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CHAPTER VII
LIFE OF THE COLORED REFUGEES IN CANADA
Pg. 190
The passengers of the
Underground Railroad had but one real refuge, one region
alone within whose bounds they could know they were safe
from reënslavement;
that region was Canada. The position of Canada on
the slavery question was peculiar, for the imperial act
abolishing slavery throughout the colonies of England
was not passed until 1833; and, legally, if not
actually, slavery existed in Canada until that year. The
importation of slaves into this northern country had
been tolerated by the French, and later, under an act
passed in 1790, had been encouraged by the English.
It is a singular fact that while this measure was in
force slaves escaped from their Canadian masters to the
United States, where they found freedom.1
Before the separation of the Upper and Lower Provinces
in 1791, slavery had spread westward into Upper Canada,
and a few hundred negroes and some Pawnee Indians were
to be found in bondage through the small scattered
settlements of the Niagara, Home and Western districts.
The Province of Upper Canada took the initiative in the
restriction of slavery. In the year 1793, in which
Congress provided for the rendition by the Northern
states of fugitives from labor, the first parliament of
Upper Canada enacted a
---------------
1 "A case of this kind," says Dr. S. G. Howe,"
was related to us byMrs. Amy Martin. She
says: "My father's name was James Ford . . . . He
. . . would be over one hundred years old, if he were
now living . . . . He was held here (in Canada) by the
Indians as a slave, and sold, I think he said to a
British officer, who was a very cruel master, and he
escaped from him, and came to Ohio, . . . to Cleveland,
I believe, first, and made his way from there to Erie
(Pa.), where he settled . . . . When we were in Erie, we
moved a little way out of the village, and our house was
. . . a station of the U. S. R. R." The
Refugees from Slavery in Canada West, by S. G.
Howe, 1864, pp.8, 9.
A GROUP OF REFUGEE SETTLERS, OF WINDSOR, ONTARIO
MRS. ANN MARY JANE HUNT, MANSFIELD SMITH, MRS. LUCINDA
SEYMOUR, HENRY STEVENSON, BUSH JOHNSON.
(From a recent photograph.)
[Pg. 191] -
DISAPPEARANCE OF SLAVERY FROM CANADA
law against the
importation of slaves, and incorporated in it a clause
to the effect that children of slaves then held were to
become free at the age of twenty-five years.1
Nevertheless, judicial rather than legislative action
terminated slavery in Lower Canada, for a series of
three fugitive slave cases occurred between the first
day of February, 1798, and the last day of February,
1800. The third of these suits, known as the Robin
case, was tried before the full Court of King's Bench,
and the court ordered the discharge of the fugitive from
his confinement. Perhaps the correctness of the
decisions rendered in these cases may be questioned; but
it is noteworthy that the provincial legislature would
not cross them, and it may therefore be asserted that
slavery really ceased in Lower Canada after the decision
of the Robin case, Feb.18, 1800.2
The seaboard provinces were but little infected by
slavery. Nova Scotia, to which probably more than
to any other of these, refugees from Southern bondage
fled, had be reason of natural causes, lost nearly, if
not quite all traces of slavery by the beginning of our
century. The experience of the eighteenth century
had been sufficient to reform public opinion in Canada
on the question of slavery, and to show that the climate
of the provinces was a permanent barrier to the
profitable employment of slave labor.
During the period in which Canada was thus freeing
herself from the last vestiges of the evil, slaves who
had escaped from Southern masters were beginning to
appeal for protection to anti-slavery people in the
Northern states.3 The arrests of
refugees from bondage, and the cases of kidnapping of
free negroes, which were not infrequent in the North,
strengthened the appeals of the hunted suppliants.
Under these circumstances, it was natural that there
should have arisen early in the present century the
beginnings of a movement on thenorthern border of the
United States for the purpose of helping fugitives to
Canadian soil.4
---------------
1 Act of 30th Geo. III.
2 See the article entitled "Slavery in
Canada," by J. C. Hamilton, LL.B.
3 M. G. McDougall, Fugitive Slaves,
p. 20.
4 Ibid., p. 60; R. C. Smedley,
Underground Railroad, p. 26.
[Pg. 192]
Upon the questions how and when this system arose, we
have both unofficial and official testimony. Dr.
Samuel G.
Howe learned upon careful investigation, in 1863,
that the early abolition of slavery in Canada did not
affect slavery in
the United States for several years. "Now and then
a slave was intelligent and bold enough," he states, "to
cross the
vast forest between the Ohio and the Lakes, and find a
refuge beyond them. Such cases were at first very
rare, and knowledge of them was confined to few; but
they increased early in this century; and the rumor
gradually spread among the slaves of the Southern
states, that there was, far away under the north star, a
land where the flag of the Union did not float; where
the law declared all men free and equal; where the
people respected the law, and the government, if need
be, enforced it. . . . Some, not
content with personal freedom and happiness, went
secretly back to their old homes, and brought away their
wives and children at much peril and cost. The
rumor widened; the fugitives so increased, that a secret
pathway, since called the Underground Railroad, was soon
formed, which ran by the huts of the blacks in the slave
states, and the houses of good Samaritans in the free
states. . . . Hundreds trod this path
every year, but they did not attract much public
notice."1 Before the year 1817 it is
said that a single little group of abolitionists in
southern Ohio had forwarded to Canada by this secret
path more than a thousand fugitive slaves.2
The truth of this account is confirmed by the diplomatic
negotiations of 1826 relating to 0this subject.
Mr. Clay, then Secretary of State, declared
the escape of slaves to British territory to be a
"growing evil"; and in 1828 he again described it as
still "growing," and added that it was well calculated
to disturb the peaceful relations existing between the
United States and the adjacent British provinces.
England, however, steadfastly refused to accept Mr.
