The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919

"If we cannot be an elevated people here, in a country the resort of almost all nations to improve their condition; a country of which we are native, constituent members; our native home, (as we shall attempt to show) and where there are more means available to bring the people into power and influence, and more territory to extend to them than in any other country; also the spirit and genius of whose institution we so well understand, being completely Americanized, as it will be found most of our people are,—we say, if we can not be raised up in this country, we are at great loss to know where, all things considered, we can be.

"If the Colored Americans are citizens of this country, it follows, of course, that, in the broadest sense, this country is our home. If we are not citizens of this country, then we cannot see of what country we are, or can be, citizens; for Blackstone who is quoted, we believe, as the standard of civil law, tells us that the strongest claim to citizenship is birthplace. We understand him to say, that in whatever country or place you may be born of that country or place you are, in the highest sense, a citizen; in fine, this appears to us to be too self-evident to require argument to prove it.

"Now, probably three-fourths of the present colored people are American born, and therefore American citizens. Suppose we should remove to some other country, and claim a foothold there, could we not be rejected on the ground that we were not of them, because not born among them? Even in Africa, identity of complexion would be nothing, neither would it weigh anything because our ancestry was of that country; the fact of our not having been born there would be sufficient ground for any civil power to refuse us citizenship. If this principle were carried out, it would be seen that we could not be even a cosmopolite, but must be of nowhere, and of no section of the globe. This is so absurd that it is as clear as day that we must revert to the country which gave us birth, as being, in the highest sense, citizens of it.

"These points, it appears to us, are true, indisputably true. We are satisfied as to our claims as citizens here, and as to this being the virtual and destined home of colored Americans.

"We reflect upon this subject now, on account of the frequent agitations, introduced among us, in reference to our emigrating to some other country, each of which, embodies more or less of the colonizing principle, and all of which are of bad tendency, throwing our people into an unsettled state; and turning away our attention in this country, to uncertain things under another government, and evidently putting us back. All such agitations introduced among us, with a view to our emigrating, ought to be frowned upon by us, and we ought to teach the people that they may as well come here and agitate the emigration of the Jays, the Rings, the Adamses, the Otises, the Hancocks, et al., as to agitate our removal. We are all alike constituents of the same government, and members of the same rising family. Although we come up much more slowly, our rise is to be none the less sure. This subject is pressed upon us, because we not infrequently meet some of our brethren in this unsettled state of mind, who, though by no means colonizationists yet adopt the colonization motto, and say they can not see how or when we are going to rise here. Perhaps, if we looked only to the selfishness of man, and to him as absolute, we should think so, too. But while we know that God lives and governs, and always will; that He is just, and has declared that righteousness shall prevail; and that one day with Him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; we believe that, despite all corruption and caste, we shall yet be elevated with the American people here.

"It appears to us most conclusive, that our destinies in this country are for the better, not for the worse, in view of the many schemes introduced to our notice for emigrating to other countries having failed; thus teaching us that our rights, hopes, and prospects, are in this country; and it is a waste of time and of power to look for them under another government; and also, that God, in His providence, is instructing us to remain at home, where are all our interests and claims and to adopt proper measures and pursue them, and we yet shall participate in all the immunities and privileges the American nation holds out to her citizens, and be happy. We are also strongly American in our character and disposition.

"We believe, therefore, in view of all the facts, that it is our duty and privilege to claim an equal place among the American people; to identify ourselves with American interests, and to exert all the power and influence we have, to break down all the disabilities under which we labor, and thus look to become a happy people in this extensive country."577

Ray rendered equally as valuable services to the Negroes as a promoter of the Underground Railroad. In fact he was approaching the climax of his career when the Underground Railroad became an efficient agency in offering relief to the large number of Negro slaves who found themselves reduced to the plane of beasts in the rapidly growing cotton kingdom. One of the striking cases in which he figured was that of the escape of the Weims family, so well known for the almost unparalleled deliverance from bondage of the entire family with one exception.

