The article examines the social status of slaves in early Canada as well as how it was changed by an Act of the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Simcoe. The author argues that the slaves and their actions were the most important in the fight for emancipation.
The author makes a difference between ‘’individual acts’’ ¹ which had short-term effects and ‘’collective resistance’’ ² that had long-term effects. According to the author, these two different forms of resistance, however, are not be contrasted, as they went hand in hand – the one led to the other.
But what was the first legal step towards the slaves’ emancipation? John Simcoe used the case of Chloe Cooley, a black slave who had been sold across the border to the United States, ‘’as a catalyst for enacting legislation against slavery’’ ³. On 9 July 1793 the prohibition to import slaves in Upper Canada became a law. While it didn’t free all slaves, this was one step closer to freeing all slaves and improved the social status of the next generation of slaves – those ‘’born to slave mothers […] would become free on their 25th birthday. Their children would, in turn, earn their freedom at birth’’ ⁴.
¹ Afua Cooper, Acts of Resistance: Black Men and Women Engage Slavery in Upper Canada, 1793-1803 (Ontario History, 2007), 6
² Cooper, Acts of Resistance, 6
³ Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, ‘’Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada,’’ http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/slavery/index.aspx
⁴ Cooper, Acts of Resistance, 12