Clay's proposed stipulation for extradition, on
the ground that the British government could not, "with
respect to the British possessions where slavery is not
admitted, de-
---------------
1 S. G. Howe,
The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West, pp. 11,
12.
2 William Birney, James G. Birney and His
Times, p. 435.
[Pg. 193] -
INFLUX OF FUGITIVES INTO CANADA.
part from the principle
recognized by the British courts that every man is free
who reaches British ground."1
During the decade between 1828 and 1838 many persons
throughout the Northern states, as far west as Iowa, had
cooperated in forming new lines of Underground Railroad
with termini at various points along the Canadian
frontier. A resolution submitted to Congress in
December, 1838, was aimed at these persons, by calling
for a bill providing for the punishment, in the courts
of the United States, of all persons guilty of aiding
fugitive slaves to escape, or of enticing them from
their owners.2 Though this resolution
came to nought, the need of it may have been
demonstrated to the minds of Southern men by the fact
that several companies of runaway slaves were organized,
and took part in the Patriot War of this year in defence
of Canadian territory against the attack of two or three
hundred armed men from the State of New York.3
Each succeeding year witnessed the influx into Canada
of a larger number of colored emigrants from the South.
At length, in 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law called forth
such opposition in the North that the Underground
Railroad became more efficient than ever. The
secretary of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society
wrote in 1851 that, "notwithstanding the stringent
provisions of the Fugitive Bill, and the confidence
which was felt in it as a certain cure for escape, we
are happy to know that the evasion of slaves was never
greater than at this moment. All abolitionists, at
any of the prominent points of the country, know that
applications for assistance were never more frequent."4
This statement is substantiated by the testimony of many
persons who did underground service in the North.
---------------
1 Mr.
Gallatin to Mr. Clay, Sept. 26, 1827, Niles'
Register, p. 290.
2 Congressional Globe, Twenty-fifth
Congress, Third Session, p. 34.
3 The Patriot War defeated a foolhardy
attempt to induce the Province of Upper Canada to
proclaim its independence. The refugees were by no
means willing to see a movement begun, the success of
which might "break the only arm interposed for their
security." J. W. Loguen as a Slave and as a
Freeman, p. 344.
4 Nineteenth Annual Report of the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, January, 1851,
p. 67.
[Pg. 194]
From the other end of the line, the Canadian terminus,
we have abundant evidence of the lively traffic both
before and after the new act. Besides the later
investigations of Dr. Howe we have the
statement of a contemporary, still living.
Anthony Bingey, of Windsor, Ontario, aided
the Rev. Hiram Wilson and the Rev. Isaac J.
Rice, two graduates of Hamilton College, in the
conduct of a mission for refugees. Mr. Bingey
first settled at Amherstburg, at the mouth of the
Detroit River, where he kept a receiving station for
fugitives, was in an excellent place for observation,
and was allied with trained men, who gave themselves, in
the missionary spirit, to the cause of the fugitive
slave in Canada. When Mr. Bingey first went
to Amherstburg, in 1845, it was a rare occurrence to see
as many as fifteen fugitives arrive in a single company.
In the course of time runaways began to disembark from
the ferries and lake boats in larger numbers, a day’s
tale often running as high as thirty. Through the
period of the Mexican War, and down to the beginning of
Fillmore’s administration, many of the fugitives from
the South had settled in the States, but after 1850
many, fearing recapture, journeyed in haste to Canada,
greatly increasing the number daily arriving there.1
That there was no tendency towards a decline in the
movement is suggested by two items appearing in the
Independent during the year 1855. According to the
first of these (quoted from the Intelligencer of St.
Louis, Missouri): “The evil (of running off slaves) has
got to be an immense one, and is daily becoming more
aggravated. It threatens to subvert the
institution of slavery in this state entirely, and
unless effectually checked it will certainly do so.
There is no doubt that ten slaves are now stolen from
Missouri to every one that was ‘spirited’ off before the
Douglas bill.”2 It is significant that
the ardent abolitionists of Iowa and northwestern
Illinois were vig-
---------------
1 Interview with
Elder Anthony Bingey, Windsor, Ontario, July 31,
1895. On this point Dr. S. G. Howe says:
“Of course it [the Fugitive Slave Law] gave great
increase to the emigration, and free born blacks fled
with the slaves from a land in which their birthright of
freedom was no longer secure.” Refugees from
Slavery in Canada West, p. 15.
2 Independent, Jan. 18, 1865.
[Pg. 195] -
CHARACTER OF CANADIAN
REFUGEES
orously
engaged in Underground Railroad work at this time.
The other item declared that the number of fugitives
transported by the “Ohio Underground Line” was
twenty-five per cent greater than in any previous year;
“indeed, many masters have brought their hands from the
Kanawha (West Virginia), not being willing to risk them
there.”1
That portion of Canada most easily reached by
fugitives was the lake-bound region lying between New
York on the east and Michigan on the west, and
presenting a long and inviting coast-line to northern
Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York.
Lower Canada was often reached through the New England
states and by way of the coast-line routes. The
fugitives slaves entering Canada were principally from
the border slave states, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia,
Maryland and Delaware. Some, however, favored by
rare good fortune and possessed of more than ordinary
sagacity or aided by some venturesome friend, had made
their way from the far South, from the Carolinas,
Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, even from Louisiana.
The fugitives who reached Canada do not seem to have
been notable; on the whole they were a representative
body of the slave-class. An observer on a Southern
plantation could hardly have selected out would-be
fugitives, as being superior to their fellows. If
he had questioned them all about their desire for
liberty he would have found habitual runaways agreeing
with their fellows that they were content with their
present lot. The average slave was shrewd enough
under ordinary circumstances to tell what he thought
least likely to arouse suspicion. That such
discretion did not signify lack of desire for freedom is
shown not only by the numerous escapes, but by the
narratives of fugitives. Said Leonard
Harrod: “Many a time my master has told me things to
try me; among others he said he thought of moving up to
Cincinnati, and asked me if I did not want to go.
