by Gerald Therrien
The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 3.
The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, 1786 – 1796.
During the American Revolution, when General Washington had asked General Wayne to undertake an extremely perilous enterprise – the storming of Stony Point, Wayne replied : “General, I will storm Hell, if you will only plan it.”
Part 2 – The Canadian Frontier
Chapter 14 – Slavery in Canada
This chapter is a short report on the existence of slavery in Upper Canada and Lower Canada and in the United States at that time, in 1793. This short report is also simply meant to show that the leading effort to end the slave trade was in the United States of America.
General Toussaint Louverture
Upper Canada [Ontario]
In London, in the midst of the 1791 hearings and vote on abolishing the slave trade, a bill was also passed to reorganize Britain’s colonies in North America. The Constitutional Act of 1791 resulted in the division of Quebec into two provinces: Upper Canada and Lower Canada.
John Graves Simcoe, a member of the House of Commons that approved the act, envisaged a fine settlement in Upper Canada populated by Loyalists, many of whom he had led as members of the Queen’s Rangers during the revolution. The ‘trusty and well-beloved’ John Graves Simcoe applied for and was appointed to the position of lieutenant-governor of the colony in the wilds of the new world, a commission he compared to a ‘species of banishment’ – at a salary of 2000 pounds a year, to be effective on December 24th, 1791.
Due to the war in Europe, mass emigration from the British Isles to Canada had so far been prohibitive. The newly acquired Upper Canada [Ontario] and also Nova Scotia, would be populated by the exodus of ‘loyalists’ [tories] leaving America – those from Savannah and Charleston not going to the British West Indies, and those from New York not returning to Britain.
In Nova Scotia, with a population approaching 30,000, the empire thought they had solved their ‘negro problem’ by shipping them off to Sierra Leone in 1792. Upper Canada’s population of about 10,000, was almost all made up of newly-arrived loyalists, with their (estimated) 500 slaves.
In July 1792, the new lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, Simcoe, issued a Royal Proclamation to divide the province into 19 counties to elect a 16-member legislative assembly. Of the 16 members, 13 were of ‘loyalist’ [tory] origins. Of the 3 remaining, one was John White, a barrister who had been living in Wales when appointed to be Simcoe’s Attorney-General, and had been elected from Leeds and Frontenac (Kingston).
During the first assembly, in June 1793, a bill to end slavery was introduced by Attorney General White to amend an act passed in Britain in 1790 – ‘An act for encouraging new settlers in His Majesty’s colonies and plantations in America’ – that encouraged settlers from United States to the West Indies, or to Quebec, and permitted them to bring their slaves with them. Many of the other members bitterly opposed the amendment, as ‘loyalist’ farmers stated that slaves were necessary to carry on their industry; and a compromise was finally arranged to abolish the further importation of slaves.
The bill was passed by the first democratically-elected legislative assembly in Upper Canada.
The bill was passed by the first democratically-elected legislative assembly in Upper Canada.
Note: the above sentence was repeated in order to dispel all the other nonsense about how slavery was actually ended in Upper Canada!!!
The bill’s preamble read that :
“whereas it is unjust that a people who enjoy freedom by law should encourage the introduction of slavery in this province, and whereas it is highly expedient to abolish slavery in this province so far as the same may gradually be done without violating private property”.
No further slaves were to be brought into the province and the children of slaves were to be freed when they reached the age of twenty-five, and older slaves were to be freed if they outlived their owner.
But White’s advocacy of the Act prevented him from obtaining a seat in any subsequent provincial assembly. White died in January 1800, after being shot in a duel with John Small, the clerk of the Upper Canada Executive Council!
Simcoe left Canada in 1796 and returned to Britain on sick leave, but he was then assigned to Saint-Domingue [Haiti] to lead the British fight against Toussaint Louverture and the slave revolt, arriving in January 1797.
Simcoe had been a British member of parliament for St. Mawes in Cornwall, from 1790 until he resigned in 1792 to leave for Canada, and he was present, in April 1791, during the hearings and vote against the abolition of the slave trade. He had supported the bill because, like Wilberforce, he felt it would be best for the British Empire.
