Canada celebrated Emancipation Day on Aug. 1, marking the day in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 came into effect across the British Empire, and putting the history of slavery in this country in the spotlight once again.
From the late 18th century onward, Canada was viewed by many black American slaves as the light at the end of the Underground Railroad, which was a network of secret routes that led American slaves to their freedom in Canada.
Yet some have been pushing to emphasize Canada’s guilt in slavery.
As with any nation, Canada has reason both to lament and to be proud of parts of its history, but Christopher Dummitt, a professor of Canadian history at Trent University, says that some are trying to distort Canada’s history for “political purpose.”
The British and French colonies that made up what is now Canada did have slaves, though far fewer than many other places in the world at the time, he said.
“But the vastly more important point is to note the selective focus of contemporary activists when they single out only the slavery of Western nations,” Mr. Dummitt told The Epoch Times via email.
Collecting Accounts
Slaves in Upper Canada and Lower Canada (today’s Ontario and Quebec, also called Canada West and Canada East at one time in the 19th century) were both indigenous and black. Before colonization, indigenous peoples themselves also commonly held slaves, Mr. Dummitt points out in an op-ed for The Hub.“When in the United States, if a white man spoke to me, I would feel frightened, whether I were in the right or wrong; but now it is quite a different thing. If a white man speaks to me, I can look him right in the eyes. If he were to insult me, I could give him an answer. I have the rights and privileges of any other man,” Mr. Grose said of his experience after arriving in Canada.
He spoke of being reunited with his wife and children, from whom he had been separated when his owner sold him. He spoke of being able to provide his children with an education, to vote, and to earn money, with many like him having “become wealthy by industry, owning horses and carriages.”
Though many suffered in the south, the former slaves also recalled the help and kindness of many white Americans. “I am not prejudiced against all the white race in the United States,” Mr. Grose said.
A Timeline
Abolition gradually gained ground in Upper Canada in the 18th century and was fully enacted in all British colonies on Aug. 1, 1834. Many of the slaves came north with British loyalists during or after the American Revolutionary War.Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe of Upper Canada advocated for abolition in 1793.
The story of a slave woman named Chloe Cooley helped gain support for abolition at the time. Her owner, Loyalist Adam Vrooman, was said to have violently beaten her and loaded her into a boat to be sold in New York.
The Upper Canada legislature passed a law limiting slavery in 1793. It did not free all existing slaves, but it did free the children of slaves once they reached the age of 25. Their owners were still to be responsible for making sure they were provided for and did not fall into poverty thereafter. It also prohibited the sale of slaves within the province and prohibited the import of slaves.
‘Complexities’ of History
Recent controversy has surrounded efforts to rename Dundas Street in Toronto because Henry Dundas, an influential 18th century politician in the British House of Commons, did not support abolition strongly enough in the view of some activists.What actually happened, he and others at the symposium said, was that Mr. Dundas had the word “gradually” added to legislation abolishing slavery. The legislation seemed about to fail for the third time in Parliament, and he hoped to gain more votes for it with this compromise.
‘Signs of Industry and Thrift’
Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe (1801–1876) was appointed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s administration to go to what was then called Canada West and see how freed slaves were faring.Mr. Howe’s report became part of the Congressional debate on the Fourteenth Amendment that established rights for free slaves in the United States.
Among the accounts of escaped slaves in the same region gathered by Mr. Drew are many who expressed appreciation for their new home.
“I reached Canada about a year ago. Liberty I find to be sweet indeed,” said one such freed man, Henry Atkinson.
Another, James Adams, told Mr. Drew he was ready to buy the home he was renting.
“My family are with me. We live well, and enjoy ourselves,” Mr. Adams said. “I look upon slavery as the most disgusting system a man can live under.”
Mr. Adams was raised in Virginia and fled slavery in August of 1824. “I was young, and they had not treated me very badly; but I had seen older men treated worse than a horse or a hog ought to be treated; so, seeing what I was coming to, I wished to get away,” he said.
He recounted his long and harrowing journey northward. It was with the help of several white friends and white strangers he met along the way that he made it to safety. On his boat to freedom, he met with a white man who knew him from his plantation in Virginia.
This man told Mr. Adams a reward of US$100 was on his head and he had been told to post ads for the reward on his northward journey. “He showed us several handbills to that effect. He said they had been given him to put up along the road, but he had preferred to keep them in his pocket,” Mr. Adams said.
Hardships also awaited many who arrived in Canada with nothing. Famously, black loyalists arriving in Nova Scotia during the American Revolutionary War had been promised land and provisions but were given much less than white loyalists, or even none at all.
But the descendant of one such loyalist has expressed gratitude at the opportunity his fifth-great grandfather, William Barton, was given when he settled in Digby, Nova Scotia.
“His children’s names are now in the family tree that I have. His four daughters married happily to have their own children without the fear of their children becoming enslaved. His family really established in Digby and that name fortunately lives on today.”