I would tell him, ‘No! I don’t want to go to none of
your free countries!’ Then he’d laugh, but I
did want to come - surely I did. A colored
man tells the truth here, - there
---------------
1 Independent, April 5, 1855; see
also Von Holst’s Constitutional and Political
History of the United States, Vol. V, p. 63, note.
[Pg. 196]
he is afraid to.”1 “I have known slaves to be
hungry,” said David West, “but when their
master asked them if they had enough, they would through
fear say, ‘Yes.’ So if asked if they wish to he free,
they will say ‘No.’ I knew a case where there was a
division of between fifty and sixty slaves among heirs,
one of whom intended to set free her part. So
wishing to consult them she asked of such and such ones
if they would like to be free, and they all said ‘No,’
for if they had said yes, and had then fallen to the
other heirs, they would be sold, - and so they
said, ‘No,’ against their own consciences.”2
“From the time I was a little boy it always ground my
feelings to know that I had to work for another man,”
said Edward Walker, of Windsor, Ontario.3
When asked to help hunt two slave-women, Henry
Stevenson, a slave in Odrain County, Missouri, at first
declined, knowing that his efforts to find them would
bring upon him the wrath of the other slaves. “I
wouldn’t go,” he related; “the colored folks would ’a’
killed me.” In his refusal he was supported by a
white man, who had the wisdom to observe that “’Twas a
bad policy to send a nigger to hunt a nigger.”
Nevertheless, Stevenson’s trustworthiness had
been so often tested that he was taken along to help
prosecute the search, and even accompanied the party of
pursuers to Chicago, where he disappeared by the aid of
abolitionists and was afterward heard of in Windsor,
Ontario.4 Elder Anthony Bingey,
of the same place, said, “I never saw the day since I
knew anything that I didn’t want to be free. Both
Bucknel and Taylor [his successive
masters] liked to see their slaves happy and well
treated, but I always wanted to be free.” 5
---------------
1 Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery,
1856, p. 340.
2 Ibid., p. 91.
3 Detroit Sunday News Tribune, quoted by the
Louisville Journal, Aug. 12,1894.
4 Conversation with Henry Stevenson, Windsor,
Ont., July, 1895.
5 Conversation with Elder Anthony Bingey,
Windsor, Ont., July 31,1895.
[Pg. 197] - MISINFORMATION ABOUT
CANADA AMONG SLAVES
the commander of a vessel on Lake Erie in 1860, was
requested by two acquaintances at Cleveland to put
ashore on the Canada side two persons, who were, of
course, fugitives, and he gives the following account of
the landing: “ While they were on my vessel I felt
little interest in them, and had no idea that the love
of liberty as a part of man’s nature was in the least
possible degree felt or understood by them. Before
entering Buffalo harbor, I ran in near the Canada shore,
manned a boat, and landed them on the beach. . . . They
said, ‘Is this Canada?’ I said, ‘Yes, there are no
slaves in this country’; then I witnessed a scene I
shall never forget. They seemed to be transformed;
a new light shone in their eyes, their tongues were
loosed, they laughed and cried, prayed and sang praises,
fell upon the ground and kissed it, hugged and kissed
each other, crying, ‘Bress de Lord! Oh! I’se free before
I die !’ ”1
The state of ignorance in which the slave population of
the South was largely kept must be regarded as the
admission by the master class that their slaves were
likely to seize the boon of freedom, unless denied the
encouragement towards self-emancipation that knowledge
would surely afford. The fables about Canada
brought to the North by runaways well illustrate both
the ignorance of the slave and the apprehensions of his
owner. William Johnson, who fled
from Hopkins County, Virginia, had been told that the
Detroit River was over three thousand miles wide, and a
ship starting out in the night would find herself in the
morning “right whar she started from.” In the
light of his later experience Johnson says, “We
knowed jess what dey tole us and no more.”2
Deacon Allen Sidney, an engineer on his master’s
boat, which touched at Cincinnati, had a poor opinion of
Canada because he had heard that “nothin’ but black-eyed
peas could be raised there.”3 John
Evans, who travelled through the Northern
country, and even in Canada, with his Kentucky master,
was insured against the
---------------
1 E. M. Pettit,
Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad,
pp. 66, 67. See also Chapter I, p. 14, and Chapter VI,
p. 178.
2 Conversation with William Johnson, at
Windsor, Ont., July 31, 1895.
3 Conversation with Allen Sidney,
Windsor, Ont.
[Pg. 198]
temptation to seize his liberty by the warning to let no
“British nigger” get near him lest he should be slain
“jess like on de battle-field.”1
John Reed heard the white people in Memphis,
Tennessee, talk much of Canada, but he adds “they’d put
some extract onto it to keep us from comin’.”2
Although many disparaging things said about Canada at
the South were without the shadow of verity, there were
still hardships enough to be met by those who settled
there. The provinces constituted for them a
strange country. Its climate, raw, open and
variable, and at certain periods of the year severe,
increased the sufferings of a people already destitute.
The condition in which many of them arrived beyond the
borders, especially those who migrated before the
forties, is vividly told by J. W. Loguen in his
account of his first arrival at Hamilton, Canada West,
in 1835. Writing to his friend, Frederick
Douglass, under date of May 8, 1856, he says: “
Twenty-one years ago - I stood on this spot,
penniless, ragged, lonely, homeless, helpless, hungry
and forlorn. . . . Hamilton was a cold wilderness for
the fugitive when I came there.” 3 The
experience of Loguen coroborates what Josiah
Henson said of the general condition of the
fugitives as he saw them in 1830: “At that time they
were scattered in all directions and for the most part
miserably poor, subsisting not unfrequently on the roots
and herbs of the fields. . . . In 1830 there were no
schools among them and no churches, only occasionally
preaching.”4
The whole previous experience of these pioneers was a
block to their making a vigorous initiative in their own
behalf. Extreme poverty, ignorance and
subjection were their inheritance. Their new
start in life was made with a wretched prospect, and it
would be difficult to imagine a free lot more
discouraging and hopeless. Yet it was
brightened much by the compassionate interest of the
Canadian people, who were so tolerant as to admit them
to a share in
---------------
1
Conversation with John Evans, Windsor,
Ont., Aug. 2, 1895.