Note on the so-called ‘abolitionist’ William Wilberforce:
When Wilberforce in 1816 chaired a public dinner at Freemasons’ Tavern for something called the African and Asiatic Society, the handful of Africans and Asians present ate at one end of the room, behind a screen.
“Taught by Christianity, they will sustain with patience the sufferings of their actual lot … and will soon be regarded as a grateful peasantry.”
Completely banning the use of the whip, for instance, he felt was going too far. Instead slave whippings should be done only “at night after the day’s work”. Wilberforce wrote that “the progressive rise of Wages” was “an evil … sufficient to accomplish the ruin … of the whole commercial greatness of our country”. The poor should know, he declared, “that their more lowly path has been allotted to them by the hand of God; that it is their part … contentedly to bear its inconveniences”.
[from ‘Bury the Chains’, by Adam Hochschild]
The above quotes are from the so-called great abolitionist, Wilberforce, who was also a founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Perhaps, the two causes looked the same to him – since the morality of the lords of the British Empire had no love for mankind, only pity. Perhaps, John Newton (Wilberforce’s spiritual mentor) should instead have written a hymn to ‘Amazing Pity’.
Lower Canada [Quebec]
While slaves from Africa were earlier being sold to the Caribbean plantations by the Spanish, British, Dutch and French, it was not until 1685 that Louis XIV issued the edict ‘Code Noir’ to officially sanction slavery in the French West Indies, and it was not until 1689 that he approved slavery in New France.
Although no slave ship would ever arrive in New France, African slaves were brought there (from French West Indies) to be sold.
In the book ‘Canada’s Forgotten Slaves’, by Marcel Trudel, over 4000 total slaves are shown to have lived in New France [Quebec] – 2683 Amerindian slaves (called Panis by the French Canadiens) and 1443 African slaves.
The French fur traders in New France bought both furs and Amerindian slaves at their fur-trading posts in the west, to be resold at the towns back east in New France.
1783 was the year that, roughly, saw the end of the Amerindian slave trade, and also saw a large increase in the African slave trade, as the loyalists arrived in Canada from the United States with their African slaves. Since they began arriving from New York state in 1776, a total of 6,000 loyalists and troops, including 130 slaves, would come to Lower Canada [Quebec] .
The census of Lower Canada taken in 1784 showed 304 slaves – 212 in the District of Montreal, 88 in the District of Quebec, and 4 in the District of Three Rivers.
Since that census listed 304 slaves in total, it can be estimated, that before the loyalists arrived with their 130 slaves, that there were a total of 174 (African and mostly Indigenous) slaves in Lower Canada.
Or, it could be said that at that time, Thomas Jefferson owned more slaves (200) than all of French Canada (174).
When the Legislative Council in Canada held hearings in 1787, included in the Montreal merchants (reformers) address was the section: ‘A Prohibition to the bringing of Slaves into the Country’ that read :
“Slavery being alike contrary to the principles of humanity & to the spirit of the British constitution. This committee recommends that means be adopted to prevent the bringing of slaves into the province in future, but as to the few Negro or Indian slaves who are already in servitude, they conceive that they ought not in justice or policy to be emancipated; to many families there are of them valuable as property, and servants, and we have frequently seen instances of slaves being manumitted, soon becoming idle and disorderly, and finally a burthen to the public. We would further recommend that after years, all infants who shall be born of parents who are slaves be declared free”.
In June 1791, the Quebec Gazette reported accounts of the April 1791 debate on abolishing the slave trade that was defeated in the British House of Commons.
In June 1792, the Quebec Gazette reported on the April 1792 debates on abolishing the slave trade that passed the House of Commons but was defeated in the House of Lords.
In January 1793, Pierre-Louis Panet brought to the newly elected Legislative Assembly ‘a bill tending to abolish slavery in the province of Lower Canada’. After passing the second reading, Panet moved that the House resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole to consider the bill. But an amendment by Pierre-Amable Debonne, that proposed to adjourn debate on the bill, passed by a vote of 31 to 3, and Panet’s bill died.
