The Journal of Negro History Volume V Part 44

Z. Ma.s.sicotte, Archivist of Montreal published in _Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques_ for November, 1918, pp. 348 sqq.--the advertis.e.m.e.nt in the Gazette is to be found in Terrill's _Chronicles of Montreal_. The paper was 2-1/2 Spanish dollars per annum, 10 sous per copy, published every Wednesday.

[16] The "Upper Countries" were Detroit and Michilimackinae, 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 mentioned is to be found in the _Canadian Archives_, B. 207, p. 105.

[17] In the same year a much wronged Negro pet.i.tioned Haldimand. His pet.i.tion 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 Pet.i.tion of Joseph King humbly sheweth that Your Pet.i.tioner 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 a servant to Captain McCoy last winter in Montreal and came here (Quebec) last spring. Your Pet.i.tioner 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 Pet.i.tioner as in Duty bound will ever pray." _Canadian Archives_, B. 217, p. 324.

[18] In the Pet.i.tion referred to _post_, Mrs. La Force states that her husband was "late of Virginia."

[19] I have followed the Powell MSS. in spelling, capitalization, etc.

[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 unreliability 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): "In a 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."

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

Mrs. La Force's Pet.i.tion to Haldimand is still extant. _Canadian Archives_, B. 217, p. 116. Her name is included in the list of women and children remaining at Montreal, the list being dated Quebec, September 11, 1782, and she being given as of Virginia and taken June 26, 1780.

[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 Ma.n.u.script of Powell's in my possession which I have compared with a photostate copy of a ma.n.u.script in the _Canadian Archives_.

[23] The western part of Pennsylvania is meant. This region was seething with conflicts on a small scale between the Loyalists and the Republicans. 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 Haldimand that "all prisoners from revolted 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 exchange. _Canadian Archives_, B. 50, p.

164.

[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 subsistence. 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.

[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.

[30] In the "Return of Prisoners whoa have requested leave to remain in the Province made at Quebec, November 3, 1782," appear the names of "Mich. & Phoebe Roach 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.

[31] The York s.h.i.+lling (or s.h.i.+lling in New York currency) was 12-1/2 cents, one eighth of a dollar.

[32] $5.00 for the rum; $3.00 for the Keggs.

[33] _Canadian Archives_, B. 216, pp. 14, sqq.

No proceedings seem to have been taken on this Pet.i.tion and it is probable 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 Independence was promulgated, if not before, Boston began to fit out privateers to prey on British trade. We read of four privateers reported by Governor Montague 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 harried 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. Cartwright 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.

[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.

[36] 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 Ridout, 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_.

Thomas Ridout, born in Dorsets.h.i.+re, 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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, Pottawatamies, 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 Metsigemawa and a Negro slave. The chief had a daughter Altewesa, 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 a.s.sured 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 profound 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 Mitch.e.l.l who had been captured with his father Captain Mitch.e.l.l 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 council was held at which the murderer of Mitch.e.l.l claimed Ridout as his but at length Kakinathucca prevailed and Ridout's life was again spared. The murderer a.s.serted that he was a spy but his papers proved his innocence. The little party went on to Fort Miami where several English and French gentlemen 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 British hands until August 1796, he was received with every attention and a bed was provided for him at Government House. The officers furnished him with money and gave him a pa.s.sage to Montreal where he arrived about the middle of July, 1788. Ridout settled in Upper Canada. In 1799, Kakinathucca and three other Shawanese chiefs came to pay him a visit at York, (Toronto), and were hospitably treated, the great and good Kakinathucca receiving substantial testimony of the grat.i.tude of the man he had saved from a death of torture.

Ridout's memorandum of the fate of the other prisoners is terribly significant: "Samuel Purviance, Killed; Barland, Killed; Wm. R.

Watson, burnt; James Black, beat to death; Symonds, burnt; Ferguson, sold for corn; a negro woman unharmed."

CHAPTER III

AFTER 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 operations 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 a.s.serted, 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 appeared in the list. The next year he changed his mind and on July, 17, 1783, he presented a pet.i.tion 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 way to the north. After the peace when the cause was lost, many thousands came. Many of these had been slaveholders 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]

Returns made about the time show a large number of slaves--euphemistically disguised as _servants_ in some cases. A Report of 1784 shows 14 near Cataraqui (Kingston). Another of the same year for the new towns.h.i.+ps on the River St. Lawrence beginning at Towns.h.i.+p No. 1, on Lake St. Francis and running upwards, gives

1st Battn. late King's R. Rifles 25 Tps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Part Major Jessup's Corps 12 Tps. 6, 7 & pt. 8.