colonies, re slaves, 13,

110

, French-Canadian, re slaves, 3,

7, 8, 10, 13 (n)

, International, re slaves, 2

, Roman (Civil), re slaves, 12 (n)

, Scottish, re slaves, 12 (n)

118

The Slave in Canada

Lawsuits concerning alleged slaves
(See titles, Somerset v. Stewart;
Poiree v. Lagard; Hoyle v. Fisher;
Smith v. McFarlane; Blaney v. Sul-
livan; re Charlotte; re Jude; re
Eobin alias Robert; Rex v. Jones)
Legislation on Slavery

Great Britain, 51, 113
Lower Canada, 43, 47, 48
Upper Canada, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60'
Nova Scotia, 99, 106, 108
United States, 58 (n), 78
New England, New York, New
Jersey, etc., 58 (n)
Lescarbot's History of New France,

quoted, 7 (n)
Ludlow, George Duncan, Chief Justice
of New Brunswick, appointed, 105;
judgment re slavery in N. B., 108-
109, 110

Mabane, Mr. Justice Adam, instructed
to prevent white slavery, 23

Madagascar, boy from, first slave sold
in Quebec (1628), 1

Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, judg-
ment in Somerset v. Stewart, 11, 12

Marius' Law re slaves, 9

Micmac Indians, slavery among, 7 (n)

Milton, John, quoted, 13 (n)

Monk, James, Attorney General at
Quebec, report on charge of slave
stealing, 16; Chief Justice at Mon-
treal, decision on slavery, 46, 47, 50

Montreal, slaves at, 14, 20, 21, 29, 30,
31, 32, 33, 63; last public sale of
slaves at, 107 (n)

Morris v. Henderson, aged Negro
gives evidence in, 65 (n)

Mosely, Solomon, Negro refugee, at-
tempted extradition to U. S. and
rescue of (1837), 85, 86, 87

Murray, Sir James, Governor at Que-
bec, desires slaves, 13, 14

McKee, Col. Alexander, his runaway
slave, 62 (n)

Neif, writ of, 106 (n)

New Brunswick, created a separate
Province, 102, 108; slaves in, 108,
112

Niagara, slaves at, 5, 32, 33, 68, 69,
• 70 (and see District, Nassau, Home)

Nova Scotia, slaves in, 97sqq; chap.
vii, passim) (and see Halifax)

Osgoode, William, Chief Justice of
Upper Canada, Chloe Cooley case,
55 (n) ; Chief Justice in Lower
Canada, 50 (n)

Panet, P. L., M.P.P., petitions As-
sembly Lower Canada re slaves, 47,
48

Panis (Pawnee) slaves, 1 (n), 2, 2
(n), 3, 4, 5, 6; 33, 34; 45; 64, 64
(n), 70 (n), 71

Papineau, Joseph, M.P.P., petitions
Assembly Lower Canada re slaves,
47, 48

Paul, St., and slavery, 9 (n)

Plato, a Negro slave, 31

Poiree v. Lagard, 35

Pollock and Maitland's History Eng-
lish Law, referred to, 13 (n)

Powell, William Dummer, Chief Just-
ice of Upper Canada, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22; and John Davis the f reed-
man, 60 (n) ; trial of Jack York,
72; trial of a black boy, 73 (n)

Prince Edward Island, slaves in, 102,
111

Proudfoot, William, Vice Chancellor,
referred to, 9 (n)

Quebec, ''Government" of, formed
(1763), 11

Randot, Jacques, Intendant of New
France ; ordinance re slaves (1709), 3

Rex v. Jones, 10-8, 109, 110

Rex v. Philip Turner, 73, 74

Rex v. Jack York, 72

Riddell, Reverend Archibald, " Cove-
nanter," experiences as a white
slave, 105 (n)

Index

119

Ridout, Thomas, capture by and life
among Indians, 26 (n)

Eitchie, Thomas, introduces bill re
slavery, N. S., 108

re Robin, alias Robert, a Black, 49, 50

Robinson, (Sir) John Beverley, At-
torney-General Upper Canada, opin-
ion re refugee slaves, 81, 82, 84