However, while slavery was still (legally) allowed in Lower Canada, the courts would prove otherwise.
On February 24th 1794, William Osgoode was appointed the chief justice of Lower Canada. Osgoode had previously been appointed the first chief justice of Upper Canada in 1791, and had nominated John White to become the province’s first attorney general. The bill to ban the further importation of slaves into Upper Canada had been co-written by White and Osgoode, and was introduced into the legislative assembly by White.
In 1794, a slave had fled the United States and found refuge in Montreal. His former owner came to Montreal and claimed the slave as his. The judge ruled that the ex-slave could not be taken out of the province because slavery was not known ‘under the laws of England’ – the 1772 Mansfield ruling in the Somerset case.
In 1798, a slave named Charlotte left the service of her owner, was later arrested and was jailed when she refused to return to her mistress. Since the court was then on holidays, Chief Justice Osgoode discharged the woman without requiring any future appearance before the court.
After Charlotte’s discharge, another slave, Judith, fled her master, who had her arrested and jailed. She appeared before the judge, William Osgoode, who had her discharged and who declared that :
“he would, upon Habeus Corpus, discharge every negro, indented apprentice, and servant who should be committed to gaol under the Magistrates Warrant in the like cases”.
Later, a slave named Manuel, who had recently been sold, fled his new owner, who now refused to pay the previous owner the debt owing from the sale of the slave. Osgoode ruled that the previous owner could not prove that he had a right to sell the slave, and that the new owner could not prove his ownership of the slave, and that the sale was null and void, and Manuel was free to go.
Since no law in Lower Canada prohibited slavery, and with the Chief Justice freeing escaped slaves on the grounds that he did not consider them to legally be slaves, the keeping of slaves was considered ‘precarious and uncertain’.
Accordingly, in April 1799, a petition was presented to the Legislative Assembly by Joseph Papineau, that since inhabitants of Montreal ‘have purchased for a valuable consideration, a considerable number of Panis and Negro slaves’, and diverse persons, formerly subjects of the United States, had imported Negro slaves into the province, and that under the circumstances, justices had no power to compel absconding slaves to return to the owner’s service, while the owners had no power to enforce obedience, the petitioners foresaw alarming consequences.
The petition asked the Assembly to enact legislation that provided for jailing of slaves who deserted their owners, in the same way as indentured apprentices and servants were jailed in Britain, OR, that ‘a law may be made declaring that there is no slavery in the province; or such other provision, respecting slaves as this House in its wisdom shall think proper’.
The Assembly ordered only that the petition ‘do lay upon the table for the consideration of the members’.
As in Upper Canada, this would have formally recognized slavery and the property rights of slave owners over their slaves – to satisfy the loyalist slave owners who were promised, under the 1790 British act ‘for encouraging new settlers in His Majesty’s colonies and plantations in America’ that they could bring their slaves into Canada; and it would then have allowed for restrictive measures, if necessary, on the importation of new slaves into the province – to satisfy the abolitionists.
Again, in April 1800, Joseph Papineau presented a petition – ‘to provide laws for the proper regulation and government of such a class of men as come within the description of slaves’, that was brought up and read. This petition was referred to a five-member committee that reported its resolution that:
“there are reasonable grounds for passing a law to regulate the condition of slaves, to limit the term of slavery, and prevent the further introduction of slaves in this province.”
The resolution was approved by the Assembly, and the bill was read twice, before a Committee of the Whole was formed to debate it, but the bill died when the House adjourned at the end of the session before a third reading.
After the general election and a new session of the Assembly, in January 1801, a new bill was presented to regulate the condition of slaves and to limit the term of slavery. Again, after two readings, a Committee of the Whole was formed to debate the bill, but again, the bill was not debated, when the session ended.
In March 1803, another bill went through two readings, but, again, died in committee. After 1803, no act concerning slavery would ever appear in the House of Assembly of Lower Canada. Slavery was simply allowed to wither away on its own.
The last deed of sale of a slave is dated May 13th 1797; and the last advertisement for a slave sale was printed in the Montreal Gazette on January 29th 1798. After 1799, records in Lower Canada list only 19 slaves. The last Pani, a woman named Marie-Marguerite, died in Montreal in 1821.