2 Conversation with John Reed,
Windsor, Ont.
3 The Rev. J. W. Loguen as a Slave
and as a Freeman, 1859, told by himself ; chap,
xxiv, pp. 338, 340.
4 Father Henson's Story of His Own
Life, 1858, p. 209.
[Pg. 199] -
TREATMENT OF REFUGEES IN
CANADA -
the equal rights that could
at that time he found in America only in the territory
of a monarchical government. By the year 1838 the
fugitive host of Canada West began to profit by
organized efforts in its behalf. A mission of Upper
Canada was established. It was described as including “the colored people who have emigrated from the United
States and settled in various parts of Upper Canada to
enjoy the inalienable rights of freedom.”1 During the
winter of l838-1839, this enterprise conducted four
schools, while the Rev. Hiram Wilson, who seems to
have been acting under other auspices, was supervising
during the same year a number of other schools in the
province.2
From this time on much was done in Canada to help the
ransomed slave meet his new conditions. It was not long
before the benevolent interest of friends from the
Northern states followed the refugees to their very
settlements as it had succored them on their way through
the free states. In 1844 Levi Coffin and William Beard
made a tour of inspection in Canada West. This was the
first of several trips made by these two Quakers “to
look after the welfare of the fugitives”3 in that
region. The Rev. Samuel J. May made two such trips, “the first time to Toronto and its neighborhood,
the second time to that part of Canada which lies between
Lake Erie and Lake Huron.”4 John
Brown did not fail to
keep himself informed by personal visits how the
fugitives were faring there.5 Men less prominent but not
less interested among underground magnates were drawn to
see how their former protégés were prospering; such were
Abram Allen, a Hicksite Friend of Clinton County, Ohio,
and Reuben Goens, a South Carolinian by birth, who became an enthusiastic coworker with the Quakers at
Fountain City, Indiana, in aiding slaves to the
Dominion.
These efforts were helpful to multitudes of negroes. Some insight into the work that was being accomplished
is afforded
---------------
1 Mission of Upper Canada, Vol. I, No. 17, Wed.,
July 31, 1839.
2 Ibid.
3 Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, p. 253.
4 May, Recollections of the Anti-Slavery
Conflict, p. 303.
5 Hinton, John Brown and His Men,
p. 175.
[Pg. 200]
by Levi Coffin, who gives a valuable
account of his Canadian trip, September to November,
1844. Among the first places he visited was
Amherstburg, more commonly known at that time by the
name of Fort Malden: “While at this place, we made our
headquarters at Isaac J. Rice’s missionary
buildings, where he had a large school for colored
children. He had labored here among the colored
people, mostly fugitives, for six years. He was a
devoted, self-denying worker, had received very little
pecuniary help, and had suffered many privations.
He was well situated in Ohio, as pastor of a
Presbyterian church, and had fine prospects before him,
but believed that the Lord called him to this field of
missionary labor among the fugitive slaves who came here
by hundreds and by thousands, poor, destitute, ignorant,
suffering from all the evil influences of slavery.
We entered into deep sympathy with him in his labors,
realizing the great need there was here for just such an
institution as he had established. He had
sheltered at this missionary home many hundreds of
fugitives till other homes for them could be found.
This was the great landing-point, the principal terminus
of the Underground Railroad of the West.”1
Later Mr. Coffin and his companion “visited the
institution under the care of Hiram Wilson,
called the British and American Manual Labor Institute
for colored children.”2 “The school was
then,” he reports, “in a prosperous condition.”
Mr. Coffin continues: “From this place we proceeded
up the river Thames to London, visiting the different
settlements of colored people on our way, and then went
to the Wilberforce Colony. . . . I often met fugitives
who had been at my house ten or fifteen years before, so
long ago that I had forgotten them, and could recall no
recollection of them until they mentioned some
circumstance that brought them to mind. Some of
them were well situated, owned good farms, and were
perhaps worth more than their former masters. . . . We
found many of the fugitives more comfortably situated
than we expected, but there was much destitution and
suffering among those who had recently come in.
Many fugitives arrived weary and footsore, with their
clothing in rags, having been torn by
---------------
1 Coffin, Reminiscences, pp. 249, 250.
2 Ibid., p. 251
[Pg. 201] - ATTITUDE OF CANADA
TOWARDS FUGITIVES
briers and bitten by dogs on their way, and when the
precious boon of freedom was obtained, they found
themselves possessed of little else, in a country
unknown to them and a climate much colder than that to
which they were accustomed. We noted the cases and
localities of destitution, and after our return home
took measures to collect and forward several large boxes
of clothing and bedding to be distributed by reliable
agents to the most needy.”1
The government of Canada was not in advance of the
public sentiment of the provinces when it gave the
incoming blacks considerate treatment. It was
early a puzzle in Mr. Clay’s mind why Ontario and
the mother country should yield unhindered entrance to
such a class of colonists; his opinion of the character
of the absconding slaves and of the unadvisability of
their being received by Canada was expressed in a
despatch of 1826 to the United States minister at
London: “They are generally the most worthless of their
class, and far, therefore, from being an acquisition
which the British government can be anxious to make.