Robinson, Christopher, M.P.P., intro-
duces bill to import slaves into U.
C, 59 (n)

Russell, Peter, administrator of Up-
per Canada (1798), 59 (n) ; Chloe
Cooley case, 55 (n) ; his slaves, 67

St. John's, slaves at, 32
Saunders, Mr. Justice (New Bruns-
wick), opinion on slavery in N. B.,
110
1 ' Servants, ' ' slaves reported as, 32, 34
Sherman, Prof. (Yale), Eoman Law,

etc., quoted, 9 (n)
Sierra Leone, refugee slaves sent to

from N. S., 103
Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor John
Graves (U. C), hatred of slavery,
55, 58 (n) ; report on Upper Can-
ada legislature re slaves (1793),
56; address on same, 58 (n)
Slavers, Boston, 25 (n)
Slaves, passim

Baptism of, 6, 14, 15, 66, 69,

104 (n)
Marriage of, 14, 33, 34, 69; in

Virginia, 76, 76 (n)
Burial of, 6, 67, 69
Sale of, 1, 2, 3, 4; 20, 21; 33, 34,
35; 41, 42, 44, 45; 67, 68; 98,
99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104; last
public sale at Montreal, 107
(n) ; last in Maritime Provin-
ces, 107 (n) ; last in Prince
Edward Island, 111
Criminal, 5, 6, 25, 26, 68, 72, 73,

73 (n)
Enfranchisement of, 5, 44, 45, 50,
60, 60 (n) ; 64, 70, 102, 104,
110, 111, 114

Stolen, 20, 34

Runaway, 3, 5, 6, 11, 15, 36, 37,
38, 40, 41, 44 (n) ; 51, 56 (n) ;
69, 101, 102
Refugee, 51, 52; 61, 62, 62 (n),
74; chap. VI, passim; 102,
103; 111, 112, payment for by
Great Britain, 113
Extradition of, 51, 52
White, 21, 22, 23, 24, 24 (n), 26

(n), 27
Eskimo, 25 (n)
Smith v. McFarlane, 45
Somerset v. Stewart, 11, 12, 13,
Sorel, Slaves at, 32
Strange, (Sir) Thomas Andrew, Chief
Justice of Nova Scotia, policy re al-
leged slaves, 105, 106

Talbot, Sir Charles (Lord Chancellor

Talbot), opinion re Colonial slaves,

12 (n)
Three Rivers, Slaves at, 16, 33
Thwaites, Dr. Reuben Gold, his edition

of Long's Travels, quoted, 2 (n)
Toronto (York), slaves at, 67 (See

District, Nassau)
Treaty of 1686, England and France,

2, 2 (n), 3

1763, Great Britain and France,

11, 11 (n)

1783, Definitive Treaty, G. B. &

U.S., 26 (n), 49, 49 (n)

1814, Ghent, G. B. & U. S., 112

1818, (Convention) G. B. & U.

S., 113

Tuscarora Indians, intermixture with
Negroes, 69 (n)

Underground Railway, 79

Upham, Mr. Justice, of New Bruns-
wick, opinion re slavery in N. B.,
109, 110

Van Ness, Roger, a Negro slave, 31
Vinogradoff, Paul, investigations con-
cerning villenage in England, 12,
13 (n)

120

The Slave in Canada

Warwick, M.P.P., presents petition re
slavery in Nova Scotia, 108

Washington, George, runaway slave,
78 (n) ; demand for return of refu-
gee slaves, 102; demand refused,
103

West Indies, slaves from, 2, 4, 5;
Carib slaves (1732), 4

White, John, Attorney-General Upper
Canada, promotes legislation re
slavery, 56

Whitney, Eli, his cotton gin fastened
slavery on South, 79

York, slaves at (See Toronto)

York, Jack, Negro burglar (See Eex

v. Jack York)
Yorke, Sir Philip, opinion re Colonial

slaves, 12 (n)

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