Exactly how the freedom of these slaves was obtained appears to better effect in the language of Ray himself. "But I must say a word about the younger girl, the price of whom they held as high as we gave for Catherine. We proposed another method for her freedom and carried it out, in which the mother acted a good part, as she could; we proposed to run her off. I was written to, to know whether a draft for three hundred dollars would be forwarded, conditioned upon the appearance of Ann Maria in my house or hands—the sum being appropriated to compensate the one who should deliver her safely in the North. I answered, of course, in the affirmative."578

The escape of Ann Maria, as proposed by this new plan, can best be explained by the correspondence between Mr. Ray and Mr. Bigelow in Washington, who, writing according to a method often adopted in those days in order the more effectually to secure concealment, designates Ann Maria as the parcel sent.579 The letter reads thus:

"Washington, D. C., Nov. 17, 1855.

"Rev. Chas. B. Ray,

"Dear Sir: I have a friend passing through the city on his way to New York, and I mean to avail myself of his kindness to send to your lady the little parcel she has been so long expecting. You can name it to her, and I now suggest that as soon as you find it convenient, you send me by express the wrapper and covering in which the valuables are packed, for I have another similar parcel to send and shall find these things exactly convenient for that purpose. My friend intends to leave here on Monday morning, with his own conveyance, taking it leisurely, and may not reach New York before about Thursday, but of this I speak more exactly before I close. I need not suggest to you how anxious I shall be to get the earliest news of the arrival of the package without breakage or injury."

Also he adds as follows:

"Washington, D. C., November 22, 1855.

"Rev. Chas. B. Ray,

"Dear Sir:

"My last letter will lead you to expect to see the boy Joe to-day but it was afterwards calculated that he will not arrive till sometime to-morrow. I am requested for the gratification of Joe's mother that you will be pleased on his arrival and before he changes his sex, to have his daguerrotype taken for her use. It will make up a part of the Record."

Mr. Ray's narration continues thus:

"Accordingly, one afternoon upon arriving home I found, sitting on the sofa at my home, a little boy about ten years old in appearance and looking rather feminine. I knew at once who it was, that it was Ann Maria. Upon her arrival I was to take her to Mr. Tappan, in whose hands the balance of the money was placed. This I did, and the little boy Joe was taken to her uncle or to where he could obtain her and finally reached Canada."

The following incident has often been told in Mr. Ray's family. "One summer morning, a loud rap with the knocker at the front door arrested the attention and the door being opened, a man entered, who after asking, 'Does the Rev. Mr. Ray live here?' and receiving an affirmative answer, whistled as a signal to attract the notice of his comrades, then cried out, 'Come on, boys!' and forthwith fourteen men in all entered, quite alarming the inmates of the house on seeing such a train of fugitives."

In the midst of these busy days Mr. Ray also served as a minister. For twenty years he was the pastor of the Bethesda Congregational Church in New York City where many learned to wait upon his ministry. He lived until 1886, long enough to enjoy some of that liberty for which he so patiently toiled. His more valuable services to his race, however, were rendered during the period prior to the Civil War. Although in the midst of this struggle of the subsequent period there came forward men who towered higher in the public opinion than he did, the valuable work which he did as an abolitionist, and an editor, should not be neglected.

M. N. Work

THE SLAVE IN UPPER CANADA 580

The dictum of Lord Chief Justice Holt: "As soon as a slave enters England he becomes free"581 was succeeded by the decision of the Court of King's Bench to the same effect in the celebrated case of Somerset v. Stewart582 where Lord Mansfield is reported to have said: "The air of England has long been too pure for a slave and every man is free who breathes it."583