The sooner, we should think, they are gotten rid of the
better for Canada.”2 But the Canadians
did not at any time adopt this view. Dr. Howe
testified in 1863 that “the refugees have always
received . . . from the better class of people,
good-will and justice, and from a few, active friendship
and important assistance.”3 The
attitude of the Canadian government toward this class of
immigrants was always one of welcome and protection.
Not only was there no obstruction put in the way of
their settling in the Dominion, but rather there was the
clear purpose to see them shielded from removal and to
foster among them the accumulation of property.
In the matter of the acquirement of land no
discrimination was made by the Canadian authorities
against the fugitive settlers. On the contrary
these unpromising purchasers were encouraged to take up
government land and become tillers of the soil. In
1844 Levi Coffin found that “Land had been easily
obtained and many had availed themselves of this
---------------
1 Coffin,
Reminiscences, pp. 252, 253.
2 Niles' Register, Vol. XXV, p. 289.
3 Howe, Refugees in Canada West, p. 68.
[Pg. 202]
advantage to secure comfortable homesteads.
Government land had been divided up into fifty-acre
lots, which they could buy for two dollars an acre, and
have ten years in which to pay for it, and if it was not
paid for at the end of that time they did not lose all
the labor they had bestowed on it, but received a clear
title to the land as soon as they paid for it.”1
In 1848 or 1849 a company was formed in Upper Canada,
under the name of the Elgin Association, for the purpose
of settling colored families upon crown or clergy
reserve lands to be purchased in the township of
Raleigh. It was intended thus to supply the
families settled with stimulus to moral improvement.2
To whom is to be attributed the origin of this
enterprise is not altogether clear; one writer ascribes
it to the influence of Lord Elgin,
Governor-General of Canada from 1849 to 1854, and
asserts that a tract of land of eighteen thousand acres
was allotted for a refugee settlement in 1848;3
another says it was first projected by the Rev.
William King, a Louisiana slaveholder, in 1849.4
Mr. King’s own statement is that a
company of fifteen slaves he had himself emancipated
became the nucleus of the settlement in 1849; and that
under an act of incorporation procured by himself in
1850 an association was formed to purchase nine thousand
acres of land and hold it for fugitive settlers.5
The Canadian authorities facilitated the efforts made
by the friends of the fugitives to provide this class
such supplies as could be gathered in various quarters,
and they entered into an arrangement with the
mission-agent, the Rev. Hiram Wilson, to admit
all supplies intended for the refugees free of
customs-duty. Mr. E. Child, a
mission-teacher, educated at Oneida Institute, New York,
received many boxes of such goods at Toronto;6
and at a hamlet called “the Corners,” a
---------------
1 Levi
Coffin, Reminiscences, pp. 252, 253.
2 Benjamin Drew, A
North-Side View of Slavery, p. 292.
3 George Bryce, Short
History of the Canadian People, p. 403.
4 Benjamin Drew, A
North-Side View of Slavery, p. 291.
5 S. G. Howe, Refugees from
Slavery in Canada West, pp. 107, 108.
6 History of Knox County, Illinois
(published by Charles C. Chapman and Co.), p.
203. Here it is stated: “Mr. Wilson
arranged with the authorities to have all supplies for
the fugitive slaves admitted free of customs duty.
[Pg. 203] - CONDITIONS IN CANADA
few miles from Detroit, a Mr. Miller kept a
depot for “fugitive goods.” Supplies were also
skipped to Detroit direct for transmission across the
frontier.1
The circumstances attending the settlement of the
refugees from slavery in Canada were favorable to their
kindly reception by the native peoples. It was
generally known that they had suffered many hardships on
their journey northward, and that they usually came with
nought but the unquenchable yearning for a liberty
denied them by the United States. The movement to
Canada had begun when the inter-lake portion of Ontario
was largely an unsettled region; and indeed, during the
period of the refugees’ immigration, much of the
interior was in the process of clearing. Moreover,
the movement was one of small beginnings and gradual
development. It brought into the country what it
then needed - agricultural labor to open up government
land and to help the native farmers.
In the elbow of land lying between Lake Ontario and
Lake Erie, the fugitives were early received by the
Indians under Chief Brant, having possessions
along the Grand River and near Burlington Bay.
Finding hospitality on these estates, the negroes not
infrequently adopted the customs and mode of life of
their benefactors, and remained among them.2
In the territory extending westward along the lake
front white settlers were working their clearings, which
were beginning to take on the aspect of cultivated
farms. But farm hands were not plentiful, and the
fugitive slaves were penniless, and eager to receive
wages on their own account.
---------------
Many were the large well-filled boxes of what was
most needed by the wanderer taken from the wharf at
Toronto during that winter [1841] by E. Child,
mission-teacher. He was then a student at Oneida
Institute, N.Y., but for many years has resided in
Oneida, this county. He went into Canada for the
purpose of teaching the fugitives.”
1 Conversation with Jacob Cummings,
a fugitive from Tennessee, now living in Columbus, O.
Mr. Cummings was at one time a collecting agent
for a settlement at Puce, Ont. He told the author,
“While agent, I was sent to Sandusky. I would
collect goods for the settlement, and ship it to
Detroit, marked ‘Fugitive Goods.’ Brother
Miller, at the Comers, a little place about fifteen
miles from Detroit, would take care of these, and Canada
wouldn’t charge any duty on ‘fugitive goods.’ ”
2 J. C. Hamilton, Magazine of
American History, Vol. XXV, p. 238.
