Rather Dead Than Enslaved: the Blacks of York in the War of 1812 by Peter Meyler

The Newsletter of The Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common v. 16 No.4 Sept 2012 1 Rather Dead than Enslaved: The Blacks of 5 The Soldiers at Fort York Armoury York in the War of 1812 7 Bicentennial Timeline 2 “Particularly Torontoesque”: 8 Administrator’s Report Commemorating the Centennial of 9 Tracking Nature at Fort York the War of 1812 11 Upcoming Events 4 Brock Day in Guernsey Rather Dead than Enslaved: The Blacks of York in the War of 1812 by Peter Meyler In 1812 York may have been a “dirty straggling village,” but Upper Canada’s capital was also a place of diversity. Government officials, soldiers, merchants, and artisans mixed with clerks, servants, and even slaves in a town of barely 700 persons. The number who were Black can only be guessed at. Some were freeborn, others had escaped slavery from the United States, but a number were slaves. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe’s 1793 Act prevented the further importation of slaves into Upper Canada, but did not free those who were enslaved. Among the province’s slave-owners was Robert Gray, the solicitor general. His household at York included his manservant, Simon Baker, Simon’s brother John, and two Black female servants. In 1804 Gray and Simon both perished when the Speedy, a ship on which they were travelling, was lost in a storm on Lake Ontario. Under Gray’s will, all his slaves were freed. During the War of 1812 John Baker left York and served with the 104th New Brunswick Regiment. He later returned to Upper Canada to live in Cornwall where he died in his nineties. William Jarvis, the provincial secretary and registrar, also owned slaves. In March 1811 he charged two of them, a boy named Ivor Christopher is probably the only re-enactor who has interpreted the Henry, commonly called Prince, and a girl, with stealing valuables Coloured Corps. It is not known what uniforms the Corps were issued, if any, from his desk. A free Black, one “Coakley,” was arraigned for during the War of 1812. Those who want more information about this re advising and aiding them.The Court remanded the boy to jail for enactment or about Richard Pierpoint can inquire through [email protected]. Credit: Laynna Meyler sentencing and ordered the girl returned to her master. “Coakley” was discharged. By fall, 1812, Prince Henry and Daniel Cokely were privates in the all-Black militia unit mustered at Niagara. York Militia in time to fight at Queenston Heights, bringing the unit critical strength.The new recruits included the brothers Britain’s war with the United States carried a much more sinister John, Richard, and Stephen Kaul [Coll, Call] who had served meaning for Upper Canada’s Blacks than for others. An American formerly in Capt. Duncan Cameron’s Company. victory might reduce many to the legal status of chattel, a piece of property that could be used, abused, and sold at the whim of an Another member of the Corps was Robert Scott who owned a owner. A number of African-Canadians joined their local militia house on Hospital (now Richmond) Street, York. The dangers companies. Generally such units were integrated, but Richard of war were on his mind as he prepared his will, “taking into Pierpoint, a 68-year-old African veteran of the Revolutionary consideration the uncertainty of life the more especially as I now War, proposed the raising of an all-Black militia unit in Niagara. am about to embark for Niagara as a volunteer to defend my Pierpoint joined the Coloured Corps, as it became known, as a King.” When he died from disease in January 1813 he left his private. William Thompson, a sergeant in the Coloured Corps, estate to Sarah Long and her son David. Sarah and her husband recalled that he and thirteen men transferred there from the 3rd Peter had been among York’s first Black settlers. A few weeks after Scott’s demise, his townsman and comrade in arms, John it seems to have been the fashion to heap all kinds of duties Jackson, also succumbed in hospital leaving a widow, Margaret. upon the latter.” Black soldiers were given some of the most dirty and dangerous jobs, their military role reflecting their The history of the Coloured Corps is fairly sketchy. It was contemporary place in society. But they persevered and most mentioned as fighting alongside John Norton’s Six Nations survived the war. Even the old warrior Richard Pierpoint lived warriors at Queenston Heights. In March of 1813, it formed long enough to receive a military land grant, as did several part of the force that battled the Americans at Fort George “at other York men: Daniel Cokely, Samuel Edmunds, John and a distance of six to ten yards”with “destructive and rapid fire.”A Richard Call. The veterans lived out their lives quietly, getting report lists two killed in action and, absurdly, that