James Somerest,584 a Negro slave of Charles Stewart in Jamaica, had been brought by his master to England "to attend and abide with him and to carry him back as soon as his business should be transacted." The Negro refused to go back, whereupon he was put in irons and taken on board the ship Ann and Mary lying in the Thames and bound for Jamaica. Lord Mansfield granted a writ of habeas corpus requiring Captain Knowles to produce Somerset before him with the cause of the detainer. On the motion, the cause being stated as above indicated, Lord Mansfield referred the matter to the Full Court of King's Bench; whereupon, on June 22, 1772, judgment was given for the Negro. The basis of the decision, the theme of the argument, was that the only kind of slavery known to English law was villeinage, that the Statute of Tenures (1660) (12 Car. 11, c. 24) expressly abolished villeins regardant to a manor and by implication villeins in gross. The reasons for the decision would hardly stand fire at the present day. The investigation of Paul Vinogradoff and others have conclusively established that there was not a real difference in status between the so-called villein regardant and villein in gross, and that in any case the villein was not properly a slave but rather a serf.585 Moreover, the Statute of Tenures deals solely with tenure and not with status.

But what seems to have been taken for granted, namely that slavery, personal slavery, had never existed in England and that the only unfree person was the villein, who, by the way was real property, is certainly not correct. Slaves were known in England as mere personal goods and chattels, bought and sold, at least as late as the middle of the twelfth century.586 However weak the reasons given for the decision, its authority has never been questioned and it is good law. But it is good law for England, for even in the Somerset case it was admitted that a concurrence of unhappy circumstances had rendered slavery necessary587 in the American colonies: and Parliament had recognized the right of property in slaves there.588

When Canada was conquered in 1760, slavery existed in that country. There were not only Panis589 or Indian Slaves, but also Negro slaves. These were not enfranchised by the conqueror, but retained their servile status. When the united empire loyalists came to this northern land after the acknowledgment by Britain of the independence of the revolted colonies, some of them brought their slaves with them: and the Parliament of Great Britain in 1790 passed an Act authorizing any "subject of … the United States of America" to bring into Canada "any negroes" free of duty having first obtained a license from the Lieutenant Governor.590

An immense territory formerly Canada was erected into a Government or Province of Quebec by Royal Proclamation in 1763 and the limits of the province were extended by the Quebec Act in 1774.591 This province was divided into two provinces, Upper Canada and Lower Canada in 1791.592 At this time the whole country was under the French Canadian law in civil matters. The law of England had been introduced into the old Government of the Province of Quebec by the Royal Proclamation of 1763; but the former French Canadian law had been reintroduced in 1774 by the Quebec Act in matters of property and civil rights, leaving the English criminal law in full force. The law, civil and criminal, had been modified in certain details (not of importance here) by Ordinances of the Governor and Council of Quebec.

The very first act of the first Parliament of Upper Canada reintroduced the English civil law.593 This did not destroy slavery, nor did it ameliorate the condition of the slave. Rather the reverse, for as the English law did not, like the civil law of Rome and the systems founded on it, recognize the status of the slave at all, when it was forced by grim fact to acknowledge slavery it had no room for the slave except as a mere piece of property. Instead of giving him rights like those of the "servus," he was deprived of all rights, marital, parental, proprietary, even the right to live. In the English law and systems founded on it, the slave had no rights which the master was bound to respect.594

The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada was Col. John Graves Simcoe. He hated slavery and had spoken against it in the House of Commons in England. Arriving in Upper Canada in the summer of 1792, he was soon made fully aware that the horrors of slavery were not unknown in his new Province. The following is a report of a meeting of his Executive Council:

"At the Council Chamber, Navy Hall, in the County of Lincoln, Wednesday, March 21st, 1793.

"Present

"His Excellency, J. G. Simcoe, Esq., Lieut.-Governor, &c., &c.,

The Honble Wm. Osgoode, Chief Justice

The Honble Peter Russell.

"Peter Martin (a negro in the service of Col. Butler) attended the Board for the purpose of informing them of a violent outrage committed by one – Fromand, an Inhabitant of this Province, residing near Queens Town, or the West Landing, on the person of Chloe Cooley a Negro girl in his service, by binding her, and violently and forcibly transporting her across the River, and delivering her against her will to certain persons unknown; to prove the truth of his Allegation he produced Wm. Grisley (or Crisley).