The United States
Before the start of the American Revolution, most slaves arrived in the 13 colonies on British slave ships, and slaves arriving on American ships were bought from the Royal African Company on the west coast of Africa.
In 1774, the non-importation agreement to ban all imports from Britain included a ban on the importation of slaves. By 1787, when the Confederation Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance to prohibit slavery in the new territory, slavery had already been abolished in Rhode Island (1774), in Vermont (1777), in Pennsylvania (1780), in Massachusetts (1781), in New Hampshire (1783) and in Connecticut (1784).
When the Constitutional Convention met in 1787, in order to ensure that South Carolina and Georgia would ratify the new constitution, it was agreed, in a provision, that the federal government could not prohibit the importation of slaves into America for 10 years – until 1807.
In Madison’s ‘Notes’ on the Convention, during the debate,
“General Pinckney [from South Carolina] declared it to be his firm opinion that if himself and all his colleagues were to sign the Constitution and use their personal influence, it would be of no avail towards obtaining the assent of their constituents. South Carolina and Georgia cannot do without slaves. As to Virginia, she will gain by stopping the importations. Her slaves will rise in value, and she has more than she wants. It would be unequal to require South Carolina and Georgia to confederate on such equal terms.”
“Mr. Sherman [from Connecticut] said it was better to let the southern states import slaves than to part with them, if they made that a sine qua non. He was opposed to a tax on slaves imported as making the matter worse, because it implied they were property. He acknowledged that if the power of prohibiting the importation should be given to the general government that it would be exercised. He thought it would be its duty to exercise the power.”
At that time, Dr. Benjamin Franklin was president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery; and John Jay was president and Alexander Hamilton was secretary of the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves.
By 1787, the importation of slaves had already been banned in Delaware (1776), in Virginia (1778), in Maryland (1783), in New Jersey (1786), in North Carolina (1786), and in South Carolina (1787), and within a few years, would be banned in New York (1788) and in Georgia (1793).
And in 1794, President Washington would sign into law ‘an act to prohibit the carrying on the slave trade from the United States to any foreign place or country’ – banning American ships from engaging in the slave trade.
In other words, by 1793 – when the act to ban the importation of slaves into Upper Canada was passed – six states had already banned slavery and all the other states had banned the importation of slaves. But, the support for banning the importation of slaves was not necessarily support for the abolition of slavery.
However, the Upper Canada bill, as well as banning the importation of slaves, also provided for the gradual emancipation of slaves, as would later be done in New York in 1799 and in New Jersey in 1804.
Saint-Domingue [Haiti]
But also, in 1793, the British invaded the French colony of Saint-Domingue, to try to suppress the slave revolt – in order to stop the slave rebellion from spreading to their slave plantations in Jamaica.
In 1797, General John Simcoe, the former Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, was sent to Saint-Domingue to lead the British naval forces in their fight against the freedom fighters of newly-freed ex-slaves of Saint-Domingue who were ably led by (the under-appreciated) Toussaint Louverture, or as he was called General Toussaint – who probably did more than anyone else in human history to end slavery – with a bit of help from President John Adams, but with no help at all from President Thomas Jefferson.
[ The full story of the war for independence in Saint-Domingue can be read in my forthcoming “Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana, and the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804”, or, you can watch the video presentation I did for the Rising Tide Foundation, “Toussaint Louverture, the Haitian Revolution and the Evolution of the American Republic”. ]
[next week – chapter 15 – The Treaty of Vincennes, September 27th 1792]
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For those who may wish to support my continuing work on ‘The Unveiling of Canadian History’, you may purchase my books, that are available as PDFs and Paperback (on Amazon) at the Canadian Patriot Review :
Volume 1 – The Approaching Conflict, 1753 – 1774.
Volume 2 – Forlorn Hope – Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785.
And hopefully,
Volume 3 – The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of Ohio, 1786 – 1796, and
Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana – the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804,
may also appear in print, in the near future, while I continue to work on :
Volume 5 – On the Trail of the Treasonous, 1804 – 1814.