two members married, raising families, and passing away. of the Corps had deserted to the enemy. It is much more likely that they were taken as booty by American soldiers. Peter Meyler was born and raised in the Fergus area. He has been researching African Canadian history since 1994. This has resulted By 1814 the Coloured Corps had been attached to the in two books, A Stolen Life: Searching for Richard Pierpoint and Engineer Department as a labouring unit. Lt. Col. Gustavus Broken Shackles: Old Man Henson, from Slavery to Freedom, Nicolls, their commander, wrote, “When I visited the both published by Dundurn Press. His articles have appeared in a Niagara Frontier... I found that a corps of Free Men of number of publications including the Toronto Star and the Globe Colour had, during the war been raised for the Quarter Mr. and Mail. General’s Department, but had been turned over to that of the Engineers, any necessity for this I never could learn, but “Particularly Torontoesque”: Commemorating the Centennial of the War of 1812 Part 1: 1912 by David Roberts As 1912 opened, only sketchy plans existed at Toronto’s city The laying of wreaths at Secord’s portrait at Queen’s Park hall and Queen’s Park to mark the Centennial of the war. had become an annual event on Empire Day. One military It had not faded, however, from public consciousness in the pageant proudly enacted scenes from the war, and displays of decade before 1912. Historical societies and archives helped relics attracted interest. Further attention had been stimulated sustain a flow of articles, books, and letters on the war, many by the erection of a monument to the soldiers of 1812-14 published in Toronto. In both Toronto and the Niagara region at the military burial ground at Victoria Square in 1902-7. homage to General Isaac Brock of Queenston Heights fame As the Centennial drew closer, the completion of the South and Laura Secord, the “heroine of Beaver Dams,” never abated. African War memorial on University Avenue in 1910 spurred Toronto’s imperial and military leaders to step forward Dominated by gasholders on the north and a meat-packing plant at its east end, Fort York’s future was uncertain as the Centennial of the War of 1812 approached and some early proposals for its restoration were put forward. Credit: Toronto Public Library, T 11614 - 11617 2 The Fife and Drum once more. A public meeting at city hall in December 1910 consumed enormous energy. The approaching Centennial, boldly called for a “great national monument” to the war’s combined with pressure from historical societies, brought heroes. In 1911, the year a Secord monument was unveiled at city council to declare in January 1912 that full restoration Queenston, the rovince received deputations and petitions for would provide fitting commemoration. Money was allocated. an 1812 monument at Queen’s Park. Played out in the press Some work was completed that summer and fall, but by year’s and civic gatherings, the preoccupation with a monument in end, few structures showed substantial improvement and Toronto spilled over into 1912. Based there and headed by further expenditure was uncertain. Council adopted no other William H. Merritt, an inveterate militarist who had been commemorative project. In November the Women’s Canadian inspired by an 1812 monument in Washington, the Memorial Historical Society was still pushing for preservation of the fort. to the Heroes of 1812-1814 Association unsuccessfully The thrust for monuments gives rise to questions: why did petitioned the federal government to fund a memorial arch at people want to mark the war and why the emphasis on Queen’s Park. Some attention was diverted to the local drive monuments? In the evolving sense of Canadian identity, to raise funds for a new monument to James Wolfe in Quebec 1812 and the role of the Canadian militia had taken on and to squabbles over repatriating the standard captured by mythic meaning. References to 1812 infused national and the Americans at the battle of York in 1813. In October 1912, imperial debates, including the need for a navy to defend on the approach of the actual centennial of Brock’s death at Canada. A Toronto minister sermonized, alluding to Brock’s Queenston Heights and the involvement there of the York loss and mounting tensions in Europe, that one lesson of militia, the 1812 commemoration gained new attention. It any commemoration was the need to resist evil. The peace was recast in local newspapers, garrison parades, and sermons display superficially smoothed over rough edges in Canadian- as the “Brock anniversary,” with the idolized general and American relations, ranging from the possession of war “citizen of York” (as administrator of Upper Canada) worthy trophies to the boundary water problems addressed by the of a monument.

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