"William Grisley an Inhabitant near Mississague Point in this Province says: that on Wednesday evening last he was at work at Mr. Froomans near Queens Town, who in conversation told him, he was going to sell his Negro Wench to some persons in the States, that in the Evening he saw the said Negro girl, tied with a rope, that afterwards a Boat was brought, and the said Frooman with his Brother and one Vanevery, forced the said Negro Girl into it, that he was desired to come into the boat, which he did, but did not assist or was otherwise concerned in carrying off the said Negro Girl, but that all the others were, and carried the Boat across the River; that the said Negro Girl was then taken and delivered to a man upon the Bank of the River by – Froomand, that she screamed violently and made resistance, but was tied in the same manner as when the said William Grisley first saw her, and in that situation delivered to the man.... Wm. Grisley farther says that he saw a negro at a distance, he believes to be tied in the same manner, and has heard that many other People mean to do the same by their Negroes

"Resolved.—That it is necessary to take immediate steps to prevent the continuance of such violent breaches of the Public Peace, and for that purpose, that His Majesty's Attorney-General, be forthwith directed to prosecute the said Fromond.

"Adjourned."595

The Attorney-General was John White596 an accomplished English lawyer. He knew that the brutal master was well within his rights in acting as he did. He had the same right to bind, export, and sell his slave as to bind, export, and sell his cow. Chloe Cooley had no rights which Vrooman was bound to respect: and it was no more a breach of the peace than if he had been dealing with his heifer. Nothing came of the direction to prosecute and nothing could be done.

It is probable that it was this circumstance which brought about legislation. At the Second Session of the First Parliament which met at Newark, May 31, 1793, a bill was introduced and unanimously passed the House of Assembly. The trifling amendments introduced by the Legislative Council were speedily concurred in, the royal assent was given July 9, 1793, and the bill became law.597 It recited that it was unjust that a people who enjoy freedom by law should encourage the introduction of slaves, and that it was highly expedient to abolish slavery in the Province so far as it could be done gradually without violating private property; and proceeded to repeal the Imperial Statute of 1790 so far as it related to Upper Canada, and to enact that from and after the passing of the Act, "No Negro or other person who shall come or be brought into this Province … shall be subject to the condition of a slave or to" bounden involuntary service for life. With that regard for property characteristic of the English-speaking peoples, the act contained an important proviso which continued the slavery of every "negroe or other person subjected to such service" who has been lawfully brought into the Province. It then enacted that every child born after the passing of the act, of a Negro mother or other woman subjected to such service should become absolutely free on attaining the age of twenty-five, the master in the meantime to provide "proper nourishment and cloathing" for the child, but to be entitled to put him to work, all issue of such children to be free whenever born. It further declared any voluntary contract of service or indenture should not be binding longer than nine years. Upper Canada was the first British possession to provide for the abolition of slavery.598

It will be seen that the Statute did not put an end to slavery at once. Those who were lawfully slaves remained slaves for life unless manumitted and the statute rather discouraged manumission, as it provided that the master on liberating a slave must give good and sufficient security that the freed man would not become a public charge. But, defective as it was, it was not long without attack. In 1798, Simcoe had left the province never to return,599 and while the government was being administered by the time-serving Peter Russell, a bill was introduced into the Lower House to enable persons "migrating into the province to bring their negro slaves with them." The bill was contested at every stage but finally passed on a vote of eight to four. In the Legislative Council it received the three months' hoist and was never heard of again.600 The argument in favor of the bill was based on the scarcity of labor which all contemporary writers speak of, the inducement to intending settlers to come to Upper Canada where they would have the same privileges in respect of slavery as in New York and elsewhere; in other words the inevitable appeals to greed.