[Pg. 204]
Mr. Benjamin Drew, who made a tour of
investigation among these people in 1855, and wrote down
the narratives of more than a hundred colored refugees,
gives testimony to show that in some quarters at least,
as in the vicinity of Colchester, Dresden and Dawn, the
number of laborers was not equal to the demand, and that
the negroes readily found employment.1
It was not to be expected that the field-hands and
house- servants of the South could work to the best
advantage in their new surroundings; a gentleman of
Windsor told Mr. Drew that immigrants whose
experience in agricultural pursuits had been gained in
Pennsylvania and other free states were more capable and
reliable than those coming directly to Canada from
Southern bondage.2 But such was the
disposition of the white people in different parts of
Canada, and such the demand for laborers in this
developing section, that the Canada Anti-Slavery Society
could say of the refugees, in its Second Report (1858):
“The true principle is now to assume that every man,
unless disabled by sickness, can support himself and his
family after he has obtained steady employment.
All that able-bodied men and women require is a fair
chance, friendly advice and a little encouragement,
perhaps a little assistance at first. Those who
are really willing to work can procure employment in a
short time after their arrival.” 3
The fact that there were large tracts of good land in
the portion of Canada accessible to the fugitive was a
fortunate circumstance, for the desire to possess and
cultivate their own land was wide-spread among the
escaped slaves. This eagerness drew many of them
into the Canadian wilderness, there to cut out little
farms for themselves, and live the life of pioneers.
The extensive tract known as the Queen’s Bush, lying
southwest of Toronto and stretching away to Lake Huron,
was early penetrated by refugees. William
Jackson, one of the first colored settlers in this
region, says that he entered it in 1846, when scarcely
any one was to be found there, that other fugitive
slaves soon followed in con-
---------------
1 Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery,
pp. 311, 368.
2 Ibid., p. 322.
3 Quoted by Drew, p. 326.
REV. THEODORE PARKER
COL. T. W. HIGGINSON
DR. SAMUEL G. HOWE
BENJAMIN DREW
[Pg. 205] - FUGITIVE AID SOCIETIES IN
CANADA
siderable numbers and cleared the land, and that in
less than two years as many as fifty families had
located there. The land proved to be good, was
well timbered with hard wood, and farms of from fifty to
a hundred acres in extent were soon put in cultivation.1
In some other parts of Canada the same tendency to
spread into the outlying districts and secure small
holdings appeared among the colored people. Mr.
Peter Wright, the reeve of the town of Colchester,
noted this fact, and attributed the clearance of much
land for cultivation to fugitive slaves.2
That such land did not always remain in the possession
of this class of pioneers was due to their ignorance of
the forms of conveyancing, and doubtless sometimes to
the sharp practices of unscrupulous whites.3
Encouragement was not lacking to induce refugees to
take up land; several fugitive aid societies were
organized for this purpose, and procured tracts of land
and founded colonies upon them. The most important
of the colonies thus formed were the Dawn Settlement at
Dresden, the Elgin Settlement at Buxton and the
Refugees' Home near Windsor.4 These
three communities deserve special consideration,
inasmuch as they illustrate an interesting movement in
which benevolent persons in Canada, England and the
United States cooperated to improve the condition of the
refugees.
The Dawn Settlement, the first of the three
established, may be said to have had its beginning in
the organization of a school called the British and
American Institute.6 The purpose to
found such a school seems to have been cherished by the
missionary, the Rev. Hiram Wilson, and his
coworker, Josiah Henson, as early as 1838;
but the plan was not undertaken until 18426.
In that year a convention of colored persons was
---------------
1 Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery, p.
190.
2 Ibid., p. 367.
3 Ibid., pp. 367, 369; Austin Steward,
Twenty-two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman,
p. 272.
4 Howe, Refugees from Slavery in Canada West,
pp. 68, 69.
5 Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery, p.
308.
6 The Life of Josiah Henson, formerly a Slave, as
narrated by Himself, 1852, p. 115. See also
Father Henson's Story of His Own Life, 1858, p. 171.
Mr. Drew ascribes the honor of the
original conception of this Institute to the Rev.
Hiram Wilson. (See A North-Side View of Slavery, p.
311.) Mr. Henson, after asserting
that he and Mr. Wilson called the
convention of 1838,
[Pg. 206] -
called to decide upon the expenditure of some fifteen
hundred dollars collected in England by a Quaker named
James C. Fuller; and they decided, under
suggestion, to start “a manual-labor school, where
children could be taught those elements of knowledge
which are usually the occupations of a grammar-school;
and where the boys could be taught, in addition, the
practice of some mechanic art, and the girls could be
instructed in those domestic arts which are the proper
occupation and ornament of her sex.”1
It was decided to locate the school at Dawn, and
accordingly three hundred acres of land were purchased
there, upon which were erected log buildings and
schoolhouses, and soon the work of instruction was
begun. It was “an object from the beginning, of
those who . . . managed the affairs of the Institute, to
make it self-supporting, by the employment of the
students, for certain portions of their time, on the
land.”2 The advantages of schooling on
this basis atttracted many refugee settlers to Dresden
and Dawn. The institute also gave shelter to
fugitive slaves until they could be placed out upon the
wild lands in the neighborhoods to earn their own
subsistence.”
The Rev. Mr. Wilson served the Institute during
the first seven years of its existence, teaching its
school, and ministering to such refugees as came.
The number of “boarding-scholars” with which he began
was fourteen, and at that time “there were no more than
fifty colored persons in all the vicinity of the tract
purchased.”3 In 1852 there were about
sixty pupils attending the school, and the settlers on
the land of the Institute had increased to five hundred;4
while other colonies in the same region had,
collectively, a population of
---------------
continues, “I urged the appropriation of the
money to the establishment of a manual-labor school. . .
(Father Henson's Story of His Own Life,
p. 169.) It appears that both Wilson and
Henson were placed on the committee on site.
As they were friends and coworkers, it is safe to accord
them equal shares in the undertaking.
1 Father Henson's Story of His Own
Life, p. 169.
2 The Life of Josiah Henson,
formerly a Slave, as narrated by Himself, p. 115.
3 Drew, A North-Side View of
Slavery, p. 311.
