Black Loyalists and Freedom Seekers

A hard part of our history

This lesson is about something sad and true: slavery. Slavery is when people are treated as property and forced to work with no pay and no freedom. Slavery is always wrong.

It is important to learn about it, because it happened here too, and because the people who escaped it and fought against it showed great courage. Black communities have been part of Canada's story for a very long time.

Slavery in the colonies

In the 1700s, slavery was allowed in many colonies, including the ones that became Canada. In New France, and later under British rule, some people were enslaved: Black people and also some Indigenous people. When the Loyalists came after 1783, some of them brought enslaved Black people with them into what became Upper Canada.

The Black Loyalists

During the American Revolution, the British promised freedom to enslaved people who escaped from the American side and joined the British. Thousands did. After the war, about 3,000 Black Loyalists sailed to Nova Scotia in 1783.

They built communities, like Birchtown, near Shelburne. At that time it was one of the largest free Black communities in North America. But life was very hard:

• Many waited years for land. When they got it, it was often smaller and rockier than the land given to white Loyalists. Some never got any.
• Many had to work for very low pay.
• They faced racism, and even attacks.

In 1792, about 1,200 Black Loyalists sailed to Sierra Leone in Africa to build new lives. Many others stayed, and their families still live in Nova Scotia today.

Some Black Loyalists came to Upper Canada. Richard Pierpoint was born in Africa and enslaved as a young man. He won his freedom by fighting for the British and settled near Niagara. In the War of 1812, he asked to form a group of Black soldiers, called the Coloured Corps, to defend Upper Canada.

Chloe Cooley and the first law against slavery

In 1793, a young Black woman named Chloe Cooley was enslaved in Upper Canada. Her enslaver tied her up and forced her into a boat to sell her across the Niagara River in the United States. She fought back and screamed, and people saw it. One witness was Peter Martin, a Black Loyalist, who reported what happened to the government.

That same year, Upper Canada passed a law to limit slavery:

• No new enslaved people could be brought into Upper Canada.
• Children born to enslaved mothers would be free when they turned 25.
• But people who were already enslaved stayed enslaved. It was a first step, not freedom for all.

Then, on August 1, 1834, slavery was abolished (ended by law) across the whole British Empire, including Upper and Lower Canada. Today, August 1 is Emancipation Day in Canada.

The Underground Railroad

In the United States, slavery was still allowed in the southern states. Many enslaved people risked everything to escape north, to Upper Canada, where they could be free.

They got help from the Underground Railroad. It was not a real railroad, and it was not under the ground! It was a secret network of people, Black and white, who helped freedom seekers. They used railroad code words:

• Passengers: freedom seekers.
• Conductors: guides who led them.
• Stations: safe houses where they could hide, eat and rest.

Freedom seekers often travelled at night, through forests and swamps, and followed the North Star. Many crossed the Detroit River or the Niagara River into Upper Canada. The journey was very dangerous.

Building communities

Freedom seekers built homes, farms, churches and schools in many places in Upper Canada, including Amherstburg, Sandwich (now Windsor), Chatham, St. Catharines, Toronto and Oro, near Lake Simcoe.

• Josiah Henson escaped slavery in 1830 with his wife and four children. He helped start the Dawn Settlement near Dresden, with a school where Black children and adults could learn. In 1849 he published the story of his life, a primary source we can still read.
• The Elgin Settlement (Buxton), near Chatham, was started in 1849. Families there built farms, a church and a school that was known for being very good.

Upper Canada was not perfect. Black settlers faced racism. Some towns did not want Black families nearby, and in some places Black children were kept out of schools. But Black communities helped each other, built churches and schools, and stood up for their rights.