After this bill became law, slavery gradually disappeared. Public opinion favored manumission and while there were not many manumissions inter vivos,601 in some measure owing to the provisions of the act requiring security to be given in such case against the freed man becoming a public charge, there were not a few liberations by will.602

The number of slaves in Upper Canada was also diminished by what seems at first sight paradoxical, that is, their flight across the Detroit River into American territory. So long as Detroit and its vicinity were British in fact and even for some years later, Section 6 of the Ordinance of 1787 "that there shall be neither slavery not involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than as the punishment of crime" was in great measure a dead letter: but when Michigan was incorporated as a territory in 1805, the ordinance became effective. Many slaves made their way from Canada to Detroit, a real land of the free; so many, indeed, that we find that a company of Negro militia was formed in Detroit in 1806 to assist in the general defence of the territory, composed entirely of escaped slaves from Canada.603

Almost from the passing of the Canada Act, however, runaway Negroes began to come to Upper Canada, fleeing from slavery; this influx increased and never ceased until the American Civil War gave its death blow to slavery in the United States. Hundreds of blacks thus obtained their freedom, some having been brought by their masters near to the international boundary and then clandestinely or by force effecting a passage; some coming from far to the South, guided by the North Star; many assisted by friends more or less secretly. The Underground Railroad was kept constantly running.604 These refugees joined settlements with other people of color freeborn or freed in the western part of the Peninsula, in the counties of Essex and Kent and elsewhere.605 Some of them settled in other parts of the province, either together or more usually sporadically.

At the time of the outbreak of the Civil War there were many thousands of black refugees in the province.606 More than half of these were manumitted slaves who in consequence of unjust laws had been forced to leave their State. While some of such freedmen went to the Northern States, most came to Canada, some returning to the Northern States. The Negro refugees were superior to most of their race, for none but those with more than ordinary qualities could reach Canada.607

The masters of runaway slaves did not always remain quiet when their slave reached this province. Sometimes they followed him in an attempt to take him back. There are said to have been a few instances of actual kidnapping, a few of attempted kidnapping.608 There have been cases in which criminal charges have been laid against escaped slaves, and their extradition sought, ostensibly to answer the criminal charges. It has always been the theory in this province that the governor has the power independently of statute or treaty to deliver up alien refugees charged with crime.609 To make it clear, the Parliament of Upper Canada in 1833 passed an Act for the apprehension of fugitive offenders from foreign countries, and delivering them up to justice.610 This provides that on the requisition of the executive of any foreign country the governor of the province on the advice of his executive council may deliver up any person in the province charged with "Murder, Forgery, Larceny or other crime which if committed within the Province would have been punishable with death, corporal punishment, the Pillory, whipping or confinement at hard labour." The person charged might be arrested and detained for inquiry. The Act was permissive only and the delivery up was at the discretion of the governor.

When this act was in force Solomon Mosely or Moseby, a Negro slave, came to the Province across the Niagara River from Buffalo which he had reached after many days' travel from Louisville, Kentucky. His master followed him and charged him with the larceny of a horse which the slave took to assist him in his flight. That he had taken the horse there was no doubt, and as little that after days of hard riding he had sold it. The Negro was arrested and placed in Niagara jail; a prima facie case was made out and an order sent for his extradition.

The people of color of the Niagara region made Mosely's case their own and determined to prevent his delivery up to the American authorities to be taken to the land of the free and the home of the brave, knowing that there for him to be brave meant torture and death, and that death alone could set him free. Under the leadership of Herbert Holmes, a yellow man,611 a teacher and preacher, they lay around the jail night and day to the number of from two to four hundred to prevent the prisoner's delivery up. At length the deputy sheriff with a military guard brought out the unfortunate man shackled in a wagon from the jail yard, to go to the ferry across the Niagara River. Holmes and a man of color named Green grabbed the lines. Deputy Sheriff McLeod from his horse gave the order to fire and charge. One soldier shot Holmes dead and another bayoneted Green, so that he died almost at once. Mosely, who was very athletic, leaped from the wagon and made his escape. He went to Montreal and afterwards to England, finally returning to Niagara, where he was joined by his wife, who also escaped from slavery.