4 First Annual Report of the Anti-Slavery
Society of Canada, p. 17. See also Drew’s
North-Side View, p. 311.
[Pg. 207] - DAWN SETTLEMENT -
between three thousand and four thousand colored
people.1 From what has been said it is
easy to see that the influence of Dawn Institute was
considerable; its managers were not content that it
should instruct the children of colored persons only;
they extended the advantages of the school to the
children of whites and Indians as well. Adult
students were also admitted, and varied in number from
fifty-six to one hundred and sixteen.2
The good results of the policy thus pursued are apparent
in the character and habits of the communities that
developed under the influence of the Institute.
Concerning these communities Mr. Drew
observed: " The colored people in the neighborhood of
Dresden and Dawn are generally prosperous farmers - of
good morals. . . . But here, as among all people, are a
few persons of doubtful character, who have not been
trained 'to look out for a rainy day,' - and when these
get a little beforehand they are apt to rest on their
oars. . . . Some of the settlers are mechanics, -
shoemakers, blacksmiths and so forth. About
one-third of the adult settlers are in possession of
land which is, either in whole or in part, paid for."3
In 1855, the year in which these observations were made,
the Institute had already passed the zenith of its
usefulness, and its buildings were fast falling into a
state of melancholy dilapidation. The cause of
this decline is probably to be found in the bad feeling,
neglect and failure arising out of a divided management.4
The origin of the Elgin Settlement is discussed above;
whether or not it was projected by Lord Elgin
in 1848, it is certain that in 1849 the Rev. William
King, a Presbyterian clergyman from Louisiana, had
manumitted and settled slaves on this tract. This
company, fifteen in number, formed the nucleus of a
community named Buxton, in honor of Thomas
Fowell Buxton, the philanthropist, and the
rapid growth of the settlement thus begun seems to have
led to the incorporation of the Elgin Association in
August, 1850. It is prob-
---------------
1 Life of Josiah
Benson, formerly a Slave, as narrated by Himself,
p. 118.
2 Ibid., p. 117.
3 A North-Side View of Slavery, p. 309.
4 Father Benson's Story of His Own
Life, pp. 182-186.
[Pg. 208] -
able that Mr. King early became the chief
agent in advancing the interests of the settlers, his
support being derived mainly from the Mission Committee
of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. The plan that was
carried out under his manage ment provided for the
parcelling of the land into farms of fifty acres each,
to be had bythe colonists at the government price, two
dollars and fifty cents per acre, payable in twelve
annual instalments. No houses inferior to
the model of a small log house prescribed by the
improvement committee were to be erected,1
although settlers were permitted to build as much better
as they chose. A court of arbitration was
established for the adjudication of disputes, and a
day-school and Sunday-school gave much needed
instruction.
The growth of the Elgin Settlement is set forth in a
series of reports, which afford many interesting facts
about the enterprise. The number of families that
entered the settlement during the first two years and
eight months is given as seventy-five;2 a
year later this number was increased to one hundred and
thirty families, comprising five hundred and twenty
persons;3 the year following there were a
hundred and fifty families in Buxton;4 and
eight years later, in 1862, when Dr. Howe visited
Canada, he was informed by Mr. King that
the population of the settlement was "about one
thousand, - men, women and children," and that two
thousand acres had been deeded in fee simple to
purchasers, one-third of which had been paid for,
principal and interest. The impressions of Dr.
Howe are well worth quoting: "Buxton is certainly a
very interesting place. Sixteen years ago it was a
wilderness. Now, good highways are laid out in all
directions through the forest; and by their side,
standing back thirty-three feet from the road, are about
two hundred cottages, all built on the same pattern, all
looking neat and comfortable. Around each one is a
cleared
---------------
1 The
dimensions of the model house were twenty-four by
eighteen feet, and twelve feet high.
2 Third Annual Report, September,
1852, quoted by Drew in North-Side View of
Slavery, p. 293.
3 Fourth Annual Report, September,
1853. See Drew's work, p. 294.
4 Fifth Annual Report, September, 1854 ;
Drew's work, p. 295.
[Pg. 209] - ELGIN REFUGEES' HOME
SETTLEMENTS -
[Pg. 210] -
[Pg. 211] - DR. HOWE'S CRITICISM OF
THE COLONIES -
[Pg. 212] -
[Pg. 213] - DR. HOWE'S CRITICISM
ANSWERED -
[Pg. 214] -
[Pg. 215] - SERVICES OF THE
COLONIZATION SOCIETIES -
[Pg. 216] -
[Pg. 217] - CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING
THE COLONIES -
[Pg. 218] -
[Pg. 219] - REFUGEES IN THE EASTERN
PROVINCES -
located at Owen Sound.1 From this
testimony it is certain that by 1850 fugitive slaves had
found their way in consider able numbers throughout the
inter-lake portion of Canada West.
Farther east, the Province of Quebec attracted negroes
from the Southern states as early as the thirties; and
they began to make pilgrimages northward by way of
secret lines of travel through New England. By
1850, there were at least five or six of these lines,
all well patronized, considering their remoteness from
slaveholding territory. Maritime routes, by wayof
ports along the New England coast to New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, and even Cape Breton Island, seem also to have
existed. A case is cited by the Rev. Austin
Willey in his book, entitled Anti-Slavery in the
State and Nation, in which more than twenty colored
refugees were sent from Portland to New Brunswick at one
time, soon after the rescue of Shadrach in
Boston, in 1851. It is reported that there are
still settlements of ex-slaves in Nova Scotia, near
Halifax;2 and the statement has recently been
made that "there are at least two negro families living
in Inverness County, Cape Breton, who are, in all
probability, the descendants of fugitive slaves."2
As regards this movement into the Eastern provinces, no
detailed information can be had. Even in the
Western lake bound region, it was the towns that were
the most accessible for the traveller desirous of
studying the condition of fugitives; most visitors
contented themselves with the briefest memorials of
their visits; and those whose accounts are at the same
time helpful and extended, describe or even mention only
a limited number of abiding-places of escaped slaves.
