The Journal of Negro History Volume V Part 50

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

[14] _Michigan Hist. Coll._, XIV, p. 659. But the actual effect of the Ordinance of 1787, even after 1805 was not absolute. "As late as 1807 Judge Woodward refused to free a negro man and woman on a writ of habeas corpus, holding in effect that as they had been slaves at the time of the surrender in 1796, there was something in Jay's Treaty that forbade their release." _Michigan as a Province, Territory and State_, 1906, p. 339. "There is a tradition that even as late as the coming of Gen. John T. Mason, as Secretary of the Territory in 1831, he brought some domestic slaves with him from Virginia. It is not improbable that a few domestic servants continued with their old Masters down to the time of the adoption of the State Const.i.tution"

(in 1835) _ibid._, p. 338, note.

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

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

164, 165.

"DEPOSITION

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

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

"They called Coll McKee & Capt Elliott dam'd rasculs and said that they gave the Indians Rum to make them Drunk to prevent them from going to Counsil & That Capt Brent they said was a Dam'd rascul and had done everything in his power against them. But they said in Course of Nine Months that they Expected to be in full possession of Detroit and all the Country between their & it & I begged liberty to withdraw when Major Hunt told me to make the best of my way from Whence I came, while I was getting ready to return the Serjeant of their Guard came & Told me it was the Majors orders that I should leave the place immediately & not to stay about any of the Indian Camps. Which Orders I obeyed.

(signed) DAVID TAIT.

Sworn before me at Detroit 4th August 1795.

GEO SHARP, J. P. W. D."

Indian Affairs, M. G. VII.

[15] I have found no reliable accounts of slaves in this region--some traditions which I have investigated proved unreliable and illusory.

[16] I cannot trace many Panis slaves in Upper Canada proper; that there were some at Detroit is certain and equally certain that some were at one time on both sh.o.r.es of the Niagara River. I do not know of an account of the numbers of slaves at the time; in Detroit, March 31, 1779, there were 60 male and 78 female slaves in a population of about 2,550 (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, X, p. 326); Nov. 1, 1780, 79 male and 96 female slaves in a somewhat smaller population (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, XIII, p. 53); in 1778, 127 in a population of 2,144 (_Mich. Hist.

Coll._, IX, p. 469); 85 in 1773, 179 in 1782 (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, VII, p. 524); 78 male and 101 female (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, XIII, p.

54). The Ordinance of Congress July 13, 1787, forbidding slavery "northwest of the Ohio River" pa.s.sed with but one dissenting voice, that of a delegate from New York was quite disregarded in Detroit (_Mich. Hist. Coll._, I, 415); and indeed as has been said, Detroit and the neighboring country remained British (_de facto_) until August, 1796, and part of Upper Canada from 1791 till that date.

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

[18] See letter of Sheriff Sherwood, _Papers &c, Ontario Historical Society_ 1901, Vol. 3, p. 107. Justus Sherwood came from Vermont, originally from Connecticut, joined Burgoyne's army in 1777 and came to Canada in 1778, joined Rogers' Rangers and served during the war.

He came to Prescott in 1784. He had had a not unusual experience with the Continentals. His "Negro wench and two negroe children" had been seized and "sold to Wm. Drake." (Second _Ont. Arch. Rep._, 1904, p.

820.) Daniel Jones, father of Sir Daniel Jones of Brockville, came from Charlotte County, New York (_ibid._, p. 398). He was also a native of Connecticut.

[19] He was in full possession of all his faculties and had been brought to Ottawa to prove the death of one person in 1803 and of another in 1814. The action was Morris _v._ Henderson "Ottawa Citizen"

May 3, 1867. Robert I. D. Gray mentioned in note 13 above, came from this district.

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

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

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

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

A contributor to the _Napanee Banner_ writes: "There has been considerable controversy of late whether slaves ever were owned in this section of Canada. The Allens brought three slaves with them who remained with the family for years. Thomas Dorland also had a number of slaves who were members of the house-hold as late as 1820. The Pruyns who lived on the front of Fredericksburg had, we are informed, over a dozen slaves with them. The Ruttans of Adolphustown brought two ablebodied slaves with them. Major Van Alstyne also had slaves; so had John Huyck who lived north of Hay Bay, and the Bogarts near neighbors, and the Trampours of the opposite side of Hay Bay. The Clarks of Ernestown, now called Bath, owned slaves who were with them years after their residence in Canada. The Everetts of Kingston Towns.h.i.+p and the Cartwrights of Kingston had theirs."

[22] A man of considerable note: in 1800 appointed with Richard Cartwright, Commissioner to settle the finances between the two Provinces.

[23] Member for Lenox, Hastings and Northumberland Counties in the first Legislative a.s.sembly: and afterwards Sheriff.

[24] The Pruyns of Fredericksburg are credited with owning more slaves than any other family in that region. Mrs. Hallam, _ut supra_, p. 4.

The above extracts are taken from the Registers published by the _Ont.

Hist. Soc._, Vol. 1.

[25] Both prominent families in Kingston.

[26] _Trans. Can. Inst._, Vol. 1 (1889-1890), p. 106.

[27] For this and the following incident see that most interesting book "_Toronto of Old_" by Henry Scadding, D.D., Toronto, 1873, pp.

293, 294, 295.

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

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

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

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

[30] See the lists in the _Ont. Hist. Soc. Papers_ (1901), Vol. 3, pp.

9 sqq.

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

That Joseph Brant "Thayendinaga," the celebrated Indian Chief, had Negro slaves has been confidently a.s.serted and as confidently denied.

That there were Negroes in his household seems certain and their _status_ was inferior. Whether he called them slaves or not, it is probable that he had full control of them.

See Stones' _Life of Brant_, New York, 1838. He rather boasted of his slaves. He was attended on his journeys and at table by two of them, Patton and Simon Gauseville. Hamilton in his _Osgoode Hall_, Toronto, 1904, says (p. 21): "Thayendinaga lived surrounded with slaves and retainers in barbarous magnificence at Burlington." But that is rhetoric.

[31] _Trans. Can. Inst._, Vol. 1 (1889-1890), p. 105.

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

[33] Dr. Scadding _ut supra_, pp. 294, 295.

Such advertis.e.m.e.nts as these of 1802 indicate an uneasiness as to the security of the slave property. Dr. Scadding remarks "Cash and lands were plainly beginning to be regarded as less precarious property than human chattels," _ibid._, p. 295.

[34] See _supra_, p.

[35] _Trans. Can. Inst._, _ut supra_, p. 106.

These if actual slaves could not have been very young. If they were brought into the province after the Act of 1793 they would become free _ipso facto_. If born after that Act they would not properly speaking be slaves at all but only subject to service until the age of 25.

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