Though Drew notices in his book but thirteen
communities, and Dr. Howe refers to eleven
only, numerous other places are mentioned by other
observers. Sketching his first visit to Canada,
Mr. Coffin writes : " Leaving Gosfield County,
---------------
1 Drew, North-Side View of Slavery, p.
190.
2 A statement to this effect, which appeared in the
Marine Journal of New York, is quoted in
McClure's Magazine for May, 1897, p. 618.
3 See the letter signed "D. F.," printed in
McClure's Magazine, May, 1897, p. 618.
[Pg. 220] -
we made our way to Chatham and Sydenham, visiting
the various neighborhoods of colored people.
We spent several days at the settlement near Down's
Mills, and visited the institution under the care of
Hiram Wilson, called the British and American
Manual Labor Institute. . . . From this place we
proceeded up the river Thames to London, visiting the
different settlements of colored people on our way,
and then went to the Wilberforce colony."1
After naming a list of twelve towns near which refugees
had settled, Josiah Henson says: "Others
are scattered in small numbers in different townships,
and at Toronto there are about four hundred or five
hundred variously employed. . . ."2
Such testimony goes to show that the refugee population
of Canada was widely distributed, both in the cities and
towns and in the country.
If the information at hand in regard to the
distribution of the refugees is unsatisfactory, it can
hardly be expected that the numbers can now be
ascertained. The official figures of the
successive Canadian censuses are untrustworthy. Dr.
Howe, who studied them, concluded that, "It is
impossible to ascertain the number of exiles who have
found refuge in Canada since 1800. . . . It is
difficult, moreover, to ascertain the present number
(1862). The census of 1850 is confused. It
puts the number in Upper Canada at 2,502 males and 2,167
females. But in a note it is stated, 'there are
about 8,000 colored persons in Western Canada.'
This word "about" is an admission of the uncertainty;
and as if to make that uncertainty greater, the same
census in another part puts the number in Western Canada
at 4,669." The census of 1860 Dr. Howe
found to be equally unreliable. In giving the
colored population as 11,223, it underrated the number
greatly, as he discovered by looking into the records of
several cities and by making inquiry of town officers.
In this manner he learned that the number of colored
people living in St. Catherines was about 700, although
the census showed only 472; in Hamilton, probably more
than
----------
1 Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, p. 251. The
italics are my own.
2 The Life of Josiah Henson, formerly a Slave, as
narrated by Himself, p. 100.
[Pg. 221] - REFUGEE POPULATION OF
CANADA -
[Pg. 222] -
[Pg. 223] - OCCUPATIONS OF CANADIAN
REFUTEES -
[Pg. 224] -
[Pg. 225] - CONGREGATION OF FUGITIVES
IN TOWNS -
[Pg. 226] -
[Pg. 227] - PROGRESS OF CANACIAN
REFUGEES -
[Pg. 228] -
[Pg. 229] - SCHOOLS OF THE REFUGEES -
[Pg. 230] -
[Pg. 231] - TRUE BANDS AMONG THE
REFUGEES -
[Pg. 232] -
[Pg. 233] - POLITICAL PRIVILEGES OF
REFUGEES -
The fact that they had been slaves did not debar the
refugees from the exercise of whatever political rights
they had acquired. The negro voters used their
privilege freely in common with the native citizens,
allying themselves with the two regular parties of
Canada, the Conservative and the Reform.1
In some communities negroes were elected to office.
The Rev. William King, head of the Buxton
Settlement, has mentioned the offices of pathmasters,
school trustees, and councillors as those to which
colored men were chosen within his knowledge.
These, he said, were as high as the negro had then
attained, and he thought that white men would refuse to
vote for a black running for Parliament.2
Dr. J. Wilson Moore, a friend of the refugees,
said of them in 1858 that their standing was fair, and
that the laws of the land made no distinction. He
observed that they did jury duty with their white
neighbors, and served as school directors and road
commissioners. On the whole, he thought, they were
as much respected as their intelligence and virtue
entitled them to be.3
In view of the remarkable progress made by the refugees
and of their general serviceableness as settlers in the
provinces, it is easy to understand why the Canadian
government maintained its favorable attitude towards
them to the end of the long period of immigration.
In 1859 the Governor- General testified to the favorable
opinion the central government entertained of the
fugitives as settlers and citizens by assuring the
Rev. W. M. Mitchell that “We can still afford them
homes in our dominions”; and the Parliament of Ontario
manifested its interest in their continued welfare by
voting to incorporate the Association for the Education
and Elevation of the Colored People of Canada upon the
showing that the association would thereby be enabled to
extend its philanthropic labors among the blacks.4
The Canadian authorities seem to have become
established in the view reached after a candid and
prolonged investigation by Dr.
---------------
1 Still,
Underground Railroad Records, p. xxvii.
2 Howe, The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West,
Appendix, p. 108
3 Still,
Underground Railroad Records, p. xvii
4 Mitchell, The Underground Railroad, pp.
155, 156
[Pg. 234] -
Howe, that the refugees "promote the industrial and
material interests of the country and are valuable
citizens."1
---------------
1 The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West, p.
102. William Still, who made a trip through
Canada Wet in 1855, expressed a view similar to that
above quoted, and added the words: "To say that there
are not those amongst the colored people in Canada, as
every place, who are very poor, . . . who will commit
crime, who indulge in habits of indolence and
intemperance, . . . would be far from the truth.
Nevertheless, may not the same be said of white people,
even where they have had the best chances in every
particular? " Underground Railroad Records, p.
xxviii.
This church once stood near the house of Lewis Hayden,
66 Phillips Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
(From an old engraving)
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